[Fruits Basket] Haru/Rin, #19
Title: "Every Bridge We Build"
Author: umadoshi
Pairing: Sohma Hatsuharu and Sohma Isuzu (Rin)
Fandom: Fruits Basket
Theme: #19 (red)
Disclaimer: Fruits Basket belongs to Takaya Natsuki and Hakusensha; English-language versions by FUNimation (anime) and Tokyopop (manga). This piece of fiction is in absolutely no way endorsed by or affiliated with any of the copyright holders.
Warnings/Notes:
Summer 2001
**********
Haru thought Rin was asleep when he first stepped into the summer guest house and saw her curled up on the couch in the front room, head pillowed awkwardly on her arm. She didn't stir at the sound of his footsteps; the door had been left open to admit the faint breeze from the ocean, and bare feet didn't make much noise. He walked around the room, adjusting the blinds so that the afternoon sunlight wasn't falling directly across her face.
Her eyes were open by the time he sat down beside her, her attention fixed on the small watermelon he was carrying under his arm. "Hi," she said, making room for him while he rolled it onto his lap, letting its chill seep into his thighs. She raised her head and leaned in to inhale its scent, and he idly wondered what it smelled like to her. It prickled his nose like seawater stripped of its salt: cold and pure and subtle, all the sweetness still locked inside. "What's this for?"
"Family tradition," he said, rapping it with one knuckle. "To celebrate babies."
"Are you insane?" But she sat up to inspect the melon more closely: it was almost perfectly round, stripes only slightly darker than the rest of the rind. "Since when is that a tradition?"
"Since Hiro found out about Hinata-chan."
"Since--" A smile tried to escape. "One baby doesn't make a tradition."
"Gotta start somewhere if we're starting over."
"Ah." She pressed her hand against the melon and shivered before reaching over to trail her fingers across the back of his neck, trading the cold that had seeped into her skin for his warmth. "I see," she whispered, leaning close enough to invite a kiss, and he obliged, slowly, leaving her free to pull away. Instead she sighed against his mouth, matching his careful softness. "So, is smashing it barehanded part of the tradition, or was that a one-time thing?" At his look of surprise, she added, "Hiro mentioned it when I said we were coming up here."
He looked past her, remembering the crack of sun-warmed rind under his fist. "That'd be harder to explain if the others get back while we're eating it, so unless you want to tell them already..." She shook her head. "Anyway, too much of it gets wasted."
"Well, it's still going to be messy. We should probably go eat it outside."
"Were you sleeping?"
"Not quite." She frowned absently as she stood up, running a hand across his arm. "If I nap too much the others'll know something's wrong."
"Nothing's 'wrong'--"
"Fine, but they'll know something's weird," she interrupted. Haru watched the distracted, uncertain pattern her fingers traced over her still-flat belly, the fleeting tension in her shoulders when she saw him looking. It was nothing new to see her at war with her body, but it made him itch to trap her hand in his.
Instead he followed her into the kitchen, where a quick search turned up a respectably sharp knife, and she rolled her eyes and let him talk her out of finding napkins or plates. "We've got the rest of our lives to be grown-ups," he said.
"Promise not to rinse me off by tossing me in the ocean?"
"Promise," he replied, setting the melon and knife down long enough to leave his wristband and rings on the windowsill.
They were staying in the smallest house along the family's stretch of beach-front property, and the space behind it offered the illusion of privacy, although sound carried a surprising distance; the low murmur of the sea and the higher cries of bickering gulls filled their ears as soon as they stepped outside. The immediate yard was set with irregularly-shaped, perfectly flat stones that absorbed heat early in the day and held it past sundown. The first few steps on them were almost painful before bare feet adjusted to the shock of the temperature. Rin waited while he settled into a comfortable cross-legged position, and then sat close enough to stretch her legs out over his. "So I don't burn myself on the ground," she said, brushing a dry blade of grass off her skirt.
"You know I'll get watermelon juice all over you if you sit like that?" He balanced the melon on her thighs, watching her shiver. "It's not still that cold, is it?"
"Just cut it." She steadied it while he carefully sliced a manageable chunk out of the top and passed it to her. She took a slow bite, her eyes softening with pleasure at the taste; Haru thought he could spend hours watching the rare sight of her eating something with enjoyment. Her lips seemed pale against the red of the melon, but she looked less tired than she had that morning. "So we're celebrating, are we?" she asked, after she'd swallowed.
"Seems like the thing to do." He cut another piece and bit into it thoughtfully. "We could ease into it--say we're celebrating that we trust each other not to be like our parents."
"Let's start with that." She ate another bite, her mouth shining with the juice.
"Okay, then." Haru leaned closer and kissed her, sharing the flavor. "Cheers."
It took a while to make a significant dent in the melon; he'd had years to get used to the idea that Rin was more likely to eat reasonable amounts of food if it was presented in small bits and pieces. At first he cut thin slices, but as the efforts to keep the juice from getting everywhere became more and more obviously futile, he stopped being painstaking. Rin was laughing silently by the time they were halfway through.
"You're a mess," she said when she caught him watching her.
"That's what happens--" he cut a rough cube out of the melon and held it to her lips "--when you get me to do the messy work."
She bit it tidily in half, crushing the pulp against the roof of her mouth with her tongue until the juice was gone, and caught his wrist when he started to withdraw the remaining piece; she tugged his hand back to her mouth, eyeing him seriously. "I'm not done yet." She licked one of his fingers thoughtfully as she picked the fruit up with her free hand and offered it to him. He ate it as carefully as she had, kissing her fingertips when she ran them across his lips, until she pulled her hand away.
Her nails raked up the inside of his forearm--hard enough to leave faint tracks, too light to break skin--while she drew his ring finger into her mouth, placing delicate bites across his knuckles as she went from finger to finger, ending in an open-mouthed kiss on his palm. It was intoxicating to watch: the slow turn of her head as she kept kissing his hand, the subtle mischief in her eyes when she looked up at him. He tried to remember how long it had been since they'd touched each other with such uncomplicated playfulness; it seemed like months, not weeks, since she'd started being jumpy and self-conscious, avoiding his touch and lying to both of them about what was happening to her.
"You're kind of a mess too," he said, throat suddenly tight, and he looked at her body instead of her questioning eyes. She'd managed to keep her clothes reasonably free of melon juice, but damp streaks crisscrossed her thighs. He set the remaining half of the melon aside, stabbing the knife through an edge and into the ground to keep it from rolling over into the sand. "Come here?"
Rin gave him a long, measuring look before she let him guide her to her feet and tug her close so she was standing over him. He ran his fingers up the backs of her legs, exploring the sharp definition of her tendons, the muscles that could still carry her with inhuman quickness. He pressed his mouth quickly against her knee when a few lingering drops of juice trickled down.
"Mmm--" The low hum of pleasure that escaped her when his lips moved across her thigh was almost instantly cut off. Haru lifted his head, one hand kneading her skin while the other caught her wrist.
"Don't like it?" He licked the inside of the captured wrist slowly, watching her eyelashes flutter in response.
"It's good," she whispered back.
"There's no one here but us," he said. "You can make noise." Rin shivered at the huskiness in his voice. "I like hearing it."
He kissed her legs again, enjoying the softness of her skin and the restrained eagerness in the way she helped him get her panties off when he reached up under her skirt. "Don't leave them lying around," she told him, unnecessarily; he was no more in the habit of leaving evidence than she was.
"I won't." He tucked them away in a pocket, suddenly remembering the first time he'd done something similar, and the faintly anxious way she'd informed him she'd be expecting them back.
(Not so long after, she'd suggested trading pillowcases, wanting something with his scent and too afraid to risk having his clothes discovered in her bedroom, and had stared at him in confusion when he teasingly called her a hypocrite.)
He took his time licking the last of the melon juice off her thighs, its sweetness tempered by the taste of her skin. She twitched away when his tongue reached the side of her knee again, and he laughed, following it with a kiss that was hardly more than a slow exhalation. The way she moved when he did something ticklish aroused him in ways he'd never been able to explain to her satisfaction--he loved the moment of uncontrolled motion, of purely physical response. "Be nice," she said, nearly inaudible. Her fingers were light on the nape of his neck, dragging up through his hair.
"'kay." A harder kiss on her inner thigh coaxed a moan out of her; he found her pulse and licked at it, hungrier for her than he'd realized. "How do you feel?"
"Good." She stroked the side of his neck and the outside edge of his ear, clicking the three hoops in his lobe together. "Really good." Her voice dropped further. "Touch me?"
He nodded, keeping his mouth against her leg. "Fingers?" he asked, wanting to be sure. She'd made herself excruciatingly unreadable over the past few weeks; uncertainty lingered between them like smoke, made him second-guess the wordless cues he usually trusted.
"Mmm. Yes," she said, kneeling down over his thighs when he reached for her. Her left hand closed over his right, bringing it back to her mouth; her other hand reached down to rub against him while she nibbled and sucked at each finger, doing things with her tongue that made his hips jerk under her. "Fingers first."
Haru pushed her skirt up slowly when she let his hand go. "Lean back a little." The soft sound of anticipation she made when he reached out to touch her sent a delicious shiver up his spine, and made him want to move more slowly, to draw out her response. But the first light touch of a fingertip between her legs sent her head snapping back in obvious pleasure; he watched, entranced, while he stroked her again.
Her eyes stayed tightly closed until his fingers started to penetrate her; then she was staring at him, lips parting around a soundless gasp. "Do you think this is strange?" She took his free hand and pressed it below her navel. With her clothes between his palm and her skin, he wasn't quite sure if he could feel a change in her body yet; he swallowed hard, suppressing the impulse to undress her and spend the afternoon exploring her properly, discovering whether there were discernible changes other than the slightly softer edges to her cheeks and hipbones. Her face was tight with a blend of desire and anxiety, neither of which invited that leisure.
"Maybe a little," he said, rubbing his thumb across her hip. She shifted on his lap, nodding absently while he pushed his fingers further into her. "You said Kana-san said this was safe, right?" She nodded more deliberately, already moving against his hand. "Then it's okay if you want it."
She leaned forward and kissed him, quick and needy, moving from his lips to the line of his jaw. "I don't know if it's safe the way I want it," she murmured when she reached his ear, feather-light bites on the lobe sending tingles straight through him. Harder licks and kisses marked the path she took down to his throat, and he reached up to rub the back of her neck and hold her head there. Sharp points of heat briefly burned his skin where his wrist rested against the sun-warmed studs on her collar. She didn't offer an explanation, and he didn't ask.
Instead he let his head fall back, concentrating on the feel of her voice resonating through his bones, the way the subtly-changing scent of her body mixed with the salt smell in the air. Her mouth found his again, hotter than the afternoon sun beating down on them, her kisses becoming slower and less focused while she squirmed against him.
He kept kissing her, smiling at the small gasps and whimpers that sounded like wordless invitations to take his hand away, to unfasten his pants and rub up against the tantalizing wetness that had his fingers all slick, thrust up into her with the sudden, almost-rough rhythm she liked... It took real effort to keep his touch steady instead.
"Rin," he said, licking her lower lip, feeling her tongue sliding back against his. "Look at me, sweetheart," and she started to climax almost before he finished the request, her eyes going wide and glassy as it hit her--really hit her, instead of building slowly and washing up over her the way they were used to. It tore a low cry out of her throat, made her muscles clench down on his fingers; she grabbed his wrist awkwardly to keep his hand in place, almost losing her balance. He automatically steadied her with his free hand, stroking her spine while she curled in on herself, forehead pressed to his shoulder, labored breathing hot on his skin.
"Oh," she whispered, and then stopped, as if an important thought had crossed her mind and escaped.
"That was..." he tried to think of a graceful, or at least gentle, way to describe what was simmering in the back of his brain, in his groin, in the way his hands itched to touch her everywhere at once. "Um. Kind of insanely hot."
"Oh?" she said again, somehow sounding both sated and hungry, as conflicted as his own urges to caress her slowly and take her hard and leave her so boneless with pleasure that she'd stay pressed against him forever.
"Yeah." He slid his fingers free, wiped them across the side of his leg, and cupped her face between both hands to kiss her. "I almost got off just watching you."
"It was too fast." Her hands crept under his shirt, restless on his sides and chest.
Haru briefly considered teasing her--greedy today? rested on his tongue for a moment--but her eyes were too serious and intent when she looked at him. "What do you want me to do?"
She exhaled slowly, the flush in her cheeks already fading; he traced the delicate curves of her ear with his thumb, wanting to keep her skin sensitized. "Isn't it your turn to pick?"
"Hmm..." He leaned forward and kissed her nose. "See, it's like this: the most gorgeous woman I've ever met is sitting in my lap, and already told me she'll sleep with me for the next sixty years or so, so I don't really care too much about whose turn it is right this minute."
Rin stared at him and then pressed her forehead against his. "Mm hmm." One hand slid back down between his legs while she balanced on her knees, tugging at the top clasps on her shirt. "What about this minute?" She kissed his jaw purposefully, and then his earlobe, toying with his earrings. "Want me dressed?"
He touched her sides slowly, reaching up to grip her hand and take over the task of undoing her shirt. "Maybe a little less dressed."
She only laughed in reply, but he wasn't going to ask for more when she was stroking him with such easy confidence, taking him from want to need; her breath was warm in his ear, cooled by her tongue exploring its ridges. Haru gritted his teeth against the groans of desire that tried to escape, trying to remember to listen for any sound of returning voices along the shore. Her hands drew sounds out of him in a way nothing else did, something she seemed to regard as only fair.
"Do you want--" Rin broke off, licking behind his ear "--want me to beg you for it?"
He hadn't, not particularly, not until she asked. "Maybe," he hedged, trying to swallow the temptation that didn't seem to belong in the sunlight with them. "You're on top of me, though. Maybe I should be begging you." Her shirt was halfway open, and he hesitated, running a finger down between her breasts. "Don't you usually wear a bra with this?"
"Yes." She met his eyes squarely and then shrugged, accepting the distraction. Her hands closed over his, pushing them back to the narrow row of clasps. "It was too tight with anything under it." She sighed in relief when he finished unfastening the shirt. "Didn't think I'd have to buy new clothes already."
He bent to give her collarbone a leisurely kiss while he slid his hands up over her back. "Wouldn't want this to go to waste," he said, waiting until he felt her silent laugh before he lowered his mouth to her breast, bringing a hand around to caress her. She stiffened in surprise when he used his tongue teasingly, her hands tightening on his shoulders. He kept his voice low as he glanced up. "Are you okay?"
"I'm fine." Her reply was too quick, but she continued speaking. "It doesn't usually feel like--" The backs of her fingers grazed his lips. "I mean, it usually feels nice, but not..."
"Want me to do it again?" he asked. Rin nodded unsteadily, shifting herself on his lap in a way that made it very hard to think, but in the next moment she shook her head; her arms came up as if she meant to cover herself, and then she stopped, her eyes squeezing shut. He felt vaguely guilty about the lingering look he took before pulling her against his chest. The change wasn't markedly visible, only a slight swelling of her breasts--the shirt was normally tight enough that it wouldn't take much at all to make it impossible for her to wear it, bra or no bra--but they'd felt intriguingly heavier in his hands.
"This can't be comfortable," she said quietly, the movement of her lips on his neck sending a jolt up his spine.
"I'm fine." Haru straightened his back when she shifted her weight to her knees, still kneeling over him. Her fingertips skimmed over his collarbones, along his sides, back between his thighs.
"That's not what I meant." She unzipped his pants, caressing as she went. "Want to go inside for this?"
"Here's good." He took a moment to peel his shirt off and ball it up. "I just want to move a little." He lay down under her, watching the way her eyes darted over his face, and pillowed his head on the bunched cloth. The flat stones radiated heat into his bare back, enough to make him flinch away before the first shock of it passed. Rin settled herself on top of him as soon as he'd finished stretching out, her body nearly as warm as the ground.
"Tell me," she said.
"What I want?" She nodded; when he licked his lips she bent down and retraced the path of his tongue with hers.
"I want you to feel how badly I want you," he said. "I want you to take me like you can tell how incredible your body feels to me."
"You don't think I know?" she asked, her eyes only inches from his.
"Sometimes I think you don't have any idea," he replied, resting his head back on the ground. "But that's what I want."
"I see." She leaned closer and he brought his mouth to her throat, hard, kissing and sucking at the tender skin above her collarbone, never quite biting down. He didn't stop until she sat up, both of them trembling as she quickly touched the reddening place where his mouth had been. Without speaking, she pressed one hand against her belly and she used the other to guide him into her--smooth and quick, sending his eyes rolling back at the sudden sensation, the rocking of her hips that made him feel like he was being drawn deeper and deeper into her body. Her palms came to rest between his hips and ribcage as he arched under her, enjoying the obvious pleasure she took in the way his muscles moved.
"And tonight--" he caught his breath sharply when she ground down harder against him "--tonight I want to taste you." She laced her fingers behind his head as if to help him when he sat up, bringing their bodies closer together. "I'm gonna lay you out on that bed in there and make you never want to get back up, love."
Rin fumbled for his hands, holding on tight enough to make him glad he'd taken his rings off; her face was blank and focused, eyes staring through him while she moved. It wasn't as bone-deep satisfying as when she came with a slow torrent of kisses and barely-comprehensible babble, but there was a particular thrill to seeing her so utterly unaware of anything but the feel of him inside her. He tried to free a hand to reach down and touch her, but her grip was like steel; he used his voice instead, unsteadily, telling her all the things he wanted to do to her, watching her growing desperation for release from the tension he could feel running through her. He forgot the heat of the sun, the smell of the ocean, everything but her hands clinging to his, how her body was pure warmth and hunger barely contained by her skin.
He came almost as soon as she did, a pure rush of ecstasy sparking from her muscles to his like fire. Caught up in it, he didn't understand what she was saying at first; it wasn't until the tingling in his hands and back had started to ease that he realized she'd been whispering the same thing over and over, the words fractured as if by a hunger they couldn't encompass.
You're mine, you're mine...
"Always," he said, and she froze, trying to look away. "Nothing's going to change that." Her lips trembled against his when he kissed her. "Nothing, Rin, I promise."
She lowered her eyes as soon as he stopped, her hands brushing awkwardly against him while she pulled her skirt up higher, away from the growing dampness in his lap. "I think we need to get changed," she said, moving as if to stand.
"If my clothes are a write-off anyway, you might as well stay put for a few minutes," he replied, pulling her closer instead of letting her get up.
"All right." She nestled carefully back against him, disheveled afterglow lending her a gentleness she usually lacked.
"Do you feel okay?" he asked eventually.
"Hmm?" Puzzled, she lifted her head to peer at him. "Oh--no, I feel fine. I think everything's fine."
"Can you feel anything yet?"
She answered as if he hadn't asked the same thing the night before, and the night before that, and when she'd first told him. "I just feel like I'd feel it if something were wrong." The kiss she gave him when he started to speak was unexpectedly intense. "The others really might be back soon. I know Kyo likes long walks, but the afternoon's almost gone." This time when she tried to stand up he let her go. "If I go down to the water, will you bring me a bathing suit?"
"Sure."
Once on her feet, she fastened enough clasps on her shirt to keep it closed, and very carefully worked her skirt down far enough to give her a pretense of modesty for the short walk to the shore, as long as no one came anywhere near her. "Meet you in the water," she said as she disappeared around the side of the house.
Haru did what little he could to clean up outside and then went into the house. Walking through the front room on the way to the stairs, he glanced out through the blinds on the windows. Rin was at the water's edge, bent over to trail her fingers through the waves; while he watched, she straightened and quickly undressed, tossing her clothes far enough that the receding tide wouldn't reach them.
Between one blink and the next, she'd disappeared into the water. He waited until he saw her surface a little further out, and then turned away to give her a few minutes to herself before he went out to join her.
fin.
[previous entries can be found here]
Author: umadoshi
Pairing: Sohma Hatsuharu and Sohma Isuzu (Rin)
Fandom: Fruits Basket
Theme: #19 (red)
Disclaimer: Fruits Basket belongs to Takaya Natsuki and Hakusensha; English-language versions by FUNimation (anime) and Tokyopop (manga). This piece of fiction is in absolutely no way endorsed by or affiliated with any of the copyright holders.
Warnings/Notes:
- Set four months post-series, with no spoilers past vol. 22. Please note that this contains fairly explicit sexual content. (Please also note that this warning is more specific than LJ's default "adult content flag" cut text, but is intended to serve a similar function.)
- Beta work by seangaffney and flamika. Initial blame goes to ginny_t, but the execution does not. (She's been waiting on this for almost two years. Sadly, she doesn't hold the record for "person I've been promising fic to for the longest".)
- Title from Tom McRae's "Walking 2 Hawaii".
- This story stands on its own, but it's technically an interlude between the two halves of a post-series fic which is still being written, and as such it contains implicit spoilers for the first half. If by some chance you really prefer not to read stories whose context isn't finished yet, well, when that story is finished (the plan is to post it for two of my remaining 30_kisses entries) I'll be linking back to this one to frame it properly. But this has been basically finished for over a year and a half, and since it can be read on its own, it's time for it to stop sitting on my hard drive.
Summer 2001
**********
Haru thought Rin was asleep when he first stepped into the summer guest house and saw her curled up on the couch in the front room, head pillowed awkwardly on her arm. She didn't stir at the sound of his footsteps; the door had been left open to admit the faint breeze from the ocean, and bare feet didn't make much noise. He walked around the room, adjusting the blinds so that the afternoon sunlight wasn't falling directly across her face.
Her eyes were open by the time he sat down beside her, her attention fixed on the small watermelon he was carrying under his arm. "Hi," she said, making room for him while he rolled it onto his lap, letting its chill seep into his thighs. She raised her head and leaned in to inhale its scent, and he idly wondered what it smelled like to her. It prickled his nose like seawater stripped of its salt: cold and pure and subtle, all the sweetness still locked inside. "What's this for?"
"Family tradition," he said, rapping it with one knuckle. "To celebrate babies."
"Are you insane?" But she sat up to inspect the melon more closely: it was almost perfectly round, stripes only slightly darker than the rest of the rind. "Since when is that a tradition?"
"Since Hiro found out about Hinata-chan."
"Since--" A smile tried to escape. "One baby doesn't make a tradition."
"Gotta start somewhere if we're starting over."
"Ah." She pressed her hand against the melon and shivered before reaching over to trail her fingers across the back of his neck, trading the cold that had seeped into her skin for his warmth. "I see," she whispered, leaning close enough to invite a kiss, and he obliged, slowly, leaving her free to pull away. Instead she sighed against his mouth, matching his careful softness. "So, is smashing it barehanded part of the tradition, or was that a one-time thing?" At his look of surprise, she added, "Hiro mentioned it when I said we were coming up here."
He looked past her, remembering the crack of sun-warmed rind under his fist. "That'd be harder to explain if the others get back while we're eating it, so unless you want to tell them already..." She shook her head. "Anyway, too much of it gets wasted."
"Well, it's still going to be messy. We should probably go eat it outside."
"Were you sleeping?"
"Not quite." She frowned absently as she stood up, running a hand across his arm. "If I nap too much the others'll know something's wrong."
"Nothing's 'wrong'--"
"Fine, but they'll know something's weird," she interrupted. Haru watched the distracted, uncertain pattern her fingers traced over her still-flat belly, the fleeting tension in her shoulders when she saw him looking. It was nothing new to see her at war with her body, but it made him itch to trap her hand in his.
Instead he followed her into the kitchen, where a quick search turned up a respectably sharp knife, and she rolled her eyes and let him talk her out of finding napkins or plates. "We've got the rest of our lives to be grown-ups," he said.
"Promise not to rinse me off by tossing me in the ocean?"
"Promise," he replied, setting the melon and knife down long enough to leave his wristband and rings on the windowsill.
They were staying in the smallest house along the family's stretch of beach-front property, and the space behind it offered the illusion of privacy, although sound carried a surprising distance; the low murmur of the sea and the higher cries of bickering gulls filled their ears as soon as they stepped outside. The immediate yard was set with irregularly-shaped, perfectly flat stones that absorbed heat early in the day and held it past sundown. The first few steps on them were almost painful before bare feet adjusted to the shock of the temperature. Rin waited while he settled into a comfortable cross-legged position, and then sat close enough to stretch her legs out over his. "So I don't burn myself on the ground," she said, brushing a dry blade of grass off her skirt.
"You know I'll get watermelon juice all over you if you sit like that?" He balanced the melon on her thighs, watching her shiver. "It's not still that cold, is it?"
"Just cut it." She steadied it while he carefully sliced a manageable chunk out of the top and passed it to her. She took a slow bite, her eyes softening with pleasure at the taste; Haru thought he could spend hours watching the rare sight of her eating something with enjoyment. Her lips seemed pale against the red of the melon, but she looked less tired than she had that morning. "So we're celebrating, are we?" she asked, after she'd swallowed.
"Seems like the thing to do." He cut another piece and bit into it thoughtfully. "We could ease into it--say we're celebrating that we trust each other not to be like our parents."
"Let's start with that." She ate another bite, her mouth shining with the juice.
"Okay, then." Haru leaned closer and kissed her, sharing the flavor. "Cheers."
It took a while to make a significant dent in the melon; he'd had years to get used to the idea that Rin was more likely to eat reasonable amounts of food if it was presented in small bits and pieces. At first he cut thin slices, but as the efforts to keep the juice from getting everywhere became more and more obviously futile, he stopped being painstaking. Rin was laughing silently by the time they were halfway through.
"You're a mess," she said when she caught him watching her.
"That's what happens--" he cut a rough cube out of the melon and held it to her lips "--when you get me to do the messy work."
She bit it tidily in half, crushing the pulp against the roof of her mouth with her tongue until the juice was gone, and caught his wrist when he started to withdraw the remaining piece; she tugged his hand back to her mouth, eyeing him seriously. "I'm not done yet." She licked one of his fingers thoughtfully as she picked the fruit up with her free hand and offered it to him. He ate it as carefully as she had, kissing her fingertips when she ran them across his lips, until she pulled her hand away.
Her nails raked up the inside of his forearm--hard enough to leave faint tracks, too light to break skin--while she drew his ring finger into her mouth, placing delicate bites across his knuckles as she went from finger to finger, ending in an open-mouthed kiss on his palm. It was intoxicating to watch: the slow turn of her head as she kept kissing his hand, the subtle mischief in her eyes when she looked up at him. He tried to remember how long it had been since they'd touched each other with such uncomplicated playfulness; it seemed like months, not weeks, since she'd started being jumpy and self-conscious, avoiding his touch and lying to both of them about what was happening to her.
"You're kind of a mess too," he said, throat suddenly tight, and he looked at her body instead of her questioning eyes. She'd managed to keep her clothes reasonably free of melon juice, but damp streaks crisscrossed her thighs. He set the remaining half of the melon aside, stabbing the knife through an edge and into the ground to keep it from rolling over into the sand. "Come here?"
Rin gave him a long, measuring look before she let him guide her to her feet and tug her close so she was standing over him. He ran his fingers up the backs of her legs, exploring the sharp definition of her tendons, the muscles that could still carry her with inhuman quickness. He pressed his mouth quickly against her knee when a few lingering drops of juice trickled down.
"Mmm--" The low hum of pleasure that escaped her when his lips moved across her thigh was almost instantly cut off. Haru lifted his head, one hand kneading her skin while the other caught her wrist.
"Don't like it?" He licked the inside of the captured wrist slowly, watching her eyelashes flutter in response.
"It's good," she whispered back.
"There's no one here but us," he said. "You can make noise." Rin shivered at the huskiness in his voice. "I like hearing it."
He kissed her legs again, enjoying the softness of her skin and the restrained eagerness in the way she helped him get her panties off when he reached up under her skirt. "Don't leave them lying around," she told him, unnecessarily; he was no more in the habit of leaving evidence than she was.
"I won't." He tucked them away in a pocket, suddenly remembering the first time he'd done something similar, and the faintly anxious way she'd informed him she'd be expecting them back.
(Not so long after, she'd suggested trading pillowcases, wanting something with his scent and too afraid to risk having his clothes discovered in her bedroom, and had stared at him in confusion when he teasingly called her a hypocrite.)
He took his time licking the last of the melon juice off her thighs, its sweetness tempered by the taste of her skin. She twitched away when his tongue reached the side of her knee again, and he laughed, following it with a kiss that was hardly more than a slow exhalation. The way she moved when he did something ticklish aroused him in ways he'd never been able to explain to her satisfaction--he loved the moment of uncontrolled motion, of purely physical response. "Be nice," she said, nearly inaudible. Her fingers were light on the nape of his neck, dragging up through his hair.
"'kay." A harder kiss on her inner thigh coaxed a moan out of her; he found her pulse and licked at it, hungrier for her than he'd realized. "How do you feel?"
"Good." She stroked the side of his neck and the outside edge of his ear, clicking the three hoops in his lobe together. "Really good." Her voice dropped further. "Touch me?"
He nodded, keeping his mouth against her leg. "Fingers?" he asked, wanting to be sure. She'd made herself excruciatingly unreadable over the past few weeks; uncertainty lingered between them like smoke, made him second-guess the wordless cues he usually trusted.
"Mmm. Yes," she said, kneeling down over his thighs when he reached for her. Her left hand closed over his right, bringing it back to her mouth; her other hand reached down to rub against him while she nibbled and sucked at each finger, doing things with her tongue that made his hips jerk under her. "Fingers first."
Haru pushed her skirt up slowly when she let his hand go. "Lean back a little." The soft sound of anticipation she made when he reached out to touch her sent a delicious shiver up his spine, and made him want to move more slowly, to draw out her response. But the first light touch of a fingertip between her legs sent her head snapping back in obvious pleasure; he watched, entranced, while he stroked her again.
Her eyes stayed tightly closed until his fingers started to penetrate her; then she was staring at him, lips parting around a soundless gasp. "Do you think this is strange?" She took his free hand and pressed it below her navel. With her clothes between his palm and her skin, he wasn't quite sure if he could feel a change in her body yet; he swallowed hard, suppressing the impulse to undress her and spend the afternoon exploring her properly, discovering whether there were discernible changes other than the slightly softer edges to her cheeks and hipbones. Her face was tight with a blend of desire and anxiety, neither of which invited that leisure.
"Maybe a little," he said, rubbing his thumb across her hip. She shifted on his lap, nodding absently while he pushed his fingers further into her. "You said Kana-san said this was safe, right?" She nodded more deliberately, already moving against his hand. "Then it's okay if you want it."
She leaned forward and kissed him, quick and needy, moving from his lips to the line of his jaw. "I don't know if it's safe the way I want it," she murmured when she reached his ear, feather-light bites on the lobe sending tingles straight through him. Harder licks and kisses marked the path she took down to his throat, and he reached up to rub the back of her neck and hold her head there. Sharp points of heat briefly burned his skin where his wrist rested against the sun-warmed studs on her collar. She didn't offer an explanation, and he didn't ask.
Instead he let his head fall back, concentrating on the feel of her voice resonating through his bones, the way the subtly-changing scent of her body mixed with the salt smell in the air. Her mouth found his again, hotter than the afternoon sun beating down on them, her kisses becoming slower and less focused while she squirmed against him.
He kept kissing her, smiling at the small gasps and whimpers that sounded like wordless invitations to take his hand away, to unfasten his pants and rub up against the tantalizing wetness that had his fingers all slick, thrust up into her with the sudden, almost-rough rhythm she liked... It took real effort to keep his touch steady instead.
"Rin," he said, licking her lower lip, feeling her tongue sliding back against his. "Look at me, sweetheart," and she started to climax almost before he finished the request, her eyes going wide and glassy as it hit her--really hit her, instead of building slowly and washing up over her the way they were used to. It tore a low cry out of her throat, made her muscles clench down on his fingers; she grabbed his wrist awkwardly to keep his hand in place, almost losing her balance. He automatically steadied her with his free hand, stroking her spine while she curled in on herself, forehead pressed to his shoulder, labored breathing hot on his skin.
"Oh," she whispered, and then stopped, as if an important thought had crossed her mind and escaped.
"That was..." he tried to think of a graceful, or at least gentle, way to describe what was simmering in the back of his brain, in his groin, in the way his hands itched to touch her everywhere at once. "Um. Kind of insanely hot."
"Oh?" she said again, somehow sounding both sated and hungry, as conflicted as his own urges to caress her slowly and take her hard and leave her so boneless with pleasure that she'd stay pressed against him forever.
"Yeah." He slid his fingers free, wiped them across the side of his leg, and cupped her face between both hands to kiss her. "I almost got off just watching you."
"It was too fast." Her hands crept under his shirt, restless on his sides and chest.
Haru briefly considered teasing her--greedy today? rested on his tongue for a moment--but her eyes were too serious and intent when she looked at him. "What do you want me to do?"
She exhaled slowly, the flush in her cheeks already fading; he traced the delicate curves of her ear with his thumb, wanting to keep her skin sensitized. "Isn't it your turn to pick?"
"Hmm..." He leaned forward and kissed her nose. "See, it's like this: the most gorgeous woman I've ever met is sitting in my lap, and already told me she'll sleep with me for the next sixty years or so, so I don't really care too much about whose turn it is right this minute."
Rin stared at him and then pressed her forehead against his. "Mm hmm." One hand slid back down between his legs while she balanced on her knees, tugging at the top clasps on her shirt. "What about this minute?" She kissed his jaw purposefully, and then his earlobe, toying with his earrings. "Want me dressed?"
He touched her sides slowly, reaching up to grip her hand and take over the task of undoing her shirt. "Maybe a little less dressed."
She only laughed in reply, but he wasn't going to ask for more when she was stroking him with such easy confidence, taking him from want to need; her breath was warm in his ear, cooled by her tongue exploring its ridges. Haru gritted his teeth against the groans of desire that tried to escape, trying to remember to listen for any sound of returning voices along the shore. Her hands drew sounds out of him in a way nothing else did, something she seemed to regard as only fair.
"Do you want--" Rin broke off, licking behind his ear "--want me to beg you for it?"
He hadn't, not particularly, not until she asked. "Maybe," he hedged, trying to swallow the temptation that didn't seem to belong in the sunlight with them. "You're on top of me, though. Maybe I should be begging you." Her shirt was halfway open, and he hesitated, running a finger down between her breasts. "Don't you usually wear a bra with this?"
"Yes." She met his eyes squarely and then shrugged, accepting the distraction. Her hands closed over his, pushing them back to the narrow row of clasps. "It was too tight with anything under it." She sighed in relief when he finished unfastening the shirt. "Didn't think I'd have to buy new clothes already."
He bent to give her collarbone a leisurely kiss while he slid his hands up over her back. "Wouldn't want this to go to waste," he said, waiting until he felt her silent laugh before he lowered his mouth to her breast, bringing a hand around to caress her. She stiffened in surprise when he used his tongue teasingly, her hands tightening on his shoulders. He kept his voice low as he glanced up. "Are you okay?"
"I'm fine." Her reply was too quick, but she continued speaking. "It doesn't usually feel like--" The backs of her fingers grazed his lips. "I mean, it usually feels nice, but not..."
"Want me to do it again?" he asked. Rin nodded unsteadily, shifting herself on his lap in a way that made it very hard to think, but in the next moment she shook her head; her arms came up as if she meant to cover herself, and then she stopped, her eyes squeezing shut. He felt vaguely guilty about the lingering look he took before pulling her against his chest. The change wasn't markedly visible, only a slight swelling of her breasts--the shirt was normally tight enough that it wouldn't take much at all to make it impossible for her to wear it, bra or no bra--but they'd felt intriguingly heavier in his hands.
"This can't be comfortable," she said quietly, the movement of her lips on his neck sending a jolt up his spine.
"I'm fine." Haru straightened his back when she shifted her weight to her knees, still kneeling over him. Her fingertips skimmed over his collarbones, along his sides, back between his thighs.
"That's not what I meant." She unzipped his pants, caressing as she went. "Want to go inside for this?"
"Here's good." He took a moment to peel his shirt off and ball it up. "I just want to move a little." He lay down under her, watching the way her eyes darted over his face, and pillowed his head on the bunched cloth. The flat stones radiated heat into his bare back, enough to make him flinch away before the first shock of it passed. Rin settled herself on top of him as soon as he'd finished stretching out, her body nearly as warm as the ground.
"Tell me," she said.
"What I want?" She nodded; when he licked his lips she bent down and retraced the path of his tongue with hers.
"I want you to feel how badly I want you," he said. "I want you to take me like you can tell how incredible your body feels to me."
"You don't think I know?" she asked, her eyes only inches from his.
"Sometimes I think you don't have any idea," he replied, resting his head back on the ground. "But that's what I want."
"I see." She leaned closer and he brought his mouth to her throat, hard, kissing and sucking at the tender skin above her collarbone, never quite biting down. He didn't stop until she sat up, both of them trembling as she quickly touched the reddening place where his mouth had been. Without speaking, she pressed one hand against her belly and she used the other to guide him into her--smooth and quick, sending his eyes rolling back at the sudden sensation, the rocking of her hips that made him feel like he was being drawn deeper and deeper into her body. Her palms came to rest between his hips and ribcage as he arched under her, enjoying the obvious pleasure she took in the way his muscles moved.
"And tonight--" he caught his breath sharply when she ground down harder against him "--tonight I want to taste you." She laced her fingers behind his head as if to help him when he sat up, bringing their bodies closer together. "I'm gonna lay you out on that bed in there and make you never want to get back up, love."
Rin fumbled for his hands, holding on tight enough to make him glad he'd taken his rings off; her face was blank and focused, eyes staring through him while she moved. It wasn't as bone-deep satisfying as when she came with a slow torrent of kisses and barely-comprehensible babble, but there was a particular thrill to seeing her so utterly unaware of anything but the feel of him inside her. He tried to free a hand to reach down and touch her, but her grip was like steel; he used his voice instead, unsteadily, telling her all the things he wanted to do to her, watching her growing desperation for release from the tension he could feel running through her. He forgot the heat of the sun, the smell of the ocean, everything but her hands clinging to his, how her body was pure warmth and hunger barely contained by her skin.
He came almost as soon as she did, a pure rush of ecstasy sparking from her muscles to his like fire. Caught up in it, he didn't understand what she was saying at first; it wasn't until the tingling in his hands and back had started to ease that he realized she'd been whispering the same thing over and over, the words fractured as if by a hunger they couldn't encompass.
You're mine, you're mine...
"Always," he said, and she froze, trying to look away. "Nothing's going to change that." Her lips trembled against his when he kissed her. "Nothing, Rin, I promise."
She lowered her eyes as soon as he stopped, her hands brushing awkwardly against him while she pulled her skirt up higher, away from the growing dampness in his lap. "I think we need to get changed," she said, moving as if to stand.
"If my clothes are a write-off anyway, you might as well stay put for a few minutes," he replied, pulling her closer instead of letting her get up.
"All right." She nestled carefully back against him, disheveled afterglow lending her a gentleness she usually lacked.
"Do you feel okay?" he asked eventually.
"Hmm?" Puzzled, she lifted her head to peer at him. "Oh--no, I feel fine. I think everything's fine."
"Can you feel anything yet?"
She answered as if he hadn't asked the same thing the night before, and the night before that, and when she'd first told him. "I just feel like I'd feel it if something were wrong." The kiss she gave him when he started to speak was unexpectedly intense. "The others really might be back soon. I know Kyo likes long walks, but the afternoon's almost gone." This time when she tried to stand up he let her go. "If I go down to the water, will you bring me a bathing suit?"
"Sure."
Once on her feet, she fastened enough clasps on her shirt to keep it closed, and very carefully worked her skirt down far enough to give her a pretense of modesty for the short walk to the shore, as long as no one came anywhere near her. "Meet you in the water," she said as she disappeared around the side of the house.
Haru did what little he could to clean up outside and then went into the house. Walking through the front room on the way to the stairs, he glanced out through the blinds on the windows. Rin was at the water's edge, bent over to trail her fingers through the waves; while he watched, she straightened and quickly undressed, tossing her clothes far enough that the receding tide wouldn't reach them.
Between one blink and the next, she'd disappeared into the water. He waited until he saw her surface a little further out, and then turned away to give her a few minutes to herself before he went out to join her.
fin.
[previous entries can be found here]