Fic: Shou-chan in Wonderland, Part 2 (Ruki X Shou, NC-17)
Title: Shou-chan in Wonderland
Chapter: 2/4
Authors: aleksiina_26, puss_nd_boots (This chapter by puss_nd_boots)
Rating: NC-17
Pairing: For this chapter, RukiXShou, but there are many more to come…
Genre: Fantasy, smut, romance, some humour
Warning: Male x male sex (including toys and mirrors in this part), foul language, adult themes.
Disclaimer: We sadly don't own the boys…if only! The story is ours though…
Summary: After a long day of rehearsal the day before Alice Nine's famed Budokan show, all that Shou needs is a little sleep. Easier said than done when some fantasy characters are hell bent of preventing him from getting the rest he deserves…
Notes: This is the second part of our collaboration series inspired by Alice in Wonderland and, to at least some extent, Clamp’s Miyuki-chan in Wonderland. The series is set in the middle of my second Stargazer fic, Starlight: The Glittering Sea of the Night Sky, in which Shou is about to play Budokan with Alice Nine, but is in denial about his love for Hiroto - although that love is starting to get under his skin and invade his dreams . . . By the way, if you’ve never seen GazettE’s Cockroach PV, you may want to watch it before reading this fic. Trust me. ~_^
Part 1
Once upon a time, a fair young man, exhausted from preparing for the experience of a lifetime (read, playing Budokan), found himself with a rather interesting visitor in the middle of the night - a White Squirrel, who stole his phone and disappeared into the closet. Following him, our hero found himself falling through the bottom of his closet, down a hole and into a strange new world. He encountered a certain Saga the Caterpillar, who offered him information for a price of pleasure. The price was paid in a most enjoyable manner for both, during which the Caterpillar became a Butterfly - but all the Caterpillar offered in return was advice to find a man who walks along a wall. And so, we rejoin our hero as he sets out on this new quest . . .
Shou felt like he was wandering aimlessly through this strange, new world. Of course, he’d felt pretty aimless ever since he got here. Well, except the encounter with the Caterpillar. Butterfly. Whatever. There was nothing at all aimless about that.
And all it had gotten him was advice to go find someone else. Not that the encounter itself had exactly been unpleasant. In fact, thinking about it made a very pleasant warmth fill his whole body, as if the other man (Caterpillar? Butterfly?) were still touching him, and kissing him, and . . .
And he’d better stop thinking in that direction and find this Humpty Dumpty, or else he’d be lost in Bizarre World for the rest of his life. Yes, he’d found out the wall-walking man’s name from some kind of blob that rolled around the ground like a giant wad of jello - until it bumped into him and said “Excuse me.”
Okay so if the wall-man was called Humpty Dumpty, he should be some sort of huge egg with arms and legs - kind of like an ad for a coffee shop?
There was a long brick wall at the side of the path he was on, all right. But there was no egg creature on it. There were, however, a few strange things. Like a small mouse scurrying along the top with very bouffant blonde hair, a tight, low-cut dress, and . . .an ample bosom. Yes, it had a human-looking chest. He stood there, blinking.
A bird flew past him, covered with plumage of all the colors of the rainbow and sporting an enormous, equally colorful beak. It opened said beak and said, “What are you staring at? Haven’t you ever seen a titmouse before?”
Shou jumped. “A what?”
The bird shook its head, the beak sweeping side to side, and Shou leaped out of the way to avoid getting knocked head over heels. Serious injury in a place like this was not something that exactly sounded appealing.
“Look, you’re a weirdo,” the bird said. “What the hell is it you’re looking for? You’re staring at the wall like you expect something to sprout out of it.”
“Actually, I’m trying to find Humpty Dumpty,” Shou said.
The bird swept its beak again, and Shou ducked. He didn’t exactly feel like being decapitated, thank you.
“Over there,” he said. “Can’t miss him.”
Shou looked in the direction the bird indicated, cautiously, and saw . . . well, it wasn’t an egg. It was a person, walking along the wall and singing happily to himself, wearing a hat over his head that did, indeed, look like a giant egg - with some sort of emoticon painted on it to boot.
“Thanks,” he said. “I’ll take it from here” - and he got out of the way before that beak could sweep toward him again.
As he got closer to the figure on the wall, it became apparent that the song he was singing was about Akihibara. So people in this place knew about Tokyo after all. Good, maybe the caterpillar was right about this egg-man being able to send him home.
As he got closer still, the egg-man started to look very familiar indeed. Well, no wonder he was singing about Akihibara. He wasn’t going to know who Shou was, of course - Shou knew that damn well about this place by now.
“Hello,” Shou called. “Are you Humpty Dumpty?”
“Well, yes, sometimes,” the other man replied, stopping and sitting down on the wall with a plunk. “You could just call me Nao if you want, though.”
“Why sometimes?” Shou said.
“Well, sometimes I don’t feel like just walking or sitting on the wall. There’s a lot of things I could be doing, you know. Like talking to plants. I have nice conversations with them.”
“They talk back?” Shou said, looking confused.
“Of course they do,” said Humpty-Nao-Dumpty. “They’d be rude if they didn’t. Cactuses are like that. They seem like nice guys at first, but in the end, they’re . . .” He heaved a deep sigh. “So prickly.”
“Can you ask them how I can get back to Tokyo?” Shou said, looking hopeful. Well, he obviously had some sort of powers of he could converse with plants, right?
Humpty-Nao-Dumpty sat deep in thought for a moment, hands pressed in front of his face. “That information is going to cost you.”
Oh, no, Shou thought, not again. He’s going to ask me for sex like the CaterSagaButterflyPillar did. He didn’t know if he was up to it after the last session. “What do I have to give you?” he said, trying not to sound too apprehensive.
A big grin spread over the other man’s face. “Starbucks!”
Shou blinked. “Starbucks?”
“Yes. Double latte with sugar. And a sprinkle of chocolate on top, if they can do it.”
Shou blinked again. Starbucks? In a place like this? “Where am I going to find . . .”
Humpty-Nao-Dumpty raised his hand and pointed. Shou turned his head in that direction, and saw what looked like a child’s lemonade stand - a simple wooden booth, staffed by a giant lizard in a barista’s apron. And sure enough, over the top of the stand was a banner with the Starbucks logo.
“Damn,” Shou said. “They really are everywhere.”
He walked over to the lizard and ordered the latte, as casually as if he were doing it in Shibuya. The lizard turned around, making the drink, as Shou fished in his pockets. Was he miraculously going to have whatever was used for money here? No, all he was coming up with was regular yen.
When the lizard returned with the drink, Shou said, “Do you take credit cards?”
The thing turned its head, quizzically. “Credit cards?” it said in a gravelly voice.
“This is the only money I have,” Shou said, holding up 500 yen.
“It’ll do,” the lizard said, snatching the currency from his hand. Shou didn’t wait to see if there would be any change. (He doubted there would be - after all, it was a Starbucks). He just turned around and rushed back to the man on the wall.
“Thanks,” Humpty-Nao-Dumpty said, taking the cup from Shou. “You got nothing for yourself?”
Shou shook his head. “Don’t need the caffeine.”
“You don’t know what you’re missing.”
Shou watched as the egg-hatted man made short work of the drink. When it was done, he leaned back, sighing in bliss as he wiped foam off his face.
“That’s fabulous,” he said. “There’s nothing in this world like a good cup of Starbucks.”
“Um . . . can you tell me how to get back to Tokyo now?” Shou said. “There’s somewhere very important I have to be.”
“Not yet, not yet,” Humpty-Nao-Dumpty said. “There’s one more thing you need to do for me.”
“One more?” Oh, no, Shou thought, I’m not off the hook yet.
“Ramen!” Humpty-Nao-Dumpty said, a big smile on his face.
“But I don’t know where to get . . .” Humpty-Nao-Dumpty was pointing again, and he followed the finger once more.
There was the same wooden booth, the same lizard, only this time the Starbucks logo had been replaced by a picture of a bowl of ramen, and the lizard’s green apron had been exchanged for a white one.
“I’ll be right back,” Shou sighed.
This time, the food cost him 1000 yen. He handed over the bill with another sigh, and carefully carried the ramen back to the man on the wall,
He stood rather impatiently as Humpty-Nao-Dumpty ate the noodles. What was he going to ask for next? Taiyaki? Onigiri? Harajuku crepes? He just hoped he got the information before he ran out of money.
Finally, the man put the bowl down and leaned back with a contented sigh, patting his stomach. “Okay - I’m fine for now. Of course, I’ll be hungry again in a couple of hours . . .”
Oh, God, was he going to have to wait around for hours? “Please . . . can you tell me . . .”
“What was I supposed to be telling you again?”
“Tokyo. I want to get back to Tokyo.”
“Oh, yes, Tokyo,” Humpty-Nao-Dumpty said. “Well, you’re going to have to ask the Mad Hatter about that.”
He was getting the runaround yet again? “But I thought you knew how to get back! You were singing about it before!”
“Singing about what?” Humpty-Nao-Dumpty looked genuinely baffled.
“Tokyo! You were singing about Akihibara when I arrived here!”
“Oh, that,” Humpty-Nao-Dumpty said. “Akihibara is a legendary place. I like to pretend that I visit it all the time.”
“You mean . . . you really don’t know?”
“Like I said - ask the Mad Hatter. He knows about those kind of things. I don’t.”
Shou facepalmed. He’d been had again. Moral of story, don’t trust anybody singing about Tokyo. “All right. Where do I find this Mad Hatter?”
“Follow the mouse, of course,” said the man on the wall.
Oh, no - was Shou going to encounter that titmouse again? “What mouse?”
“That one,” Nao said, pointing to a spot on the ground. “On the motorcycle.”
Shou looked down - and sure enough, there was a tiny little motorcycle zooming past him, ridden by a mouse that had a leather jacket and a shock of blond hair. This one appeared to be male.
It had one more unusual feature, other than the hair and jacket. There was some kind of cloth band across its nose.
“Go,” Humpty-Nao-Dumpty said. “You don’t want it to get too far away, do you?”
Oh, this had better be worth it. This had better not be another dead end, another wild goose chase . . . “Thank you,” he called over his shoulder, taking off after the mouse.
Fine, he’d just go with it. This day was getting curiouser, and curiouser, and curiouser still.
* * *
By the time the mouse approached something resembling a building, Shou knew he wasn’t going to have to go running for a few days. He felt like he’d covered a marathon and a half - and the terrain wasn’t always kind to his bare feet, either.
The building in question looked like an old English tavern, with a wooden slate hanging above the doorway saying, “TEA PARTY.” It was decorated with an image of a steaming teakettle. The mouse parked his motorcycle next to the door, leaning it against the wall, and walked toward the door - which had a little swinging door built into the bottom of it for mice.
Shou opened the door and stepped through, and what met his eyes wasn’t exactly a quaint pub. No, it looked more like a rock-and-roll bar in America, with hubcaps and neon signs on the walls, and a long bar lined with all manner of bottles. Shou didn’t want to think what might be inside them, given what this place was like.
The mouse walked toward a long table in the corner of the room - and suddenly, it started to grow, and morph, and change. The torso lengthened, the paws grew into arms and legs, the head sprouted a neck and grew more blond hair, clothes appeared on the body . . .
When the mouse turned around, it had become a man wearing a sleeveless black shirt with a silver collar, a couple of wide silver belts and studding around his shoulders - oh, and the band still around his nose. His original species was evident, however, in the large mouse ears protruding from the top of his head, and the tail emerging from his pants.
“Just why the hell were you following me?” he said to Shou.
Shou just stood there, tongue-tied. After growing and shrinking himself, and seeing Saga turn into a butterfly, this shouldn’t surprise him. Hell, nothing should surprise him at this point. Familiar-looking person? Check. Something bizarre happening? Check. Yep, this had all the earmarks of everything else that had happened since that fateful plunge through the bottom of the closet.
“I . . .” he said. “I was looking for . . .”
But then, he felt something brush past his legs - another mouse, which promptly morphed into another man, sporting the same ears and tail - and a couple of prominent piercings on his mouth. “Looking for someone?” he said. “So who sent you here? We don’t accept strangers at this party.”
“I was sent here by . . .” But this time, he was nearly knocked off his feet by . . . rabbits? Yes, there were two rabbits hopping past him, one golden-furred, the other black. He was starting to see the pattern emerge here. He barely blinked when the golden one jumped in the air, morphing into a familiar willowy figure - right down to the short-shorts with garters. And, of course, the rabbit ears were still sprouting from his head. Shou was sure there was a bunny tail there, but he wasn’t going to look for it.
“Where did he come from?” he asked the others.
“I was told to come here,” Shou said. “I’m looking for . . .”
“Looking? You aren’t going to find anything here,” the non-motorcycle mouse said.
“I already did,” Shou said. “I found the four of you.” Out of the corner of his eye, he noticed the black rabbit had morphed into . . . yes, exactly who he thought it would end up being.
“What makes you think we wanted to be found?” said the golden rabbit. The four of them were starting to close in on Shou, like a pack of hyenas surrounding their prey. “We may not really be here, you know.”
“I can see you, can’t I?” Shou said.
“Oh?” The motorcycle mouse suddenly ducked behind the black rabbit. “You don’t see me now, do you?”
“You’re behind him, Reita,” Shou said. “Of course I can see you.”
Which just made the mouse jump back into plain sight. “Hey! How do you know my name?”
“Everybody knows your name, Reita,” the black rabbit said, calmly.
“You didn’t know my name until I told you!” the motorcycle mouse retorted.
“You didn’t know mine until I told you, either,” the dark-haired rabbit said.
“That’s not the point!” Reita-Mouse pointed toward Shou. “The point is that HE is here, and he isn’t supposed to be, and he knows my name, and he’s looking for someone, and . . .
“Why are you starting the party without the guest of honor?” came a voice from the doorway.
All heads turned. There stood a figure who was small, but at the same time, he seemed to take up the whole room at once. He was dressed head to food in red velvet, save for the wide black leather lapels of his jacket, rimmed with silver studs. His hair was platinum blond and chin-length, hanging over his face; his lipstick was black and there were dots of colored makeup on his cheek.
And then, there was the hat, which was a marvel in itself. Made of the same red velvet as the suit, it added a good half-foot to its wearer’s non-height. In the middle of it was lacing that looked like it belonged on a corset, and on either side was clumsy cross-stitching that looked like an elementary school student’s first attempt to decorate with thread.
“You’re the Mad Hatter!” Shou said. Well, that was obvious.
The non-motorcycle mouse man reached out and gave Shou a small shove. “That’s Ruki-the-Mad-Hatter to you!”
The Hatter approached, raising a hand. “Aoi . . . back off our guest..”
“Guest?” Aoi-Mouse looked from Shou to Ruki-The-Mad-Hatter and back. “He just barged in on us!”
“And he probably has a reason to be here.” Ruki gestured to the table. “Come, sit down. Join the party.”
When the Hatter sat down, it was the cue for everyone else to sit down as well. Shou settled awkwardly next to the host, looking at the two rabbits opposite him.
“Have some tea,” the Hatter said.
Shou looked around the table, blinking. “I don’t see any tea.”
“That’s because there isn’t any,” Ruki-the-Mad-Hatter said, picking up a sake pitcher instead. He poured glasses for everyone involved, including Shou.
“There never is,” Aoi-Mouse said. “That doesn’t stop him.”
“And who says I need to accept reality?” Ruki said, passing out the cups. “Reality is overrated.”
Shou began thinking he needed the dose of reality right now, what with all this unreality around him. “Thanks for the . . .” He sniffed the cup. It was, indeed, sake - much to his relief. “ . the sake, but really, I’m just here to ask a question.”
“Forty-two,” said the golden rabbit.
Shou looked at him, blinking. “What?”
“That’s the answer to everything in the world,” the rabbit said, before gulping down his sake and holding out his cup for more. “Forty-two.”
“You’re crazy, Uruha,” Aoi-Mouse said.
“Of course, I’m crazy,” Uruha-Rabbit replied, before downing his second cup of sake. “We’re all mad here.”
“Well, if you ask me . . .” said Aoi-Mouse - before there was a loud tweeting noise, and he looked up. “Oooh . . . another one!” A blue bird flew into view, with a chubby head and a bright orange beak - looking not unlike the logo of a certain social media service.
“Sit down, Aoi,” the black rabbit said, calmly.
“Don’t act like you’re the leader, Kai!” Aoi-Mouse said, getting up. “I just need to follow him! Just a little!” And he left the table, chasing after the bird. Shou watched, his face registering confusion.
Ruki-the-Mad-Hatter put a hand on his shoulder. “Don’t mind him,” he said. “Aoi’s a Twitter addict.” He leaned closer to Shou. “But you haven’t told me what a pretty thing like you is doing here.”
Shou swallowed hard. He was being hit on. Again. “Actually, I came here to see you.”
“Oh?” The Hatter leaned toward him some more, the hand - covered with a black fingerless glove - tightening on him. “Tell me more.”
The voice was low and seductive, awakening memories in Shou of evenings backstage, or at an afterparty, that ended in an apartment bigger than what Shou could afford at the time . . .
“Well,” he said, “my name is Shou, and I’m looking for . . .”
And suddenly, the moment was ruined by Aoi-Mouse, still running after the bird, literally crashing into the table, falling on it face-first, sending the pitcher bouncing into the air. Uruha-Rabbit caught it, downed the rest of the contents in two big gulps, and held it out toward the bar, shouting, “Refill!”
“Oi!” Reita-Mouse said. “Look where you’re going!”
“Look where you’re putting a table,” Aoi retorted, sliding back into his seat.
A waiter - a big, waddling walrus - returned with a new pitcher of sake, filling everyone’s glasses before waddling off again. “You interrupted this young man’s story, Aoi,” Ruki said. “He was telling us what he’s doing here.”
“Well, you haven’t told us what you think is the answer to everything in the world,” Reita said.
Shou blinked. “What’s that got to do with . . .”
“Uruha was telling us what he thought the answer to everything in the world is,” Reita-Mouse said. “We need to hear that from Ruki, too.”
“I’ll tell you what it is,” Ruki-the-Mad-Hatter said. He took a deep breath, cleared his throat, drank his sake, and finally spoke. “Da don divi da da don.”
Shou there with his jaw hanging open. “What?”
“Da don divi da da don. Again, da don divi da da don.”
“What the hell does that mean?” Shou nearly spluttered. Back home, in the context of Agony, the nonsense words sounded brilliant. Here, they sounded the opposite.
“Whatever it means to you,” Ruki replied.
Oh, great. At this rate, Shou wasn’t going to get anywhere. “Please, I need to know . . .”
“Wait!” Aoi-Mouse stood up. “I need to say something, too!”
Everyone looked at him. “Well?” Ruki said. “Say it.”
Aoi-Mouse cleared his throat, looked very serious, and said, “Twinkle, twinkle, little bat, how I wonder where you’re at. Up above the world you fly, like a tea tray in the sky.”
Shou blinked. Reita-Mouse grinned. Uruha-Rabbit gulped down his sake and poured out another.
Kai-Rabbit leaned over, hand on Shou’s arm, and said, “I just want to say that I’m sorry about all of this. Really. It’s just that, well, that’s the way things are around here.”
Ruki-the-Mad-Hatter suddenly leaned over, grabbed Shou by the collar of his T-shirt and hauled him backward. “That’s enough of that,” he said. “Cute as the two of you may be together, he’s mine.”
Shou’s head whipped around so fast that he nearly got whiplash. “What do you mean, yours?”
“You came here looking for me, didn’t you? You wanted something from me.”
“I wanted the information on how to get out of this place!” Shou said. “Humpty-Nao-Dumpty said that you would know the way to get back to where I came from.”
“Oh, he did, did he?” Ruki said. Shou looked around the table. The two mice had devious grins - even their tails seemed to be standing at attention in delight. Kai-Rabbit looked a bit fearful. Uruha-Rabbit was looking into the pitcher, trying to decide whether it was time for another refill.
“You know that information doesn’t come for free, do you?” Ruki-the-Mad Hatter said, pulling Shou closer.
And here it was again. He had a feeling he wasn’t going to get away with a price of ramen and lattes this time. “What do I have to do?” he said.
“We’ll discuss this in the back room,” Ruki said, giving a tug on Shou’s arm and calling over his shoulder, “Don’t wait up for me.” Shou found himself dragged across the floor, past tables filled with strange creatures, toward a silver door set in the back wall. As they passed the walrus, the Mad Hatter pulled a couple of coins out of his pocket and flung them at him. “Using the room back there,” he said.
“You always do,” the walrus replied.
Ruki turned the knob, pushed the door open and shoved Shou into the room, closing the door and locking it behind him. Shou looked around, slowly. The walls were covered with some sort of metallic material that looked like crumpled tinfoil. It smoothed out and became a reflective, mirrorlike substance on the wall opposite him, though.
Also pressed up against that wall was a large bed, covered in a metallic silver comforter. Next to it was some sort of chest of drawers. Well, now there was no doubt about the price he was going to have to pay.
“A pretty thing like you in a place like this,” Ruki-the-Mad-Hatter said. “Why do you want to leave?”
“I have to,” Shou said. “I have something very important to do back home, something I’ve waited my whole life for.” He nearly added, “You should understand, you were at the Dome last week” - but this wasn’t Ruki, was it? At least, not the Ruki he knew. In fact, he looked more like Ruki when Shou first met him than the current one. Heck, all his companions had, too. (Well, except Reita. Reita never changed.)
“Are you sure?” the Mad Hatter said. “Maybe you were waiting your whole life to come here.”
“I don’t have time for your riddles!” Shou said. “Please, just tell me what you want me to do to get the information.”
Ruki leaned over toward Shou, and Shou felt the other man’s breath hot on his face. He put his hands on the smaller man’s shoulders, automatically.
“The first thing you can do,” Ruki-the-Mad-Hatter said, in that low, seductive voice Shou knew very well, “is kiss me.”
Shou breathed in sharply through his nose as the other man’s lips softly pressed against his, and he let out a small purr in his throat. There was a nervous fluttering in his stomach, and yet, a trembling of excitement, too.
When that hot, wet tongue probed into his mouth, he opened his lips gladly, fingers running over Ruki’s shoulders and down his arms. Suddenly, it didn’t matter that he’d had that intense sex with Caterpillar-Butterfly-Saga not so long ago - he was feeling the heat flaring up in his body all over again.
He didn’t realize he was sagging in the Mad Hatter’s arms until Ruki’s lips left his and nipped at his earlobe, tongue playing with his earring. “Good boy,” he murmured. “You want this, don’t you?”
“Yes,” Shou said, breathlessly. “Yes, please . . .”
“On the bed,” Ruki said, “and take your clothes off.”
Shou had forgotten that he was here for information. All he cared about was making his way to the bed on wobbly legs and stripping off the ratty T-shirt and sweatpants. Naked, he draped himself across the silver fabric, looking up at his companion.
“Beautiful,” Ruki said, running his still-gloved hand over Shou’s stomach and up to his chest. “Just like I thought you’d be.” He took a nipple in his thumb and forefinger and squeezed gently, making Shou arch up with a loud cry. “You like that?”
“Yes,” Shou moaned.
“Mmm.” Ruki took both nipples in his fingers this time, and Shou writhed, trying to hold back an even louder moan - there were people outside, after all.
“Oh, don’t worry about the sound,” Ruki said. “This room is soundproof - nobody outside can hear. Make all the noise you want - and believe me, you’re going to.”
Shou raised his head. “Ruki? What are you going to do.?”
But the other man had turned away, and went behind the chest of drawers, fumbling in one. “Close your eyes,” he said. “And get on all fours.”
Shou swallowed hard. Now, this was like Ruki. He had always taken full control of their lovemaking. He heard the rustling of cloth, a drawer opening and closing, and then, a finger pressing gently at his entrance, slick with lube.
“Relax,” Ruki said, softly, pushing the finger in. “There’s better things coming.” Shou put his head on his folded arms, willing his whole body to relax, to accept the new intrusion. He wondered if Ruki would be able to tell he’d been with another man not so long ago.
If the Mad Hatter noticed, he didn’t say anything, because he slid in a second finger, moving them in and out slowly. Shou murmured, “Please . . .”
“Be patient, pretty boy,” Ruki said, gently scissoring the fingers. “This will be worth it.”
Shou felt the penetration inside him, moaning as Ruki touched or stroked a sensitive spot - and his earlier activity just proved to make him all the more sensitive. He leaned back against the fingers, wriggling around, trying to get them to touch his sweet spot.
“Eager?” Ruki said, feeling Shou wriggle more against him in response. “Don’t worry, you don’t have to wait any longer.”
Shou braced himself as the fingers slipped out of him, waiting for Ruki to grab his hips, lean over him and fill him with his cock.
Instead, he felt something else push against him. It was smaller than your average cock, and smooth, and . . . rounded?
Ruki leaned over, his lips right against Shou’s ear, and murmured, “Lean back against it.”
Shou did, pushing his hips backward, and felt the toy start to slide into him - and as it went, he realized it was some sort of spherical thing . Then, there was a delicious little shiver as another sphere pushed into him, slightly bigger than the first, and then another, bigger still.
Beads. This toy was made up of some sort of anal beads, mounted on a rigid core that made them easy to thrust. As each one pushed into him, it created another wave of sensation, feeling like something with delicious ridges was moving through him, teasing and tickling everything along the way - not unlike the bumps on Caterpillar-Saga’s cock.
“I like to watch pretty boys like you pleasure themselves,” Ruki said. “Do you like this?”
“Oh, oh, yes,” Shou moaned. What an understatement. The damn thing was driving him mad in the nicest possible way. Every motion was bringing about a new series of little shivers, running from his ass to the tips of his fingers and toes.
“Lean all the way back,” Ruki said, “so you’re upright and sitting on it. I want to watch you fuck yourself on it.”
Shou opened his eyes and looked at the other man. Ruki was as naked as he was now, and without his finery, he looked a lot more like the one Shou knew back home - except still disarmingly younger. “Are you going to . . .”
“Yes, pretty one - I’ll fuck you. But do this first.”
Shou pulled himself into an upright position, and felt Ruki’s hands on his shoulders, guiding him backward. “Like this . . . lean back this way . . .”
The toy was still inside him, and Shou was guided until he felt it impact with something. More like the end of it was fitted into some kind of holder, or brace. There was a click as Ruki fixed it into place.
“Now,” he said, kneeling in front of Shou, “fuck yourself on it. Go on, let me see you . . .”
Shou began to move his hips, pulling back, the beads sliding through his passage, ridges brushing over sensitive spots that made him moan. Oh, this was good - probably the best toy he’d experienced yet, almost as if it were custom-made to fit him.
“Oh, yes, you’re so damn beautiful.” Shou felt Ruki’s fingers starting to brush over his body, running up over his stomach to his chest, then up his neck to the back of his head. He pulled Shou’s head toward him, and Shou leaned in for the kiss, pushing his tongue toward the other man hungrily.
He was starting to grind down on the thing now, thrusting his hips harder and faster, moving around so he could feel those tantalizing beads rub against different nerve endings, sending renewed pulses of pleasure through his body.
Ruki sat back again, his gaze devouring the gorgeous man in front of him, mouth open in passion, skin sweaty and flushed, little pink nipples standing hard against his chest. Oh, he was a sight for sore eyes, all right.
He leaned over and tasted those luscious buds, tongue flicking slowly over the right one, then moving to the left. Shou cried out and gripped the back of his head. “Ruki!”
“Mmm, you’re as delicious as I thought you’d be,” Ruki said. “This feels good, doesn’t it?” He flicked his tongue again, and Shou let out a loud moan, grinding down on the beads, the sharp blast of pleasure from his nipple merging with the intense pulses from his ass, making his whole body feel like it was going to burst into flame.
“What about this?” And Ruki leaned over, eyes still open and focused on Shou, and let the very tip of that skilled, wicked tongue brush lightly over the head of Shou’s cock.
“Aaaah!” Shou cried out. “Ruki, Ruki, I think I might . . .”
Ruki suddenly leaned back up, grabbing Shou’s shoulders and pulling him upward. “None of that,” he said. “You can’t come yet. You’re not going to come until I’m buried deep in your sweet ass.”
“But . . .”
“It will be worth it. Now, off the toy.”
Reluctantly, Shou pulled his hips forward, feeling the beads slide through him as they were removed from his body, shivering and biting his lip to keep from coming. He fell down on the bed, panting, cock still rock-hard and leaking precome.
He could see now what he had been pleasuring himself on. It was, indeed, a series of surgical glass beads on a rigid core. This had been fixed into a round glass base, sort of like a huge paperweight.
Together, the base and the toy gave the appearance of being some sort of bizarre teapot.
“Shou,” Ruki said, “look over there.”
Shou did, and he saw their reflections in the mirrored surface next to them. It brought back strong memories of when his Ruki back home had bent him over in front of the full-length mirror in his bedroom, telling him, “You don’t know how beautiful you are, do you? Watch yourself as I fuck you . .. “
“See how gorgeous you are?” Ruki-the-Mad-Hatter said, sounding so much like Shou’s own Ruki that for a second, he felt disoriented. What was reality and what was fantasy? Was he stuck in a strange world in 2011, waiting to play Budokan if he ever got back, or was he in Ruki’s apartment in 2005, his band preparing for their first anniversary show, PSC telling them they might get a oneman DVD out of it? Were the ensuing years real, or were they all the fantasy of a young man yearning for success?
Was Ruki-the-Mad-Hatter the mad one, or was it him?
An image flickered through his brain of the White Squirrel in his apartment, grabbing his phone and running, and suddenly, everything snapped back into focus. He knew where he was, and why, and . . .
Ruki’s lips were on his neck. “Are you all right?” he said.
Shou turned his head toward his lover-of-the-moment. “You’re not really crazy, are you?” he said.
“Sometimes,” Ruki replied, reaching for the bottle of lube on the bed, “we all have to be.”
Shou watched as Ruki quickly slicked himself, and he drew himself up on all fours, letting the other man pour lube into the cleft of his bottom. He watched in the mirror as Ruki grasped his hips, pressing against him.
“Now, watch,” the other man said as he started to push inside, and Shou kept his eyes focused on the reflection of the other man at first. Yes, he looked like his own Ruki, and felt like him, too, that wonderful cock much bigger than one would expect of a man of short stature.
It pushed into him, and filled him, rubbing against all those nerve endings made sensitive by the toy and by Saga, and Shou leaned back, welcoming the invasion, wanting to take in all of him that he could.
“See your face?” Ruki murmured. “See how much you want this?”
Shou looked at himself in the mirror. He looked like something from a porno, the way his eyes were heavy-lidded with lust, his lips open and panting. If only the fangirls could see him now . . .
“Now, tell me,” the other man said. “Tell me what you want.”
“I want you to fuck me,” Shou said. “Please . . .”
Ruki began to thrust his hips, slowly and gently, and Shou moaned - this was like a tease, a promise of more.
“You feel good,” Ruki murmured. “Like your whole body is gripping me . . .” He moved a little faster, a little harder, and Shou let out another sound. “Do you want more?”
“Yes,” Shou murmured. “Fuck me hard, Ruki . . .”
He felt the other man’s fingers dig into his hips, and that cock pushed in hard and fast, pulling back as Ruki let out long breath, then pushing in again, barely brushing Shou’s prostate, making him let out a long, loud groan.
This was no longer a price, not a sacrifice at all. This was pure mutual pleasure, the two men starting to thrust hard against each other now, Shou pushing back as Ruki pushed forward. The mirror showed the two of them sweating and flushed, hair in wild disarray, black marks from Ruki’s lipstick on Shou’s neck and ear, a picture of beauty on beauty.
Ruki suddenly wrapped his arm around Shou’s waist and pulled them both backward so that Ruki was sitting back on his haunches, Shou riding him. Shou moved down hard on the other man’s cock, feeling it stimulate different nerve endings than before, sending a fresh wave of pleasure through his body.
Good thing the room was soundproof, because Shou was moaning at the top of his lungs, and panting loudly, and crying out his lover’s name. He was trembling on the verge of orgasm, not quite there but feeling like he was going to explode.
As if reading his mind, Ruki murmured in his ear, “Do you want to come?”
“Yes!” Shou cried. “Please, Ruki . . .”
He felt the other man’s hand wrap around his cock, stroking him quickly, while the other hand gently pinched his nipple. Shou threw his head back, and his whole body shook violently as the climax rocketed through him, feeling like his blood had turned to lava. He looked at the mirror and saw his come running down Ruki’s fingers - a hell of a lot of it, especially considering how hard Shou had come before.
He felt a hard thrust into his body, and another, and another - then Ruki cried out as well, burying his face in Shou’s shoulder as he shook with ecstasy. The two of them tumbled to the bed, Shou leaning back so they could share a kiss.
They lay there like that for what seemed like forever, panting, Ruki still inside Shou, both of them reluctant to move. It was as if to move would be to admit that this moment between them was over.
Finally, Ruki slid out and reached for the nighttable. Shou just lay there, eyes closed, feeling the other man gently clean him off with some sort of cloth. When he returned to the bed, Shou snuggled against him, wrapping his arms around the smaller man and relaxing with a contented sigh. He felt Ruki’s lips touch his cheek gently and felt hands stroking his hair.
A long moment later, Shou remembered what he’d come there for, and why he was in this bed to begin with. Oh, hell. Budokan. He had to get back - and Ruki was supposed to be the person who could help him get there.
“Ruki?” he said, softly. “Can you tell me how to get home?”
Ruki opened his eyes and raised his head. “Do you really want to do that?”
“But it’s important that . . .”
“Stay here.” Ruki took Shou’s hand in his and clasped it. “Stay with us. You’d fit in well with my group, and I . . . I wouldn’t mind having you around.”
Shou shook his head. “No. You’re a wonderful lover, and I had fun with all of you” - well, he kind of did, in a crazy and twisted way - “but I really do need to go back. There’s something very important I need to do, like I said.” (And why was there an odd, stray thought rising in the back of his head that he wasn’t just talking about Budokan?)
Ruki nodded, reluctantly. “In that case, you need to go see the Cheshire Tiger.”
Shou suddenly sat upright. Again? This had happened AGAIN? “You don’t know how to get me out?”
Ruki shook his head. “That’s his department, not mine.”
“But you said you had the information, and I needed to pay the price for it!”
“Yes, and directing you to the Cheshire Tiger is information, isn’t it?” He sat up and wrapped his arms around Shou’s waist. “Besides, it wasn’t such a horrible price, was it?”
Shou sighed. Was everyone here going to lure him into bed and then just send him to another person who was going to lure him into bed - unless they just wanted food? But Ruki had a point about the price.
He turned, threw his arms around the other man and said, “No, it wasn’t, Sempai.” Whoops. Automatic pilot.
The Mad Hatter blinked. “Sempai?”
“Never mind,” Shou said, getting off the bed and reaching for his clothes. “Tell me where to find this Cheshire Tiger.”
“Go to where you find tall buildings,” Ruki-the-Mad-Hatter said, getting off the bed himself. Shou looked away just long enough to put his clothes on, and when he looked back, the other man was fully redressed, hat and all, looking like he’d just done nothing more than walk across the bar.
“Tall buildings,” Shou repeated. He walked over to the door, the other man following him. He turned around and leaned over to kiss Ruki one last time, wanting to say, “I’ll see you tomorrow night” - because Ruki had said he was definitely coming to Budokan, just as Shou had been at Tokyo Dome.
But this wasn’t his Ruki, was it?
“Thank you,” Shou said.
“For what?” Ruki said. “The advice, the sex or the tea?”
“There wasn’t any tea,” Shou said.
“There never is,” Ruki replied.
He leaned over and kissed Shou, and Shou opened the door, walking out into the bar - which was now nearly empty. All of Ruki’s gang had gone - except one. Aoi-Mouse had left the table and was now sitting at the bar, drinking alone.
As Shou headed for the front door of Tea Party, he heard the Mad Hatter say to the Mouse, “Are you jealous?”
“What makes you think that?” the Mouse replied in a too-cool voice.
“Just a hunch,” the Mad Hatter replied. “Come with me.”
Shou stepped out into the sunlight, puzzled. Well, this really wasn’t home, was it? Why would Aoi be jealous of Ruki? Aoi was dating Uruha, wasn’t he? Furthermore, why was Uruha sitting next to Kai, and not with . . .
He shook his head, trying to clear it. And if he tried to reconcile this place with home, he was going to end up . . . well, mad as a hatter.
Fine, off to find this Cheshire Tiger. He scanned the horizon, looking for tall buildings. Spotting one, he headed off in that general direction.
He was more determined than ever to get out of this place, or go insane trying.
Chapter: 2/4
Authors: aleksiina_26, puss_nd_boots (This chapter by puss_nd_boots)
Rating: NC-17
Pairing: For this chapter, RukiXShou, but there are many more to come…
Genre: Fantasy, smut, romance, some humour
Warning: Male x male sex (including toys and mirrors in this part), foul language, adult themes.
Disclaimer: We sadly don't own the boys…if only! The story is ours though…
Summary: After a long day of rehearsal the day before Alice Nine's famed Budokan show, all that Shou needs is a little sleep. Easier said than done when some fantasy characters are hell bent of preventing him from getting the rest he deserves…
Notes: This is the second part of our collaboration series inspired by Alice in Wonderland and, to at least some extent, Clamp’s Miyuki-chan in Wonderland. The series is set in the middle of my second Stargazer fic, Starlight: The Glittering Sea of the Night Sky, in which Shou is about to play Budokan with Alice Nine, but is in denial about his love for Hiroto - although that love is starting to get under his skin and invade his dreams . . . By the way, if you’ve never seen GazettE’s Cockroach PV, you may want to watch it before reading this fic. Trust me. ~_^
Part 1
Once upon a time, a fair young man, exhausted from preparing for the experience of a lifetime (read, playing Budokan), found himself with a rather interesting visitor in the middle of the night - a White Squirrel, who stole his phone and disappeared into the closet. Following him, our hero found himself falling through the bottom of his closet, down a hole and into a strange new world. He encountered a certain Saga the Caterpillar, who offered him information for a price of pleasure. The price was paid in a most enjoyable manner for both, during which the Caterpillar became a Butterfly - but all the Caterpillar offered in return was advice to find a man who walks along a wall. And so, we rejoin our hero as he sets out on this new quest . . .
Shou felt like he was wandering aimlessly through this strange, new world. Of course, he’d felt pretty aimless ever since he got here. Well, except the encounter with the Caterpillar. Butterfly. Whatever. There was nothing at all aimless about that.
And all it had gotten him was advice to go find someone else. Not that the encounter itself had exactly been unpleasant. In fact, thinking about it made a very pleasant warmth fill his whole body, as if the other man (Caterpillar? Butterfly?) were still touching him, and kissing him, and . . .
And he’d better stop thinking in that direction and find this Humpty Dumpty, or else he’d be lost in Bizarre World for the rest of his life. Yes, he’d found out the wall-walking man’s name from some kind of blob that rolled around the ground like a giant wad of jello - until it bumped into him and said “Excuse me.”
Okay so if the wall-man was called Humpty Dumpty, he should be some sort of huge egg with arms and legs - kind of like an ad for a coffee shop?
There was a long brick wall at the side of the path he was on, all right. But there was no egg creature on it. There were, however, a few strange things. Like a small mouse scurrying along the top with very bouffant blonde hair, a tight, low-cut dress, and . . .an ample bosom. Yes, it had a human-looking chest. He stood there, blinking.
A bird flew past him, covered with plumage of all the colors of the rainbow and sporting an enormous, equally colorful beak. It opened said beak and said, “What are you staring at? Haven’t you ever seen a titmouse before?”
Shou jumped. “A what?”
The bird shook its head, the beak sweeping side to side, and Shou leaped out of the way to avoid getting knocked head over heels. Serious injury in a place like this was not something that exactly sounded appealing.
“Look, you’re a weirdo,” the bird said. “What the hell is it you’re looking for? You’re staring at the wall like you expect something to sprout out of it.”
“Actually, I’m trying to find Humpty Dumpty,” Shou said.
The bird swept its beak again, and Shou ducked. He didn’t exactly feel like being decapitated, thank you.
“Over there,” he said. “Can’t miss him.”
Shou looked in the direction the bird indicated, cautiously, and saw . . . well, it wasn’t an egg. It was a person, walking along the wall and singing happily to himself, wearing a hat over his head that did, indeed, look like a giant egg - with some sort of emoticon painted on it to boot.
“Thanks,” he said. “I’ll take it from here” - and he got out of the way before that beak could sweep toward him again.
As he got closer to the figure on the wall, it became apparent that the song he was singing was about Akihibara. So people in this place knew about Tokyo after all. Good, maybe the caterpillar was right about this egg-man being able to send him home.
As he got closer still, the egg-man started to look very familiar indeed. Well, no wonder he was singing about Akihibara. He wasn’t going to know who Shou was, of course - Shou knew that damn well about this place by now.
“Hello,” Shou called. “Are you Humpty Dumpty?”
“Well, yes, sometimes,” the other man replied, stopping and sitting down on the wall with a plunk. “You could just call me Nao if you want, though.”
“Why sometimes?” Shou said.
“Well, sometimes I don’t feel like just walking or sitting on the wall. There’s a lot of things I could be doing, you know. Like talking to plants. I have nice conversations with them.”
“They talk back?” Shou said, looking confused.
“Of course they do,” said Humpty-Nao-Dumpty. “They’d be rude if they didn’t. Cactuses are like that. They seem like nice guys at first, but in the end, they’re . . .” He heaved a deep sigh. “So prickly.”
“Can you ask them how I can get back to Tokyo?” Shou said, looking hopeful. Well, he obviously had some sort of powers of he could converse with plants, right?
Humpty-Nao-Dumpty sat deep in thought for a moment, hands pressed in front of his face. “That information is going to cost you.”
Oh, no, Shou thought, not again. He’s going to ask me for sex like the CaterSagaButterflyPillar did. He didn’t know if he was up to it after the last session. “What do I have to give you?” he said, trying not to sound too apprehensive.
A big grin spread over the other man’s face. “Starbucks!”
Shou blinked. “Starbucks?”
“Yes. Double latte with sugar. And a sprinkle of chocolate on top, if they can do it.”
Shou blinked again. Starbucks? In a place like this? “Where am I going to find . . .”
Humpty-Nao-Dumpty raised his hand and pointed. Shou turned his head in that direction, and saw what looked like a child’s lemonade stand - a simple wooden booth, staffed by a giant lizard in a barista’s apron. And sure enough, over the top of the stand was a banner with the Starbucks logo.
“Damn,” Shou said. “They really are everywhere.”
He walked over to the lizard and ordered the latte, as casually as if he were doing it in Shibuya. The lizard turned around, making the drink, as Shou fished in his pockets. Was he miraculously going to have whatever was used for money here? No, all he was coming up with was regular yen.
When the lizard returned with the drink, Shou said, “Do you take credit cards?”
The thing turned its head, quizzically. “Credit cards?” it said in a gravelly voice.
“This is the only money I have,” Shou said, holding up 500 yen.
“It’ll do,” the lizard said, snatching the currency from his hand. Shou didn’t wait to see if there would be any change. (He doubted there would be - after all, it was a Starbucks). He just turned around and rushed back to the man on the wall.
“Thanks,” Humpty-Nao-Dumpty said, taking the cup from Shou. “You got nothing for yourself?”
Shou shook his head. “Don’t need the caffeine.”
“You don’t know what you’re missing.”
Shou watched as the egg-hatted man made short work of the drink. When it was done, he leaned back, sighing in bliss as he wiped foam off his face.
“That’s fabulous,” he said. “There’s nothing in this world like a good cup of Starbucks.”
“Um . . . can you tell me how to get back to Tokyo now?” Shou said. “There’s somewhere very important I have to be.”
“Not yet, not yet,” Humpty-Nao-Dumpty said. “There’s one more thing you need to do for me.”
“One more?” Oh, no, Shou thought, I’m not off the hook yet.
“Ramen!” Humpty-Nao-Dumpty said, a big smile on his face.
“But I don’t know where to get . . .” Humpty-Nao-Dumpty was pointing again, and he followed the finger once more.
There was the same wooden booth, the same lizard, only this time the Starbucks logo had been replaced by a picture of a bowl of ramen, and the lizard’s green apron had been exchanged for a white one.
“I’ll be right back,” Shou sighed.
This time, the food cost him 1000 yen. He handed over the bill with another sigh, and carefully carried the ramen back to the man on the wall,
He stood rather impatiently as Humpty-Nao-Dumpty ate the noodles. What was he going to ask for next? Taiyaki? Onigiri? Harajuku crepes? He just hoped he got the information before he ran out of money.
Finally, the man put the bowl down and leaned back with a contented sigh, patting his stomach. “Okay - I’m fine for now. Of course, I’ll be hungry again in a couple of hours . . .”
Oh, God, was he going to have to wait around for hours? “Please . . . can you tell me . . .”
“What was I supposed to be telling you again?”
“Tokyo. I want to get back to Tokyo.”
“Oh, yes, Tokyo,” Humpty-Nao-Dumpty said. “Well, you’re going to have to ask the Mad Hatter about that.”
He was getting the runaround yet again? “But I thought you knew how to get back! You were singing about it before!”
“Singing about what?” Humpty-Nao-Dumpty looked genuinely baffled.
“Tokyo! You were singing about Akihibara when I arrived here!”
“Oh, that,” Humpty-Nao-Dumpty said. “Akihibara is a legendary place. I like to pretend that I visit it all the time.”
“You mean . . . you really don’t know?”
“Like I said - ask the Mad Hatter. He knows about those kind of things. I don’t.”
Shou facepalmed. He’d been had again. Moral of story, don’t trust anybody singing about Tokyo. “All right. Where do I find this Mad Hatter?”
“Follow the mouse, of course,” said the man on the wall.
Oh, no - was Shou going to encounter that titmouse again? “What mouse?”
“That one,” Nao said, pointing to a spot on the ground. “On the motorcycle.”
Shou looked down - and sure enough, there was a tiny little motorcycle zooming past him, ridden by a mouse that had a leather jacket and a shock of blond hair. This one appeared to be male.
It had one more unusual feature, other than the hair and jacket. There was some kind of cloth band across its nose.
“Go,” Humpty-Nao-Dumpty said. “You don’t want it to get too far away, do you?”
Oh, this had better be worth it. This had better not be another dead end, another wild goose chase . . . “Thank you,” he called over his shoulder, taking off after the mouse.
Fine, he’d just go with it. This day was getting curiouser, and curiouser, and curiouser still.
* * *
By the time the mouse approached something resembling a building, Shou knew he wasn’t going to have to go running for a few days. He felt like he’d covered a marathon and a half - and the terrain wasn’t always kind to his bare feet, either.
The building in question looked like an old English tavern, with a wooden slate hanging above the doorway saying, “TEA PARTY.” It was decorated with an image of a steaming teakettle. The mouse parked his motorcycle next to the door, leaning it against the wall, and walked toward the door - which had a little swinging door built into the bottom of it for mice.
Shou opened the door and stepped through, and what met his eyes wasn’t exactly a quaint pub. No, it looked more like a rock-and-roll bar in America, with hubcaps and neon signs on the walls, and a long bar lined with all manner of bottles. Shou didn’t want to think what might be inside them, given what this place was like.
The mouse walked toward a long table in the corner of the room - and suddenly, it started to grow, and morph, and change. The torso lengthened, the paws grew into arms and legs, the head sprouted a neck and grew more blond hair, clothes appeared on the body . . .
When the mouse turned around, it had become a man wearing a sleeveless black shirt with a silver collar, a couple of wide silver belts and studding around his shoulders - oh, and the band still around his nose. His original species was evident, however, in the large mouse ears protruding from the top of his head, and the tail emerging from his pants.
“Just why the hell were you following me?” he said to Shou.
Shou just stood there, tongue-tied. After growing and shrinking himself, and seeing Saga turn into a butterfly, this shouldn’t surprise him. Hell, nothing should surprise him at this point. Familiar-looking person? Check. Something bizarre happening? Check. Yep, this had all the earmarks of everything else that had happened since that fateful plunge through the bottom of the closet.
“I . . .” he said. “I was looking for . . .”
But then, he felt something brush past his legs - another mouse, which promptly morphed into another man, sporting the same ears and tail - and a couple of prominent piercings on his mouth. “Looking for someone?” he said. “So who sent you here? We don’t accept strangers at this party.”
“I was sent here by . . .” But this time, he was nearly knocked off his feet by . . . rabbits? Yes, there were two rabbits hopping past him, one golden-furred, the other black. He was starting to see the pattern emerge here. He barely blinked when the golden one jumped in the air, morphing into a familiar willowy figure - right down to the short-shorts with garters. And, of course, the rabbit ears were still sprouting from his head. Shou was sure there was a bunny tail there, but he wasn’t going to look for it.
“Where did he come from?” he asked the others.
“I was told to come here,” Shou said. “I’m looking for . . .”
“Looking? You aren’t going to find anything here,” the non-motorcycle mouse said.
“I already did,” Shou said. “I found the four of you.” Out of the corner of his eye, he noticed the black rabbit had morphed into . . . yes, exactly who he thought it would end up being.
“What makes you think we wanted to be found?” said the golden rabbit. The four of them were starting to close in on Shou, like a pack of hyenas surrounding their prey. “We may not really be here, you know.”
“I can see you, can’t I?” Shou said.
“Oh?” The motorcycle mouse suddenly ducked behind the black rabbit. “You don’t see me now, do you?”
“You’re behind him, Reita,” Shou said. “Of course I can see you.”
Which just made the mouse jump back into plain sight. “Hey! How do you know my name?”
“Everybody knows your name, Reita,” the black rabbit said, calmly.
“You didn’t know my name until I told you!” the motorcycle mouse retorted.
“You didn’t know mine until I told you, either,” the dark-haired rabbit said.
“That’s not the point!” Reita-Mouse pointed toward Shou. “The point is that HE is here, and he isn’t supposed to be, and he knows my name, and he’s looking for someone, and . . .
“Why are you starting the party without the guest of honor?” came a voice from the doorway.
All heads turned. There stood a figure who was small, but at the same time, he seemed to take up the whole room at once. He was dressed head to food in red velvet, save for the wide black leather lapels of his jacket, rimmed with silver studs. His hair was platinum blond and chin-length, hanging over his face; his lipstick was black and there were dots of colored makeup on his cheek.
And then, there was the hat, which was a marvel in itself. Made of the same red velvet as the suit, it added a good half-foot to its wearer’s non-height. In the middle of it was lacing that looked like it belonged on a corset, and on either side was clumsy cross-stitching that looked like an elementary school student’s first attempt to decorate with thread.
“You’re the Mad Hatter!” Shou said. Well, that was obvious.
The non-motorcycle mouse man reached out and gave Shou a small shove. “That’s Ruki-the-Mad-Hatter to you!”
The Hatter approached, raising a hand. “Aoi . . . back off our guest..”
“Guest?” Aoi-Mouse looked from Shou to Ruki-The-Mad-Hatter and back. “He just barged in on us!”
“And he probably has a reason to be here.” Ruki gestured to the table. “Come, sit down. Join the party.”
When the Hatter sat down, it was the cue for everyone else to sit down as well. Shou settled awkwardly next to the host, looking at the two rabbits opposite him.
“Have some tea,” the Hatter said.
Shou looked around the table, blinking. “I don’t see any tea.”
“That’s because there isn’t any,” Ruki-the-Mad-Hatter said, picking up a sake pitcher instead. He poured glasses for everyone involved, including Shou.
“There never is,” Aoi-Mouse said. “That doesn’t stop him.”
“And who says I need to accept reality?” Ruki said, passing out the cups. “Reality is overrated.”
Shou began thinking he needed the dose of reality right now, what with all this unreality around him. “Thanks for the . . .” He sniffed the cup. It was, indeed, sake - much to his relief. “ . the sake, but really, I’m just here to ask a question.”
“Forty-two,” said the golden rabbit.
Shou looked at him, blinking. “What?”
“That’s the answer to everything in the world,” the rabbit said, before gulping down his sake and holding out his cup for more. “Forty-two.”
“You’re crazy, Uruha,” Aoi-Mouse said.
“Of course, I’m crazy,” Uruha-Rabbit replied, before downing his second cup of sake. “We’re all mad here.”
“Well, if you ask me . . .” said Aoi-Mouse - before there was a loud tweeting noise, and he looked up. “Oooh . . . another one!” A blue bird flew into view, with a chubby head and a bright orange beak - looking not unlike the logo of a certain social media service.
“Sit down, Aoi,” the black rabbit said, calmly.
“Don’t act like you’re the leader, Kai!” Aoi-Mouse said, getting up. “I just need to follow him! Just a little!” And he left the table, chasing after the bird. Shou watched, his face registering confusion.
Ruki-the-Mad-Hatter put a hand on his shoulder. “Don’t mind him,” he said. “Aoi’s a Twitter addict.” He leaned closer to Shou. “But you haven’t told me what a pretty thing like you is doing here.”
Shou swallowed hard. He was being hit on. Again. “Actually, I came here to see you.”
“Oh?” The Hatter leaned toward him some more, the hand - covered with a black fingerless glove - tightening on him. “Tell me more.”
The voice was low and seductive, awakening memories in Shou of evenings backstage, or at an afterparty, that ended in an apartment bigger than what Shou could afford at the time . . .
“Well,” he said, “my name is Shou, and I’m looking for . . .”
And suddenly, the moment was ruined by Aoi-Mouse, still running after the bird, literally crashing into the table, falling on it face-first, sending the pitcher bouncing into the air. Uruha-Rabbit caught it, downed the rest of the contents in two big gulps, and held it out toward the bar, shouting, “Refill!”
“Oi!” Reita-Mouse said. “Look where you’re going!”
“Look where you’re putting a table,” Aoi retorted, sliding back into his seat.
A waiter - a big, waddling walrus - returned with a new pitcher of sake, filling everyone’s glasses before waddling off again. “You interrupted this young man’s story, Aoi,” Ruki said. “He was telling us what he’s doing here.”
“Well, you haven’t told us what you think is the answer to everything in the world,” Reita said.
Shou blinked. “What’s that got to do with . . .”
“Uruha was telling us what he thought the answer to everything in the world is,” Reita-Mouse said. “We need to hear that from Ruki, too.”
“I’ll tell you what it is,” Ruki-the-Mad-Hatter said. He took a deep breath, cleared his throat, drank his sake, and finally spoke. “Da don divi da da don.”
Shou there with his jaw hanging open. “What?”
“Da don divi da da don. Again, da don divi da da don.”
“What the hell does that mean?” Shou nearly spluttered. Back home, in the context of Agony, the nonsense words sounded brilliant. Here, they sounded the opposite.
“Whatever it means to you,” Ruki replied.
Oh, great. At this rate, Shou wasn’t going to get anywhere. “Please, I need to know . . .”
“Wait!” Aoi-Mouse stood up. “I need to say something, too!”
Everyone looked at him. “Well?” Ruki said. “Say it.”
Aoi-Mouse cleared his throat, looked very serious, and said, “Twinkle, twinkle, little bat, how I wonder where you’re at. Up above the world you fly, like a tea tray in the sky.”
Shou blinked. Reita-Mouse grinned. Uruha-Rabbit gulped down his sake and poured out another.
Kai-Rabbit leaned over, hand on Shou’s arm, and said, “I just want to say that I’m sorry about all of this. Really. It’s just that, well, that’s the way things are around here.”
Ruki-the-Mad-Hatter suddenly leaned over, grabbed Shou by the collar of his T-shirt and hauled him backward. “That’s enough of that,” he said. “Cute as the two of you may be together, he’s mine.”
Shou’s head whipped around so fast that he nearly got whiplash. “What do you mean, yours?”
“You came here looking for me, didn’t you? You wanted something from me.”
“I wanted the information on how to get out of this place!” Shou said. “Humpty-Nao-Dumpty said that you would know the way to get back to where I came from.”
“Oh, he did, did he?” Ruki said. Shou looked around the table. The two mice had devious grins - even their tails seemed to be standing at attention in delight. Kai-Rabbit looked a bit fearful. Uruha-Rabbit was looking into the pitcher, trying to decide whether it was time for another refill.
“You know that information doesn’t come for free, do you?” Ruki-the-Mad Hatter said, pulling Shou closer.
And here it was again. He had a feeling he wasn’t going to get away with a price of ramen and lattes this time. “What do I have to do?” he said.
“We’ll discuss this in the back room,” Ruki said, giving a tug on Shou’s arm and calling over his shoulder, “Don’t wait up for me.” Shou found himself dragged across the floor, past tables filled with strange creatures, toward a silver door set in the back wall. As they passed the walrus, the Mad Hatter pulled a couple of coins out of his pocket and flung them at him. “Using the room back there,” he said.
“You always do,” the walrus replied.
Ruki turned the knob, pushed the door open and shoved Shou into the room, closing the door and locking it behind him. Shou looked around, slowly. The walls were covered with some sort of metallic material that looked like crumpled tinfoil. It smoothed out and became a reflective, mirrorlike substance on the wall opposite him, though.
Also pressed up against that wall was a large bed, covered in a metallic silver comforter. Next to it was some sort of chest of drawers. Well, now there was no doubt about the price he was going to have to pay.
“A pretty thing like you in a place like this,” Ruki-the-Mad-Hatter said. “Why do you want to leave?”
“I have to,” Shou said. “I have something very important to do back home, something I’ve waited my whole life for.” He nearly added, “You should understand, you were at the Dome last week” - but this wasn’t Ruki, was it? At least, not the Ruki he knew. In fact, he looked more like Ruki when Shou first met him than the current one. Heck, all his companions had, too. (Well, except Reita. Reita never changed.)
“Are you sure?” the Mad Hatter said. “Maybe you were waiting your whole life to come here.”
“I don’t have time for your riddles!” Shou said. “Please, just tell me what you want me to do to get the information.”
Ruki leaned over toward Shou, and Shou felt the other man’s breath hot on his face. He put his hands on the smaller man’s shoulders, automatically.
“The first thing you can do,” Ruki-the-Mad-Hatter said, in that low, seductive voice Shou knew very well, “is kiss me.”
Shou breathed in sharply through his nose as the other man’s lips softly pressed against his, and he let out a small purr in his throat. There was a nervous fluttering in his stomach, and yet, a trembling of excitement, too.
When that hot, wet tongue probed into his mouth, he opened his lips gladly, fingers running over Ruki’s shoulders and down his arms. Suddenly, it didn’t matter that he’d had that intense sex with Caterpillar-Butterfly-Saga not so long ago - he was feeling the heat flaring up in his body all over again.
He didn’t realize he was sagging in the Mad Hatter’s arms until Ruki’s lips left his and nipped at his earlobe, tongue playing with his earring. “Good boy,” he murmured. “You want this, don’t you?”
“Yes,” Shou said, breathlessly. “Yes, please . . .”
“On the bed,” Ruki said, “and take your clothes off.”
Shou had forgotten that he was here for information. All he cared about was making his way to the bed on wobbly legs and stripping off the ratty T-shirt and sweatpants. Naked, he draped himself across the silver fabric, looking up at his companion.
“Beautiful,” Ruki said, running his still-gloved hand over Shou’s stomach and up to his chest. “Just like I thought you’d be.” He took a nipple in his thumb and forefinger and squeezed gently, making Shou arch up with a loud cry. “You like that?”
“Yes,” Shou moaned.
“Mmm.” Ruki took both nipples in his fingers this time, and Shou writhed, trying to hold back an even louder moan - there were people outside, after all.
“Oh, don’t worry about the sound,” Ruki said. “This room is soundproof - nobody outside can hear. Make all the noise you want - and believe me, you’re going to.”
Shou raised his head. “Ruki? What are you going to do.?”
But the other man had turned away, and went behind the chest of drawers, fumbling in one. “Close your eyes,” he said. “And get on all fours.”
Shou swallowed hard. Now, this was like Ruki. He had always taken full control of their lovemaking. He heard the rustling of cloth, a drawer opening and closing, and then, a finger pressing gently at his entrance, slick with lube.
“Relax,” Ruki said, softly, pushing the finger in. “There’s better things coming.” Shou put his head on his folded arms, willing his whole body to relax, to accept the new intrusion. He wondered if Ruki would be able to tell he’d been with another man not so long ago.
If the Mad Hatter noticed, he didn’t say anything, because he slid in a second finger, moving them in and out slowly. Shou murmured, “Please . . .”
“Be patient, pretty boy,” Ruki said, gently scissoring the fingers. “This will be worth it.”
Shou felt the penetration inside him, moaning as Ruki touched or stroked a sensitive spot - and his earlier activity just proved to make him all the more sensitive. He leaned back against the fingers, wriggling around, trying to get them to touch his sweet spot.
“Eager?” Ruki said, feeling Shou wriggle more against him in response. “Don’t worry, you don’t have to wait any longer.”
Shou braced himself as the fingers slipped out of him, waiting for Ruki to grab his hips, lean over him and fill him with his cock.
Instead, he felt something else push against him. It was smaller than your average cock, and smooth, and . . . rounded?
Ruki leaned over, his lips right against Shou’s ear, and murmured, “Lean back against it.”
Shou did, pushing his hips backward, and felt the toy start to slide into him - and as it went, he realized it was some sort of spherical thing . Then, there was a delicious little shiver as another sphere pushed into him, slightly bigger than the first, and then another, bigger still.
Beads. This toy was made up of some sort of anal beads, mounted on a rigid core that made them easy to thrust. As each one pushed into him, it created another wave of sensation, feeling like something with delicious ridges was moving through him, teasing and tickling everything along the way - not unlike the bumps on Caterpillar-Saga’s cock.
“I like to watch pretty boys like you pleasure themselves,” Ruki said. “Do you like this?”
“Oh, oh, yes,” Shou moaned. What an understatement. The damn thing was driving him mad in the nicest possible way. Every motion was bringing about a new series of little shivers, running from his ass to the tips of his fingers and toes.
“Lean all the way back,” Ruki said, “so you’re upright and sitting on it. I want to watch you fuck yourself on it.”
Shou opened his eyes and looked at the other man. Ruki was as naked as he was now, and without his finery, he looked a lot more like the one Shou knew back home - except still disarmingly younger. “Are you going to . . .”
“Yes, pretty one - I’ll fuck you. But do this first.”
Shou pulled himself into an upright position, and felt Ruki’s hands on his shoulders, guiding him backward. “Like this . . . lean back this way . . .”
The toy was still inside him, and Shou was guided until he felt it impact with something. More like the end of it was fitted into some kind of holder, or brace. There was a click as Ruki fixed it into place.
“Now,” he said, kneeling in front of Shou, “fuck yourself on it. Go on, let me see you . . .”
Shou began to move his hips, pulling back, the beads sliding through his passage, ridges brushing over sensitive spots that made him moan. Oh, this was good - probably the best toy he’d experienced yet, almost as if it were custom-made to fit him.
“Oh, yes, you’re so damn beautiful.” Shou felt Ruki’s fingers starting to brush over his body, running up over his stomach to his chest, then up his neck to the back of his head. He pulled Shou’s head toward him, and Shou leaned in for the kiss, pushing his tongue toward the other man hungrily.
He was starting to grind down on the thing now, thrusting his hips harder and faster, moving around so he could feel those tantalizing beads rub against different nerve endings, sending renewed pulses of pleasure through his body.
Ruki sat back again, his gaze devouring the gorgeous man in front of him, mouth open in passion, skin sweaty and flushed, little pink nipples standing hard against his chest. Oh, he was a sight for sore eyes, all right.
He leaned over and tasted those luscious buds, tongue flicking slowly over the right one, then moving to the left. Shou cried out and gripped the back of his head. “Ruki!”
“Mmm, you’re as delicious as I thought you’d be,” Ruki said. “This feels good, doesn’t it?” He flicked his tongue again, and Shou let out a loud moan, grinding down on the beads, the sharp blast of pleasure from his nipple merging with the intense pulses from his ass, making his whole body feel like it was going to burst into flame.
“What about this?” And Ruki leaned over, eyes still open and focused on Shou, and let the very tip of that skilled, wicked tongue brush lightly over the head of Shou’s cock.
“Aaaah!” Shou cried out. “Ruki, Ruki, I think I might . . .”
Ruki suddenly leaned back up, grabbing Shou’s shoulders and pulling him upward. “None of that,” he said. “You can’t come yet. You’re not going to come until I’m buried deep in your sweet ass.”
“But . . .”
“It will be worth it. Now, off the toy.”
Reluctantly, Shou pulled his hips forward, feeling the beads slide through him as they were removed from his body, shivering and biting his lip to keep from coming. He fell down on the bed, panting, cock still rock-hard and leaking precome.
He could see now what he had been pleasuring himself on. It was, indeed, a series of surgical glass beads on a rigid core. This had been fixed into a round glass base, sort of like a huge paperweight.
Together, the base and the toy gave the appearance of being some sort of bizarre teapot.
“Shou,” Ruki said, “look over there.”
Shou did, and he saw their reflections in the mirrored surface next to them. It brought back strong memories of when his Ruki back home had bent him over in front of the full-length mirror in his bedroom, telling him, “You don’t know how beautiful you are, do you? Watch yourself as I fuck you . .. “
“See how gorgeous you are?” Ruki-the-Mad-Hatter said, sounding so much like Shou’s own Ruki that for a second, he felt disoriented. What was reality and what was fantasy? Was he stuck in a strange world in 2011, waiting to play Budokan if he ever got back, or was he in Ruki’s apartment in 2005, his band preparing for their first anniversary show, PSC telling them they might get a oneman DVD out of it? Were the ensuing years real, or were they all the fantasy of a young man yearning for success?
Was Ruki-the-Mad-Hatter the mad one, or was it him?
An image flickered through his brain of the White Squirrel in his apartment, grabbing his phone and running, and suddenly, everything snapped back into focus. He knew where he was, and why, and . . .
Ruki’s lips were on his neck. “Are you all right?” he said.
Shou turned his head toward his lover-of-the-moment. “You’re not really crazy, are you?” he said.
“Sometimes,” Ruki replied, reaching for the bottle of lube on the bed, “we all have to be.”
Shou watched as Ruki quickly slicked himself, and he drew himself up on all fours, letting the other man pour lube into the cleft of his bottom. He watched in the mirror as Ruki grasped his hips, pressing against him.
“Now, watch,” the other man said as he started to push inside, and Shou kept his eyes focused on the reflection of the other man at first. Yes, he looked like his own Ruki, and felt like him, too, that wonderful cock much bigger than one would expect of a man of short stature.
It pushed into him, and filled him, rubbing against all those nerve endings made sensitive by the toy and by Saga, and Shou leaned back, welcoming the invasion, wanting to take in all of him that he could.
“See your face?” Ruki murmured. “See how much you want this?”
Shou looked at himself in the mirror. He looked like something from a porno, the way his eyes were heavy-lidded with lust, his lips open and panting. If only the fangirls could see him now . . .
“Now, tell me,” the other man said. “Tell me what you want.”
“I want you to fuck me,” Shou said. “Please . . .”
Ruki began to thrust his hips, slowly and gently, and Shou moaned - this was like a tease, a promise of more.
“You feel good,” Ruki murmured. “Like your whole body is gripping me . . .” He moved a little faster, a little harder, and Shou let out another sound. “Do you want more?”
“Yes,” Shou murmured. “Fuck me hard, Ruki . . .”
He felt the other man’s fingers dig into his hips, and that cock pushed in hard and fast, pulling back as Ruki let out long breath, then pushing in again, barely brushing Shou’s prostate, making him let out a long, loud groan.
This was no longer a price, not a sacrifice at all. This was pure mutual pleasure, the two men starting to thrust hard against each other now, Shou pushing back as Ruki pushed forward. The mirror showed the two of them sweating and flushed, hair in wild disarray, black marks from Ruki’s lipstick on Shou’s neck and ear, a picture of beauty on beauty.
Ruki suddenly wrapped his arm around Shou’s waist and pulled them both backward so that Ruki was sitting back on his haunches, Shou riding him. Shou moved down hard on the other man’s cock, feeling it stimulate different nerve endings than before, sending a fresh wave of pleasure through his body.
Good thing the room was soundproof, because Shou was moaning at the top of his lungs, and panting loudly, and crying out his lover’s name. He was trembling on the verge of orgasm, not quite there but feeling like he was going to explode.
As if reading his mind, Ruki murmured in his ear, “Do you want to come?”
“Yes!” Shou cried. “Please, Ruki . . .”
He felt the other man’s hand wrap around his cock, stroking him quickly, while the other hand gently pinched his nipple. Shou threw his head back, and his whole body shook violently as the climax rocketed through him, feeling like his blood had turned to lava. He looked at the mirror and saw his come running down Ruki’s fingers - a hell of a lot of it, especially considering how hard Shou had come before.
He felt a hard thrust into his body, and another, and another - then Ruki cried out as well, burying his face in Shou’s shoulder as he shook with ecstasy. The two of them tumbled to the bed, Shou leaning back so they could share a kiss.
They lay there like that for what seemed like forever, panting, Ruki still inside Shou, both of them reluctant to move. It was as if to move would be to admit that this moment between them was over.
Finally, Ruki slid out and reached for the nighttable. Shou just lay there, eyes closed, feeling the other man gently clean him off with some sort of cloth. When he returned to the bed, Shou snuggled against him, wrapping his arms around the smaller man and relaxing with a contented sigh. He felt Ruki’s lips touch his cheek gently and felt hands stroking his hair.
A long moment later, Shou remembered what he’d come there for, and why he was in this bed to begin with. Oh, hell. Budokan. He had to get back - and Ruki was supposed to be the person who could help him get there.
“Ruki?” he said, softly. “Can you tell me how to get home?”
Ruki opened his eyes and raised his head. “Do you really want to do that?”
“But it’s important that . . .”
“Stay here.” Ruki took Shou’s hand in his and clasped it. “Stay with us. You’d fit in well with my group, and I . . . I wouldn’t mind having you around.”
Shou shook his head. “No. You’re a wonderful lover, and I had fun with all of you” - well, he kind of did, in a crazy and twisted way - “but I really do need to go back. There’s something very important I need to do, like I said.” (And why was there an odd, stray thought rising in the back of his head that he wasn’t just talking about Budokan?)
Ruki nodded, reluctantly. “In that case, you need to go see the Cheshire Tiger.”
Shou suddenly sat upright. Again? This had happened AGAIN? “You don’t know how to get me out?”
Ruki shook his head. “That’s his department, not mine.”
“But you said you had the information, and I needed to pay the price for it!”
“Yes, and directing you to the Cheshire Tiger is information, isn’t it?” He sat up and wrapped his arms around Shou’s waist. “Besides, it wasn’t such a horrible price, was it?”
Shou sighed. Was everyone here going to lure him into bed and then just send him to another person who was going to lure him into bed - unless they just wanted food? But Ruki had a point about the price.
He turned, threw his arms around the other man and said, “No, it wasn’t, Sempai.” Whoops. Automatic pilot.
The Mad Hatter blinked. “Sempai?”
“Never mind,” Shou said, getting off the bed and reaching for his clothes. “Tell me where to find this Cheshire Tiger.”
“Go to where you find tall buildings,” Ruki-the-Mad-Hatter said, getting off the bed himself. Shou looked away just long enough to put his clothes on, and when he looked back, the other man was fully redressed, hat and all, looking like he’d just done nothing more than walk across the bar.
“Tall buildings,” Shou repeated. He walked over to the door, the other man following him. He turned around and leaned over to kiss Ruki one last time, wanting to say, “I’ll see you tomorrow night” - because Ruki had said he was definitely coming to Budokan, just as Shou had been at Tokyo Dome.
But this wasn’t his Ruki, was it?
“Thank you,” Shou said.
“For what?” Ruki said. “The advice, the sex or the tea?”
“There wasn’t any tea,” Shou said.
“There never is,” Ruki replied.
He leaned over and kissed Shou, and Shou opened the door, walking out into the bar - which was now nearly empty. All of Ruki’s gang had gone - except one. Aoi-Mouse had left the table and was now sitting at the bar, drinking alone.
As Shou headed for the front door of Tea Party, he heard the Mad Hatter say to the Mouse, “Are you jealous?”
“What makes you think that?” the Mouse replied in a too-cool voice.
“Just a hunch,” the Mad Hatter replied. “Come with me.”
Shou stepped out into the sunlight, puzzled. Well, this really wasn’t home, was it? Why would Aoi be jealous of Ruki? Aoi was dating Uruha, wasn’t he? Furthermore, why was Uruha sitting next to Kai, and not with . . .
He shook his head, trying to clear it. And if he tried to reconcile this place with home, he was going to end up . . . well, mad as a hatter.
Fine, off to find this Cheshire Tiger. He scanned the horizon, looking for tall buildings. Spotting one, he headed off in that general direction.
He was more determined than ever to get out of this place, or go insane trying.