Fic: Saiyuki (Tenpou/Nii) "Snapshot, Part 2"
Title: Snapshot
Author: freeradical9
Rating: NC-17
Pairing: Tenpou x Nii, with references to other pairings
Warnings: Explicit M/M. Mind games. Snark. References to character death. Spoilers for both Saiyuki and Saiyuki Gaiden.
Part 2
"Mr. Nii, to see Mr. Salvatore. I have an appointment."
The administrative assistant, a pretty blonde slip of a thing, glanced up at him over the rectangular lenses of her glasses. She gestured to a row of uncomfortable-looking chairs, framed on either side with potted palms. "Please have a seat. I'll let him know that you've arrived."
Nii wasn't in a hurry. He sauntered over to the chairs, but remained standing, looking out through the plate glass window. The vista of San Francisco's high-rise district spread out before and below him. It was a clear day; the smog hadn't settled in yet, and he could watch the people moving like ants fifty-seven stories below.
"Sir, you can go right in, he's expecting you."
"Perfect."
The administrative assistant buzzed him in through the heavy, steel-core doors. The room directly on the other side of the doors was a corner office that was arranged to impress and intimidate. Impress, because of the expansive views of the city and the artwork on the walls that was probably collectively worth a cool ten million dollars or so. Intimidate, because of the seven thugs who were clearly personal bodyguards positioned at various points in the room.
Seven men. Unusual. But not, under the circumstances, overkill.
Salvatore was watching him as he came through the doors. The gray-haired man's gaze never shifted as he gestured Nii into a conference chair placed unusually far from the imposing oak desk. Ah, so that's how it is. Nii could have taken offense, but didn't. It was a shame, really. So few people welcomed freelance assassins with open arms.
Nii settled himself into the chair, propping his elbows up on the arms and folding his hands in front of him. "Well. Nice place you've got here."
Salvatore didn't look amused. Rather, the expression on his urbane features was a study of barely-disguised distaste, as if Nii were something that had crawled out from under his immaculately groomed plush carpet. "Nii Jianyi. Our organization is paying you generously, one might even say exorbitantly, for your services in hunting down the Marshal. You're wasting time sitting in my office."
Nii smiled at him over interlaced fingers. "Quite the contrary. The Marshal is exactly the reason that I'm here."
Nii could see the other man's eyes narrow sharply. It hadn't taken much to catch his interest. Probably he realized how high up on the Marshal's hit list he was. "You have new information?"
"Oh yes. I wouldn't have come I didn't."
Oddly, this seemed to reassure the crime lord who was in charge of west coast operations for Heaven's Army, and he relaxed visibly in his chair. "Good. The situation has gotten completely out of control, and this man must be stopped at all costs. Until he's taken care of, there's no way we…." He cut himself off, deliberately looking away from Nii to glare down at his desk in frustration. Interesting. Nii wondered what it was that he had been about to say.
"Very well, then," the man continued, after visibly taking a deep breath. "Since you've come all the way here, why don't you give me a progress report. I'll forward it to General Shou'u."
The crime lord had been fairly rude, and Nii wasn't inclined to be generous. However, five floors below them, the personnel in central security had just changed shift. Nii estimated that he still had about ten minutes to waste before that routine shift change translated into something much more interesting.
To kill time, Nii gave a brief run-down of several interesting things he had uncovered in his efforts to track down the Marshal. All the information was correct down to the very last detail. He simply neglected to mention that it all came from false trails that had been deliberately laid down by his target.
Let the assassin groups who where competing with him figure that out.
Salvatore didn't bother to take notes, but listened avidly until Nii reached the end of the information he was willing to provide. "Hmm," he said, speaking almost to himself. "Cape Town, then." He leaned forward and touched the intercom on his desk. "Ms. Burke."
Immediately, the voice of the administrative assistant came through on the line. "Yes, Mr. Salvatore?"
"Contact Lucien immediately, and have him waiting on line one."
"Yes, sir."
Salvatore removed his hand from the intercom, and his gaze settled once more upon Nii. "I think we're done here."
Nii looked absently at his watch. "Oh yes," he said in satisfied tone. "I imagine that we are."
As if that had been a cue, the room suddenly shook with the sound of a small explosion somewhere very close by. Salvatore's eyes flew wildly around the office, and then almost immediately tracked back to Nii's face. The assassin could pinpoint the exact millisecond when shock dissolved into understanding and bitter accusation. You knew.
The crime lord's expression promised retribution, but to his credit, Salvatore focused on the more pressing danger first. He leapt to his feet as the door to his office swung open just a crack. He didn't wait for it to open fully. "Get him!" he bellowed.
The thugs didn't hesitate, but reacted instinctively, decorating the office door with bullet trails from machine guns. Not exactly the brightest response; the steel-reinforced door was designed to be bulletproof. Nii shook his head. What a waste.
He did get up rather gingerly from his chair, using the distraction to make his way towards one of the walls. It was the area in which he thought he might be least likely to get hit by a bullet ricochet or flying shrapnel. It proved to be a wise choice, as the ceiling panel above one of the thugs suddenly moved, and a black blur dropped down behind the bodyguard.
"…Ghrck!" was all the man had time to exclaim, as three feet of steel sliced across his carotid artery. Completing its deadly arc, the sword swung downwards and lodged point-first into the carpet, where it remained upright with no hand on the grip. An archaic gold-tone revolver flashed behind one of the thug's broad shoulders, placing bullets square in the middle of the foreheads of three other bodyguards as they turned around in surprise. The head was a small but wise target, since it was certain that these men were all wearing Kevlar vests. The shots were so quick and so precise, it didn't even seem like the assassin needed to aim. It was if he had known before entering the room exactly where they would be standing. Which, Nii reflected, he probably had.
The man with his throat cut buckled at the knees, toppling over backwards. As he fell, the smaller assassin dropped with him, kneeling and catching the body against one shoulder in order to use the man's Kevlar-protected torso as a shield. The other bodyguards opened fire, pouring out bullets into the corpse which rocked and shuddered under the impacts.
Two of the remaining guards emptied their entire magazines into the corpse. The third was more canny, pulling back and saving his bullets. It didn't help him, in the end. The instant the clicking of the empty cartridges sounded in the room, the assassin moved. Abandoning the mangled corpse on the bloody carpet, he wrapped a black, fingerless glove around the hilt of the katana and leapt, clearing several feet of distance within seconds. The gold gun flashed, snapping a shot off to the side while the assassin was still in transit. The clever thug with the loaded machine gun fell, shot cleanly through the jugular. Before he hit the carpet, a downward slash of the sword carved across one of the ammunition-less target's ribs, shearing through muscle and bone. The final guard managed to draw a pistol from a holster beneath his arm, and even got off a shot that grazed the assassin's shoulder, before collapsing from a bullet to the temple.
It was all over in moments. The hammer of the gold revolver cocked back, pointing squarely at Salvatore as the man reached for something in his desk. "I wouldn't do that if I were you." Tenpou didn't lower his sword arm, holding it up and across his body between himself and Nii, clearly as a precaution. The Marshal wasn't even out of breath. He was wearing the trench coat again, and his hair was conspicuously tied back.
It was only at this point that the Marshal dared to glance over at Nii. Their eyes met, and Tenpou paused, momentarily nonplussed. "Am I getting predictable?"
Nii shrugged. He'd been about 90% certain. If he'd had to kill Salvatore, after examining all the variables involved, this would have been the day and time he'd have picked, too. "You're running out of people to kill. That narrows things down quite a bit."
"Ah. Right."
Salvatore's incredulous gaze fell on Nii. "What are you doing?? This isn't social hour! Do something! Kill him, now!"
Nii's eyebrows went up. "Me? Do I look like a bodyguard? You must be mistaken, I'm certain that doesn't appear anywhere in my job description." As Salvatore's face reddened in outrage, he added smoothly, "You seem to have forgotten that I was given complete autonomy in this matter. The only orders I follow are my own."
"Tch!" the man hissed, infuriated. "You useless prick!"
"Now, now. If it's any consolation, the reason he hasn't killed you already is because he's run out of bullets. I know it can be hard to tell, at a distance. But that's definitely the model of gun that holds five rounds, not six."
Tenpou shot him a look of disgust. "That was uncalled for."
"Just trying to show that I'm not taking sides here."
It took a moment for the words to register with Salvatore. The instant they did, Nii saw the crime lord's gaze flicker across the room. It settled on, of all things, a very large and very ugly gilt-framed Impressionist painting on the nearest wall. His expression turned calculating, as if he were mentally measuring the intervening distance, and Nii thought, ah hah.
Then Salvatore was moving, following his original trajectory as he dove for the drawer of his desk. Two things happened simultaneously. First, alarms began to ring in the building. This was a surprise only because they were so belated--Nii had been expecting them ever since the sound of the first explosion. Second, Salvatore came up with a .44 Magnum in his hand.
Tenpou hadn't waited in place to get shot. As Salvatore raised the gun, Tenpou was already landing with cat-like grace on the top of the large desk, glittering sword descending. The first arc generated a spray of blood as Salvatore's hand was neatly severed at the wrist. He opened his mouth to curse or scream, but didn't have time as the second swing cleaved off his head.
Nii started clapping before the decapitated body hit the carpet. "Oh, Bravo!" he said, raising his voice to be heard about the blaring of the alarms. "Well done."
Tenpou gave him an unreadable look. "It won't take reinforcements long to arrive," he said in a louder-than-normal tone. "If you have business with me, perhaps we can take it elsewhere?"
"Good idea," Nii agreed approvingly. "I thought you'd never ask." He casually walked over to the Impressionist painting. It took only a few moments for him to find the catch mechanism, and he tripped it. The gilt frame stayed attached to the wall, but the canvas itself dropped down to reveal a dimly-lit area that was about the size of a small closet. "Private elevator," Nii announced, gesturing grandly.
Tenpou's eyebrows lifted, and he murmured something too low to catch over the sound of the alarms, but Nii thought it might have been "Handy." The elevator had clearly been designed as an escape route for Salvatore and one of his bodyguards. The two assassins could easily stand inside the opening, although it wouldn't be a very roomy fit.
There were supports on the inside of the wall where the painting could be lifted back onto place. Nii did so, while Tenpou studied the control panel. The elevator apparently only made two stops--one being Salvatore's office, and the other marked as LL, which presumably lead to the building's below-ground parking deck. Tenpou pressed the second button with an index finger, and the elevator's inner doors clicked closed. There came the soft whirring of smoothly oiled mechanisms, and they began a slow but smooth descent.
"You know, if you left anybody alive in there, there's going to be a very angry mob after you in another couple of minutes," Nii observed.
"I don't think that's really much of a concern. The light explosives in the room and elsewhere in the building will go off shortly, and that should deter any kind of pursuit." He must have done it when Nii was fiddling with the painting. Nii hadn't even seen him planting or arming the bombs.
Tenpou's close proximity in the elevator was causing Nii's pulse to speed up, in a way that his casual violence of earlier had not. This close, Nii could smell him; a mixture of leather, cigarette smoke, and blood.
Seemingly unaware of Nii's rapt attention, Tenpou reached up, snagged his hair tie, and shook his hair free, ruffling the back of it with a gloved hand.
"Mmm," Nii murmured appreciatively, "I love it when you let your hair down."
That earned him a long look. "You're a very odd man."
The elevator continued its downward descent. Nii opted once again for the direct approach. "Have you thought to consider my offer of earlier?"
The faintest of smiles plucked at the corners of Tenpou's mouth. Not looking at Nii, he said, "About having sex with you? I've given it a lot of thought, actually."
The flutter of excitement Nii felt in his chest was so alien to him he almost didn't recognize it. "And? I've been a good boy, in case you haven't noticed. I've stayed out of your way for two whole weeks."
Tenpou gave him a sideways look, considering. "You have, haven't you? I have to admit that I honestly wouldn't have expected it." His gaze shifted back to the closed elevator doors. "Has it somehow slipped your mind that you were hired to assassinate me?"
"Apparently."
Tenpou's quiet laughter made Nii feel inordinately pleased with himself. After a moment, Tenpou said, "You do realize that I'm older than you are."
Nii had already assumed as much. "Yes."
"I also feel compelled to mention that I'm taller, too."
"Those boots are an unfair advantage." This conversation was sounding more and more promising all the time.
The corner of Tenpou's expressive mouth quirked up in wry humor. "Perhaps. If you like, we could go find a tape measure?"
"That won't be necessary."
"I'm pointing this out now so that you still have time to walk away if you're not satisfied with my choice of logistics."
"No," It hadn't exactly been what Nii was expecting, but he felt an immediate quickening in his loins, nonetheless. It was the end that mattered, not the means. "I have no objections whatsoever."
"Good." The Marshal's right hand rose into the thin gap that separated them, and he pushed Nii back against the plain paneling of the elevator wall. Nii anticipated it, and let it happen anyway, savoring the unlooked for thrill.
He was mildly disappointed when, for the moment, all Tenpou did was look him over. A slender gloved hand reached up and grasped his chin, tilting it up in the dim glow of the overhead lights. His expression was oddly thoughtful, and Nii wondered for a moment how much of the shadows of other lives he was able to read on Nii's face. In the Marshal's face, Nii could see only one. Even after having seen the 1867 photo, Tenpou's personality was all that looked back at him out of those clear, ageless eyes.
The lift slowed, and came to a halt. The double doors of the closet-sized space opened into a cement cubical containing a black Mercedes. Salvatore's private car. Tenpou turned a level gaze on it, his expression appearing nearly identical to the one that he'd worn when studying Nii. He loosened his hold on Nii's chin, and deliberately hit the button to make the elevator doors slide closed again.
Before the metal doors had even clicked shut, Tenpou was propping his sheathed katana up in the corner of the elevator and stripping off the fingerless leather gloves on his hands. With a measured look at Nii, he slid the black leather trench coat from his shoulders, letting it drop to the floor of the lift to reveal utilitarian black pants and a white shirt splotched with blood on one arm. The gold-tone revolver, encased in a holster that Nii hadn't even seen before this, was lowered with care by its belt to lie on top of the abandoned trench coat.
"Not that I'm complaining, but shouldn't we get out before your explosives go off?" Nii wasn't too keen about being buried beneath tons of steel and concrete. Tenpou couldn't have given the charges a very long lag time.
"They're not a concern. None of them will do actual structural damage to the building. They'll just knock out communications and cut off access to key security areas."
"And if somebody knows about this little escape route?"
"We'll have time to figure something out if we hear voices, or if the lift starts moving again."
"My," Nii said in amusement. "You think of everything, don't you?"
"One does one's best." Tenpou took a half-step forward, bringing himself nearly chest-to-chest with the other assassin. This close, Nii could feel the heat of his body radiating through the thin shirt, and in the shadow of his unruly bangs, his violet eyes were so dark as to look almost black. Those eyes glittered, and Nii read the traces of fight-or-flight arousal still lingering in their depths. It caused his cock to jump and harden almost instantly.
There were half a dozen ways that Tenpou might try to kill him right now. Even with the sword and the gun resting temporarily out of reach, the Marshal was an extremely dangerous man. An elbow to the throat might crush Nii's windpipe. The heel of a hand could strike upward at the nose to send fragments of bone into the brain. A carefully placed grip might twist his head and snap his neck. Just thinking about the sheer amount of risk involved magnified Nii's arousal tenfold.
"I'm curious," Tenpou said in a low voice, and there was a roughened note to it that went right to the pit of Nii's stomach. "Just what you're planning to take from this."
"Aside from the obvious?" There was a sudden sharp tug which untucked his button-down shirt from his waistband, and then Nii was forced to catch his breath as Tenpou's hand slid down the front of his pants without bothering to unfasten them first. "Isn't meaningless sex is enough? Underneath it all, I'm a pretty shallow person, really."
The Marshal wasted no time with preliminaries. Clever fingers found Nii's swelling shaft, tracing over its whole length. It felt good to be touched by another person, and Nii found himself arching into the contact almost immediately. Lab coat-clad shoulders met the paneling as he groaned, tipping his head back in mute invitation.
Tenpou took immediate advantage of the vulnerability, bending forward to skim his mouth along the column of Nii's neck. His lips were supple and warm, and quickly parted to engage the sharp hardness of teeth. He nipped lightly, zeroing in on areas where those canines and incisors could do the most damage if he were inclined to take a deeper bite. Nii's adrenalin spiked, and he felt his knees give slightly at the sudden influx of sensation. "Haahn…."
"Well, well," Tenpou murmured after a moment's pause, his breath fanning lightly against Nii's Adam's apple. "You've surprised me yet again. Who'd have thought you'd be so responsive?" His free hand worked at the fastening of Nii's pants, expertly tugging them open, and he continued his gentle stroking as he lifted Nii's straining cock into the open air.
Most people abandoned themselves to the act of sex, losing all track of place and time. Nii experienced the exact opposite effect. Each touch, each sensation brought the world into sharper focus, honed his awareness until everything around him was crystal clear. He was fully conscious of the faint whirring of the elevator ventilation fan above him; the rasp of fabric as Tenpou again lifted his shirt. …And he knew the exact moment that the Marshal's hand entered his pants pocket, gliding over keys and loose change until those slim fingers closed over a small tube of personal lubricant.
Now how exactly had he known that was there?
His immediate objective achieved, Tenpou loosened his hold on the khakis, allowing the fabric to fall away and pool on the floor around Nii's feet. His dry massage of Nii's cock paused a moment, then returned again, cool and slick. The grasp was sensual and expert, and Nii closed his eyes and allowed himself to float in the sensation of it.
Tenpou hadn't yet made any moves towards his own personal gratification, although Nii was pleased to see the noticeable bulge at the front of the black pants. No worries, then, that Tenpou would have trouble getting it up for someone other than his deceased lover--he didn't seem to be having any difficulties at all. Nii forced his arm to move, stroked down over Tenpou's stomach and between his legs, and gave an insistent squeeze.
The immortal shuddered, his breath hitching in an extremely satisfying way. Encouraged, even as Tenpou's steady stroking faltered, Nii moved to unzip the imprisoning fly, and slid a hand along Tenpou's firm length.
"Ah!" The involuntary vocalization was very rewarding. Even better was the expression that followed. It only took only a few strokes before Tenpou's chin became ever-so-slightly tipped back, eyelashes drooping and the beginnings of a flush creeping along his cheekbones. Little pieces of self-possession were shredding away under that intimate touch, and it wasn't long at all before Tenpou was visibly struggling to keep his eyes focused on Nii.
It was never very far from Nii's mind, that even as the Marshal could try to kill him here in the elevator, the reverse was also true. The loop of Tenpou's discarded gun belt had come to rest only a few short centimeters away from Nii's toe. In addition, Nii never traveled without weapons, in spite of appearances to the contrary. Two in particular could be brought to bear in this situation with very little effort on his part. He had also not forgotten that Tenpou had been injured, the scent of the immortal's blood was rich and sharp in Nii's nostrils. The bullet wound hadn't seemed very deep, but applying the proper force would provide a few seconds of distraction because it would hurt, especially if the bullet was still lodged somewhere in the tissue.
Tenpou had probably mapped out at least some of Nii's possible avenues of attack for himself. Even as the two of them continued their mutual exploratory hand jobs, he was undoubtedly creating a catalogue of counter-maneuvers. His eyes, though heavy-lidded, never really closed--even while his body basked in evident sensual pleasure.
The Marshal had made no other noises after his first, and Nii picked up the pace a little, hoping for more. It was at this point, however, that an unyielding hand caught Nii's wrist.
"Nice," Tenpou said, a trifle unsteadily. "Very nice. But, I'm afraid, not really what I had in mind." Clarity was returning to his expression with disappointing speed. Nii very much wanted to drive it away again.
"Oh?" Nii replied archly, playing innocent. "Well then. What exactly did you… Oh…." Tenpou's slick hand moved down and back, shifting around his balls to teasingly rim Nii's hole. "Oh…."
Tenpou's breath puffed a laugh against him, as Nii automatically shifted to spread his thighs apart. "…I didn't think you'd mind." The teasing fingers rubbed and stroked a moment, and then without hesitation, they firmly pushed inside.
Nii hissed a curse, lifting his leg up as far as it would go considering that his ankle was still bound up in his pants. He propped his raised knee against the outside of the Marshal's thigh. Centuries of experience, Hell, yes. Gently questing fingers unerringly found the prostate, and pressed gently to trigger shuddering pleasure deep inside.
The back of Nii's head hit the elevator paneling, as he arched at the touch that was so very good. …And he was taken completely by surprise as he felt the elevator suddenly tremble around them. Tenpou also seemed caught off guard; the motion caused him to go abruptly still. However the vibrations died off as quickly as they had started.
"Heh heh," Nii found himself chuckling. "Heh, heh, heh. I think the Earth just moved."
"Mmm." Tenpou's voice was amused. "At least the building, anyway." Reassured that it had only been the detonation of the planted explosives, Tenpou resumed his attentions, scissoring and working his fingers until he was satisfied. He nipped lightly into the vulnerable skin beneath the hinge of Nii's jaw, and Nii was forced to catch his breath until Tenpou's hand gingerly withdrew. "Turn around."
Oh, yeah.
Tenpou gave him time to completely kick free of his pants, keeping one hand possessively on Nii's hip. When Nii was ready, the other hand stroked down over his bare ass, guiding his legs apart to just the right width. That same hand dipped between his spread legs again, and he felt himself being briefly stretched--before something larger than a finger was pressed insistently against his entrance.
Tenpou took his time breaching the inner ring of muscle with his cock. "Been a while since you've bottomed for anyone hasn't it?" he mouthed the words lightly against the shell of Nii's right ear. It had been, not since Koumyou; although Nii wasn't about to say as much out loud. ..And he was gratified to hear the hoarse note to Tenpou's voice as he said it, and feel the warmth of Tenpou's breath coming in soft pants.
Still, the man's control was truly phenomenal, and Nii didn't know whether to be grateful for it or to curse.
The slender fingers of Tenpou's left hand slid up under his shirt, and closed over the nub of an erect nipple. The other hand found Nii's cock again, hard and weeping; and Tenpou gave a teasing stroke. It immediately caused Nii to buck upwards and yield another few centimeters of ground. "Ahnnn."
"Oh, yes." Tenpou's hot mouth closed over the crest of his shoulder. The circling of Tenpou's hips became more pronounced, more rhythmic, and Tenpou's left hand slid down to encircle his waist, drawing him close. Pleasure spiked, as Tenpou's shaft achieved full penetration, stroking with flawless precision against the sweet spot buried deep inside.
An involuntary groan tore free of Nii's throat, and it didn't take long before he was thrusting wantonly into Tenpou's perfect fist. Tenpou timed his own thrusts as exact counterpoints, using Nii's pace and motion to work himself in just a little bit deeper. Nii counted seven… no eight of those strokes, each one heightening his ecstasy; and he thought that there might have been a ninth near the end--before the state of clarity he achieved with sex eroded and gave way to the complete abandonment of orgasm.
The elevator lights seemed unbearably dim, when Nii at last managed to pry open his eyes. It took conscious thought to uncurl his toes and unlock his knees, and he found that he had to hold on to the paneling to keep himself upright, because his body wanted to slide down the wall into a puddle of sated goo on the floor.
He only knew that Tenpou had reached climax as well by the warm wetness trickling down the inside of his thigh as the immortal carefully pulled out. Clever, calculating man. Control, indeed. He hadn't allowed himself to let go until Nii was well and truly distracted by his own release.
Nii had known he'd be good, but damn. It had been far gentler than Nii would have anticipated, or would have thought himself able to enjoy. He usually preferred things rough and intense, heat-of-the-moment, to make him feel alive. But he would agree to do this over again in a heartbeat. If this was rebound sex for Tenpou, Please, sir, may I have some more?
Behind him, he heard the startlingly mundane sound of Tenpou re-fastening his zipper. A moment later, a white handkerchief draped itself over Nii's shoulder.
"Thanks," he managed to say.
He used the clean handkerchief to wipe off, then dropped it onto the floor. There were thick white stripes painting the side of the elevator where he'd been standing, but he left them there. Let whoever found it take care of it, and draw whatever conclusions they liked.
It took more effort for Nii to restore himself to his original state of dress than it had for Tenpou. After Tenpou put his trench coat back on and re-claimed his weaponry, he stood patiently by the control panel, giving Nii time to make himself presentable before opening the door. He clearly intended to leave, after, and Nii found himself moving slower and slower.
"Ah," Nii sighed theatrically, as he slipped on his shoes again. "I really could use a cigarette."
Tenpou declined to point out the box of smokes in the pocket of Nii's laboratory coat; although he may very well have known they were there. Instead, after a considering look, he reached into his trench coat and produced a pack of his own cigarettes, offering one to Nii.
"Thanks," Nii said, gripping it between his teeth, as the Marshal tapped one out for himself as well. Nii reached into the pocket of his lab coat, and retrieved his current book of matches. On a whim, he struck one for Tenpou out of courtesy.
"Thanks."
They smoked in companionable silence, as if they were old acquaintances rather than participants in an adrenalin-fueled thrill-fuck, or professional assassins with perfectly good reasons to kill each other. The cigarettes weren't bad at all, with a hint of vanilla laced through the tobacco. Nii would have to look up the brand.
By the third puff, Tenpou leaned back against the wall of the elevator, eyes closing as he savored the nicotine. Nii glanced over at him, and then stopped, gaze sharpening as he had the opportunity to look at Tenpou… really look at him, for the first time. He found himself wondering abruptly how long it had been since the Marshal had last slept. There were faint shadows beneath the sweep of dark eyelashes, and his face seemed just a touch more pale than it had been during their meeting two weeks earlier.
"I have to admit," Nii said casually, making a considerable effort not to appear like a shark who'd just scented blood in the water. "There is still one thing makes me curious. All joking aside, why the rush to wipe out the syndicate?"
Violet eyes slid calmly open, and Tenpou gave a wry little smile. "What's this? Pillow talk?"
Nii shrugged, the very picture of nonchalance. "Call it professional curiosity." Nii took a drag of his cigarette, and let the smoke out slowly into the close elevator air. "You're dealing with an old, entrenched power structure. These men will still be there in six months or in a year. Why burn yourself out trying to eradicate a global crime network all within the span of… what, a few short months?"
Contrary to Nii's expectations, the question didn't put the other man on the defensive. "To an outsider, the business of bringing down the syndicate may seem to have no rhyme nor reason. But I assure you that these events have been building for a very, very long time." Spent ash flicked to the floor, and Tenpou's voice took on a steely note. "…As to why I choose to focus on this to the exclusion of everything else? It's the only thing I care to be doing at the moment. I plan to keep this up for as long as I have to."
Kenren Taishou's death had not been a pleasant or quick one. Under the circumstances, the man's single-mindedness was understandable.
Tenpou finished his cigarette, and then opened the elevator door, stepping out of the cramped quarters to grind the spent filter out underfoot. As Nii did the same, the Marshal crossed the short distance to Salvatore's private car. It took an astonishingly short time for him to pop the lock and open the door, without setting off any alarms.
"I'd offer you a ride," he said, his tone turning briskly businesslike, "But I don't intend to keep the car very long."
"I understand." He had to have noticed already that Nii had made no move to follow.
Tenpou paused, leaning on the door of the Mercedes. "I appreciate that you've avoided interfering in my business these past two weeks. I'd like for it to continue. However, it would probably be good if you didn't make a habit of showing up on the doorstep of future targets. They're sure to catch on after a while."
The audacity of the request from someone who was a target himself caused Nii no small amount of amusement. "I'll think about it," he said.
"In the meantime, be sure not to get killed by anyone else."
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The flight back to Mumbai was long and uneventful, and Nii used most of the travel time to minimize jet lag and catch up on his sleep. He arrived home to find things exactly as he had left them, with all of his personal items and security measures in place.
The supercomputer was up and running, as it always was. The command line prompt blinked at him inquiringly as Nii settled his newly-unpacked lab coat over his shoulders and resumed his usual chair. "Kept the home fires burning, did you Hunny-bun? What a thoughtful thing to do."
Nii did not immediately reach for anything related to his work. Instead, he tapped out a cigarette and just sat, mulling over the occurrences of the last 24 hours. He should have felt a sense of achievement, for accomplishing what he'd set out to do. However, some small piece of disquiet nagged at him in the back of his mind.
When he thought about it, it had almost been too easy.
Nii frowned down at the console, the unlit cigarette half-forgotten in his hand. His pride tried to reassure him that it had been his stunning powers of seduction, combined with the heat of the moment, which had overcome the Marshal's rather guarded reputation. But something about it didn't feel quite right. Before this, there had been no illicit love affairs that Nii had heard about--and he had taken the time to look. That Tenpou would so readily acquiesce… no, instigate a fling in an elevator only three months after his long-time lover's death seemed almost… out of character, for him.
Nii sensed that there was something more to it, something moving just beneath the surface, tantalizingly out of reach. In fact, he realized that this whole business with Heaven's Army had the very same feel to it, as if there was some key detail that he had overlooked.
Somewhere in the back of his mind, another puzzle piece suddenly clicked into place. Nii felt his eyebrows lift, as he thought back to Tenpou's own words back in the elevator. I'll keep this up for as long as I have to. Not until the syndicate is wiped out, or until that bastard Litouten is dead. He'd had another end in mind. An additional purpose, even more than a vendetta over a slain lover--although that undoubtedly was part of it, too.
These past few months, Tenpou had been deliberately drawing the syndicate's attention, forcing it to squander its capital and resources. Salvatore had said: …this man must be stopped at all costs. Until he's taken care of, there's no way we…. What had he been going to say? What was it that Tenpou was preventing Heaven's Army from accomplishing?
Or perhaps an even better question: Who are you protecting, Marshal?
Nii didn't know the answer to that question, and after two and a half months of trying to learn everything he could about the man, it bothered him considerably. Thinking hard, he reached for the closest keyboard of his supercomputer. A few efficient keystrokes brought up the 10 photographs that his image mapping program had captured from its search two weeks ago. Nii studied the entire set, looking for a clue.
…And it didn't take very long for him to find it… in the snapshot of the old woman in the park.
Nii made an adjustment to the reconstruction software, changing the parameters of the image enhancement so it seemed as if the focal point was to the left and further back. As the background shifted into sharper focus, it became clear that there were more people in the photo than he'd originally thought.
The first of these was an unknown man seated next to Tenpou, sharing the same bench. The man was a little taller than the Marshal but with the same general build, which made him hard to see in the side-view the camera had captured. …But Nii could make out his profile now, and the loose wisps of blond hair that framed his face. Where Tenpou's attention was wholly absorbed in his book, the other man's gaze was focused outward, on a space darkly shaded by a cluster of maple trees. It was there that another figure could now be seen--a brown-haired boy crouched with child-like ease among a flock of pigeons, a delighted grin upon his face.
"Oh," Nii breathed. "So that's it." Nii didn't know what significance the Marshal might have attached to the figures in this particular photograph, or whether they were the true cause behind the immortal's drive to eliminate all of Heaven's Army by himself. But Nii was betting that he could find out.
The assassin stuck his hands in his pockets to retrieve his book of matches, still studying the figures of the blond man and the boy. …And was caught by surprise when he encountered in his pocket an unfamiliar folded piece of paper.
The paper turned out to be a note, in Tenpou's bold handwriting. For a moment, Nii could only look at it, without even seeing the words. Going back over the events of San Francisco in his head, Nii couldn't for the life of him think when Tenpou might have had the chance to have written it.
The lettering spelled out a phrase in French: Le savoir a son prix.
Surprise transformed rapidly into disbelief, and then into delight. Nii threw back his head and laughed.
"Well," he said, when at last he could control his mirth again. "Well, well, well. That was a remarkable piece of prescience on your part, Marshal. How very quaint."
Nii thoughtfully laid the written note flat on the console, and gazed up at the photograph of the park, at the image of the unknown blond man and the boy. Knowledge has its own price. Tenpou's acceptance of the fact that Nii would find out. And Tenpou's warning for Nii to stay away.
"Well," Nii murmured, "this has been fun.
"Shall we play another round?"
Author: freeradical9
Rating: NC-17
Pairing: Tenpou x Nii, with references to other pairings
Warnings: Explicit M/M. Mind games. Snark. References to character death. Spoilers for both Saiyuki and Saiyuki Gaiden.
Part 2
"Mr. Nii, to see Mr. Salvatore. I have an appointment."
The administrative assistant, a pretty blonde slip of a thing, glanced up at him over the rectangular lenses of her glasses. She gestured to a row of uncomfortable-looking chairs, framed on either side with potted palms. "Please have a seat. I'll let him know that you've arrived."
Nii wasn't in a hurry. He sauntered over to the chairs, but remained standing, looking out through the plate glass window. The vista of San Francisco's high-rise district spread out before and below him. It was a clear day; the smog hadn't settled in yet, and he could watch the people moving like ants fifty-seven stories below.
"Sir, you can go right in, he's expecting you."
"Perfect."
The administrative assistant buzzed him in through the heavy, steel-core doors. The room directly on the other side of the doors was a corner office that was arranged to impress and intimidate. Impress, because of the expansive views of the city and the artwork on the walls that was probably collectively worth a cool ten million dollars or so. Intimidate, because of the seven thugs who were clearly personal bodyguards positioned at various points in the room.
Seven men. Unusual. But not, under the circumstances, overkill.
Salvatore was watching him as he came through the doors. The gray-haired man's gaze never shifted as he gestured Nii into a conference chair placed unusually far from the imposing oak desk. Ah, so that's how it is. Nii could have taken offense, but didn't. It was a shame, really. So few people welcomed freelance assassins with open arms.
Nii settled himself into the chair, propping his elbows up on the arms and folding his hands in front of him. "Well. Nice place you've got here."
Salvatore didn't look amused. Rather, the expression on his urbane features was a study of barely-disguised distaste, as if Nii were something that had crawled out from under his immaculately groomed plush carpet. "Nii Jianyi. Our organization is paying you generously, one might even say exorbitantly, for your services in hunting down the Marshal. You're wasting time sitting in my office."
Nii smiled at him over interlaced fingers. "Quite the contrary. The Marshal is exactly the reason that I'm here."
Nii could see the other man's eyes narrow sharply. It hadn't taken much to catch his interest. Probably he realized how high up on the Marshal's hit list he was. "You have new information?"
"Oh yes. I wouldn't have come I didn't."
Oddly, this seemed to reassure the crime lord who was in charge of west coast operations for Heaven's Army, and he relaxed visibly in his chair. "Good. The situation has gotten completely out of control, and this man must be stopped at all costs. Until he's taken care of, there's no way we…." He cut himself off, deliberately looking away from Nii to glare down at his desk in frustration. Interesting. Nii wondered what it was that he had been about to say.
"Very well, then," the man continued, after visibly taking a deep breath. "Since you've come all the way here, why don't you give me a progress report. I'll forward it to General Shou'u."
The crime lord had been fairly rude, and Nii wasn't inclined to be generous. However, five floors below them, the personnel in central security had just changed shift. Nii estimated that he still had about ten minutes to waste before that routine shift change translated into something much more interesting.
To kill time, Nii gave a brief run-down of several interesting things he had uncovered in his efforts to track down the Marshal. All the information was correct down to the very last detail. He simply neglected to mention that it all came from false trails that had been deliberately laid down by his target.
Let the assassin groups who where competing with him figure that out.
Salvatore didn't bother to take notes, but listened avidly until Nii reached the end of the information he was willing to provide. "Hmm," he said, speaking almost to himself. "Cape Town, then." He leaned forward and touched the intercom on his desk. "Ms. Burke."
Immediately, the voice of the administrative assistant came through on the line. "Yes, Mr. Salvatore?"
"Contact Lucien immediately, and have him waiting on line one."
"Yes, sir."
Salvatore removed his hand from the intercom, and his gaze settled once more upon Nii. "I think we're done here."
Nii looked absently at his watch. "Oh yes," he said in satisfied tone. "I imagine that we are."
As if that had been a cue, the room suddenly shook with the sound of a small explosion somewhere very close by. Salvatore's eyes flew wildly around the office, and then almost immediately tracked back to Nii's face. The assassin could pinpoint the exact millisecond when shock dissolved into understanding and bitter accusation. You knew.
The crime lord's expression promised retribution, but to his credit, Salvatore focused on the more pressing danger first. He leapt to his feet as the door to his office swung open just a crack. He didn't wait for it to open fully. "Get him!" he bellowed.
The thugs didn't hesitate, but reacted instinctively, decorating the office door with bullet trails from machine guns. Not exactly the brightest response; the steel-reinforced door was designed to be bulletproof. Nii shook his head. What a waste.
He did get up rather gingerly from his chair, using the distraction to make his way towards one of the walls. It was the area in which he thought he might be least likely to get hit by a bullet ricochet or flying shrapnel. It proved to be a wise choice, as the ceiling panel above one of the thugs suddenly moved, and a black blur dropped down behind the bodyguard.
"…Ghrck!" was all the man had time to exclaim, as three feet of steel sliced across his carotid artery. Completing its deadly arc, the sword swung downwards and lodged point-first into the carpet, where it remained upright with no hand on the grip. An archaic gold-tone revolver flashed behind one of the thug's broad shoulders, placing bullets square in the middle of the foreheads of three other bodyguards as they turned around in surprise. The head was a small but wise target, since it was certain that these men were all wearing Kevlar vests. The shots were so quick and so precise, it didn't even seem like the assassin needed to aim. It was if he had known before entering the room exactly where they would be standing. Which, Nii reflected, he probably had.
The man with his throat cut buckled at the knees, toppling over backwards. As he fell, the smaller assassin dropped with him, kneeling and catching the body against one shoulder in order to use the man's Kevlar-protected torso as a shield. The other bodyguards opened fire, pouring out bullets into the corpse which rocked and shuddered under the impacts.
Two of the remaining guards emptied their entire magazines into the corpse. The third was more canny, pulling back and saving his bullets. It didn't help him, in the end. The instant the clicking of the empty cartridges sounded in the room, the assassin moved. Abandoning the mangled corpse on the bloody carpet, he wrapped a black, fingerless glove around the hilt of the katana and leapt, clearing several feet of distance within seconds. The gold gun flashed, snapping a shot off to the side while the assassin was still in transit. The clever thug with the loaded machine gun fell, shot cleanly through the jugular. Before he hit the carpet, a downward slash of the sword carved across one of the ammunition-less target's ribs, shearing through muscle and bone. The final guard managed to draw a pistol from a holster beneath his arm, and even got off a shot that grazed the assassin's shoulder, before collapsing from a bullet to the temple.
It was all over in moments. The hammer of the gold revolver cocked back, pointing squarely at Salvatore as the man reached for something in his desk. "I wouldn't do that if I were you." Tenpou didn't lower his sword arm, holding it up and across his body between himself and Nii, clearly as a precaution. The Marshal wasn't even out of breath. He was wearing the trench coat again, and his hair was conspicuously tied back.
It was only at this point that the Marshal dared to glance over at Nii. Their eyes met, and Tenpou paused, momentarily nonplussed. "Am I getting predictable?"
Nii shrugged. He'd been about 90% certain. If he'd had to kill Salvatore, after examining all the variables involved, this would have been the day and time he'd have picked, too. "You're running out of people to kill. That narrows things down quite a bit."
"Ah. Right."
Salvatore's incredulous gaze fell on Nii. "What are you doing?? This isn't social hour! Do something! Kill him, now!"
Nii's eyebrows went up. "Me? Do I look like a bodyguard? You must be mistaken, I'm certain that doesn't appear anywhere in my job description." As Salvatore's face reddened in outrage, he added smoothly, "You seem to have forgotten that I was given complete autonomy in this matter. The only orders I follow are my own."
"Tch!" the man hissed, infuriated. "You useless prick!"
"Now, now. If it's any consolation, the reason he hasn't killed you already is because he's run out of bullets. I know it can be hard to tell, at a distance. But that's definitely the model of gun that holds five rounds, not six."
Tenpou shot him a look of disgust. "That was uncalled for."
"Just trying to show that I'm not taking sides here."
It took a moment for the words to register with Salvatore. The instant they did, Nii saw the crime lord's gaze flicker across the room. It settled on, of all things, a very large and very ugly gilt-framed Impressionist painting on the nearest wall. His expression turned calculating, as if he were mentally measuring the intervening distance, and Nii thought, ah hah.
Then Salvatore was moving, following his original trajectory as he dove for the drawer of his desk. Two things happened simultaneously. First, alarms began to ring in the building. This was a surprise only because they were so belated--Nii had been expecting them ever since the sound of the first explosion. Second, Salvatore came up with a .44 Magnum in his hand.
Tenpou hadn't waited in place to get shot. As Salvatore raised the gun, Tenpou was already landing with cat-like grace on the top of the large desk, glittering sword descending. The first arc generated a spray of blood as Salvatore's hand was neatly severed at the wrist. He opened his mouth to curse or scream, but didn't have time as the second swing cleaved off his head.
Nii started clapping before the decapitated body hit the carpet. "Oh, Bravo!" he said, raising his voice to be heard about the blaring of the alarms. "Well done."
Tenpou gave him an unreadable look. "It won't take reinforcements long to arrive," he said in a louder-than-normal tone. "If you have business with me, perhaps we can take it elsewhere?"
"Good idea," Nii agreed approvingly. "I thought you'd never ask." He casually walked over to the Impressionist painting. It took only a few moments for him to find the catch mechanism, and he tripped it. The gilt frame stayed attached to the wall, but the canvas itself dropped down to reveal a dimly-lit area that was about the size of a small closet. "Private elevator," Nii announced, gesturing grandly.
Tenpou's eyebrows lifted, and he murmured something too low to catch over the sound of the alarms, but Nii thought it might have been "Handy." The elevator had clearly been designed as an escape route for Salvatore and one of his bodyguards. The two assassins could easily stand inside the opening, although it wouldn't be a very roomy fit.
There were supports on the inside of the wall where the painting could be lifted back onto place. Nii did so, while Tenpou studied the control panel. The elevator apparently only made two stops--one being Salvatore's office, and the other marked as LL, which presumably lead to the building's below-ground parking deck. Tenpou pressed the second button with an index finger, and the elevator's inner doors clicked closed. There came the soft whirring of smoothly oiled mechanisms, and they began a slow but smooth descent.
"You know, if you left anybody alive in there, there's going to be a very angry mob after you in another couple of minutes," Nii observed.
"I don't think that's really much of a concern. The light explosives in the room and elsewhere in the building will go off shortly, and that should deter any kind of pursuit." He must have done it when Nii was fiddling with the painting. Nii hadn't even seen him planting or arming the bombs.
Tenpou's close proximity in the elevator was causing Nii's pulse to speed up, in a way that his casual violence of earlier had not. This close, Nii could smell him; a mixture of leather, cigarette smoke, and blood.
Seemingly unaware of Nii's rapt attention, Tenpou reached up, snagged his hair tie, and shook his hair free, ruffling the back of it with a gloved hand.
"Mmm," Nii murmured appreciatively, "I love it when you let your hair down."
That earned him a long look. "You're a very odd man."
The elevator continued its downward descent. Nii opted once again for the direct approach. "Have you thought to consider my offer of earlier?"
The faintest of smiles plucked at the corners of Tenpou's mouth. Not looking at Nii, he said, "About having sex with you? I've given it a lot of thought, actually."
The flutter of excitement Nii felt in his chest was so alien to him he almost didn't recognize it. "And? I've been a good boy, in case you haven't noticed. I've stayed out of your way for two whole weeks."
Tenpou gave him a sideways look, considering. "You have, haven't you? I have to admit that I honestly wouldn't have expected it." His gaze shifted back to the closed elevator doors. "Has it somehow slipped your mind that you were hired to assassinate me?"
"Apparently."
Tenpou's quiet laughter made Nii feel inordinately pleased with himself. After a moment, Tenpou said, "You do realize that I'm older than you are."
Nii had already assumed as much. "Yes."
"I also feel compelled to mention that I'm taller, too."
"Those boots are an unfair advantage." This conversation was sounding more and more promising all the time.
The corner of Tenpou's expressive mouth quirked up in wry humor. "Perhaps. If you like, we could go find a tape measure?"
"That won't be necessary."
"I'm pointing this out now so that you still have time to walk away if you're not satisfied with my choice of logistics."
"No," It hadn't exactly been what Nii was expecting, but he felt an immediate quickening in his loins, nonetheless. It was the end that mattered, not the means. "I have no objections whatsoever."
"Good." The Marshal's right hand rose into the thin gap that separated them, and he pushed Nii back against the plain paneling of the elevator wall. Nii anticipated it, and let it happen anyway, savoring the unlooked for thrill.
He was mildly disappointed when, for the moment, all Tenpou did was look him over. A slender gloved hand reached up and grasped his chin, tilting it up in the dim glow of the overhead lights. His expression was oddly thoughtful, and Nii wondered for a moment how much of the shadows of other lives he was able to read on Nii's face. In the Marshal's face, Nii could see only one. Even after having seen the 1867 photo, Tenpou's personality was all that looked back at him out of those clear, ageless eyes.
The lift slowed, and came to a halt. The double doors of the closet-sized space opened into a cement cubical containing a black Mercedes. Salvatore's private car. Tenpou turned a level gaze on it, his expression appearing nearly identical to the one that he'd worn when studying Nii. He loosened his hold on Nii's chin, and deliberately hit the button to make the elevator doors slide closed again.
Before the metal doors had even clicked shut, Tenpou was propping his sheathed katana up in the corner of the elevator and stripping off the fingerless leather gloves on his hands. With a measured look at Nii, he slid the black leather trench coat from his shoulders, letting it drop to the floor of the lift to reveal utilitarian black pants and a white shirt splotched with blood on one arm. The gold-tone revolver, encased in a holster that Nii hadn't even seen before this, was lowered with care by its belt to lie on top of the abandoned trench coat.
"Not that I'm complaining, but shouldn't we get out before your explosives go off?" Nii wasn't too keen about being buried beneath tons of steel and concrete. Tenpou couldn't have given the charges a very long lag time.
"They're not a concern. None of them will do actual structural damage to the building. They'll just knock out communications and cut off access to key security areas."
"And if somebody knows about this little escape route?"
"We'll have time to figure something out if we hear voices, or if the lift starts moving again."
"My," Nii said in amusement. "You think of everything, don't you?"
"One does one's best." Tenpou took a half-step forward, bringing himself nearly chest-to-chest with the other assassin. This close, Nii could feel the heat of his body radiating through the thin shirt, and in the shadow of his unruly bangs, his violet eyes were so dark as to look almost black. Those eyes glittered, and Nii read the traces of fight-or-flight arousal still lingering in their depths. It caused his cock to jump and harden almost instantly.
There were half a dozen ways that Tenpou might try to kill him right now. Even with the sword and the gun resting temporarily out of reach, the Marshal was an extremely dangerous man. An elbow to the throat might crush Nii's windpipe. The heel of a hand could strike upward at the nose to send fragments of bone into the brain. A carefully placed grip might twist his head and snap his neck. Just thinking about the sheer amount of risk involved magnified Nii's arousal tenfold.
"I'm curious," Tenpou said in a low voice, and there was a roughened note to it that went right to the pit of Nii's stomach. "Just what you're planning to take from this."
"Aside from the obvious?" There was a sudden sharp tug which untucked his button-down shirt from his waistband, and then Nii was forced to catch his breath as Tenpou's hand slid down the front of his pants without bothering to unfasten them first. "Isn't meaningless sex is enough? Underneath it all, I'm a pretty shallow person, really."
The Marshal wasted no time with preliminaries. Clever fingers found Nii's swelling shaft, tracing over its whole length. It felt good to be touched by another person, and Nii found himself arching into the contact almost immediately. Lab coat-clad shoulders met the paneling as he groaned, tipping his head back in mute invitation.
Tenpou took immediate advantage of the vulnerability, bending forward to skim his mouth along the column of Nii's neck. His lips were supple and warm, and quickly parted to engage the sharp hardness of teeth. He nipped lightly, zeroing in on areas where those canines and incisors could do the most damage if he were inclined to take a deeper bite. Nii's adrenalin spiked, and he felt his knees give slightly at the sudden influx of sensation. "Haahn…."
"Well, well," Tenpou murmured after a moment's pause, his breath fanning lightly against Nii's Adam's apple. "You've surprised me yet again. Who'd have thought you'd be so responsive?" His free hand worked at the fastening of Nii's pants, expertly tugging them open, and he continued his gentle stroking as he lifted Nii's straining cock into the open air.
Most people abandoned themselves to the act of sex, losing all track of place and time. Nii experienced the exact opposite effect. Each touch, each sensation brought the world into sharper focus, honed his awareness until everything around him was crystal clear. He was fully conscious of the faint whirring of the elevator ventilation fan above him; the rasp of fabric as Tenpou again lifted his shirt. …And he knew the exact moment that the Marshal's hand entered his pants pocket, gliding over keys and loose change until those slim fingers closed over a small tube of personal lubricant.
Now how exactly had he known that was there?
His immediate objective achieved, Tenpou loosened his hold on the khakis, allowing the fabric to fall away and pool on the floor around Nii's feet. His dry massage of Nii's cock paused a moment, then returned again, cool and slick. The grasp was sensual and expert, and Nii closed his eyes and allowed himself to float in the sensation of it.
Tenpou hadn't yet made any moves towards his own personal gratification, although Nii was pleased to see the noticeable bulge at the front of the black pants. No worries, then, that Tenpou would have trouble getting it up for someone other than his deceased lover--he didn't seem to be having any difficulties at all. Nii forced his arm to move, stroked down over Tenpou's stomach and between his legs, and gave an insistent squeeze.
The immortal shuddered, his breath hitching in an extremely satisfying way. Encouraged, even as Tenpou's steady stroking faltered, Nii moved to unzip the imprisoning fly, and slid a hand along Tenpou's firm length.
"Ah!" The involuntary vocalization was very rewarding. Even better was the expression that followed. It only took only a few strokes before Tenpou's chin became ever-so-slightly tipped back, eyelashes drooping and the beginnings of a flush creeping along his cheekbones. Little pieces of self-possession were shredding away under that intimate touch, and it wasn't long at all before Tenpou was visibly struggling to keep his eyes focused on Nii.
It was never very far from Nii's mind, that even as the Marshal could try to kill him here in the elevator, the reverse was also true. The loop of Tenpou's discarded gun belt had come to rest only a few short centimeters away from Nii's toe. In addition, Nii never traveled without weapons, in spite of appearances to the contrary. Two in particular could be brought to bear in this situation with very little effort on his part. He had also not forgotten that Tenpou had been injured, the scent of the immortal's blood was rich and sharp in Nii's nostrils. The bullet wound hadn't seemed very deep, but applying the proper force would provide a few seconds of distraction because it would hurt, especially if the bullet was still lodged somewhere in the tissue.
Tenpou had probably mapped out at least some of Nii's possible avenues of attack for himself. Even as the two of them continued their mutual exploratory hand jobs, he was undoubtedly creating a catalogue of counter-maneuvers. His eyes, though heavy-lidded, never really closed--even while his body basked in evident sensual pleasure.
The Marshal had made no other noises after his first, and Nii picked up the pace a little, hoping for more. It was at this point, however, that an unyielding hand caught Nii's wrist.
"Nice," Tenpou said, a trifle unsteadily. "Very nice. But, I'm afraid, not really what I had in mind." Clarity was returning to his expression with disappointing speed. Nii very much wanted to drive it away again.
"Oh?" Nii replied archly, playing innocent. "Well then. What exactly did you… Oh…." Tenpou's slick hand moved down and back, shifting around his balls to teasingly rim Nii's hole. "Oh…."
Tenpou's breath puffed a laugh against him, as Nii automatically shifted to spread his thighs apart. "…I didn't think you'd mind." The teasing fingers rubbed and stroked a moment, and then without hesitation, they firmly pushed inside.
Nii hissed a curse, lifting his leg up as far as it would go considering that his ankle was still bound up in his pants. He propped his raised knee against the outside of the Marshal's thigh. Centuries of experience, Hell, yes. Gently questing fingers unerringly found the prostate, and pressed gently to trigger shuddering pleasure deep inside.
The back of Nii's head hit the elevator paneling, as he arched at the touch that was so very good. …And he was taken completely by surprise as he felt the elevator suddenly tremble around them. Tenpou also seemed caught off guard; the motion caused him to go abruptly still. However the vibrations died off as quickly as they had started.
"Heh heh," Nii found himself chuckling. "Heh, heh, heh. I think the Earth just moved."
"Mmm." Tenpou's voice was amused. "At least the building, anyway." Reassured that it had only been the detonation of the planted explosives, Tenpou resumed his attentions, scissoring and working his fingers until he was satisfied. He nipped lightly into the vulnerable skin beneath the hinge of Nii's jaw, and Nii was forced to catch his breath until Tenpou's hand gingerly withdrew. "Turn around."
Oh, yeah.
Tenpou gave him time to completely kick free of his pants, keeping one hand possessively on Nii's hip. When Nii was ready, the other hand stroked down over his bare ass, guiding his legs apart to just the right width. That same hand dipped between his spread legs again, and he felt himself being briefly stretched--before something larger than a finger was pressed insistently against his entrance.
Tenpou took his time breaching the inner ring of muscle with his cock. "Been a while since you've bottomed for anyone hasn't it?" he mouthed the words lightly against the shell of Nii's right ear. It had been, not since Koumyou; although Nii wasn't about to say as much out loud. ..And he was gratified to hear the hoarse note to Tenpou's voice as he said it, and feel the warmth of Tenpou's breath coming in soft pants.
Still, the man's control was truly phenomenal, and Nii didn't know whether to be grateful for it or to curse.
The slender fingers of Tenpou's left hand slid up under his shirt, and closed over the nub of an erect nipple. The other hand found Nii's cock again, hard and weeping; and Tenpou gave a teasing stroke. It immediately caused Nii to buck upwards and yield another few centimeters of ground. "Ahnnn."
"Oh, yes." Tenpou's hot mouth closed over the crest of his shoulder. The circling of Tenpou's hips became more pronounced, more rhythmic, and Tenpou's left hand slid down to encircle his waist, drawing him close. Pleasure spiked, as Tenpou's shaft achieved full penetration, stroking with flawless precision against the sweet spot buried deep inside.
An involuntary groan tore free of Nii's throat, and it didn't take long before he was thrusting wantonly into Tenpou's perfect fist. Tenpou timed his own thrusts as exact counterpoints, using Nii's pace and motion to work himself in just a little bit deeper. Nii counted seven… no eight of those strokes, each one heightening his ecstasy; and he thought that there might have been a ninth near the end--before the state of clarity he achieved with sex eroded and gave way to the complete abandonment of orgasm.
The elevator lights seemed unbearably dim, when Nii at last managed to pry open his eyes. It took conscious thought to uncurl his toes and unlock his knees, and he found that he had to hold on to the paneling to keep himself upright, because his body wanted to slide down the wall into a puddle of sated goo on the floor.
He only knew that Tenpou had reached climax as well by the warm wetness trickling down the inside of his thigh as the immortal carefully pulled out. Clever, calculating man. Control, indeed. He hadn't allowed himself to let go until Nii was well and truly distracted by his own release.
Nii had known he'd be good, but damn. It had been far gentler than Nii would have anticipated, or would have thought himself able to enjoy. He usually preferred things rough and intense, heat-of-the-moment, to make him feel alive. But he would agree to do this over again in a heartbeat. If this was rebound sex for Tenpou, Please, sir, may I have some more?
Behind him, he heard the startlingly mundane sound of Tenpou re-fastening his zipper. A moment later, a white handkerchief draped itself over Nii's shoulder.
"Thanks," he managed to say.
He used the clean handkerchief to wipe off, then dropped it onto the floor. There were thick white stripes painting the side of the elevator where he'd been standing, but he left them there. Let whoever found it take care of it, and draw whatever conclusions they liked.
It took more effort for Nii to restore himself to his original state of dress than it had for Tenpou. After Tenpou put his trench coat back on and re-claimed his weaponry, he stood patiently by the control panel, giving Nii time to make himself presentable before opening the door. He clearly intended to leave, after, and Nii found himself moving slower and slower.
"Ah," Nii sighed theatrically, as he slipped on his shoes again. "I really could use a cigarette."
Tenpou declined to point out the box of smokes in the pocket of Nii's laboratory coat; although he may very well have known they were there. Instead, after a considering look, he reached into his trench coat and produced a pack of his own cigarettes, offering one to Nii.
"Thanks," Nii said, gripping it between his teeth, as the Marshal tapped one out for himself as well. Nii reached into the pocket of his lab coat, and retrieved his current book of matches. On a whim, he struck one for Tenpou out of courtesy.
"Thanks."
They smoked in companionable silence, as if they were old acquaintances rather than participants in an adrenalin-fueled thrill-fuck, or professional assassins with perfectly good reasons to kill each other. The cigarettes weren't bad at all, with a hint of vanilla laced through the tobacco. Nii would have to look up the brand.
By the third puff, Tenpou leaned back against the wall of the elevator, eyes closing as he savored the nicotine. Nii glanced over at him, and then stopped, gaze sharpening as he had the opportunity to look at Tenpou… really look at him, for the first time. He found himself wondering abruptly how long it had been since the Marshal had last slept. There were faint shadows beneath the sweep of dark eyelashes, and his face seemed just a touch more pale than it had been during their meeting two weeks earlier.
"I have to admit," Nii said casually, making a considerable effort not to appear like a shark who'd just scented blood in the water. "There is still one thing makes me curious. All joking aside, why the rush to wipe out the syndicate?"
Violet eyes slid calmly open, and Tenpou gave a wry little smile. "What's this? Pillow talk?"
Nii shrugged, the very picture of nonchalance. "Call it professional curiosity." Nii took a drag of his cigarette, and let the smoke out slowly into the close elevator air. "You're dealing with an old, entrenched power structure. These men will still be there in six months or in a year. Why burn yourself out trying to eradicate a global crime network all within the span of… what, a few short months?"
Contrary to Nii's expectations, the question didn't put the other man on the defensive. "To an outsider, the business of bringing down the syndicate may seem to have no rhyme nor reason. But I assure you that these events have been building for a very, very long time." Spent ash flicked to the floor, and Tenpou's voice took on a steely note. "…As to why I choose to focus on this to the exclusion of everything else? It's the only thing I care to be doing at the moment. I plan to keep this up for as long as I have to."
Kenren Taishou's death had not been a pleasant or quick one. Under the circumstances, the man's single-mindedness was understandable.
Tenpou finished his cigarette, and then opened the elevator door, stepping out of the cramped quarters to grind the spent filter out underfoot. As Nii did the same, the Marshal crossed the short distance to Salvatore's private car. It took an astonishingly short time for him to pop the lock and open the door, without setting off any alarms.
"I'd offer you a ride," he said, his tone turning briskly businesslike, "But I don't intend to keep the car very long."
"I understand." He had to have noticed already that Nii had made no move to follow.
Tenpou paused, leaning on the door of the Mercedes. "I appreciate that you've avoided interfering in my business these past two weeks. I'd like for it to continue. However, it would probably be good if you didn't make a habit of showing up on the doorstep of future targets. They're sure to catch on after a while."
The audacity of the request from someone who was a target himself caused Nii no small amount of amusement. "I'll think about it," he said.
"In the meantime, be sure not to get killed by anyone else."
<><><><><><><><><><><><><><><>
The flight back to Mumbai was long and uneventful, and Nii used most of the travel time to minimize jet lag and catch up on his sleep. He arrived home to find things exactly as he had left them, with all of his personal items and security measures in place.
The supercomputer was up and running, as it always was. The command line prompt blinked at him inquiringly as Nii settled his newly-unpacked lab coat over his shoulders and resumed his usual chair. "Kept the home fires burning, did you Hunny-bun? What a thoughtful thing to do."
Nii did not immediately reach for anything related to his work. Instead, he tapped out a cigarette and just sat, mulling over the occurrences of the last 24 hours. He should have felt a sense of achievement, for accomplishing what he'd set out to do. However, some small piece of disquiet nagged at him in the back of his mind.
When he thought about it, it had almost been too easy.
Nii frowned down at the console, the unlit cigarette half-forgotten in his hand. His pride tried to reassure him that it had been his stunning powers of seduction, combined with the heat of the moment, which had overcome the Marshal's rather guarded reputation. But something about it didn't feel quite right. Before this, there had been no illicit love affairs that Nii had heard about--and he had taken the time to look. That Tenpou would so readily acquiesce… no, instigate a fling in an elevator only three months after his long-time lover's death seemed almost… out of character, for him.
Nii sensed that there was something more to it, something moving just beneath the surface, tantalizingly out of reach. In fact, he realized that this whole business with Heaven's Army had the very same feel to it, as if there was some key detail that he had overlooked.
Somewhere in the back of his mind, another puzzle piece suddenly clicked into place. Nii felt his eyebrows lift, as he thought back to Tenpou's own words back in the elevator. I'll keep this up for as long as I have to. Not until the syndicate is wiped out, or until that bastard Litouten is dead. He'd had another end in mind. An additional purpose, even more than a vendetta over a slain lover--although that undoubtedly was part of it, too.
These past few months, Tenpou had been deliberately drawing the syndicate's attention, forcing it to squander its capital and resources. Salvatore had said: …this man must be stopped at all costs. Until he's taken care of, there's no way we…. What had he been going to say? What was it that Tenpou was preventing Heaven's Army from accomplishing?
Or perhaps an even better question: Who are you protecting, Marshal?
Nii didn't know the answer to that question, and after two and a half months of trying to learn everything he could about the man, it bothered him considerably. Thinking hard, he reached for the closest keyboard of his supercomputer. A few efficient keystrokes brought up the 10 photographs that his image mapping program had captured from its search two weeks ago. Nii studied the entire set, looking for a clue.
…And it didn't take very long for him to find it… in the snapshot of the old woman in the park.
Nii made an adjustment to the reconstruction software, changing the parameters of the image enhancement so it seemed as if the focal point was to the left and further back. As the background shifted into sharper focus, it became clear that there were more people in the photo than he'd originally thought.
The first of these was an unknown man seated next to Tenpou, sharing the same bench. The man was a little taller than the Marshal but with the same general build, which made him hard to see in the side-view the camera had captured. …But Nii could make out his profile now, and the loose wisps of blond hair that framed his face. Where Tenpou's attention was wholly absorbed in his book, the other man's gaze was focused outward, on a space darkly shaded by a cluster of maple trees. It was there that another figure could now be seen--a brown-haired boy crouched with child-like ease among a flock of pigeons, a delighted grin upon his face.
"Oh," Nii breathed. "So that's it." Nii didn't know what significance the Marshal might have attached to the figures in this particular photograph, or whether they were the true cause behind the immortal's drive to eliminate all of Heaven's Army by himself. But Nii was betting that he could find out.
The assassin stuck his hands in his pockets to retrieve his book of matches, still studying the figures of the blond man and the boy. …And was caught by surprise when he encountered in his pocket an unfamiliar folded piece of paper.
The paper turned out to be a note, in Tenpou's bold handwriting. For a moment, Nii could only look at it, without even seeing the words. Going back over the events of San Francisco in his head, Nii couldn't for the life of him think when Tenpou might have had the chance to have written it.
The lettering spelled out a phrase in French: Le savoir a son prix.
Surprise transformed rapidly into disbelief, and then into delight. Nii threw back his head and laughed.
"Well," he said, when at last he could control his mirth again. "Well, well, well. That was a remarkable piece of prescience on your part, Marshal. How very quaint."
Nii thoughtfully laid the written note flat on the console, and gazed up at the photograph of the park, at the image of the unknown blond man and the boy. Knowledge has its own price. Tenpou's acceptance of the fact that Nii would find out. And Tenpou's warning for Nii to stay away.
"Well," Nii murmured, "this has been fun.
"Shall we play another round?"