[EXO] [PD1] Sweet as Honey, Sharp as a Sword
Title: Sweet as Honey, Sharp as a Sword
Fandom: EXO (sort of fused with Final Fantasy VII)
Series: Phoenix Down (#1)
Pairing: Lu Han/Kai (and vague references to OMC/Kai)
Rating: R, to be safe
Genre: AU, crossover (sort of)
Word count: 6,315
Disclaimer: Not mine, damnit
Warnings: Prostitution, dub-con sleeping, video game logic
Summary: Working at the Honey Bee Inn finally pays off for Kai when his latest customer turns out to be a materia collector.
A/N: For reasons that do not need exploring at this juncture, I thought it would be a fun idea to write a fic crossing EXO's MAMA PV with Final Fantasy VII, with all the crack that entails. This is actually the prequel to that fic and therefore more limited in scope. Lu Han is loosely based on FFVII's Odin, but has one particular characteristic I swiped from the FFVIII version. Why am I using Jongin's stage name throughout the fic? You'll see.
For hc_bingo square 'theft'. Crossposted to AO3
Sweet as Honey, Sharp as a Sword
Kai sighs as he squirms to adjust the gaudy, translucent wings fastened to his shoulders. Thank goodness he's so flexible - though here, that just seems like an excuse for them to charge more for him. It's not as if it makes any difference to his wages. The only times he gets any extra are when he gets called in as entertainment, as the dancer he'd originally trained to be, and if he's really lucky, the happy couple (or more or less) think to stuff gil inside his tight, yellow and black costume before they send him away. If he's unlucky, they tell him to join in, but that's life at the Honey Bee Inn.
They're all dressed like bees here - all the staff who earn their keep on their backs, or their knees, or however the customers want them, for as long as they want them, provided they can pay. Everyone else wears a suit: the managers, the bouncers, the customers with their fancy membership cards. Kai's not management material and when he applied to be a bouncer, they told him to come back when he'd bulked out enough to look dangerous. Then they laughed and suggested that if he needed the money that badly, his pretty face would be a welcome addition to the Honey Bee ranks.
He's not here for the money, though he could certainly use it. All the Bees stay in the same cheap boarding house, but cheap isn't the same as free and Kai only gets his meals for nothing when he's actually at work. Which, to be fair, is most of the time, because the sooner he finds what he's looking for, the sooner he can leave and never come back, maybe even get out of Midgar and start all over again in some other town - a town where nobody knows him, or what he's had to do to survive in the slums.
"Don't they get in the way?" the customer asks. He had a name when he walked in, but Kai doesn't care to remember names. All the customers are the same, anyway. "The wings, I mean. Wouldn't you be more comfortable if you took them off?"
"They're attached to the costume," Kai says, trying not to snap at the frustration of having to play the same game over and over again. The customer, a balding, middle-aged man with a barrel chest and long, curious fingers, is leading him by the nose, and Kai knows the responses he's supposed to make, the flirtatious-and-yet-innocent tone in which he's supposed to make them.
"Then why not remove the costume too?"
Sometimes Kai's able to stop himself from cringing. When he knows it's safe to do so, he can lock himself away inside his head and watch as someone else moves his limbs, plays the games he's paid to play and pretends to like it. He could like some of it, he thinks, if it were with someone he cared about, but there's never been anyone like that. The customers pay for his body but they have no claim on his heart.
He twists his lips in a smirk, the one that always convinces them that he's worth the money and ready to deliver anything their hearts desire - until the time's up, anyway. At least this one's only paid for an hour, a quickie on his way home from the office. He doesn't look like the kind of guy who'd have what Kai's searching for, but there's no telling what he's hiding under the suit.
There's not much to the Honey Bee costume. The short, flimsy crop top unzips down the front, where eager patrons can "assist", if they so please. This one doesn't; Kai unzips and places the top, wings and all, on a chair in the corner. His customer's sitting on the edge of the enormous bed, fully dressed aside from his shoes. Kai's bright gold sandals are already beneath the chair; his only cover now is the tiny pair of black and yellow shorts and he knows those will have to follow before long.
But the customer doesn't tell him to take them off, only to come sit beside him. Kai knows how this is going to go. Their clothes are designed to be tearable - there are spares in the cupboard if his current attire doesn't survive the session - and while the guy hasn't paid the extra fee to be allowed to damage the Bees, the contract says nothing about their clothing.
A hand starts working its way up Kai's leg, fingers clumsy but gentle, and he allows himself to hope that this one won't be too bad. It's the end of his shift, last customer of the night, and he can go scrub himself all over in the employee baths afterwards to wash it all away.
But first he has work to do.
"Where did you come by these?" The customer's hand has stopped over the scars on Kai's inner thighs. They're as healed as they're going to get unless he wants to fork out for magic, and he's got far better uses for his money, like keeping himself housed and fed. The Honey Bee Inn's medical policy only covers damage acquired while at work, and Kai got these long ago.
"Long story," he says, struggling to keep the pain of his memories from his voice. "You don't want to hear it."
The customer gives him a sad smile and brushes his fingers over the longest of the scars, a broken white crescent; despite himself, Kai flinches. "Beautiful things should be treasured - not disfigured like this. What's your name?"
It's on the door, written on a whiteboard, that Kai's on duty in the Nectar Room today, but no one ever pays attention to names. Faces, sometimes, and other body parts, but no one cares who he is. That helps, because Kai's not entirely certain of the answer himself. But for now, he's telling the truth when he introduces himself as 'Kai'.
"Well, Kai," the customer says, "I like to collect beautiful things. I clean them up and restore their perfection, so that they'll be appreciated forever."
"You're not a taxidermist, are you?" Kai remembers too late that he's supposed to watch his mouth, but he can't always keep himself from blurting out his too honest responses.
"A banker." The customer laughs, thankfully not offended. "Don't worry; I'm not going to take you home and sit you on my mantelpiece. But I think it's a shame to leave you scarred like this when I can help - if you'll let me."
Nobody does anything for free - first lesson Kai ever learned, one that left him with scars no one can see. But it's the physical scars that make him memorable, and if he can get rid of those he thinks it might possibly be worth the risk. "And if I say yes?" he says cautiously, hoping all the guy wants is a little unpaid overtime.
"Sleep with me."
"Isn't that what you paid for?"
"Actual sleep, I mean. I have a room in the hotel across the street - when you're finished here for the night, you'll come spend the rest of it with me."
Kai freezes up. He can sleep anywhere - and has done, on many an occasion - but he tries to be smart about it. A hotel means a public place, a building full of other people. That's...not too bad. He'd still be making himself vulnerable, but he wouldn't be totally isolated, and home would only be a five minute walk away. Unless he's physically incapacitated, he's definitely in better shape than the customer and he's no stranger to defending himself.
"Um...okay. I don't know why you'd want me to, but okay."
He receives a smile in return for his assent, and it's actually the friendlest expression he's seen all day. "Good. I told you, I like beautiful things, that's why. Like these."
The customer shrugs off his jacket, which Kai diligently hangs up for him, then unbuttons his crumpled white shirt. Beneath the shirt is a brown leather vest studded with metal cups, and inside each of these indentations is a different orb of materia. The Magic materia shine luminous green, the Support are smoky blue, the Command are bright yellow and the fiery red ones...those are Summons.
Kai gasps at the collection. It's more materia than he's ever seen in one place before. But are any of them the one he's been searching for? He's too far away to tell.
"Impressive, isn't it? Do you know much about materia, Kai?"
Safest to play dumb. "Not really. I've never owned any."
"Well, this one," the customer points to a green orb on his chest, "is Restore. It contains powerful healing spells that can rebuild your damaged skin for you. Hold still a moment."
Kai's never been healed by magic before. A green glow emanates from the customer's hand, and then a gentle warmth spreads across his thighs, setting his scars afire with the tingling touch of the spell. The rest of him feels warm too, though that's embarrassment at the whole ridiculous situation. He bites down on his lower lip, scarcely breathing as he holds himself still, waiting for the magic to run its course. He can feel scar tissue morphing, smoothing into unmarked flesh, and when he looks down again there's nothing to see but his own tanned skin.
"Yes," the customer murmurs. "You heal up nicely. That's much better." He strokes his hand over the now-healed scars, skimming his fingers just beneath the hem of Kai's minuscule shorts. "I think we'll both enjoy this much more now..."
Enjoyment doesn't really enter into it, though the customer is, at least, considerate enough to ensure that Kai's comfort is taken care of as well as his own, which makes the hour far more pleasant than some he's spent at the Honey Bee Inn. Kai turns his innocent face to his advantage, playing the dumb whore with a fascination for pretty things, and persuades the customer to elaborate on his materia collection. The customer appears to relish the opportunity to talk about them, almost paying more attention to the glowing orbs attached to his vest than to the business for which he's come.
"These are my favourites," he tells Kai during an interlude, when Kai is catching his breath and trying to wipe down his slippery thighs. In hindsight, the proffered healing makes more sense now - he's grateful to have accepted, not keen on the prospect of anyone thrusting against his scars. "My Summons. This one, for instance. If I summon Zitao, I can change the flow of time itself! Can you imagine that kind of power?"
Kai possesses a pretty expansive imagination, which is why he's still here and not dead in a gutter somewhere, a victim of unfortunate circumstances. The customer doesn't need to know that, however, so he merely widens his eyes and lets his mouth gape open. "That's amazing. What are the other ones like?"
He receives a lecture in loving detail on each of the Summons and their - in most cases - spectacular beauty, but just when he starts to think this is a waste of time and this guy's going to be another wash-out, the customer reaches the last Summon on the vest.
"Lu Han," he says. "The elegant swordsman. He doesn't use magic - doesn't need it. Beautiful as the dawn and deadly as one of the Dark Dragons of the North. He's the jewel of my collection."
This is what Kai's been searching for. Lu Han. The swordwielding Summon who shows mercy to none. With a power like that on his side, Kai would never have to be alone and defenseless again. But materia are expensive, Summons more so than most, leaving theft as his only option. He'd heard there were collectors who frequented the Honey Bee Inn - and now, after three of the most humiliating months of his life, he's finally in a position to take Lu Han for his own.
He reaches out to touch the glowing red sphere, but the customer warns him off with a playful wag of the finger. "You'll leave sticky fingerprints."
They're both a mess by the end of the hour, though the materia somehow remain pristine. Kai's sweaty and sticky but that's the worst of it, so he figures he can call it a good end to his shift. He slips out to the employee baths while his customer makes use of the Nectar Room's shower, and they meet again outside the inn, now freshly washed and respectably attired. To his credit, the customer springs for dinner in the hotel's restaurant and drinks afterwards, though Kai merely sips his, not wanting to chance the alcohol.
It's late when they're done downstairs. Kai has nothing to sleep in but that's all right, his host assures him. The room is sufficiently warm that clothes are unnecessary. Although they're both naked in the bed, it seems sleep genuinely is the only thing on the agenda and part of Kai wonders if it's safe to relax, if he can actually let himself fall asleep in this stranger's hotel room.
The rest of him's too busy plotting how to steal Lu Han to care about sleep. The customer's no longer wearing his vest - he'd taken it off before bed, to lock away in the room safe. It's not a particularly up-market hotel, not in the Sector 6 slums, so the safe is more a token lockbox than anything else. Kai keeps his tools in a hidden pocket inside his jacket. If he can extricate himself from his customer, reach his picks, jimmy the lock, prise Lu Han loose, throw on enough clothes that he won't alarm anyone as he leaves, and make it out the door, all without waking the man in the bed, then he's home-free.
One step at a time. Kai's had plenty of experience, both of moving stealthily and of shedding unwanted touches. He can do this. There's an arm draped around his waist; he rolls slowly, naturally, just turning over in bed, nothing suspicious. His companion shifts a little, trying to follow. Kai's too quick for him, slipping free with another roll and then lying still, holding his breath, waiting to see if he moved too much.
No, it's okay. The customer's still asleep. Kai inches himself towards the edge of the mattress, making sure to keep the pressure even as he moves, until he's able to swing his legs over the edge and plant his feet on the floor. He pads across to his pile of clothes, noiselessly pulling on underwear and his shirt so if caught, he can say he felt cold, no cause for alarm. He feels around for his jacket. It has to be here somewhere. The lights of the Wall Market burn all night but there's only so much that makes it through the curtains; he has to tug them open a crack to give himself enough illumination to work by.
He spies his jacket; places it, his trousers and shoes by the door so he can grab them on his way out. There's a dicey moment where he fumbles his roll of tools as he slides them free from their pocket and has to catch them before they hit the floor. He can't afford to make mistakes, keeps telling himself that, but the knowledge does nothing to keep his hands from shaking and his heart from pounding so hard he's surprised the occupants of the room next door haven't come around to complain about the noise.
There, okay, he's got the equipment he needs and everything's fine, everything's cool. He crouches down next to the safe and inserts the tension wrench in the padlock, turning it lightly to the right before probing the keyhole carefully with the pick. He uses it to push up the pins inside, biting his lip with every faint click until all the pins are set and he can turn the wrench to open the lock. The safe's so cheap, he could probably have prised the door off with less effort, but the noise would certainly have woken the customer.
The job's not over yet. Kai sets the lock aside, eases open the door and reaches for the vest. The glow of materia seems muted inside the safe but he knows exactly which slot holds Lu Han. He briefly considers taking the entire thing, but despite the lock picks, he's not a thief, just...looking out for himself. This is all he wants. He uses the small knife in his tool roll to slice the leather around the metal cup - he'll have time to remove the materia from its setting later, after he's left town - and pulls it out whole. The amount of light in the room increases with the materia exposed and he's suddenly very conscious that this is it, there's no turning back now.
An old woman spots him leaving the hotel room in just his shirt and underwear, clutching the rest of his clothing to him, and gives him a sympathetic nod when he hastily finishes dressing in the corridor. He knows what he must look like and he doesn't care. After tonight, it won't matter.
The boarding house where the Bees stay is close by. Kai doesn't have much - has never had much, and wouldn't know what to do with it if he did. He keeps everything near to hand, mostly packed in case he has to leave in a hurry. He's still shaking with adrenaline when he walks out the front door. He needs to be far away by the time the customer wakes up. The customer knows his name, he'll know who robbed him, and the Honey Bee Inn has his picture up on the wall for customers to choose from. He has to run. North to Kalm, maybe. Rich bankers from Midgar might not look to pursue him there.
Or perhaps south to Junon, easily large enough to hide him for the rest of his life. He has to make up his mind, and fast. Every step he takes, he hears imaginary footsteps chasing after him.
So he heads east out of town instead, towards the chocobo farms where he might be able to pick up some transport without having to worry about being arrested. It's night when he hits the first one. Too exhausted to contemplate asking the farmer for shelter - that would involve talking, and he's not sure he can muster up the words - he seeks refuge in the stables, finding an empty stall where he can collapse in peace without the chocobos crying "Wark!" at him. It's hardly the most comfortable of resting places; nevertheless, he's not spoiled for choice. He leans against the stable wall, using his bag as a pillow, and takes out his prize.
The materia has worked itself free on the journey; the metal casing lies useless in Kai's bag and he casts it aside. He has a home for Lu Han, though - the only memento he has from his family, a pair of leather and mythril gauntlets, both with twin materia slots. The others are empty. He sets Lu Han in the upper left slot, exhaling in noisy relief when the glowing red orb clicks into place.
"Found you at last," he whispers. "Lu Han."
The background chatter of the chocobos suddenly ceases, the air turning cold and still, and within a moment, Kai's no longer alone in the stall. He looks up at a young, dark blond man in shining armour, carrying a curved blue scimitar, and smiling like he could bring about the end of the world with a single flick of his wrist. Perhaps he can. Kai curses himself inwardly for being so stupid. Of course if you say the name of a Summon, when you possess its materia, the Summon will appear. He feels like a complete novice.
Ignoring Lu Han completely, he drops his face to his hands, wincing to himself because now he's summoned this powerful swordsman for no reason whatsoever. He's probably going to be responsible for the death of a stable of innocent chocobos.
"Hey." That's not the voice of a violent, merciless killer. Kai peeks up through his fingers just in time to have Lu Han crouch down and tug them away from his face with gloved hands. Lu Han's smile has softened to something that might almost be considered friendly. "After all the trouble I took to be yours, don't I get to see your face?"
"M-mine?" Kai stammers. There's a Summon talking to him and holding his hands, and he has no idea what to say.
"Yours," Lu Han says. "I chose you, and now I'm yours to summon." His tone suggests that the situation is, in fact, the other way around, but Kai opts to take his words at face value if only because that's how Summon materia works.
"But how could you choose me? You're...you're not..."
"Not a person? But I am. We all are. Some of us just operate differently." Lu Han tucks his legs beneath him on the stable floor, seemingly unhindered by his armour. "Some of us persuade our masters to go to certain places, where they might meet certain people, with certain skillsets..."
It should worry Kai that Lu Han's admitting to manipulation on such a scale, because what's to stop him doing the same thing with Kai, the next time he wants to move on? Kai can't easily protect himself from a blade.
Lu Han catches him looking nervously at the scimitar. "I can't turn this against my master but there are...other ways." Kai gulps; Lu Han grins widely at him, like they're old friends who know each other's secrets. "You're safe with me. Don't look so worried."
Kai tries to return Lu Han's smile. This is what he wants, no matter whether he orchestrated it himself or not. "But...how do you know me?"
"I've always known you." Lu Han is annoyingly cryptic, Kai thinks. "Even before you were you. I just didn't find you until I saw you at the Honey Bee Inn."
"You saw me there?" Kai's mortified. Leaving Midgar was supposed to get him away from anyone who knew he'd spent the last three months working in a Bee costume.
"I go there for fun sometimes - I don't have much to do when my master doesn't fight. You're a fighter, aren't you? You're a survivor."
"I survived working there," Kai says. "Looking for you."
"And now you've found me - isn't that lucky?"
"Luck's got nothing to do with it, has it?"
"Now you're getting the idea." Lu Han finally releases Kai's hands; Kai doesn't know what to do with them so he crosses them over his ankles. "I get what I want, you get what you want - it all works out in the end. Does it matter how we got here?"
"I want protection," Kai says slowly. "The power to keep myself safe. Your power. But what do you want?"
"Exactly what I've got."
Try as he might, Kai can't elicit clearer answers from Lu Han, who laughs - not unkindly - at his attempts. He hasn't slept since the night before last and he's long-since reached the end of his energy reserves. He has no strength left to figure out the motives of this beautiful, devious swordsman who vows to protect him.
"I can't always be there," Lu Han warns. "Saying my name doesn't guarantee I'll show up. I need to rest too, and if you call on me too often I might not be able to answer. But I'll gain strength from being with you," he runs a hand over the gauntlet where his materia resides, "and while you wear this, there's something else I can do for you."
Too confused and exhausted to protest, Kai dons the gauntlets at Lu Han's behest and gathers up his bag.
"Where do you want to go?" Lu Han asks him.
Kai says the first place that springs to mind. "Kalm."
Without warning, Lu Han disappears. Kai looks about him in a daze, but the Summon is no longer in the stall. "Where did you go?"
"I'm still with you." Lu Han's voice sounds in his mind, calm and reassuring. "You can carry me like this." The materia in Kai's gauntlet flashes as Lu Han speaks. "Now imagine yourself in Kalm."
"I've never been there." Kai speaks aloud, uncertain whether or not he can make his replies in the same fashion. "I don't know where to go."
"I do."
There's a beige and brown building behind Kai's eyes and he didn't put it there. It's an inn, depicted in hazy detail but enough for him to gain a vague understanding of the lay of the land.
"You see that?" Lu Han says. "Picture yourself there, standing by the door. I'll take care of the rest."
Kai thinks he's crazy but plays along anyway, since it would hardly be the strangest thing he's ever been asked to do in his life. He tries to imagine himself reaching for the door, about to push his way inside...
...And then he's there, standing by the inn, exposed to the cool night breeze with one hand on the door. Kai's so shocked he almost drops his bag. There's nobody around to see his unexpected appearance except a stray cat, which leaps off a nearby bin and flees across the street. Everyone else is inside, asleep, which is where he desperately wants to be.
He enters the inn, startling the night clerk out of a doze to book himself a room. There's still more than half the night left - time enough for him to rest and recover his energy. The clerk slaps a keycard into his hand without even looking at his face.
It's not much of a room - Kalm's not much of a town - but it beats a stall in a chocobo stable. The bed could be made of granite and Kai would still throw himself down upon it with gratitude. He barely takes the time to shed his clothes first.
He feels silly leaving the gauntlets on - the mythril makes them uncomfortable to sleep in - but without them, Lu Han's voice disappears from his mind and teleportation is nothing but a fantasy. He'd be alone again. Part of him argues that he's always alone, that a Summon isn't the same as having someone else there, but Lu Han seems determined to prove him wrong on that score.
"Sleep," Lu Han murmurs inside his mind. "You're safe with me, Master."
The way Lu Han says 'Master' makes it only too clear that Kai is anything but, but he's too tired to care.
-----
Kai doesn't stay long in Kalm. The village is too small, too nosy for his liking, and the residents are curious about what this shy, secretive young man is doing amongst them. He has no job and no friends, and without the one he soon realises he has little prospect of acquiring the other. There's not enough life here for him to become a part of it.
So he heads south on a rented chocobo, promising to drop it off at the Junon branch of the rental company. Neither he nor Lu Han have ever been to Junon, so teleporting is out. Although something with an engine would undoubtedly be more comfortable, his funds are limited and chocobos are the more economic choice.
They're also incredibly troublesome, prone to running off at the slightest provocation. Kai has to be careful to tether his borrowed beast before taking a break to stretch his legs, lest some rodent pop out of the grass and send it fleeing.
It's just as well that he does. Before he gets anywhere near Junon, he's set upon by a quintet of Kalm Fangs. The purple wolves snarl at him, baring their fangs, and Kai wishes he had a weapon other than his body. Hand-to-hand combat with creatures that will tear through his flesh with their teeth doesn't seem like a sensible idea. One hurls itself at him; Kai dodges, lashing out with a roundhouse kick that sends the monster crashing into the trees. Another races forwards, fangs bared, and that's when there's a crash of armour.
"Zantetsuken!" Lu Han yells, and Kai can only watch in amazement as his Summon's scimitar makes mincemeat of all five Kalm Fangs. There's a bloody pile of bones and fur when Lu Han's done. He wipes his blade on a scrap of purple fur and turns to Kai.
Kai's torn between staring at the remains of the wolves, and mentally replaying Lu Han's actions. For someone wearing armour he's astonishingly light on his feet, and quiet when he wants to be. "I...I didn't call you."
"No, you didn't." Lu Han pats his fluffy blond hair back down into place, like he's just been working out at the gym and not killed five monsters in as many seconds. "Why didn't you call me? I told you, I'll protect you."
"I didn't think...um...I don't want to be the kind of person who needs protecting," Kai tries to explain. "You're my back-up option. I have to try for myself first, or I won't be any good to anyone - especially me."
"And if you let yourself get killed, you won't be any good to me, either," Lu Han points out. "I can't carry my own materia; it's one of the limitations of being a Summon."
"So you're just...going to keep popping out to save me, whether I need it or not?"
"You needed it this time, trust me. But," Lu Han gives him a warm smile and Kai can feel his annoyance melting away, "I'll only come out if I think you're in real trouble, okay?" He holds out a gloved hand.
Kai shakes it. "Okay."
Lu Han keeps his word; Kai easily fends off a pair of Levikrons that try to peck him to death, and a couple of human bandits who think he looks like an easy mark. Mostly, his chocobo outruns trouble before it reaches him, and he makes it to Junon with little more than a few bruises. The chocobo, he hands over to the agency in the old village, then teleports to the upper city with some help from pictures in a travel brochure. Even if he'd wanted to, he couldn't have taken the chocobo with - teleportation, Lu Han tells him, only works on him and any inanimate objects he happens to be carrying. One lifeform only.
It's frustrating, Kai thinks, that Lu Han will tell him practical things like that, but completely ignores the questions he really wants answered. Lu Han knows things, that much is clear. About Kai, about who he is - or was, once. And about why Lu Han chose him. He'd sleep easier if he were sure.
Unanswered questions aren't all that disturb his sleep. Kai takes a room in Junon, somewhere cheap and anonymous where the owner says his brother-in-law could use some manual labour on a temporary basis - nothing shady, just unloading ships at the port for a fortnight or so while one of his regulars heals up. It's not what he's here to do, but it's cash and it's a start, gives him time to get his bearings and see what his options are.
After his first day on the job he's tired and aching, though the soreness in his muscles feels good, given the source. It's better than working at the Honey Bee Inn, that's for sure. He can't say he misses his last job, and he's certain they don't miss him. Now he can lie down on his bed in peace and not have to worry about covering up blemishes so the customers won't notice, or whether or not that guy who kept trying to talk the managers into letting him keep Kai for the weekend will finally succeed.
It's a hot night; Kai strips down to a tank top and shorts and sprawls flat out on the mattress, his gauntlets resting on the flimsy wooden table beside the bed, within easy reach. He hasn't spoken to Lu Han today, and when he's not wearing the gauntlets, he doesn't hear him in his mind, either. Lu Han refuses to say whether or not he can read Kai's thoughts; Kai hopes the Summon is simply messing with him and has no idea what's going on in his head.
Especially because at the moment, it's a non-stop loop of Lu Han in action. Kai's a dancer - started learning ballet and jazz as a kid, grew up absorbing anything anyone would teach him. He knows grace. Lu Han has it, moves in his armour as though it's an extension of his body and he can will it to behave as he likes. His blade is the same, dancing through air and flesh alike. Can anything withstand the power of Lu Han's attacks? Kai's not sure.
Lu Han's battles are a deadly dream of death and dance, metal gleaming under the hazy red veil that's spreading across the sky. He wields his sword for Kai's sake now. It's the most anyone's ever done for him and he watches with a mix of pride and admiration...and, as reluctant as he is to admit it to himself, lust. Lu Han is beautiful in battle, but the smile he gives Kai afterwards is better still, and Kai loves those moments.
Perhaps a little too much. The mental image has him slipping a hand beneath his shorts, touching himself in a way he'd lost interest in during his stint as a Bee. It's different when he has to do it because a customer commands him to, and he's never been comfortable making himself that vulnerable to someone else. That's usually when he lets his mind slip away, to safe places he only half-remembers.
He doesn't have to do that now. He can take his time, not have to worry about what's to follow. Kai takes a deep breath and lets his body go limp, all save the part he's now stroking to full hardness, while he pictures Lu Han's sweet, impish face behind his closed eyes. There's gentleness beneath the killer's armour, and Kai fantasises about making Lu Han smile at him with something other than a pile of corpses to blame.
It's useless, of course. Lu Han's a Summon. He's sentient, all right, but he's not...he's not like Kai. There's nothing wrong with a little harmless fantasy, but it can't happen for real.
"It can't?" Lu Han sounds disappointed as he perches on the edge of the bed. His armour's nowhere to be seen.
Kai panics, scrabbling for the blanket to cover himself and hoping he's imagining things. Lu Han's timing. "I...uh...this is..."
"Don't be embarrassed." Lu Han tugs the blanket away. "I told you, I used to go to the Honey Bee Inn, and places like it."
"Isn't it...weird?" Kai asks shyly. He can feel himself blushing, but he's still curious. "Being with humans like that?"
"Not at all." Lu Han sidles closer, nudges down the shorts enough to place one hand on Kai's bare hip. "Would you like to see for yourself?"
Lu Han's not wearing his gloves - not wearing anything, in fact - and Kai's only too conscious that this is the first time Lu Han's touched him skin to skin. It feels...nice, not like the customers at the Honey Bee Inn. Soothing, almost, or it would be if Kai weren't so embarrassed at being caught like this. It's worse that Lu Han knows what Kai's thinking about, why he's the hardest he's been in months.
Worst of all, Lu Han's offering to do something about it. Or perhaps that's the best. Kai's too wound up to tell, too close to the edge to think rationally.
Lu Han's far more patient in the bedroom than he is on the field, waiting calmly for Kai to stop chasing thoughts around his head and make up his mind. He crawls closer, lying down on the mattress so they curl together, one seductive Summon and his mixed-up master, sharing the hot night air between them. Kai's terrified to say yes, and at the same time terrified to say no, in case Lu Han never offers again.
"I could call you 'Master', if that helps," Lu Han suggests. "Some guys like that."
"You could try calling me 'Kai'?"
"I could," Lu Han grins, "but that's not your name. You'll find out for yourself, eventually."
Kai groans in frustration, giving Lu Han the best icy glare he can muster in the hopes of changing his mind. Lu Han laughs at him.
"There are others who have to find themselves first. Your turn will come. And then..."
When Lu Han leaves a sentence hanging like that, Kai knows it's pointless trying to get answers out of him. Fine. At least there's some measure of satisfaction he can get from tonight, even if it's given his dignity a bruising. He edges forwards, leaning his head against Lu Han's shoulder. It's enough of an answer. Lu Han might show no mercy in battle, but he's tender when Kai needs him to be, hands far gentler on flesh than on metal and a welcome change from customers. This is the first time Kai can remember being with someone he wants in return, with someone who didn't pay for it one way or another, with someone who has a better idea of what he wants than he does himself and tries to give him that.
Kai doesn't have to send his mind away, doesn't have to pretend he's anywhere else but here, not when here is the safest place he could possibly be.
Fandom: EXO (sort of fused with Final Fantasy VII)
Series: Phoenix Down (#1)
Pairing: Lu Han/Kai (and vague references to OMC/Kai)
Rating: R, to be safe
Genre: AU, crossover (sort of)
Word count: 6,315
Disclaimer: Not mine, damnit
Warnings: Prostitution, dub-con sleeping, video game logic
Summary: Working at the Honey Bee Inn finally pays off for Kai when his latest customer turns out to be a materia collector.
A/N: For reasons that do not need exploring at this juncture, I thought it would be a fun idea to write a fic crossing EXO's MAMA PV with Final Fantasy VII, with all the crack that entails. This is actually the prequel to that fic and therefore more limited in scope. Lu Han is loosely based on FFVII's Odin, but has one particular characteristic I swiped from the FFVIII version. Why am I using Jongin's stage name throughout the fic? You'll see.
For hc_bingo square 'theft'. Crossposted to AO3
Sweet as Honey, Sharp as a Sword
Kai sighs as he squirms to adjust the gaudy, translucent wings fastened to his shoulders. Thank goodness he's so flexible - though here, that just seems like an excuse for them to charge more for him. It's not as if it makes any difference to his wages. The only times he gets any extra are when he gets called in as entertainment, as the dancer he'd originally trained to be, and if he's really lucky, the happy couple (or more or less) think to stuff gil inside his tight, yellow and black costume before they send him away. If he's unlucky, they tell him to join in, but that's life at the Honey Bee Inn.
They're all dressed like bees here - all the staff who earn their keep on their backs, or their knees, or however the customers want them, for as long as they want them, provided they can pay. Everyone else wears a suit: the managers, the bouncers, the customers with their fancy membership cards. Kai's not management material and when he applied to be a bouncer, they told him to come back when he'd bulked out enough to look dangerous. Then they laughed and suggested that if he needed the money that badly, his pretty face would be a welcome addition to the Honey Bee ranks.
He's not here for the money, though he could certainly use it. All the Bees stay in the same cheap boarding house, but cheap isn't the same as free and Kai only gets his meals for nothing when he's actually at work. Which, to be fair, is most of the time, because the sooner he finds what he's looking for, the sooner he can leave and never come back, maybe even get out of Midgar and start all over again in some other town - a town where nobody knows him, or what he's had to do to survive in the slums.
"Don't they get in the way?" the customer asks. He had a name when he walked in, but Kai doesn't care to remember names. All the customers are the same, anyway. "The wings, I mean. Wouldn't you be more comfortable if you took them off?"
"They're attached to the costume," Kai says, trying not to snap at the frustration of having to play the same game over and over again. The customer, a balding, middle-aged man with a barrel chest and long, curious fingers, is leading him by the nose, and Kai knows the responses he's supposed to make, the flirtatious-and-yet-innocent tone in which he's supposed to make them.
"Then why not remove the costume too?"
Sometimes Kai's able to stop himself from cringing. When he knows it's safe to do so, he can lock himself away inside his head and watch as someone else moves his limbs, plays the games he's paid to play and pretends to like it. He could like some of it, he thinks, if it were with someone he cared about, but there's never been anyone like that. The customers pay for his body but they have no claim on his heart.
He twists his lips in a smirk, the one that always convinces them that he's worth the money and ready to deliver anything their hearts desire - until the time's up, anyway. At least this one's only paid for an hour, a quickie on his way home from the office. He doesn't look like the kind of guy who'd have what Kai's searching for, but there's no telling what he's hiding under the suit.
There's not much to the Honey Bee costume. The short, flimsy crop top unzips down the front, where eager patrons can "assist", if they so please. This one doesn't; Kai unzips and places the top, wings and all, on a chair in the corner. His customer's sitting on the edge of the enormous bed, fully dressed aside from his shoes. Kai's bright gold sandals are already beneath the chair; his only cover now is the tiny pair of black and yellow shorts and he knows those will have to follow before long.
But the customer doesn't tell him to take them off, only to come sit beside him. Kai knows how this is going to go. Their clothes are designed to be tearable - there are spares in the cupboard if his current attire doesn't survive the session - and while the guy hasn't paid the extra fee to be allowed to damage the Bees, the contract says nothing about their clothing.
A hand starts working its way up Kai's leg, fingers clumsy but gentle, and he allows himself to hope that this one won't be too bad. It's the end of his shift, last customer of the night, and he can go scrub himself all over in the employee baths afterwards to wash it all away.
But first he has work to do.
"Where did you come by these?" The customer's hand has stopped over the scars on Kai's inner thighs. They're as healed as they're going to get unless he wants to fork out for magic, and he's got far better uses for his money, like keeping himself housed and fed. The Honey Bee Inn's medical policy only covers damage acquired while at work, and Kai got these long ago.
"Long story," he says, struggling to keep the pain of his memories from his voice. "You don't want to hear it."
The customer gives him a sad smile and brushes his fingers over the longest of the scars, a broken white crescent; despite himself, Kai flinches. "Beautiful things should be treasured - not disfigured like this. What's your name?"
It's on the door, written on a whiteboard, that Kai's on duty in the Nectar Room today, but no one ever pays attention to names. Faces, sometimes, and other body parts, but no one cares who he is. That helps, because Kai's not entirely certain of the answer himself. But for now, he's telling the truth when he introduces himself as 'Kai'.
"Well, Kai," the customer says, "I like to collect beautiful things. I clean them up and restore their perfection, so that they'll be appreciated forever."
"You're not a taxidermist, are you?" Kai remembers too late that he's supposed to watch his mouth, but he can't always keep himself from blurting out his too honest responses.
"A banker." The customer laughs, thankfully not offended. "Don't worry; I'm not going to take you home and sit you on my mantelpiece. But I think it's a shame to leave you scarred like this when I can help - if you'll let me."
Nobody does anything for free - first lesson Kai ever learned, one that left him with scars no one can see. But it's the physical scars that make him memorable, and if he can get rid of those he thinks it might possibly be worth the risk. "And if I say yes?" he says cautiously, hoping all the guy wants is a little unpaid overtime.
"Sleep with me."
"Isn't that what you paid for?"
"Actual sleep, I mean. I have a room in the hotel across the street - when you're finished here for the night, you'll come spend the rest of it with me."
Kai freezes up. He can sleep anywhere - and has done, on many an occasion - but he tries to be smart about it. A hotel means a public place, a building full of other people. That's...not too bad. He'd still be making himself vulnerable, but he wouldn't be totally isolated, and home would only be a five minute walk away. Unless he's physically incapacitated, he's definitely in better shape than the customer and he's no stranger to defending himself.
"Um...okay. I don't know why you'd want me to, but okay."
He receives a smile in return for his assent, and it's actually the friendlest expression he's seen all day. "Good. I told you, I like beautiful things, that's why. Like these."
The customer shrugs off his jacket, which Kai diligently hangs up for him, then unbuttons his crumpled white shirt. Beneath the shirt is a brown leather vest studded with metal cups, and inside each of these indentations is a different orb of materia. The Magic materia shine luminous green, the Support are smoky blue, the Command are bright yellow and the fiery red ones...those are Summons.
Kai gasps at the collection. It's more materia than he's ever seen in one place before. But are any of them the one he's been searching for? He's too far away to tell.
"Impressive, isn't it? Do you know much about materia, Kai?"
Safest to play dumb. "Not really. I've never owned any."
"Well, this one," the customer points to a green orb on his chest, "is Restore. It contains powerful healing spells that can rebuild your damaged skin for you. Hold still a moment."
Kai's never been healed by magic before. A green glow emanates from the customer's hand, and then a gentle warmth spreads across his thighs, setting his scars afire with the tingling touch of the spell. The rest of him feels warm too, though that's embarrassment at the whole ridiculous situation. He bites down on his lower lip, scarcely breathing as he holds himself still, waiting for the magic to run its course. He can feel scar tissue morphing, smoothing into unmarked flesh, and when he looks down again there's nothing to see but his own tanned skin.
"Yes," the customer murmurs. "You heal up nicely. That's much better." He strokes his hand over the now-healed scars, skimming his fingers just beneath the hem of Kai's minuscule shorts. "I think we'll both enjoy this much more now..."
Enjoyment doesn't really enter into it, though the customer is, at least, considerate enough to ensure that Kai's comfort is taken care of as well as his own, which makes the hour far more pleasant than some he's spent at the Honey Bee Inn. Kai turns his innocent face to his advantage, playing the dumb whore with a fascination for pretty things, and persuades the customer to elaborate on his materia collection. The customer appears to relish the opportunity to talk about them, almost paying more attention to the glowing orbs attached to his vest than to the business for which he's come.
"These are my favourites," he tells Kai during an interlude, when Kai is catching his breath and trying to wipe down his slippery thighs. In hindsight, the proffered healing makes more sense now - he's grateful to have accepted, not keen on the prospect of anyone thrusting against his scars. "My Summons. This one, for instance. If I summon Zitao, I can change the flow of time itself! Can you imagine that kind of power?"
Kai possesses a pretty expansive imagination, which is why he's still here and not dead in a gutter somewhere, a victim of unfortunate circumstances. The customer doesn't need to know that, however, so he merely widens his eyes and lets his mouth gape open. "That's amazing. What are the other ones like?"
He receives a lecture in loving detail on each of the Summons and their - in most cases - spectacular beauty, but just when he starts to think this is a waste of time and this guy's going to be another wash-out, the customer reaches the last Summon on the vest.
"Lu Han," he says. "The elegant swordsman. He doesn't use magic - doesn't need it. Beautiful as the dawn and deadly as one of the Dark Dragons of the North. He's the jewel of my collection."
This is what Kai's been searching for. Lu Han. The swordwielding Summon who shows mercy to none. With a power like that on his side, Kai would never have to be alone and defenseless again. But materia are expensive, Summons more so than most, leaving theft as his only option. He'd heard there were collectors who frequented the Honey Bee Inn - and now, after three of the most humiliating months of his life, he's finally in a position to take Lu Han for his own.
He reaches out to touch the glowing red sphere, but the customer warns him off with a playful wag of the finger. "You'll leave sticky fingerprints."
They're both a mess by the end of the hour, though the materia somehow remain pristine. Kai's sweaty and sticky but that's the worst of it, so he figures he can call it a good end to his shift. He slips out to the employee baths while his customer makes use of the Nectar Room's shower, and they meet again outside the inn, now freshly washed and respectably attired. To his credit, the customer springs for dinner in the hotel's restaurant and drinks afterwards, though Kai merely sips his, not wanting to chance the alcohol.
It's late when they're done downstairs. Kai has nothing to sleep in but that's all right, his host assures him. The room is sufficiently warm that clothes are unnecessary. Although they're both naked in the bed, it seems sleep genuinely is the only thing on the agenda and part of Kai wonders if it's safe to relax, if he can actually let himself fall asleep in this stranger's hotel room.
The rest of him's too busy plotting how to steal Lu Han to care about sleep. The customer's no longer wearing his vest - he'd taken it off before bed, to lock away in the room safe. It's not a particularly up-market hotel, not in the Sector 6 slums, so the safe is more a token lockbox than anything else. Kai keeps his tools in a hidden pocket inside his jacket. If he can extricate himself from his customer, reach his picks, jimmy the lock, prise Lu Han loose, throw on enough clothes that he won't alarm anyone as he leaves, and make it out the door, all without waking the man in the bed, then he's home-free.
One step at a time. Kai's had plenty of experience, both of moving stealthily and of shedding unwanted touches. He can do this. There's an arm draped around his waist; he rolls slowly, naturally, just turning over in bed, nothing suspicious. His companion shifts a little, trying to follow. Kai's too quick for him, slipping free with another roll and then lying still, holding his breath, waiting to see if he moved too much.
No, it's okay. The customer's still asleep. Kai inches himself towards the edge of the mattress, making sure to keep the pressure even as he moves, until he's able to swing his legs over the edge and plant his feet on the floor. He pads across to his pile of clothes, noiselessly pulling on underwear and his shirt so if caught, he can say he felt cold, no cause for alarm. He feels around for his jacket. It has to be here somewhere. The lights of the Wall Market burn all night but there's only so much that makes it through the curtains; he has to tug them open a crack to give himself enough illumination to work by.
He spies his jacket; places it, his trousers and shoes by the door so he can grab them on his way out. There's a dicey moment where he fumbles his roll of tools as he slides them free from their pocket and has to catch them before they hit the floor. He can't afford to make mistakes, keeps telling himself that, but the knowledge does nothing to keep his hands from shaking and his heart from pounding so hard he's surprised the occupants of the room next door haven't come around to complain about the noise.
There, okay, he's got the equipment he needs and everything's fine, everything's cool. He crouches down next to the safe and inserts the tension wrench in the padlock, turning it lightly to the right before probing the keyhole carefully with the pick. He uses it to push up the pins inside, biting his lip with every faint click until all the pins are set and he can turn the wrench to open the lock. The safe's so cheap, he could probably have prised the door off with less effort, but the noise would certainly have woken the customer.
The job's not over yet. Kai sets the lock aside, eases open the door and reaches for the vest. The glow of materia seems muted inside the safe but he knows exactly which slot holds Lu Han. He briefly considers taking the entire thing, but despite the lock picks, he's not a thief, just...looking out for himself. This is all he wants. He uses the small knife in his tool roll to slice the leather around the metal cup - he'll have time to remove the materia from its setting later, after he's left town - and pulls it out whole. The amount of light in the room increases with the materia exposed and he's suddenly very conscious that this is it, there's no turning back now.
An old woman spots him leaving the hotel room in just his shirt and underwear, clutching the rest of his clothing to him, and gives him a sympathetic nod when he hastily finishes dressing in the corridor. He knows what he must look like and he doesn't care. After tonight, it won't matter.
The boarding house where the Bees stay is close by. Kai doesn't have much - has never had much, and wouldn't know what to do with it if he did. He keeps everything near to hand, mostly packed in case he has to leave in a hurry. He's still shaking with adrenaline when he walks out the front door. He needs to be far away by the time the customer wakes up. The customer knows his name, he'll know who robbed him, and the Honey Bee Inn has his picture up on the wall for customers to choose from. He has to run. North to Kalm, maybe. Rich bankers from Midgar might not look to pursue him there.
Or perhaps south to Junon, easily large enough to hide him for the rest of his life. He has to make up his mind, and fast. Every step he takes, he hears imaginary footsteps chasing after him.
So he heads east out of town instead, towards the chocobo farms where he might be able to pick up some transport without having to worry about being arrested. It's night when he hits the first one. Too exhausted to contemplate asking the farmer for shelter - that would involve talking, and he's not sure he can muster up the words - he seeks refuge in the stables, finding an empty stall where he can collapse in peace without the chocobos crying "Wark!" at him. It's hardly the most comfortable of resting places; nevertheless, he's not spoiled for choice. He leans against the stable wall, using his bag as a pillow, and takes out his prize.
The materia has worked itself free on the journey; the metal casing lies useless in Kai's bag and he casts it aside. He has a home for Lu Han, though - the only memento he has from his family, a pair of leather and mythril gauntlets, both with twin materia slots. The others are empty. He sets Lu Han in the upper left slot, exhaling in noisy relief when the glowing red orb clicks into place.
"Found you at last," he whispers. "Lu Han."
The background chatter of the chocobos suddenly ceases, the air turning cold and still, and within a moment, Kai's no longer alone in the stall. He looks up at a young, dark blond man in shining armour, carrying a curved blue scimitar, and smiling like he could bring about the end of the world with a single flick of his wrist. Perhaps he can. Kai curses himself inwardly for being so stupid. Of course if you say the name of a Summon, when you possess its materia, the Summon will appear. He feels like a complete novice.
Ignoring Lu Han completely, he drops his face to his hands, wincing to himself because now he's summoned this powerful swordsman for no reason whatsoever. He's probably going to be responsible for the death of a stable of innocent chocobos.
"Hey." That's not the voice of a violent, merciless killer. Kai peeks up through his fingers just in time to have Lu Han crouch down and tug them away from his face with gloved hands. Lu Han's smile has softened to something that might almost be considered friendly. "After all the trouble I took to be yours, don't I get to see your face?"
"M-mine?" Kai stammers. There's a Summon talking to him and holding his hands, and he has no idea what to say.
"Yours," Lu Han says. "I chose you, and now I'm yours to summon." His tone suggests that the situation is, in fact, the other way around, but Kai opts to take his words at face value if only because that's how Summon materia works.
"But how could you choose me? You're...you're not..."
"Not a person? But I am. We all are. Some of us just operate differently." Lu Han tucks his legs beneath him on the stable floor, seemingly unhindered by his armour. "Some of us persuade our masters to go to certain places, where they might meet certain people, with certain skillsets..."
It should worry Kai that Lu Han's admitting to manipulation on such a scale, because what's to stop him doing the same thing with Kai, the next time he wants to move on? Kai can't easily protect himself from a blade.
Lu Han catches him looking nervously at the scimitar. "I can't turn this against my master but there are...other ways." Kai gulps; Lu Han grins widely at him, like they're old friends who know each other's secrets. "You're safe with me. Don't look so worried."
Kai tries to return Lu Han's smile. This is what he wants, no matter whether he orchestrated it himself or not. "But...how do you know me?"
"I've always known you." Lu Han is annoyingly cryptic, Kai thinks. "Even before you were you. I just didn't find you until I saw you at the Honey Bee Inn."
"You saw me there?" Kai's mortified. Leaving Midgar was supposed to get him away from anyone who knew he'd spent the last three months working in a Bee costume.
"I go there for fun sometimes - I don't have much to do when my master doesn't fight. You're a fighter, aren't you? You're a survivor."
"I survived working there," Kai says. "Looking for you."
"And now you've found me - isn't that lucky?"
"Luck's got nothing to do with it, has it?"
"Now you're getting the idea." Lu Han finally releases Kai's hands; Kai doesn't know what to do with them so he crosses them over his ankles. "I get what I want, you get what you want - it all works out in the end. Does it matter how we got here?"
"I want protection," Kai says slowly. "The power to keep myself safe. Your power. But what do you want?"
"Exactly what I've got."
Try as he might, Kai can't elicit clearer answers from Lu Han, who laughs - not unkindly - at his attempts. He hasn't slept since the night before last and he's long-since reached the end of his energy reserves. He has no strength left to figure out the motives of this beautiful, devious swordsman who vows to protect him.
"I can't always be there," Lu Han warns. "Saying my name doesn't guarantee I'll show up. I need to rest too, and if you call on me too often I might not be able to answer. But I'll gain strength from being with you," he runs a hand over the gauntlet where his materia resides, "and while you wear this, there's something else I can do for you."
Too confused and exhausted to protest, Kai dons the gauntlets at Lu Han's behest and gathers up his bag.
"Where do you want to go?" Lu Han asks him.
Kai says the first place that springs to mind. "Kalm."
Without warning, Lu Han disappears. Kai looks about him in a daze, but the Summon is no longer in the stall. "Where did you go?"
"I'm still with you." Lu Han's voice sounds in his mind, calm and reassuring. "You can carry me like this." The materia in Kai's gauntlet flashes as Lu Han speaks. "Now imagine yourself in Kalm."
"I've never been there." Kai speaks aloud, uncertain whether or not he can make his replies in the same fashion. "I don't know where to go."
"I do."
There's a beige and brown building behind Kai's eyes and he didn't put it there. It's an inn, depicted in hazy detail but enough for him to gain a vague understanding of the lay of the land.
"You see that?" Lu Han says. "Picture yourself there, standing by the door. I'll take care of the rest."
Kai thinks he's crazy but plays along anyway, since it would hardly be the strangest thing he's ever been asked to do in his life. He tries to imagine himself reaching for the door, about to push his way inside...
...And then he's there, standing by the inn, exposed to the cool night breeze with one hand on the door. Kai's so shocked he almost drops his bag. There's nobody around to see his unexpected appearance except a stray cat, which leaps off a nearby bin and flees across the street. Everyone else is inside, asleep, which is where he desperately wants to be.
He enters the inn, startling the night clerk out of a doze to book himself a room. There's still more than half the night left - time enough for him to rest and recover his energy. The clerk slaps a keycard into his hand without even looking at his face.
It's not much of a room - Kalm's not much of a town - but it beats a stall in a chocobo stable. The bed could be made of granite and Kai would still throw himself down upon it with gratitude. He barely takes the time to shed his clothes first.
He feels silly leaving the gauntlets on - the mythril makes them uncomfortable to sleep in - but without them, Lu Han's voice disappears from his mind and teleportation is nothing but a fantasy. He'd be alone again. Part of him argues that he's always alone, that a Summon isn't the same as having someone else there, but Lu Han seems determined to prove him wrong on that score.
"Sleep," Lu Han murmurs inside his mind. "You're safe with me, Master."
The way Lu Han says 'Master' makes it only too clear that Kai is anything but, but he's too tired to care.
-----
Kai doesn't stay long in Kalm. The village is too small, too nosy for his liking, and the residents are curious about what this shy, secretive young man is doing amongst them. He has no job and no friends, and without the one he soon realises he has little prospect of acquiring the other. There's not enough life here for him to become a part of it.
So he heads south on a rented chocobo, promising to drop it off at the Junon branch of the rental company. Neither he nor Lu Han have ever been to Junon, so teleporting is out. Although something with an engine would undoubtedly be more comfortable, his funds are limited and chocobos are the more economic choice.
They're also incredibly troublesome, prone to running off at the slightest provocation. Kai has to be careful to tether his borrowed beast before taking a break to stretch his legs, lest some rodent pop out of the grass and send it fleeing.
It's just as well that he does. Before he gets anywhere near Junon, he's set upon by a quintet of Kalm Fangs. The purple wolves snarl at him, baring their fangs, and Kai wishes he had a weapon other than his body. Hand-to-hand combat with creatures that will tear through his flesh with their teeth doesn't seem like a sensible idea. One hurls itself at him; Kai dodges, lashing out with a roundhouse kick that sends the monster crashing into the trees. Another races forwards, fangs bared, and that's when there's a crash of armour.
"Zantetsuken!" Lu Han yells, and Kai can only watch in amazement as his Summon's scimitar makes mincemeat of all five Kalm Fangs. There's a bloody pile of bones and fur when Lu Han's done. He wipes his blade on a scrap of purple fur and turns to Kai.
Kai's torn between staring at the remains of the wolves, and mentally replaying Lu Han's actions. For someone wearing armour he's astonishingly light on his feet, and quiet when he wants to be. "I...I didn't call you."
"No, you didn't." Lu Han pats his fluffy blond hair back down into place, like he's just been working out at the gym and not killed five monsters in as many seconds. "Why didn't you call me? I told you, I'll protect you."
"I didn't think...um...I don't want to be the kind of person who needs protecting," Kai tries to explain. "You're my back-up option. I have to try for myself first, or I won't be any good to anyone - especially me."
"And if you let yourself get killed, you won't be any good to me, either," Lu Han points out. "I can't carry my own materia; it's one of the limitations of being a Summon."
"So you're just...going to keep popping out to save me, whether I need it or not?"
"You needed it this time, trust me. But," Lu Han gives him a warm smile and Kai can feel his annoyance melting away, "I'll only come out if I think you're in real trouble, okay?" He holds out a gloved hand.
Kai shakes it. "Okay."
Lu Han keeps his word; Kai easily fends off a pair of Levikrons that try to peck him to death, and a couple of human bandits who think he looks like an easy mark. Mostly, his chocobo outruns trouble before it reaches him, and he makes it to Junon with little more than a few bruises. The chocobo, he hands over to the agency in the old village, then teleports to the upper city with some help from pictures in a travel brochure. Even if he'd wanted to, he couldn't have taken the chocobo with - teleportation, Lu Han tells him, only works on him and any inanimate objects he happens to be carrying. One lifeform only.
It's frustrating, Kai thinks, that Lu Han will tell him practical things like that, but completely ignores the questions he really wants answered. Lu Han knows things, that much is clear. About Kai, about who he is - or was, once. And about why Lu Han chose him. He'd sleep easier if he were sure.
Unanswered questions aren't all that disturb his sleep. Kai takes a room in Junon, somewhere cheap and anonymous where the owner says his brother-in-law could use some manual labour on a temporary basis - nothing shady, just unloading ships at the port for a fortnight or so while one of his regulars heals up. It's not what he's here to do, but it's cash and it's a start, gives him time to get his bearings and see what his options are.
After his first day on the job he's tired and aching, though the soreness in his muscles feels good, given the source. It's better than working at the Honey Bee Inn, that's for sure. He can't say he misses his last job, and he's certain they don't miss him. Now he can lie down on his bed in peace and not have to worry about covering up blemishes so the customers won't notice, or whether or not that guy who kept trying to talk the managers into letting him keep Kai for the weekend will finally succeed.
It's a hot night; Kai strips down to a tank top and shorts and sprawls flat out on the mattress, his gauntlets resting on the flimsy wooden table beside the bed, within easy reach. He hasn't spoken to Lu Han today, and when he's not wearing the gauntlets, he doesn't hear him in his mind, either. Lu Han refuses to say whether or not he can read Kai's thoughts; Kai hopes the Summon is simply messing with him and has no idea what's going on in his head.
Especially because at the moment, it's a non-stop loop of Lu Han in action. Kai's a dancer - started learning ballet and jazz as a kid, grew up absorbing anything anyone would teach him. He knows grace. Lu Han has it, moves in his armour as though it's an extension of his body and he can will it to behave as he likes. His blade is the same, dancing through air and flesh alike. Can anything withstand the power of Lu Han's attacks? Kai's not sure.
Lu Han's battles are a deadly dream of death and dance, metal gleaming under the hazy red veil that's spreading across the sky. He wields his sword for Kai's sake now. It's the most anyone's ever done for him and he watches with a mix of pride and admiration...and, as reluctant as he is to admit it to himself, lust. Lu Han is beautiful in battle, but the smile he gives Kai afterwards is better still, and Kai loves those moments.
Perhaps a little too much. The mental image has him slipping a hand beneath his shorts, touching himself in a way he'd lost interest in during his stint as a Bee. It's different when he has to do it because a customer commands him to, and he's never been comfortable making himself that vulnerable to someone else. That's usually when he lets his mind slip away, to safe places he only half-remembers.
He doesn't have to do that now. He can take his time, not have to worry about what's to follow. Kai takes a deep breath and lets his body go limp, all save the part he's now stroking to full hardness, while he pictures Lu Han's sweet, impish face behind his closed eyes. There's gentleness beneath the killer's armour, and Kai fantasises about making Lu Han smile at him with something other than a pile of corpses to blame.
It's useless, of course. Lu Han's a Summon. He's sentient, all right, but he's not...he's not like Kai. There's nothing wrong with a little harmless fantasy, but it can't happen for real.
"It can't?" Lu Han sounds disappointed as he perches on the edge of the bed. His armour's nowhere to be seen.
Kai panics, scrabbling for the blanket to cover himself and hoping he's imagining things. Lu Han's timing. "I...uh...this is..."
"Don't be embarrassed." Lu Han tugs the blanket away. "I told you, I used to go to the Honey Bee Inn, and places like it."
"Isn't it...weird?" Kai asks shyly. He can feel himself blushing, but he's still curious. "Being with humans like that?"
"Not at all." Lu Han sidles closer, nudges down the shorts enough to place one hand on Kai's bare hip. "Would you like to see for yourself?"
Lu Han's not wearing his gloves - not wearing anything, in fact - and Kai's only too conscious that this is the first time Lu Han's touched him skin to skin. It feels...nice, not like the customers at the Honey Bee Inn. Soothing, almost, or it would be if Kai weren't so embarrassed at being caught like this. It's worse that Lu Han knows what Kai's thinking about, why he's the hardest he's been in months.
Worst of all, Lu Han's offering to do something about it. Or perhaps that's the best. Kai's too wound up to tell, too close to the edge to think rationally.
Lu Han's far more patient in the bedroom than he is on the field, waiting calmly for Kai to stop chasing thoughts around his head and make up his mind. He crawls closer, lying down on the mattress so they curl together, one seductive Summon and his mixed-up master, sharing the hot night air between them. Kai's terrified to say yes, and at the same time terrified to say no, in case Lu Han never offers again.
"I could call you 'Master', if that helps," Lu Han suggests. "Some guys like that."
"You could try calling me 'Kai'?"
"I could," Lu Han grins, "but that's not your name. You'll find out for yourself, eventually."
Kai groans in frustration, giving Lu Han the best icy glare he can muster in the hopes of changing his mind. Lu Han laughs at him.
"There are others who have to find themselves first. Your turn will come. And then..."
When Lu Han leaves a sentence hanging like that, Kai knows it's pointless trying to get answers out of him. Fine. At least there's some measure of satisfaction he can get from tonight, even if it's given his dignity a bruising. He edges forwards, leaning his head against Lu Han's shoulder. It's enough of an answer. Lu Han might show no mercy in battle, but he's tender when Kai needs him to be, hands far gentler on flesh than on metal and a welcome change from customers. This is the first time Kai can remember being with someone he wants in return, with someone who didn't pay for it one way or another, with someone who has a better idea of what he wants than he does himself and tries to give him that.
Kai doesn't have to send his mind away, doesn't have to pretend he's anywhere else but here, not when here is the safest place he could possibly be.