[Dark and Stormy] Chapter 11: "Dulce Veneno" (Explicit Version)
Being the fifth part of Fifteen Mokona on a Dead Man's Chest, this is a sequel to:
I: Rum & Popcorn, II: Talk Like a Pirate Day, III: Slings and Arrows, and IV: You Got It.
This series is a broad "Pirates vs. Ninjas" alternate universe comprised of short, multi-chapter stories that can each be read on their own. They are, however, also coherent if you decide start at the beginning and some may prefer them that way. While I'm still doing housekeeping my Dreamwidth journal, intermediate chapters may continue to point to LiveJournal.
TITLE: Dark and Stormy
CHAPTER: 11 of 12 - "Dulce Veneno" (Explicit version - the edited version is over here.)
SERIES: Tsubasa Reservoir Chronicle, xxxHoLic, X, Tokyo Babylon, Magic Knight Rayearth, WISH, Card Captor Sakura, Angelic Layer, Clover.
PAIRING: Kurogane x Fai D. Fluorite, main, with references in this month's four chapters to Sakurazuka Seishirou x Sumeragi Subaru, Lantis x Shidou Hikaru x Eagle Vision, Doumeki Shizuka x Watanuki Kimihiro, Arisugawa Sorata > Kishuu Arashi, Ashura x Fai D. Fluorite... Am I missing anything? Probably not anything significant. Other chapters may vary. And if you ever wanted Shiro Kamui & Shidou Hikaru friendfic, here you go!
DISCLAIMER: Everything in the CLAMP Megaverse was originally created by CLAMP. They are entirely to blame for creating a system of crossovers that do not easily disclaim. Characters have been adapted without authorization or approval, and I am making no profit from their use.
WARNINGS: 1) Pirates. 2) Ninjas. 3) Mild lunacy. 4) Sexual situations and dialogue with dominance themes. 5) Fluffy Schmoop -- in the same scene!
RATING: R, for language and sex.
SUMMARY: A full-scale pirate rebellion in Sorata's home fleet finds the Dragon of Heaven in a sea battle, Kamui in a race with an elite ninja team for a legendary artifact, and Fai... on a date?
PREVIOUSLY: Mai Tai :: Coco Rosa :: Hurricane :: Mojito :: Sex on the Beach #13 (Explicit) (Edited) :: Swordfish :: Lucky 7 (Explicit-ish) (Edited) :: Cradle of Life (Explicit) (Edited) :: Daiquiri :: Le Citron d'Or (Explicit) (Edited) :
[DULCE VENENO]
As Kuro-sama sank to his knees, the arousal he'd left in the bed crashed down on him, taking his breath away. Fai's grip on the railing was all that kept him upright. The tongue running over his cock left him unfit for anything more complex than a moan. The night had left him aching. Now the solid heat of his blood under the morning sun was desperate for release his lover might still deny. Fai tried to drive the searing pleasure stealing through his skin out to its conclusion, but he knew it wouldn't happen. Not without permission.
"I need to... please, say I--" His words died in a gasp as the ninja circled his fingers over the head of his cock.
"Next time I swallow you down, I want you to come in my mouth. Show me what a little brewing does to your flavor."
"Ah!" was all the agreement Fai could manage.
It felt like a lifetime waiting for Kuro-sama to lick his way up from his balls, along his shaft, but once he was deep inside his lover's mouth, he had no trouble obeying. One sharp shot lashed from his toes to his head, flashing lights behind his closed eyes. If he was flying or falling, he couldn't tell, until the ninja caught him on his way to the ground.
He was still shaking. Every brush of his lover's hands made an aftershock, as if the wanting built up in his skin hadn't been spent -- just shaken till it was ready to ignite.
Fai bit at the man's lip, speaking in groans his Kuro-sama must've understood. His lover dragged him to his feet, and pushed him around to face the railing. Wrestling back his muscle control, Fai hooked one leg on the rail and braced his arms as a sweat-soaked chest curled against his back. He didn't want to fall again, not with the stakes on the table. Fingers that seemed to know his body like a well-worn book teased him open. It was easy. The warm, solid cock he'd wanted all night pushed in like a hand in a glove.
The ninja stayed there, filling him up, as he nipped down the back of Fai's neck. "Let's hear you beg one last time, Your Majesty."
Laughing off the lingering waves of ecstasy, Fai settled against the pressure making him all tingly inside. "Ooh, ooh, me! Pick me!"
"You're one big put-on," he said. But Fai felt a smile through the grimace pressed into his skin, and the delicious friction of his lover sliding out till only the tip teased the cleft of his ass.
"Mmm. Am I? Well. There once was a ninja from Suwa..." He gasped at another push, this one fast and hard. Through the slow retreat, he struggled to recite his poem instead of just moaning incoherently. "With... teeth like a wild barracuda... But his treacle-and-tart... Ah!" Fai shuddered, pushing back on the hands squeezing his ass and on everything suddenly inside again. "Is... my favorite part..." The panting breaths he didn't fight pulled his voice into a rougher register. "Wh-when... he thrusts it... I shout, 'Ha-'... A-ah..." His body tremored around one more surge and one more pull. "God fucking damn it! Do it harder!"
That slow roll of their bodies slipping apart shot excruciating bliss straight up his spine. He wanted to lose himself in it, but he couldn't. Like a parched man tortured by drops of water falling on his tongue, Fai was aware of every shift. He felt the thrill until he couldn't take feeling any more, and thought his body might shake apart.
"You want it fast, huh? You told me slow before."
"Less... memory... more... fucking."
The maddening rhythm never let up, no matter what he screamed, no matter how he cajoled, reaching his hands back to tangle in the ninja's hair. His body convulsed until rapture pushed out all his ability to want anything but this. He fell back onto his lover's shoulder, feeling like orgasm was exploding out of every speck of his body, from his bones to his fingernails to the sweat dripping off of his hair. After his screams faded into the sunbeams, his voice settled to formless moans as the haze in his mind shuddered away through the quaking of his limbs.
He hadn't even realized when Kuro-sama had reached around to work his cock again. But through eyelids fluttering open, he feasted on the sight of a battle-hardened hand falling to his thigh, caressing his skin with a slick mess trailing behind. Fai found the other hand on his chest, and wove his fingers through the ninja's. His big, strong man leaned into him for help standing as much as he leaned back. The groans on his neck, the heaving chest pressed down his spine, the perfume of hot bodies, the spent cock on its way out, all of it summoned a giggle to Fai's lips that he couldn't explain.
The smack Kuro-rin landed on his ass was entirely the wrong way to stop him laughing, but his ninja had to know that by now. Fai curled into the hollow under his lover's ear, then bit his tongue when he realized he was about to ask, "Where have you been all my life?"
He'd had enough romance. He didn't have enough wits right now to play that game.
Asking, "Is that all you've got?" didn't feel right either.
While he tried to figure out the right way to express his appreciation, he flung himself around, onto the mercy of his lover's kisses. Fai clasped his hands on the ninja's face, overlooking how close a tender embrace felt to the dance they'd fallen into before. He preferred to think about the tongue teasing into his mouth, and his surprise at thinking -- still -- that his Kuro-sama was a better kisser than a fucker. Surely it wouldn't be wrong to miss these kisses when they went separate ways. He'd as soon pretend opera was as good in other places as it was in Vienna.
It didn't mean he was giving up the wild seas for cobblestone streets.
Coming up for air, Fai stroked the trail of red bite marks adorning the canvas of his someone's rugged neck. He purred against his Kuro-sama's lips, "My turn to call the shots," and they slid into the bedroom. The ninja didn't even resist when Fai tumbled him to the ground.
A very handsome man. He'd thought so at first glance, but from this vantage -- astride his lover's hips, trailing his hands over the shimmer of sunlit sweat -- Fai felt like everything he'd seen before was potential, and now he had fully actualized hotness in his grasp.
Shrugging the soaked waistcoat off his shoulders, he swatted the ninja's hand off his thigh. "Did I say you could have touching?"
"I can watch if you want me to watch," Kuro-sama answered, smirking as he pulled his hands back to rest his head on.
Fai reached up for the pitcher of jasmine water on the table, then for one of the drinking bowls and the silk handkerchief among his clothes on the floor. He poured the bowl of water in silence, but as he wet the kerchief and washed the sweat from his lover's neck, he let himself sigh in appreciation of the divine sculpture that was man.
"Didn't you say you came here for the hot springs, Your Majesty? Your 'classy private baths' are just ten feet away."
As if he'd forgotten about them, Fai looked at the doorway on the far side of the bed, steam from the stone pools filling the air. Then he rewet his cloth and stroked his lover's collarbones. "They'll get their chance to clean you up. Later. Right now, I want to do it."
"Wouldn't say no to that."
"Didn't think you would."
He met the ninja's gaze for as long as he dared before he flirted his eyes away. Fai played a quite convincing, 'shy and embarrassed', if he did say so himself. It felt almost real, between the hot shivers running up his neck and the moment's hesitation when his sidelong glance found Kuro-sama's eyes still locked on his lips. He hadn't planned that. Though it didn't get in the way of the plan, either.
Kuro-sama had every right to be proud of his stamina, but it'd only last as long as he had self-control to manage it. There were thousands of ways to strip a man's self-control. If the ones Fai had already tried hadn't succeeded, well...
Try, try again.
He'd get there no matter how long it took, and he'd definitely enjoy the process.
~//~
Sailing west from Chizeta, Lantis meditated on how Eagle's boat outran the dawn. Every hour they came to the surface to refresh the air, and the sun had dropped closer to the horizon. After seven stops, the day had unmade itself. They zipped through inky waters toward the goal, with their only light the blue beacon shining from Lady Yuuko's mechanism.
Thinking about things like that kept him from imagining what could have happened to Hikaru. He had Hikaru's own competence and Yuuko's word to assure him she was safe, but he'd seen too many competent people hurt in situations that should have been safe. Filling his mind with that would help no one.
The other three people on the FTO had their own coping methods.
"Action, Attribute, Object, Being, or Immaterial Concept?" Umi asked Fuu. Their games of 20 Questions had long since left, 'Animal, Vegetable, or Mineral' behind.
"Hmm. That's difficult," the girl with the glasses answered, tapping her lip. "It's possible to treat it as an object, but I think Immaterial Concept is closer to describing its true nature."
"Is it music?" Eagle asked. Lantis narrowed his eyes at his lover's constant mission to be an ass, but Eagle wasn't sorry. Running out the 20 Question limit was how he said he didn't care about winning, so you didn't have to watch for him cheating or stabbing you in the back.
"No," Fuu told him.
Umi took the next question. "Is it something invented by people?"
"Yes."
Eagle guessed, "True love?"
"No."
"Can it be bought?"
Fuu pursed her lips at her blue-haired friend. "Well. It's certainly possible to pay for an experiential instance, but not the thing itself. I'll say no."
"Is it God?" Eagle tried.
"No."
"Is it a performance?" Umi asked.
"It can be performed, but the nature of the thing is not a performance. No."
With a grin, Eagle declared, "A dinner recipe!"
"No."
The white-haired pirate held out his hand to stop the next question. "I'm reading a storm on the surface. Everyone strap in."
Lantis buckled himself to his seat, but couldn't help noticing Lady Yuuko's beacon turning about as they fought through the rolling seas. Their destination was close. He reached for a rebreather, in case they had to swim for the surface. Eagle and the girls did the same.
"One hundred feet to surface," Eagle said, fingers flying over his controls. Rough water shook the little boat. The metal shell complained as Eagle kept them on course. "Fifty feet."
But as they rose higher, the water stilled. They surfaced, and what should have been hard-breaking waves in howling winds was a light drizzle over seas rolling into equilibrium.
"What was that?" Fuu asked.
"Lucky," Eagle answered. "My instruments show a real mast-breaker moving west, and our beacon is pointing southeast now. Let's find Hikaru before the weather changes its mind."
Pulling a few levers, Eagle sent the FTO along the line of their beacon's blue glow, toward a stretch of rock rising out of the ocean. One outcropping stuck out: a tower of gray stone with a fire blazing atop like a natural lighthouse. Lantis sighed away the breath he'd been half-holding for close to a day. He could tell it was Hikaru from a mile away, safe as promised.
A distorted voice crackled out of the air. "... Come in, Knight Two, Knight Three. This is Knight One..." Lantis couldn't see a source, and it didn't seem to be coming from any direction in particular. The sound was simply there.
"Hikaru?" Umi called out. "Can you hear us?"
"Umi-chan! I can hear you! Are you here?!"
"We see you on top of that outcropping," Eagle said. "We'll meet you on the beach."
"Eagle! I see you! The coast is clear now, so come on in. I'll be right there -- Kamui's been teaching me how he jumps off tall things!"
Half a second later, almost as soon as Lantis focused in on the red-haired figure standing in the flames, Hikaru jumped straight down from the outcropping to the beach. Fire trailed behind her, and she landed in an easy crouch despite the sheer height she'd fallen from. The scowling pirate next to her made his landing on his feet, arms crossed as the feather on his hat fluttered in the breeze. 'Kamui', he assumed -- the one Umi and Fuu had identified as Death Shirou when they'd explained what happened.
His girlfriend was now on friendly terms with one of the most notorious Pirate Lords.
Then again, they'd been together an entire day, and Hikaru was particularly good at that.
"Lantis! Eagle! Fuu-chan! Umi-chan!"
Shirou's scowl turned into a snarl behind her. "Eagle! I knew it! It was you!"
"Hello, Kamui. How's life treating you?"
"Like Clow Reed shot me out of a volcano to a frozen island in the ass-end of nowhere while my crew is fighting a war on the other side of the planet. Thanks so much for asking!"
Lantis caught Hikaru as she leapt over the waves. He didn't think anyone else saw the smile he hid in her hair. Eagle might have been able to see when he closed in, but that didn't count. Eagle would have known anyway.
"I knew you guys would come."
"Of course you did."
She dropped down to hug her teammates, fielding five questions from every direction about what had happened -- until Eagle asked, "And really? 'The coast is clear'? Did you think I couldn't pilot through a little storm?"
"Oh, it wasn't the storm," Hikaru answered. "It was the demon fighting the ship in the storm. The crew lassoed the demon and dragged it west, and the storm went with them."
While all the ninja blinked, Eagle turned pale. "Do you know what ship it was?"
"You wouldn't want me to say while I'm standing on your boat."
Eagle turned to his controls and started the air reserves refilling, then burned an image from his instruments to paper to make the map he'd promised Lady Yuuko. Lantis reached down into the water to pull up his price as well -- one rock, smoothed by the waves. Good for a scrying spell, if he knew anything about the Witch. He had a lot of questions, but they'd wait until Hundhammeren. Neither of his lovers seemed likely to discuss what had them worried.
"Would everyone mind taking their seats?" Eagle asked. "We're leaving."
"Not yet, you're not!" the black-clad pirate yelled from the beach.
Splashing back to shore, Hikaru grinned wide enough to terrify her stranded friend. "You mean you're coming with us after all?! I'm sure there's room! Are you going back to Chizeta?"
"No! I mean... yes, but... that's... I'm... I'm not going with you!" The man fended off a hug, but seemed to melt in front of Hikaru's pout. "I don't mean it like that. I just..." He sighed, frowning at the stars over the northern horizon. "I trust my people as much as you trust yours, you know. They're probably on their way now. I want to be here when they show up."
"Okay, then. Tell Yuzuriha-chan hi for me."
"I will. But you're not leaving until we settle who gets that orb!"
Hikaru glanced at the metal earphones in her hand -- which didn't look orb-shaped, but Lantis wasn't one to interject semantics -- then gave the pirate her battle stare. Without a doubt, they could take him if they worked together, but no one on Eagle's boat moved an inch. This looked like a matter of honor. Hikaru would want to fight him alone.
The pirate met her with just as much tenacity as she told him, "Rock, Paper, Scissors."
Lantis had seen pirates kill ninja for less, but this one didn't. He held up his hand and snarled, "Count one, two, three, then throw on 'shoot'."
"One, two, three, shoot!"
Given that Shirou threw paper, which covered Hikaru's rock, Lantis wasn't sure why the pirate was the one who looked upset.
"Is this supposed to be some kind of a trick?!"
Tossing him the earphones, Hikaru smiled. "Most people play Rock. Didn't you know?"
In Shirou's hands, the earphones transformed into a handheld writing desk, and more unexpectedly, feathers started falling from nowhere all around the befuddled young man.
Hadn't Master Clef mentioned something like that, however many years ago? Lantis called back school lessons from long out of mind. Was it that the Dioscuri's orbs matched the will of their bearers, but to claim one or to use it required more power than the world could absorb? Like with casting a top-tier spell, excesses of the bearer's spirit bled into material reality. That sounded like what Clef had said.
The other girls had said that was what Hikaru had been sent to find.
And, now, what she'd just given up to the Pirate King's cohort.
She flicker-stepped into the boat, waving at the man on shore. "See you later, Kamui!"
With that, Eagle sealed the bubble on the FTO and they pushed into the deeps. He ran the engines even harder on their homeward course than he had coming in.
Hikaru dropped onto Lantis's lap, summoning a tiny flame to her hand to dry her socks. The cheery goodbye faded off her face, leaving the iron frown she wore when she had something on her mind. Maybe it concerned whatever questions Eagle wasn't making her answer until they were on land, maybe it was something else.
Lantis pushed a wisp of hair behind her ear. "Are you sure you can leave the orb?"
"Kamui and I agreed on fair terms, and he won. Lady Yuuko can't complain about that. Besides, I figure there's a reason Clow Reed's puzzle chamber chose him." She offered a quiet wince to her team. "Sorry I didn't ask you guys first. This seemed like the right thing to do."
Umi rolled her eyes. "Oh, fine. We forgive you, you silly goose! Although we weren't exactly mad about it."
"No, I was thinking, 'That's so like Hikaru-san!'," Fuu said with a smile.
"Thank you."
"So why don't you help us finish this round of 20 Questions?" the blue-haired girl asked. "Fuu has this round. So far, she says it's an Immaterial Concept that can be made into an object, was invented by people, can be paid for in specific instances but not bought as itself, can be performed but is not a performance, and isn't music, true love, God, or a dinner recipe."
Hikaru clapped, all worries forgotten in sudden brightness.
"I know! It's a riddle, isn't it!"
The blonde giggled into her hand. "Now that Hikaru-san is here, we'll need a new game."
~//~
Steam-filled air filled Fai's lungs so slowly, he couldn't be sure if he was breathing or if the air was seeping through his skin. His Kuro-puu was still breathing, he could tell -- warm sighs stirred Fai's hair. Neither had moved an inch since they'd fallen from their rouse to the side of the pool. Stripping away his ninja's restraint was...
... a lot like fucking a thunderstorm. Only a good idea. This was the best exhaustion he'd felt in years.
But this stillness wasn't cuddling, Fai assured himself.
Just basking in volcano-heated water caressing their skin, the quiet song of birds past the wall, and the curve between his ninja's neck and shoulder where Fai rested his head as if it were made to fit.
And if he'd started thinking like that, he'd stayed too long.
His legs didn't move the first time he tried, but Fai focused on each muscle in turn. Rolling astride Kuro-sama's lap, he smirked at how his lover's eyes complained that his well-earned rest had been disturbed. Fai kissed him, once. And lingered.
"You're not bad, lover. Come try to catch me any time -- after you stop by your castle to tell your princess how well this went."
His opponent tried to hold him as he stepped out of the bath, but the iron grip had melted.
Fai felt accomplished.
He couldn't keep the smile off his face, even though no one was in a position to watch him restock weapons in his entirely fairly won Kuro-nin Coat. Making sure his hands were dry, he tore off half the sticker portraits they'd had done and dropped them in his pocket.
"I'm leaving your stickers on the table, Kuro-kicchi!"
"I'll be back for that coat," the ninja said, finding his voice.
Peeking around the doorway, Fai saw his lover still sprawled, eyes closed, in the hot bath. "I'm counting on it," he said. "So, should I pull you out before you get heat stroke, or should I just leave a note for the manager?"
"Don't need help."
"Uh-huh."
Kuro-pon turned his head, although it looked like it took all the strength he had left. "I won't argue if you stay till I can follow."
Well, if the ninja could still sass, he was fine. In. So. Many. Ways.
After blowing one last kiss, their date was definitely and superbly complete. Fai floated straight out the door. He may even have been whistling. It wasn't until after he'd gotten the location of the ship from Kakyou that he noticed the naked lack of anyone following him. He'd been prepared to take a long, winding way with lots of hiding. The ninja shouldn't have needed much longer than him to recover, and Fai had figured it more likely that Kuro-tan would interpret 'gone' as 'off the island', not 'out of the room'.
But he could tell when he was being followed. There was no trace of his would-be pursuer's very distinctive presence. Before he slipped behind a row of trees into a hidden bay, Fai scanned every inch of the scenery for a stealth studmuffin. He may have seen every trick in the book, but he wouldn't put it past Kurogane to write new chapters. For the moment, at least, it looked like the man himself wasn't following him onto the Dragon of Earth.
Fai stopped at the edge of the tide. Not two seconds later, the seas slid away from a metal behemoth rising to meet him. The shell surrounding the ship gave way like a gaping maw. As the masts rose, jagged steel teeth run by gears and venting steam exposed the navigator's deck, and the navigator upon it. Seishirou leaned over the ship's rail, the feather in the hat Hokuto had made for him once upon a time still bobbing on the bastard's head. Fai smiled his utmost lie of pleasantry. The Barrows-guard answered in kind.
A simple word of appreciation for Seishirou's help finding Kamui stuck in Fai's throat. Words, spoken or unspoken, were at the heart of every kind of magic, and this man knew that as well as he did. Fai wouldn't let himself say anything that might put him in the hunter's debt.
Still smiling, the one-eyed man turned away without a word. Just as well.
The bow hatch yawned wide below, opening for Fai to enter as a gangway lowered to his feet -- the very image of a dark passage into oblivion. It was no wonder most of the crew of the Dragon of Heaven chose never to enter when both ships were in port. Looking at the ship from without, no one could forget her crew's ominous reputation. Inside, however, lamps lit the narrow corridors with light as cozy as on any ship, and the smell of frying mackerel wafted out of the mess. Contrary to popular reputation, the Dragon of Earth's crew were largely human -- with debatable exceptions, but Fai considered himself no one to throw stones.
He flinched when he saw the First Mate at the stove. If he could have, he would have passed before Fuuma noticed him, but there was no way. Mirrors never hesitated to reflect.
The man's head turned, and Fai could feel the change that'd come over the young prince's being. When their eyes met, it was Ashura's smile Fai saw, regal and full of secrets. The way he used to smile before he enacted his plan to drown the world in blood. Fai couldn't move an inch, not even to spare both himself and this poor boy the bitter memories.
If it weren't for him, Fuuma would never have to become Lord Ashura's living ghost.
"Fai. I'm glad you could come. It's always a pleasure to see you."
Was it really. Even if Ashura had been here to say it himself, Fai couldn't believe it was true. Less so in the mouth of a man who lived in the shadow of everyone else's wishes.
"Fuuma. We'll set sail immediately. It won't be long before we have Kamui back."
Somewhere under the mask of the Heavens' Demon King, the person Fuuma was meant to be could hear him, Fai hoped, and might appreciate the assurance.
The person Fuuma was right now clucked his tongue, leaving his mackerel to burn on the stove as he strode over to run his fingers through Fai's hair. Kakyou had been right. If Fai weren't at his best, something like that would bring him to his knees. At least he had the bitter comfort that everyone was wrong to claim he'd lost his heart to Kurogane. As long as he saw Ashura's face when he looked at the prince of Kaizuka, the world was safe. His heart still had the monster locked inside.
"That's better," the man said, arranging Fai's bangs around his face. "Your hair practically manages itself. How do you make it look such a wreck when you go out indulging?"
Fai didn't answer. He waited for the guilt to take him, still strong despite the two thousand years since he'd first betrayed his love, and for the memory of Ashura to make whatever man he'd bedded seem inferior by comparison. Once the feeling came, it would pass, and he'd feel like he'd sold himself cheap, but he'd be able to walk away.
The guilt didn't come this time, either, any more than it had claimed him when Kurogane had called his actions a choice. Maybe exhaustion had left him too far gone to care. Without the pain, he wasn't sure what to feel next. He couldn't feel cheap. He didn't even feel sold. The air in the room was like a memory of when he could look at Ashura with his pride intact. He could almost taste the contentment he used to feel. In its own way, this was worse. He'd forgotten he could feel so light, and there was no way it would last.
Prolonging this would do no one any good. Fai locked his gaze on the First Mate's eyes and willed himself to remember that he was talking to Fuuma.
"You'll have to excuse me. I'm quite tired."
He strode down the hallway without looking back. He could never look back. All he wanted was to sleep away his time here so he could wrangle Kamui on the way back. Unfortunately, he didn't make it far before the vessel's captain stepped out of a crosspath to intercept him. Lord Kigai Yuuto's businesslike smile seemed even less reassuring than usual.
"Perfect timing, Your Grace. Satsuki-chan just finished refreshing our air supply."
"Get underway, and run top speed when you hit the deeps. Kurogane is on the island."
"I heard he'd been snooping again."
"I don't know yet how he followed us this far, but nothing is fast enough to follow the Dragon of Earth. I'll be in my cabin. Wake me if there's an emergency before we reach Kamui."
"Sweet dreams," Yuuto answered with that saccharine pleasantry that always made Fai want to lock his door and sleep with a knife. He knew it was the captain's attempt at friendliness, but Fai had lived with lies long enough to hear the emptiness inside it.
At least no one else appeared to extend their greetings before he reached his door. There'd be time enough to be social after he'd had some rest.
~//~
He'd have to give Fai this round. 'A hell of a lay' was an understatement. The Dragon of Earth was leaving, no doubt, and Kurogane was only just able to think of moving. But reconnaissance for this trip wasn't a total loss.
He studied the projection his tracker made on surface of the bath: the Pirate King walking around his underwater ship. The hazy image of the Dragon of Earth rising from the deeps had answered his questions about how the ship escaped detection. Now that he knew what to look for, he could find it on his own -- no need to rely on a lucky break like a Pirate King who should've known better than to take trophies.
The homing technique he'd worked on the coat was one he'd learned in Daidouji service -- just a basic trick for finding your things in case you had to drop them during the mission, never meant for surveillance. Then Princess Tomoyo had told him, if his mother's Dreamseer blood really had woken, he might be able to use that link to scry. He hadn't figured it to work. When it did, all he'd expected was a trap, not to find his coat on Fai's back. If luck came in threes, it'd stay there as long as the blond thought Kurogane wanted to take it away. Though honestly, it looked good on the pirate, and he didn't need it for anything else. He might let Fai keep it.
He wouldn't call this trick equal to a real look around the ship anyway, at least not yet. No way to know if he'd ever have the skill to make it worthwhile. Right now, he couldn't get a clear picture more than a few feet out from the blond.
Absent any detail on the Dragon of Earth, he studied Fai's face. His smile had turned thin when he'd talked to the man in the purple coat -- the one Death Shirou had called Fuuma when Kurogane last ran into this ship, the name he'd heard in the conversation His Majesty'd had on the balcony. Something hadn't been right with that kid. Kurogane could've sworn he saw the shadow of another face hovering over his features. Nothing he could make out.
And he couldn't remember the kid's proper face when Fai walked off. The feeling wasn't natural -- he didn't forget things like that.
Shivering despite the steaming water, Kurogane watched the King brush off a taller blond whose face he had no trouble remembering, then head to a stark room with a single berth. Hell of a luxury, getting a room to himself on two different ships, but perks would come with the title, and he seemed to like taking his callers behind closed doors.
Although, this bed looked as small as the one on the Dragon of Heaven. Kurogane knew for a fact that two bodies couldn't have lain the night easily there. If he'd been arranging things for his pleasure, he could've had four more inches that'd've made all the difference. But with the way the blond shied away from tenderness, it made sense he'd sleep alone.
Funny. The last two weeks, he couldn't picture the man without a bedwarmer. Looking at him now, Kurogane couldn't imagine him giving a lover the privilege.
The painted-on smile broke to neutral once no one was watching. The boots came off. The coat didn't. Fai trailed his fingers down the placket like he meant to toss it aside, but pulled it to his neck again, holding it tight to his skin. Like feeling a knife slip under his ribs, Kurogane knew he was gone. He had too many opinions on how the blond smiled to pretend this wasn't turning personal. This smile was something Kurogane figured he'd never see when Fai knew someone was watching. It was too subtle, nothing but a lift of his cheek pulling his lip out of tired nothingness to something lighter. It couldn't even stand up to Fai looking in the mirror.
As the pirate combed his fingers into his hair, riling it into disorder, a sadness fell on him that Kurogane could believe was the weight of two thousand years. He would've missed seeing it if he'd blinked. Fai tumbled into the bed the same instant, burying his face in the sheets.
Pushing the water in a wave across the bath, Kurogane broke the scrying link. The man wanted privacy. So did a lot of people ninja spied on, but this one, this time, was going to get it. Besides, Kurogane knew he needed some rest of his own while he could get it -- and a chance to decide how much his feelings were compromising his judgement. The pirate may have warned him off, but a bad idea didn't get any better by acting like it didn't exist.
Final chapter: Pina Colada
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AUTHOR'S NOTE
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Thanks as always to
sumeria for her beta help. This universe would never work without it. One chapter and one side story to go on this -- then a new story starts at Christmas time!
This entry was originally posted at http://psiten.dreamwidth.org/111725.html. Please comment there using OpenID.
I: Rum & Popcorn, II: Talk Like a Pirate Day, III: Slings and Arrows, and IV: You Got It.
This series is a broad "Pirates vs. Ninjas" alternate universe comprised of short, multi-chapter stories that can each be read on their own. They are, however, also coherent if you decide start at the beginning and some may prefer them that way. While I'm still doing housekeeping my Dreamwidth journal, intermediate chapters may continue to point to LiveJournal.
TITLE: Dark and Stormy
CHAPTER: 11 of 12 - "Dulce Veneno" (Explicit version - the edited version is over here.)
SERIES: Tsubasa Reservoir Chronicle, xxxHoLic, X, Tokyo Babylon, Magic Knight Rayearth, WISH, Card Captor Sakura, Angelic Layer, Clover.
PAIRING: Kurogane x Fai D. Fluorite, main, with references in this month's four chapters to Sakurazuka Seishirou x Sumeragi Subaru, Lantis x Shidou Hikaru x Eagle Vision, Doumeki Shizuka x Watanuki Kimihiro, Arisugawa Sorata > Kishuu Arashi, Ashura x Fai D. Fluorite... Am I missing anything? Probably not anything significant. Other chapters may vary. And if you ever wanted Shiro Kamui & Shidou Hikaru friendfic, here you go!
DISCLAIMER: Everything in the CLAMP Megaverse was originally created by CLAMP. They are entirely to blame for creating a system of crossovers that do not easily disclaim. Characters have been adapted without authorization or approval, and I am making no profit from their use.
WARNINGS: 1) Pirates. 2) Ninjas. 3) Mild lunacy. 4) Sexual situations and dialogue with dominance themes. 5) Fluffy Schmoop -- in the same scene!
RATING: R, for language and sex.
SUMMARY: A full-scale pirate rebellion in Sorata's home fleet finds the Dragon of Heaven in a sea battle, Kamui in a race with an elite ninja team for a legendary artifact, and Fai... on a date?
PREVIOUSLY: Mai Tai :: Coco Rosa :: Hurricane :: Mojito :: Sex on the Beach #13 (Explicit) (Edited) :: Swordfish :: Lucky 7 (Explicit-ish) (Edited) :: Cradle of Life (Explicit) (Edited) :: Daiquiri :: Le Citron d'Or (Explicit) (Edited) :
- Pour 2 oz. dark or spiced rum over ice.
- Add 8 oz. ginger beer (preferably the sort that explodes if you're not careful -- conventional ginger ale, if you must).
- Stir.
[DULCE VENENO]
- Add one part amaretto and one part caramel liqueur to two parts gold rum.
- Shake with 1 tsp. condensed milk, 2 dashes Angostura bitters, and a handful of ice.
- Strain into an old fashioned glass filled with ice.
- Drink with a straw.
As Kuro-sama sank to his knees, the arousal he'd left in the bed crashed down on him, taking his breath away. Fai's grip on the railing was all that kept him upright. The tongue running over his cock left him unfit for anything more complex than a moan. The night had left him aching. Now the solid heat of his blood under the morning sun was desperate for release his lover might still deny. Fai tried to drive the searing pleasure stealing through his skin out to its conclusion, but he knew it wouldn't happen. Not without permission.
"I need to... please, say I--" His words died in a gasp as the ninja circled his fingers over the head of his cock.
"Next time I swallow you down, I want you to come in my mouth. Show me what a little brewing does to your flavor."
"Ah!" was all the agreement Fai could manage.
It felt like a lifetime waiting for Kuro-sama to lick his way up from his balls, along his shaft, but once he was deep inside his lover's mouth, he had no trouble obeying. One sharp shot lashed from his toes to his head, flashing lights behind his closed eyes. If he was flying or falling, he couldn't tell, until the ninja caught him on his way to the ground.
He was still shaking. Every brush of his lover's hands made an aftershock, as if the wanting built up in his skin hadn't been spent -- just shaken till it was ready to ignite.
Fai bit at the man's lip, speaking in groans his Kuro-sama must've understood. His lover dragged him to his feet, and pushed him around to face the railing. Wrestling back his muscle control, Fai hooked one leg on the rail and braced his arms as a sweat-soaked chest curled against his back. He didn't want to fall again, not with the stakes on the table. Fingers that seemed to know his body like a well-worn book teased him open. It was easy. The warm, solid cock he'd wanted all night pushed in like a hand in a glove.
The ninja stayed there, filling him up, as he nipped down the back of Fai's neck. "Let's hear you beg one last time, Your Majesty."
Laughing off the lingering waves of ecstasy, Fai settled against the pressure making him all tingly inside. "Ooh, ooh, me! Pick me!"
"You're one big put-on," he said. But Fai felt a smile through the grimace pressed into his skin, and the delicious friction of his lover sliding out till only the tip teased the cleft of his ass.
"Mmm. Am I? Well. There once was a ninja from Suwa..." He gasped at another push, this one fast and hard. Through the slow retreat, he struggled to recite his poem instead of just moaning incoherently. "With... teeth like a wild barracuda... But his treacle-and-tart... Ah!" Fai shuddered, pushing back on the hands squeezing his ass and on everything suddenly inside again. "Is... my favorite part..." The panting breaths he didn't fight pulled his voice into a rougher register. "Wh-when... he thrusts it... I shout, 'Ha-'... A-ah..." His body tremored around one more surge and one more pull. "God fucking damn it! Do it harder!"
That slow roll of their bodies slipping apart shot excruciating bliss straight up his spine. He wanted to lose himself in it, but he couldn't. Like a parched man tortured by drops of water falling on his tongue, Fai was aware of every shift. He felt the thrill until he couldn't take feeling any more, and thought his body might shake apart.
"You want it fast, huh? You told me slow before."
"Less... memory... more... fucking."
The maddening rhythm never let up, no matter what he screamed, no matter how he cajoled, reaching his hands back to tangle in the ninja's hair. His body convulsed until rapture pushed out all his ability to want anything but this. He fell back onto his lover's shoulder, feeling like orgasm was exploding out of every speck of his body, from his bones to his fingernails to the sweat dripping off of his hair. After his screams faded into the sunbeams, his voice settled to formless moans as the haze in his mind shuddered away through the quaking of his limbs.
He hadn't even realized when Kuro-sama had reached around to work his cock again. But through eyelids fluttering open, he feasted on the sight of a battle-hardened hand falling to his thigh, caressing his skin with a slick mess trailing behind. Fai found the other hand on his chest, and wove his fingers through the ninja's. His big, strong man leaned into him for help standing as much as he leaned back. The groans on his neck, the heaving chest pressed down his spine, the perfume of hot bodies, the spent cock on its way out, all of it summoned a giggle to Fai's lips that he couldn't explain.
The smack Kuro-rin landed on his ass was entirely the wrong way to stop him laughing, but his ninja had to know that by now. Fai curled into the hollow under his lover's ear, then bit his tongue when he realized he was about to ask, "Where have you been all my life?"
He'd had enough romance. He didn't have enough wits right now to play that game.
Asking, "Is that all you've got?" didn't feel right either.
While he tried to figure out the right way to express his appreciation, he flung himself around, onto the mercy of his lover's kisses. Fai clasped his hands on the ninja's face, overlooking how close a tender embrace felt to the dance they'd fallen into before. He preferred to think about the tongue teasing into his mouth, and his surprise at thinking -- still -- that his Kuro-sama was a better kisser than a fucker. Surely it wouldn't be wrong to miss these kisses when they went separate ways. He'd as soon pretend opera was as good in other places as it was in Vienna.
It didn't mean he was giving up the wild seas for cobblestone streets.
Coming up for air, Fai stroked the trail of red bite marks adorning the canvas of his someone's rugged neck. He purred against his Kuro-sama's lips, "My turn to call the shots," and they slid into the bedroom. The ninja didn't even resist when Fai tumbled him to the ground.
A very handsome man. He'd thought so at first glance, but from this vantage -- astride his lover's hips, trailing his hands over the shimmer of sunlit sweat -- Fai felt like everything he'd seen before was potential, and now he had fully actualized hotness in his grasp.
Shrugging the soaked waistcoat off his shoulders, he swatted the ninja's hand off his thigh. "Did I say you could have touching?"
"I can watch if you want me to watch," Kuro-sama answered, smirking as he pulled his hands back to rest his head on.
Fai reached up for the pitcher of jasmine water on the table, then for one of the drinking bowls and the silk handkerchief among his clothes on the floor. He poured the bowl of water in silence, but as he wet the kerchief and washed the sweat from his lover's neck, he let himself sigh in appreciation of the divine sculpture that was man.
"Didn't you say you came here for the hot springs, Your Majesty? Your 'classy private baths' are just ten feet away."
As if he'd forgotten about them, Fai looked at the doorway on the far side of the bed, steam from the stone pools filling the air. Then he rewet his cloth and stroked his lover's collarbones. "They'll get their chance to clean you up. Later. Right now, I want to do it."
"Wouldn't say no to that."
"Didn't think you would."
He met the ninja's gaze for as long as he dared before he flirted his eyes away. Fai played a quite convincing, 'shy and embarrassed', if he did say so himself. It felt almost real, between the hot shivers running up his neck and the moment's hesitation when his sidelong glance found Kuro-sama's eyes still locked on his lips. He hadn't planned that. Though it didn't get in the way of the plan, either.
Kuro-sama had every right to be proud of his stamina, but it'd only last as long as he had self-control to manage it. There were thousands of ways to strip a man's self-control. If the ones Fai had already tried hadn't succeeded, well...
Try, try again.
He'd get there no matter how long it took, and he'd definitely enjoy the process.
~//~
Sailing west from Chizeta, Lantis meditated on how Eagle's boat outran the dawn. Every hour they came to the surface to refresh the air, and the sun had dropped closer to the horizon. After seven stops, the day had unmade itself. They zipped through inky waters toward the goal, with their only light the blue beacon shining from Lady Yuuko's mechanism.
Thinking about things like that kept him from imagining what could have happened to Hikaru. He had Hikaru's own competence and Yuuko's word to assure him she was safe, but he'd seen too many competent people hurt in situations that should have been safe. Filling his mind with that would help no one.
The other three people on the FTO had their own coping methods.
"Action, Attribute, Object, Being, or Immaterial Concept?" Umi asked Fuu. Their games of 20 Questions had long since left, 'Animal, Vegetable, or Mineral' behind.
"Hmm. That's difficult," the girl with the glasses answered, tapping her lip. "It's possible to treat it as an object, but I think Immaterial Concept is closer to describing its true nature."
"Is it music?" Eagle asked. Lantis narrowed his eyes at his lover's constant mission to be an ass, but Eagle wasn't sorry. Running out the 20 Question limit was how he said he didn't care about winning, so you didn't have to watch for him cheating or stabbing you in the back.
"No," Fuu told him.
Umi took the next question. "Is it something invented by people?"
"Yes."
Eagle guessed, "True love?"
"No."
"Can it be bought?"
Fuu pursed her lips at her blue-haired friend. "Well. It's certainly possible to pay for an experiential instance, but not the thing itself. I'll say no."
"Is it God?" Eagle tried.
"No."
"Is it a performance?" Umi asked.
"It can be performed, but the nature of the thing is not a performance. No."
With a grin, Eagle declared, "A dinner recipe!"
"No."
The white-haired pirate held out his hand to stop the next question. "I'm reading a storm on the surface. Everyone strap in."
Lantis buckled himself to his seat, but couldn't help noticing Lady Yuuko's beacon turning about as they fought through the rolling seas. Their destination was close. He reached for a rebreather, in case they had to swim for the surface. Eagle and the girls did the same.
"One hundred feet to surface," Eagle said, fingers flying over his controls. Rough water shook the little boat. The metal shell complained as Eagle kept them on course. "Fifty feet."
But as they rose higher, the water stilled. They surfaced, and what should have been hard-breaking waves in howling winds was a light drizzle over seas rolling into equilibrium.
"What was that?" Fuu asked.
"Lucky," Eagle answered. "My instruments show a real mast-breaker moving west, and our beacon is pointing southeast now. Let's find Hikaru before the weather changes its mind."
Pulling a few levers, Eagle sent the FTO along the line of their beacon's blue glow, toward a stretch of rock rising out of the ocean. One outcropping stuck out: a tower of gray stone with a fire blazing atop like a natural lighthouse. Lantis sighed away the breath he'd been half-holding for close to a day. He could tell it was Hikaru from a mile away, safe as promised.
A distorted voice crackled out of the air. "... Come in, Knight Two, Knight Three. This is Knight One..." Lantis couldn't see a source, and it didn't seem to be coming from any direction in particular. The sound was simply there.
"Hikaru?" Umi called out. "Can you hear us?"
"Umi-chan! I can hear you! Are you here?!"
"We see you on top of that outcropping," Eagle said. "We'll meet you on the beach."
"Eagle! I see you! The coast is clear now, so come on in. I'll be right there -- Kamui's been teaching me how he jumps off tall things!"
Half a second later, almost as soon as Lantis focused in on the red-haired figure standing in the flames, Hikaru jumped straight down from the outcropping to the beach. Fire trailed behind her, and she landed in an easy crouch despite the sheer height she'd fallen from. The scowling pirate next to her made his landing on his feet, arms crossed as the feather on his hat fluttered in the breeze. 'Kamui', he assumed -- the one Umi and Fuu had identified as Death Shirou when they'd explained what happened.
His girlfriend was now on friendly terms with one of the most notorious Pirate Lords.
Then again, they'd been together an entire day, and Hikaru was particularly good at that.
"Lantis! Eagle! Fuu-chan! Umi-chan!"
Shirou's scowl turned into a snarl behind her. "Eagle! I knew it! It was you!"
"Hello, Kamui. How's life treating you?"
"Like Clow Reed shot me out of a volcano to a frozen island in the ass-end of nowhere while my crew is fighting a war on the other side of the planet. Thanks so much for asking!"
Lantis caught Hikaru as she leapt over the waves. He didn't think anyone else saw the smile he hid in her hair. Eagle might have been able to see when he closed in, but that didn't count. Eagle would have known anyway.
"I knew you guys would come."
"Of course you did."
She dropped down to hug her teammates, fielding five questions from every direction about what had happened -- until Eagle asked, "And really? 'The coast is clear'? Did you think I couldn't pilot through a little storm?"
"Oh, it wasn't the storm," Hikaru answered. "It was the demon fighting the ship in the storm. The crew lassoed the demon and dragged it west, and the storm went with them."
While all the ninja blinked, Eagle turned pale. "Do you know what ship it was?"
"You wouldn't want me to say while I'm standing on your boat."
Eagle turned to his controls and started the air reserves refilling, then burned an image from his instruments to paper to make the map he'd promised Lady Yuuko. Lantis reached down into the water to pull up his price as well -- one rock, smoothed by the waves. Good for a scrying spell, if he knew anything about the Witch. He had a lot of questions, but they'd wait until Hundhammeren. Neither of his lovers seemed likely to discuss what had them worried.
"Would everyone mind taking their seats?" Eagle asked. "We're leaving."
"Not yet, you're not!" the black-clad pirate yelled from the beach.
Splashing back to shore, Hikaru grinned wide enough to terrify her stranded friend. "You mean you're coming with us after all?! I'm sure there's room! Are you going back to Chizeta?"
"No! I mean... yes, but... that's... I'm... I'm not going with you!" The man fended off a hug, but seemed to melt in front of Hikaru's pout. "I don't mean it like that. I just..." He sighed, frowning at the stars over the northern horizon. "I trust my people as much as you trust yours, you know. They're probably on their way now. I want to be here when they show up."
"Okay, then. Tell Yuzuriha-chan hi for me."
"I will. But you're not leaving until we settle who gets that orb!"
Hikaru glanced at the metal earphones in her hand -- which didn't look orb-shaped, but Lantis wasn't one to interject semantics -- then gave the pirate her battle stare. Without a doubt, they could take him if they worked together, but no one on Eagle's boat moved an inch. This looked like a matter of honor. Hikaru would want to fight him alone.
The pirate met her with just as much tenacity as she told him, "Rock, Paper, Scissors."
Lantis had seen pirates kill ninja for less, but this one didn't. He held up his hand and snarled, "Count one, two, three, then throw on 'shoot'."
"One, two, three, shoot!"
Given that Shirou threw paper, which covered Hikaru's rock, Lantis wasn't sure why the pirate was the one who looked upset.
"Is this supposed to be some kind of a trick?!"
Tossing him the earphones, Hikaru smiled. "Most people play Rock. Didn't you know?"
In Shirou's hands, the earphones transformed into a handheld writing desk, and more unexpectedly, feathers started falling from nowhere all around the befuddled young man.
Hadn't Master Clef mentioned something like that, however many years ago? Lantis called back school lessons from long out of mind. Was it that the Dioscuri's orbs matched the will of their bearers, but to claim one or to use it required more power than the world could absorb? Like with casting a top-tier spell, excesses of the bearer's spirit bled into material reality. That sounded like what Clef had said.
The other girls had said that was what Hikaru had been sent to find.
And, now, what she'd just given up to the Pirate King's cohort.
She flicker-stepped into the boat, waving at the man on shore. "See you later, Kamui!"
With that, Eagle sealed the bubble on the FTO and they pushed into the deeps. He ran the engines even harder on their homeward course than he had coming in.
Hikaru dropped onto Lantis's lap, summoning a tiny flame to her hand to dry her socks. The cheery goodbye faded off her face, leaving the iron frown she wore when she had something on her mind. Maybe it concerned whatever questions Eagle wasn't making her answer until they were on land, maybe it was something else.
Lantis pushed a wisp of hair behind her ear. "Are you sure you can leave the orb?"
"Kamui and I agreed on fair terms, and he won. Lady Yuuko can't complain about that. Besides, I figure there's a reason Clow Reed's puzzle chamber chose him." She offered a quiet wince to her team. "Sorry I didn't ask you guys first. This seemed like the right thing to do."
Umi rolled her eyes. "Oh, fine. We forgive you, you silly goose! Although we weren't exactly mad about it."
"No, I was thinking, 'That's so like Hikaru-san!'," Fuu said with a smile.
"Thank you."
"So why don't you help us finish this round of 20 Questions?" the blue-haired girl asked. "Fuu has this round. So far, she says it's an Immaterial Concept that can be made into an object, was invented by people, can be paid for in specific instances but not bought as itself, can be performed but is not a performance, and isn't music, true love, God, or a dinner recipe."
Hikaru clapped, all worries forgotten in sudden brightness.
"I know! It's a riddle, isn't it!"
The blonde giggled into her hand. "Now that Hikaru-san is here, we'll need a new game."
~//~
Steam-filled air filled Fai's lungs so slowly, he couldn't be sure if he was breathing or if the air was seeping through his skin. His Kuro-puu was still breathing, he could tell -- warm sighs stirred Fai's hair. Neither had moved an inch since they'd fallen from their rouse to the side of the pool. Stripping away his ninja's restraint was...
... a lot like fucking a thunderstorm. Only a good idea. This was the best exhaustion he'd felt in years.
But this stillness wasn't cuddling, Fai assured himself.
Just basking in volcano-heated water caressing their skin, the quiet song of birds past the wall, and the curve between his ninja's neck and shoulder where Fai rested his head as if it were made to fit.
And if he'd started thinking like that, he'd stayed too long.
His legs didn't move the first time he tried, but Fai focused on each muscle in turn. Rolling astride Kuro-sama's lap, he smirked at how his lover's eyes complained that his well-earned rest had been disturbed. Fai kissed him, once. And lingered.
"You're not bad, lover. Come try to catch me any time -- after you stop by your castle to tell your princess how well this went."
His opponent tried to hold him as he stepped out of the bath, but the iron grip had melted.
Fai felt accomplished.
He couldn't keep the smile off his face, even though no one was in a position to watch him restock weapons in his entirely fairly won Kuro-nin Coat. Making sure his hands were dry, he tore off half the sticker portraits they'd had done and dropped them in his pocket.
"I'm leaving your stickers on the table, Kuro-kicchi!"
"I'll be back for that coat," the ninja said, finding his voice.
Peeking around the doorway, Fai saw his lover still sprawled, eyes closed, in the hot bath. "I'm counting on it," he said. "So, should I pull you out before you get heat stroke, or should I just leave a note for the manager?"
"Don't need help."
"Uh-huh."
Kuro-pon turned his head, although it looked like it took all the strength he had left. "I won't argue if you stay till I can follow."
Well, if the ninja could still sass, he was fine. In. So. Many. Ways.
After blowing one last kiss, their date was definitely and superbly complete. Fai floated straight out the door. He may even have been whistling. It wasn't until after he'd gotten the location of the ship from Kakyou that he noticed the naked lack of anyone following him. He'd been prepared to take a long, winding way with lots of hiding. The ninja shouldn't have needed much longer than him to recover, and Fai had figured it more likely that Kuro-tan would interpret 'gone' as 'off the island', not 'out of the room'.
But he could tell when he was being followed. There was no trace of his would-be pursuer's very distinctive presence. Before he slipped behind a row of trees into a hidden bay, Fai scanned every inch of the scenery for a stealth studmuffin. He may have seen every trick in the book, but he wouldn't put it past Kurogane to write new chapters. For the moment, at least, it looked like the man himself wasn't following him onto the Dragon of Earth.
Fai stopped at the edge of the tide. Not two seconds later, the seas slid away from a metal behemoth rising to meet him. The shell surrounding the ship gave way like a gaping maw. As the masts rose, jagged steel teeth run by gears and venting steam exposed the navigator's deck, and the navigator upon it. Seishirou leaned over the ship's rail, the feather in the hat Hokuto had made for him once upon a time still bobbing on the bastard's head. Fai smiled his utmost lie of pleasantry. The Barrows-guard answered in kind.
A simple word of appreciation for Seishirou's help finding Kamui stuck in Fai's throat. Words, spoken or unspoken, were at the heart of every kind of magic, and this man knew that as well as he did. Fai wouldn't let himself say anything that might put him in the hunter's debt.
Still smiling, the one-eyed man turned away without a word. Just as well.
The bow hatch yawned wide below, opening for Fai to enter as a gangway lowered to his feet -- the very image of a dark passage into oblivion. It was no wonder most of the crew of the Dragon of Heaven chose never to enter when both ships were in port. Looking at the ship from without, no one could forget her crew's ominous reputation. Inside, however, lamps lit the narrow corridors with light as cozy as on any ship, and the smell of frying mackerel wafted out of the mess. Contrary to popular reputation, the Dragon of Earth's crew were largely human -- with debatable exceptions, but Fai considered himself no one to throw stones.
He flinched when he saw the First Mate at the stove. If he could have, he would have passed before Fuuma noticed him, but there was no way. Mirrors never hesitated to reflect.
The man's head turned, and Fai could feel the change that'd come over the young prince's being. When their eyes met, it was Ashura's smile Fai saw, regal and full of secrets. The way he used to smile before he enacted his plan to drown the world in blood. Fai couldn't move an inch, not even to spare both himself and this poor boy the bitter memories.
If it weren't for him, Fuuma would never have to become Lord Ashura's living ghost.
"Fai. I'm glad you could come. It's always a pleasure to see you."
Was it really. Even if Ashura had been here to say it himself, Fai couldn't believe it was true. Less so in the mouth of a man who lived in the shadow of everyone else's wishes.
"Fuuma. We'll set sail immediately. It won't be long before we have Kamui back."
Somewhere under the mask of the Heavens' Demon King, the person Fuuma was meant to be could hear him, Fai hoped, and might appreciate the assurance.
The person Fuuma was right now clucked his tongue, leaving his mackerel to burn on the stove as he strode over to run his fingers through Fai's hair. Kakyou had been right. If Fai weren't at his best, something like that would bring him to his knees. At least he had the bitter comfort that everyone was wrong to claim he'd lost his heart to Kurogane. As long as he saw Ashura's face when he looked at the prince of Kaizuka, the world was safe. His heart still had the monster locked inside.
"That's better," the man said, arranging Fai's bangs around his face. "Your hair practically manages itself. How do you make it look such a wreck when you go out indulging?"
Fai didn't answer. He waited for the guilt to take him, still strong despite the two thousand years since he'd first betrayed his love, and for the memory of Ashura to make whatever man he'd bedded seem inferior by comparison. Once the feeling came, it would pass, and he'd feel like he'd sold himself cheap, but he'd be able to walk away.
The guilt didn't come this time, either, any more than it had claimed him when Kurogane had called his actions a choice. Maybe exhaustion had left him too far gone to care. Without the pain, he wasn't sure what to feel next. He couldn't feel cheap. He didn't even feel sold. The air in the room was like a memory of when he could look at Ashura with his pride intact. He could almost taste the contentment he used to feel. In its own way, this was worse. He'd forgotten he could feel so light, and there was no way it would last.
Prolonging this would do no one any good. Fai locked his gaze on the First Mate's eyes and willed himself to remember that he was talking to Fuuma.
"You'll have to excuse me. I'm quite tired."
He strode down the hallway without looking back. He could never look back. All he wanted was to sleep away his time here so he could wrangle Kamui on the way back. Unfortunately, he didn't make it far before the vessel's captain stepped out of a crosspath to intercept him. Lord Kigai Yuuto's businesslike smile seemed even less reassuring than usual.
"Perfect timing, Your Grace. Satsuki-chan just finished refreshing our air supply."
"Get underway, and run top speed when you hit the deeps. Kurogane is on the island."
"I heard he'd been snooping again."
"I don't know yet how he followed us this far, but nothing is fast enough to follow the Dragon of Earth. I'll be in my cabin. Wake me if there's an emergency before we reach Kamui."
"Sweet dreams," Yuuto answered with that saccharine pleasantry that always made Fai want to lock his door and sleep with a knife. He knew it was the captain's attempt at friendliness, but Fai had lived with lies long enough to hear the emptiness inside it.
At least no one else appeared to extend their greetings before he reached his door. There'd be time enough to be social after he'd had some rest.
~//~
He'd have to give Fai this round. 'A hell of a lay' was an understatement. The Dragon of Earth was leaving, no doubt, and Kurogane was only just able to think of moving. But reconnaissance for this trip wasn't a total loss.
He studied the projection his tracker made on surface of the bath: the Pirate King walking around his underwater ship. The hazy image of the Dragon of Earth rising from the deeps had answered his questions about how the ship escaped detection. Now that he knew what to look for, he could find it on his own -- no need to rely on a lucky break like a Pirate King who should've known better than to take trophies.
The homing technique he'd worked on the coat was one he'd learned in Daidouji service -- just a basic trick for finding your things in case you had to drop them during the mission, never meant for surveillance. Then Princess Tomoyo had told him, if his mother's Dreamseer blood really had woken, he might be able to use that link to scry. He hadn't figured it to work. When it did, all he'd expected was a trap, not to find his coat on Fai's back. If luck came in threes, it'd stay there as long as the blond thought Kurogane wanted to take it away. Though honestly, it looked good on the pirate, and he didn't need it for anything else. He might let Fai keep it.
He wouldn't call this trick equal to a real look around the ship anyway, at least not yet. No way to know if he'd ever have the skill to make it worthwhile. Right now, he couldn't get a clear picture more than a few feet out from the blond.
Absent any detail on the Dragon of Earth, he studied Fai's face. His smile had turned thin when he'd talked to the man in the purple coat -- the one Death Shirou had called Fuuma when Kurogane last ran into this ship, the name he'd heard in the conversation His Majesty'd had on the balcony. Something hadn't been right with that kid. Kurogane could've sworn he saw the shadow of another face hovering over his features. Nothing he could make out.
And he couldn't remember the kid's proper face when Fai walked off. The feeling wasn't natural -- he didn't forget things like that.
Shivering despite the steaming water, Kurogane watched the King brush off a taller blond whose face he had no trouble remembering, then head to a stark room with a single berth. Hell of a luxury, getting a room to himself on two different ships, but perks would come with the title, and he seemed to like taking his callers behind closed doors.
Although, this bed looked as small as the one on the Dragon of Heaven. Kurogane knew for a fact that two bodies couldn't have lain the night easily there. If he'd been arranging things for his pleasure, he could've had four more inches that'd've made all the difference. But with the way the blond shied away from tenderness, it made sense he'd sleep alone.
Funny. The last two weeks, he couldn't picture the man without a bedwarmer. Looking at him now, Kurogane couldn't imagine him giving a lover the privilege.
The painted-on smile broke to neutral once no one was watching. The boots came off. The coat didn't. Fai trailed his fingers down the placket like he meant to toss it aside, but pulled it to his neck again, holding it tight to his skin. Like feeling a knife slip under his ribs, Kurogane knew he was gone. He had too many opinions on how the blond smiled to pretend this wasn't turning personal. This smile was something Kurogane figured he'd never see when Fai knew someone was watching. It was too subtle, nothing but a lift of his cheek pulling his lip out of tired nothingness to something lighter. It couldn't even stand up to Fai looking in the mirror.
As the pirate combed his fingers into his hair, riling it into disorder, a sadness fell on him that Kurogane could believe was the weight of two thousand years. He would've missed seeing it if he'd blinked. Fai tumbled into the bed the same instant, burying his face in the sheets.
Pushing the water in a wave across the bath, Kurogane broke the scrying link. The man wanted privacy. So did a lot of people ninja spied on, but this one, this time, was going to get it. Besides, Kurogane knew he needed some rest of his own while he could get it -- and a chance to decide how much his feelings were compromising his judgement. The pirate may have warned him off, but a bad idea didn't get any better by acting like it didn't exist.
Final chapter: Pina Colada
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AUTHOR'S NOTE
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Thanks as always to
sumeria for her beta help. This universe would never work without it. One chapter and one side story to go on this -- then a new story starts at Christmas time!
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