Kikumaru & Gakuto at the baths
Kikumaru kicked off his little slippers at the entrance to the baths, parted the door-curtain with his hand and entered the changeroom. He could smell the humidity of the indoor baths already, and closed his eyes. He felt emotionally drained; it was about time he used this getaway to do precisely that; get away from it all and relax.
Or at least, he hoped he could relax. If everything went well, Gakuto would have good news, not goad him too much and they couild forget about this whole stupid business and get on with life.
He shrugged his shirt off his shoulders and started to undress, putting his belongings into one of the coin lockers as he went. He aimed to be submerged in the water before Gakuto could arrive to tease him about the size of his cock.
It wasn't much more than five or six minutes after Kikumaru had entered that Gakuto made his appearance. Dressed in a short, white robe and soft slippers, he approached Kikumaru silently. He was tense, he was scowling - he didn't look pleasant.
But then, when did he?
Kicking off his slippers and laying them on the bench near the wall, he turned, back facing Kikukmaru. Unbelting his robe, he let it slide away from his body before tossing it atop the slippers he'd just abandoned.
He didn't say a word as he descended the small steps into the water and there was no hesitation, no bashfulness about him at all. When he sank into the water, eyes closing in pleasure, he sighed heavily. "God, this feels good."
Kikumaru was still at his locker, listening. Gakuto's lack of greeting hiked the tension in the room up a notch. He slowly continued to undress as Gakuto made himself comfortable, taking painstaking efforts to fold his clothes; very strange of him. He realised that he actually wanted this to go well; he didn't like being silent and serious with Gakuto. Fighting was fun when it wasn't serious, and loath as he was to admit it, he liked Gakuto's presence in his life.
He still wasn't 100% ready to forgive, though.
He quickly hosed himself down at the showers and walked to the other end of the bath, dipping a toe in.
"Hello to you too."
Head lolling in Kikumaru's direction, Gakuto opened one eye and smiled blissfully at him.
"Nice to see you."
There was no disguising the innuendo in his voice, though there was no malice behind it. He stretched his arms out along the wall and sighed in contentment.
"I hope we're going to be alone."
Kikumaru grimaced as he lowered himself into the water, his body adjusting to the change of temperature. He tried to angle his body away from Gakuto.
"Me too, actually." He replied, trailing his arms through the water and enjoying the sensation. "I don't want everyone knowing everything."
He slid down into the water so that his chin was submerged.
"So... how on earth did you end up going to lunch?"
Flicking a few droplets of water in Kikumaru's direction, Gakuto followed suit, sinking down in the water and sighing heavily. He stared at Kikumaru for a few moments, grudgingly having to admit that the other man was cute with his hair damp and his cheeks flushed from the heat.
He still wanted to give him a gigantic wedgie, but there was always tomorrow for that.
"Weeeellll," he drawled, looking sly and secretive. "Prince Charming was sitting all alone in the garden - what a sad, precious picture he made - and I joined him. We talked for a bit, as your royal highness requested, and he asked me to join him for lunch."
He smiled sweetly. "Where he confessed his undying love for me and admitted that he was only seeing you because you were the best Mukahi substitute he could find."
Kikumaru glared. "That's not really funny, you know. I don't think you realise how much it bothered him."
He looked down at his knees, barely visible underneath the water.
"I don't get it. Why would he want to talk to you?"
How Gakuto loved being on the receiving end of one of Kikumaru's glares. It warmed his cold, shriveled little heart. His smile, this time, was genuine.
"I realize it, trust me."
Trailing fingertips over the surface of the water, Gakuto continued to smile, thinking about Oishi's earnest expression and serious, green eyes. "You'd laugh if I told you, Kikumaru."
Shoulders lifting in silent amusement, Gakuto went on. "We were together for almost two and a half hours today. He talked about you the entire time."
Kikumaru's whole body throbbed, once, with some, indescribable emotion. He didn't know what it was, but it was powerful, that was for sure.
"Really?" He asked, looking at Gakuto with rounded eyes. To Gakuto he must have looked too desperate or eager but he still found it so hard to believe that Oishi was so earnest. He was for real. For Kikumaru.
"Two and a half hours?" He shook his head, oddly shy. "That's so stupid.. what could he have to say for two and a half hours?" He tried hard not to smile.
As much as he'd wanted to tease Kikumaru and make him work for whatever information Gakuto would impart - in the end - he just couldn't do it. Kikumaru was happy - made so by information that Gakuto could give him. He wondered if he would ever know what it felt like to covet someone's heart the Kikumaru and Oishi obviously coveted each other.
"I'm not going to tell all his secrets - let's allow the man some mystery."
Stretching his legs out, Gakuto nudged Kikumaru with his toes. "He wanted advice. On how to win your heart." He laughed, just once, "It was kinda cute, really. He gets starry-eyed when he says your name. The sap."
Kikumaru was grateful for Gakuto's toe-poking... it gave him the opportunity to half-heartedly kick his foot away, interacting the way he was used to. He didn't know why, but hearing all this from Gakuto was making him stupidly bashful. He felt as though he wanted to crawl into his bed and die in embarassment and a strange form of happiness, and would have done so had his more pragmatic side insisted on staying and discovering more about Gakuto and Oishi's mysterious encounter.
He came out of his little reverie to realise something. Gakuto knew almost everything about him.
"So he asked you? Oh god, what did you tell him?"
"I told him the truth, Kikumaru," Gakuto said, wide eyed and innocent. But then he grinned - that evil little smirk - and crossed his legs at the ankle, reclining and relaxed.
"I told him that you needed a man and that he'd better stop pussy-footing around or he'd lose you to me."
Still smiling, Gakuto lowered himself into the water until the tips of his hair were soaked.
"Lose me to you?" Kikumaru scoffed, raising himself out of the water a little.
"I hope he didn't believe you. He took the whole thing so seriously. I still feel like crap about it."
He glared at Gakuto. "I'm nearly ready to forgive you. But first you've got to tell me at least something. Why talk to you in particular? I would have thought you were the last person he would have wanted to talk to."
"Well, he was pissed off at me still, I think." Gakuto admitted. "But he's too polite to yell and I think he really wanted to hear my side of it."
He shook his head, smiling a little as he recalled their conversation. "He wanted to talk to me because - as he so eloquently put it - he assumed that I've had lots of experience with romance."
Gakuto was silent for a moment, looking contemplative. "You should have seen his face. When I told him you didn't want me that way - that it was him you wanted."
He glanced up, smiling. "He looked...just...happy."
"Oh, stop it," Kikumaru said, blushing furiously and frowning despite the fact Gakuto was telling him things that made him delighted beyond reasonable levels of delightedness.
It occured to him briefly that Gakuto might have been having him on again; he'd adopted that exact same relaxed pose before he'd pounced, back in their room. As it was, the Oishi Gakuto was describing was remarkably similar to the Oishi Kikumaru had encountered in the garden.
It made Kikumaru strangely embarassed to know that Gakuto had seen Oishi at his most despondent and by the same token, could estimate Kikumaru's desperateness. (Much as Oishi considered Gakuto in terms of his romantic prowess, Kikumaru attributed to him magical powers of mindreading.)
"You know though," He said quietly, "He never did say much about past partners or anything... or even guys. I always wondered why he was so quiet about it."
Kikumaru studied Gakuto incredulously from underneath his fringe. "He was asking you for advice?!"
Gakuto frowned, looking quite put out. "You think I can't give good advice, Kikumaru Eiji? I'll have you know that I've given some of the best love advice in the history of advice!"
Rather affronted, Gakuto sniffed and relaxed again, tucking his hair behind his ears as it was getting wet and sticking to his face. "And the reason he hasn't mentioned past partners is probably because there aren't any. I don't think Oishi's got much going on in the sex department, if you know what I mean."
Kikumaru's jaw dropped. "No no no no, I wasn't saying you couldn't give good advice, I was just wondering why he'd ask for it in the first place! Are you saying he's... you know... never had..."
He stared at Gakuto in dismay.
"That kind of really makes sense, now I think about it... oh god, now I feel even dodgier. He's never been with a woman, let alone a man...?"
Kikumaru would be asking for Gakuto's love advice any second now.
"Well..." Gakuto drawled. "He didn't exactly say that - exactly."
Gakuto stretched out on his back, trying to float in ridiculously shallow water. He truly had no modesty, whatsoever.
"Virgins give off rays, though. And Oishi was blinding me." Gakuto giggled, splashing a bit of water in Kikumaru's direction. "In all seriousness, though, Kikumaru," he said, flipping back over to kneel in the water. "If Oishi's not in love with you already, he sure wants to be."
Gakuto sighed, about to feel sorry for himself until he remembered the snuggle he'd received from Yuushi earlier in the day and the promise of a quiet dinner with Mizuki that night.
Kikumaru watched Gakuto's antics with mild distaste etched across his features. Gakuto truly had no modesty, whatsoever. Didn't stop him from having great proportions, though. Kikumaru looked down at his own body and remembered how unfit he'd been chasing after Oishi.
He squeezed his underarm. Was that a muscle?
He flinched as water hit his face, but tried to avoid Gakuto's gaze. The implications of what he was saying were... were...
"Love?" He murmured, blushing prettily. "Have you ever been in love, Gakuto?"
Kikumaru's mouth really was gorgeous. Gakuto had absolutely no trouble understanding Oishi's desire for him - not that he'd ever be able to tolerate Kikumaru's squawking long enough to enjoy actually fucking him, of course.
He appeared to consider Kikumaru's question for a moment and then he shrugged. "Thought I was once. But it turned out that it was just wishful thinking. Honestly, Kikumaru, I don't think I'm that type, you know?"
Gakuto almost asked Kikumaru if he were serious about Oishi, but how ridiculous would he sound asking after Kikumaru's intentions? Especially when Gakuto already knew the answer.
"Do you think I am?" Kikumaru asked, looking worried. He stretched out his legs, somehow subconsciously reaching out for Gakuto and his reassurances.
"I mean, there've been so many times before, when I thought I was, but it was wishful thinking too, or more like me chasing after people who were really only half-interested, you know. And what is it, anyway? Clearly it's not so strong as to prevent me from messing around with you. Even if it was a fight," he added bitterly.
He looked at his knees.
"Even if it was just me being amazingly horny and deprived of human contact..." Kikumaru's eyes rounded in horror. "What if I unleash that all onto Oishi?! He'll be terrified!!!"
Gakuto laughed. "Kikumaru, if anybody is 'that type', it's you.
He scooted closer, nudging Kikumaru's toes with his own and wondered if it would be pushing his luck to ask the other red-head to scrub his back.
"Look, you goof - Oishi won't be terrified, he's really crazy about you. And what happened between you and me was just a result of your own deprivation and me knowing which buttons to push. Admit it, you'd have stopped me eventually. Even if we hadn't fought, you'd have pulled away soon enough."
He smiled, trailing fingertips through the water. "That's what I told Oishi, anyway."
Kikumaru glared at Gakuto, instinctively shifting away as he approached. His heart was beating a little faster and he felt guilty for it... Gakuto had hit the nail on the head, voicing exactly what had been bothering him so much.
He looked at Gakuto's fine torso and at his hair, glistening with wet droplets. He couldn't deny that it looked nice, and that making out had felt nice, but thinking on it, he realised that if Gakuto made a move on him in the bath, he would fight him off. If he tried it on again in the bedroom, he'd fight him off. It would be the same in any circumstance.
He thought of replacing Gakuto with Oishi in the bath and the jolt that went through his heart was nothing compared to the tempting tingles flitting through his body as he studied his naked friend. (Friend?)
"You're so rude," He said, splashing him. "And anyway," he added darkly, "There's other things Oishi has to be worried about. That's only if we ever get there, anyway. His first time? What do you think he'll want to do?"
"I can say, even knowing as little of his character as I do, that he's not impulsive. If sex were such a big deal to him, he'd just go out and get some."
Gakuto was closer to Eiji now, but was merely lounging and making no moves toward touching him or invading his personal space.
"If I were you, Kikumaru, I'd take it slow and let Oishi know how much you like him. Let him know that he number one in your life and everything else will just...happen."
Gakuto snorted. "Oishi told me that I'd understand him better after I'd been in love. That should tell you lots, Kikumaru."
"He really said that?" Kikumaru asked with a half-smile, rubbing his arms. "Oh man."
He slid back into the bath, resting his head on the edge to look up at the ceiling.
"I should just relax about it, huh. I mean, it's not as if it's such a big deal, just being with him is so wonderful anyway, that I..."
He looked at Gakuto with a wry grin.
"As if you want to hear all of this anyway. You must have gone mad listening to Oishi."
Kikumaru chuckled and scratched his elbow, suddenly fixing Gakuto with a wicked smile. "Tell me... what was your first time like?"
Gakuto shook his head. "Kikumaru, you pervert."
He didn't tell Eiji that he really didn't mind listening to his and Oishi's sappy love-ramblings. Gakuto thought it was rather endearing, though he would have to deny it publicly if he were ever questioned about it.
"Okay, I'll tell you, if you really want to know. I was thirteen and at a junior high tennis camp. I'd been there for two weeks and I was bored, surly and I wanted to go home. But then our counselor got food poisoning and had to leave, which made me happy - he was a real drag. The next day, his son arrived to take his place and the minute I laid eyes on him, I knew I would never, ever, want to have sex with a woman."
Gakuto looked around for something that Kikumaru could use to scrub his back and continued with his story. "I followed him everywhere - I was relentless - and I couldn't believe it when he actually seemed to take an interest in me. Anyway, after three days of careful seduction on my part, he fucked me in the lake and then twice more back in his cabin."
Kikumaru blanched. "Thirteen?!" He exclaimed.
"That's so illegal... I can't believe he wasn't arrested! How old was he?!"
Kikumaru sat up to look at Gakuto. It wasn't all that surprising, really. Kikumaru wouldn't have believed anything less scandalous and would have been severely disappointed.
Gakuto shrugged, "Well, I turned thirteen at the end of that week, anyway."
He laughed at Kikumaru's reaction - it was so typical of him. "He was eighteen and he wasn't arrested because if I'd ratted him out, I wouldn't have been able to meet him every other weekend for dirty sex."
Gakuto sighed, "Best sex of my life. I really thought I meant something to him. But anyway - enough about me. How about you, Kikumaru? What was your first time like?"
Kikumaru stared at Gakuto, happily scandalised before he shook himself.
"Mine?" He chuckled softly. "It was with one of my sister's friends, in her room... she was slightly older. I was fifteen and she was sixteen. My god, I was so excited... she was so cool and I never would have thought she would have had an interest in me."
Kikumaru shrugged.
"As it was, she really didn't. I wasn't 'mature' enough for her, apparently. However. She stayed friends with my sister and got the shock of her life when she saw me with my first guy. The look on her face..."
Kikumaru wore a shit-eating grin.
"There was an exchange student. He'd come from the south and was the shyest, most beautiful thing I'd ever seen. I took it apon myself to look after him and show him the school and kind of stalked him... only a little bit. Really.
Kikumaru stretched out like a cat, wiggling his toes.
"I actually initiated everything. First I kissed him behind the garbage compactors and he seemed to like it so much that we had our first time on one of those bloody school camps. I was on top. Haven't you ever been? He was so gorgeous... except it ended tragically when he had to go back home. I was even thinking of finding him, once."
Gakuto was smiling all through Kikumaru's tale. "Romantic. See what I mean?"
He was silent for a moment. "I could never imagine having sex with a girl - even when I was in high school - it just seemed too alien and wrong. I guess I've known, since I was old enough to know what sex was, what I'd want out of it."
Not finding anything to serve, Gakuto was annoyed that he hadn't brought his yummy bath stuff with him. Not that he was actually dirty, but, a bath was a bath.
"Sure I've topped - plenty, actually - but I prefer to bottom. I think it's because when I'm really turned on and into it, I don't want to maintain any control. I want to be fucked. As hard and as long as I can stand it."
Gakuto smiled, looking away for a moment. "I probably shouldn't be telling you all this. You wanted to talk about Oishi."
Kikumaru laughed, grinning.
"Nah, it's fascinating. A lot of things make so much more sense. But yes- Oishi- you're right about everything sort of falling together and working itself out, but I just can't really imagine being bottom for your first time, ever. I mean, that's how it usually goes, doesn't it, with men? I must just be abnormal. I mean... I just don't want anything to go wrong. If it even happens. If we get that far."
He sighed deeply, then grinned suddenly again.
"Bottoming's so carnal though, isn't it?"
Kikumaru realised how long it had been since he'd had a good, sexy gossip. Clearly confiscating the girl's Cosmo magazines and then reading them himself had failed to fill a void.
Gakuto's eyes were bright when he nodded, a little more enthusiastically than he was even aware. "Oh, it iiis. Haven't you ever bottomed, Kikumaru?" He asked, incredulous. Was it possible? Was Kikumaru Eiji an exclusive top? Gakuto's mind reeled with possibilities - especially since he'd been intending to top Eiji when he'd put the moves on him earlier.
Curiouser and curiouser.
"I think - with Oishi - you shouldn't even think about going all the way with him at first. Tease him, build him up, make him want it."
Gakuto licked his lips. How he loved talking about sex and, frankly, thinking about Oishi on all fours while Kikumaru broke that ass in was turning him on. "Can you imagine his reaction the first time you suck him off." Gakuto rolled his eyes, the mental image most appreciated. "God, or the first time you rim him? Oishi on his belly, trying to rub his cock against the bedsheets, begging and whimpering, arching his back? Guh."
Kikumaru looked suddenly affronted, his mouth going dry and red creeping over his face.
"You're not meant to be thinking about that!"
He shifted uncomfortably. Gakuto was encroaching on his sacred Oishi space once more. Then again, nobody else would have wanted to talk about Oishi with him to such an extent. He couldn't deny what how appealing the images Gakuto was describing were.
His hand went to his neck to loosen a non-existant collar.
"He might not even like sex. Anyway, if it ever got that far and if it ever happened, I was thinking of bottoming. Yes, I have done it before," He added, as Gakuto's eyes rounded.
"Plenty."
He stared into middle distance with his mouth parted, before turning suddenly to Gakuto.
"Did he say anything about it? Like... romancing? What's he like? What did he even ask you?"
Gakuto looked pouty for half a second. He wanted to talk about sex and he was contemplating a little gossip about Yuushi and how amazing he was in the sack.
But, then - he reasoned - talking about Oishi and Kikumaru's sweet little romance wasn't so bad.
"He's shy. So shy that's too sweet to watch. He's very hesitant about being too forward with you - he doesn't want to seem pushy."
The idea of Oishi Shuuichirou seeming pushy almost made Gakuto giggle.
"He intends to date you; he's very romantic, too. I think he's the type who wants love and commitment. He won't want anything casual, I don't imagine."
Gakuto covered his mouth, trying to muffle his laughter. "You want to know what he's been dreaming about?"
Kikumaru was red all over. Some of it was just the heat of the bath (he knew he'd have to get out fairly soon) yet most of it was a giant, pleasant blush creeping over his body.
Oishi wanted to date and take it slow. Evenings spent out, holding hands, quietly talking, softly kissing... Kikumaru couldn't think of anything better.
He stayed silent, on tenterhooks, waiting for Gakuto to continue.
Gakuto leaned in, so close that he could see the little flecks of blue in Kikumaru's eyes. If he didn't think Kikumaru wouldn't deck him, Gakuto would steal a kiss and then giggle over it later with Yuushi.
But he didn't. Mainly because he didn't want another pop in the face, but also because he felt a bit close to Kikumaru and didn't want to jeopardize the ground he'd gained.
"Don't you dare tell him I told you this," Gakuto warned. "He said that," Gakuto paused, snickering for a moment, "he dreams about kissing you all the time. When he's working, when he's not working, when he's sleeping..."
Gakuto nudged Kikumaru playfully. "I think your boy needs a good make-out session."
Kikumaru shuddered delicately as a wave of tingles flushed through his body. Butterflies were dancing the jive in his stomach, or so it felt.
"K-kissing?" He said dreamily, picking at a scab on his knee.
"I... I kissed him, you know. When I ran after him. It seemed like the right thing you do, but it didn't go down so well. Probably the wrong time, wrong place..."
He shuddered again.
"Despite that though... my god. Even though it was only small, and it was just a peck, and you shouldn't enjoy kissing someone when you've made them cry, it just sort of... you know when you get close that to someone and you go all dizzy?"
He stared at Gakuto in horror.
"I sound like one of the lovesick brats we teach!!"
Gakuto laughed. "You're both pathetic. You and your lover boy."
He leaned on Kikumaru then, all warm and lazy and water-logged. "I've asked Mizuki to room with me, Kiku-chan. I think you should go stay with Oishi. Get started on that whole romance thing."
Rubbing his cheek on Kikumaru's arm, he glanced up, grinning. "But first - will you scrub my back?"
Kikumaru looked down at Gakuto.
"What are you doing?" He asked, suspiciously. He sighed deeply. He wasn't used to this- he still couldn't read Gakuto. Sometimes he was just like a little kid and Kikumaru feared offending him; yet today he'd proven just how much of a front that could be.
"Look... as much as I enjoy physical contact with you and lounging around naked I think this whole thing will just be ruined again, properly, if Oishi happened to see. You know? I really, really don't want to mess it up."
He took Gakuto's face in his hands and lifted it from his shoulder.
"I'll scrub your back, though, if you've got something."
Gakuto beamed, leaning over to smack a kiss against Kikumaru's arm before crawling toward the other side of the bathing pool. He grinned over his shoulder at Kikumaru, and returned looking just as pleased as when he'd left.
"You enjoy being naked with me, Kiku? I'm going to write about that in my diary, you know."
Handing Kikumaru a washcloth and a container of body wash that smelled like raspberries. "You scrub my back and I'll scrub yours. And I wouldn't worry about Oishi getting upset about this again. I did my job, don't worry."
"Oh yeah?" Kikumaru goaded him. "And how can you prove that?"
He manouvred himself so that he was behind Gakuto, taking the washcloth and applying it to Gakuto's shoulders. He scrubbed Gakuto's back not too soft, yet not to hard, trying to convey his nonchalance about the whole thing.
Gakuto sighed happily. If he and Kikumaru didn't start fighting again immediately upon returning to school, he was going to initiate a few sleepovers.
"Mmmm, that feels niiiiice, Kiku-chan..." He breathed, shoulders slumping in relaxation. "Because after he warned me off - in the nicest, most honorable way imaginable, I might add - I promised him that there was nothing between you and I and that I wouldn't dream of standing in his way."
"And how good is your promise?" Kikumaru asked grumpily, sweating with the exertion.
It was strange... somehow having that argument earlier had made them... better. Gakuto was attractive, sure, being close to him was nice... yet Kikumaru didn't feel that same tension or gravitation to him as he had in the bedroom. It somehow made things easier.
Gakuto laughed silently and turned to take the washcloth from Kikumaru. "Turn around, lazy. I'll do you."
With one hand on Kikumaru's shoulder, he waited for the other redhead to get settled before he began scrubbing his back in slow, sure circles.
"Well, I'm still going to mess with you - you know that I am - but I don't want to see you unhappy, Kikumaru. Oishi, either. I promise to behave - in that respect, at least."
"Really?" Kikumaru asked, closing his eyes and sighing involuntarily. It really had been far too long since he'd had an intimate relationship with somebody. He'd forgotten how much he loved touching and being touched.
"Well, that's as good as anything."
He sat in silence for a while, enjoying the attention, then suddenly turned and took Gakuto's hand from his back.
"Thankyou," He said. "For saying all of that. To Oishi and to me. I really appreciate it."
Gakuto shrugged, a little uncomfortable with Kikumaru's sincerity, but finding that he, to some extent, very much enjoyed this kind of attention. He didn't get it often.
"What are friends for?"
Kikumaru had to look away, suddenly awkward as well. He and Gakuto were good friends now? Somehow he didn't think he could define exactly what they were. All he knew was that they were much better now than how they had been.
"Yeah. Um... I'm getting out now, then... I'm overheating." He looked down at his body - lobster red.
He waded his way to the little stairs and surrepticiously climbed them.
Behind him, Gakuto's smug laughter was quite audible. He was still relaxing, wanting a few more minutes to veg and be lazy.
"Hoi hoi, Kikumaru. Your ass is as red as your hair."
Giggling to himself, Gakuto watched Kikumaru get out of the water. "Might want to take advantage of the shower before you leave."