A Helping Hand
Title: A Helping Hand
Rating: NC-17
Characters/Pairings: Kageyama/Hosho Reiko (Nazotoki wa Dinner no Ato De)
Summary: "My lady, are you so stubborn that you will not even allow yourself one of the most basic of all human necessities?"
Notes/Warnings: For the JE New Year meme, yessss Kageyama and Reiko!!
His voice in the dark wakes her from whatever dream she's having. "My lady?"
She opens her eyes, feeling a draft on her bare legs. She's somehow kicked her blankets all the way to the foot of her bed. There's a dampness on her pillow where she's managed to drool in a most unladylike fashion. And then worst of all, her hand is firmly pressed between her legs. Reiko is, in order: confused, alarmed, embarrassed, horrified.
"My lady, did you have a bad dream?" Kageyama asks again. "Shall I turn on the light?"
"No!" she screams, probably much louder than she should. She immediately wrenches her hand away from where she's managed to place it, turning over onto her side and shutting her eyes again. "I mean," she says, pulling the blankets back up over herself, "I mean to say, don't trouble yourself. Everything's fine."
She can hear Kageyama shifting from foot to foot in the doorway, his hand twisting the doorknob every few seconds in his seeming worry. "I could bring you some warm milk? Help you get back to sleep?"
"Shove your warm milk, you Peeping Tom butler!" she shouts back at him irrationally, clutching her blankets in her fists.
She can sense the smirk on his face, even if she can't see him. "As you wish, my lady."
The door closes, and Reiko's wide awake. How awful, she thinks. Had she cried out in her sleep? Had she been...making noises? She flops over onto her back and sighs. Dedicating one's life to solving crimes and being a beautiful heiress leaves little time for a love life. Maybe her unconscious brain is trying to rebel against her more rational side.
She decides to ignore the baser impulses of her body and tries to return to sleep. As she drifts off, she has trouble forgetting that Kageyama had simply entered her room. She just hopes that one of his stupid butler traits isn't the ability to see in the dark.
--
"My lady, what's wrong?"
Reiko wakes in a panic the following night, discovering one of her cute stuffed animals has been used for the most nefarious of deeds. Bobo-chan the hippo is firmly ensconced between her thighs and the mattress, and she's face first into her pillow. She rolls over hurriedly.
"Get out!" she screams in the general direction of Kageyama's voice. She launches Bobo-chan in that direction, only for the stuffed toy to bounce off of one of the posts of her bed. "Get out get out get OUT!"
But because Kageyama is rude and terrible and the complete opposite of what a butler should be, he turns the light on. She squints and screams and has thankfully already pulled her blankets up to her chin. Reiko has always thought the weirdo slept in his uniform or didn't sleep at all, but he's there in black silk pajamas that even have a stupid butler-looking bow-tie on them. They would be slightly cute at any other time, but not now.
"Kageyama!" she shouts at him. "I said get out!"
He approaches her bed, leaning against the bedpost. "My lady's dreams have been troubled of late. Please, allow me to brew you something."
She doesn't need another bizarre potion for him to stir up in his creepy looking Chinese medicine cauldron. Instead she pulls the blankets all the way up over her head. "I have work in the morning. You know, important work. Where I solve murders."
"Of course, my lady. You do your job admirably."
She knows he's taking advantage of her halfway sleepy state to be cruel, but that's typical for some jerk like him. Her voice is mostly muffled by the blankets. "Go away, please?"
"It is my duty to ensure you are well looked after," he reminds her. "This is two nights in a row that have had you crying out. I only wish to see you at peace."
Sure, he sounds sincere. Maybe he's just waiting for her to lower the blankets so he can call her stupid or weird or god forbid, a perverted woman in severe need of a boyfriend. She peeks over the edge of the blanket. She just hopes he's oblivious about these sorts of things. Her heart's still racing from whatever kind of naughty dream he's interrupted.
"I don't really like warm milk," she admits.
"My lady, may I be brutally honest with you for a moment?" he asks.
She wrinkles her nose. Tell him no, she thinks. Tell him he's fired and tell him to pack his bags and tell him to go away forever! Instead she nods.
He walks over to the bed with his usual precision and grace, leaning down until they're awkwardly nose to nose. "My lady, are you so stubborn that you will not even allow yourself one of the most basic of all human necessities?"
She arches an eyebrow. "And what necessity is that, Kageyama?"
He leans back with a smirk, cleaning his glasses with a cloth from his pajama pocket. "My lady..."
She feels a flush strike from head to toe. Reiko wasn't born yesterday, much as Kageyama seems to think so. He's just implied that she refuses to...
Well, it's not so much refusal as much as she doesn't really know how to...
"Say it, you creep! You think you know everything about everything!"
He grins. "I'll be back with your milk."
And he leaves. He leaves! Leaving her red in the face, all flustered. She's a busy woman! She has an important job! She has an important place as the heiress to the Hosho Group! Where would she have learned how to...when would she have had an opportunity to...
She throws off the covers and stomps her way over to the door. She locks it firmly and shuts off the light. When she's back in bed, she lays on her back, staring up into the black nothingness of the darkened canopy overhead. That Kageyama even presumes to speak about her sex life, or lack thereof. It's not his place, anyhow. And he's a pervert for thinking about it.
Reiko inches her fingers down the soft cotton of her nightie, stopping at the elastic band of her panties. She's not naive. She's just...inexperienced. And it's none of Kageyama's concern.
--
She stays up late in the library the next week, sipping the tea Kageyama's brewed her. The later she stays up, the more likely she is to sleep solidly through the night. Work has been rather dull, and even Kageyama seems disappointed. There had been three cases that week: one turned out to be a suicide, another a complete accident, and in the third incident, the culprit confessed as soon as Detective Kazamatsuri started to blab at him.
Reiko is happy for three quickly solved cases, but Kageyama's obviously bored. He hasn't been able to try and do her job for her, and thus he must actually be an ordinary butler rather than a mystery solver. He's been rather pushy every evening, pressing her for details about the cases. But she hasn't had anything for him to worry about.
Of course, she's had other things to worry about. Mostly her own ineptitude, not that she'll ever admit to it as such. She's been raised properly - to do such things like...like...ahem ahem to herself would be dirty. They would be wrong. Although she's tried anyhow. Tried to consciously press her hand between her legs, tried to maneuver poor Bobo-chan into a position, but she just can't seem to do it right. Or more like she's completely aware that she's the one doing so. And then it's just hopeless.
She tries to pretend she's someone else. She pretends to be the exotic Shourei-san from overseas, but it doesn't help. That only makes her think of Kazamatsuri-san falling over himself to chase after her, and he's not someone she wants to think of, definitely not. But the only other person in her life is Kageyama, and he's mean and cruel and rude.
And also thoughtful, she chides herself as she sets down her empty cup. He takes her anywhere she wishes to go, helps her with things, keeps her company. Of course, that's only because her father pays him to. Any butler would do the same. She shakes her head angrily. How pointless to think of Kageyama like that. He's the one who called her stubborn for not attending to her needs when she could have easily had him fired for speculating about her in that way.
She gets to her feet in a huff. "Kageyama, I'm tired. I'm turning in for the night."
"Of course, my lady. Shall I fluff your pillows for you?"
She ignores him, brushing past him on her way out of the library and to the stairs. Her room is hopelessly empty when she enters it, changing out of her evening wear and into her nightie. She stares at herself in the bathroom mirror as she brushes out her hair, wipes the makeup from her face, brushes her teeth. She's the most beautiful person in the world. Dozens of men should be clamoring for her hand in marriage. And what's her reality? A stupid boss and a rude butler.
She can think of nothing but rude butlers once she's under the sheets. In the bed he makes for her, without fail, every day. So when she squeezes her eyes tightly shut and tries to slip her fingers into her underwear, the first face she imagines is Kageyama's.
"No," she grumbles to herself, "no, not him. Please, not him."
Kageyama doesn't disappear, and Reiko imagines a life where Kageyama isn't just at her side by day but at night as well. It's so strange. Has Kageyama ever had sex before? Probably, she tells herself. He's a pervert and he has weird hobbies. He's probably found girlfriends through butler fantasy websites. Not that Reiko would want to see one. Or even look for one.
And by the time her mind's drifting there, her fingers have stilled against her abdomen. Hopeless. She turns over to lay on her stomach and shouts mean things about Kageyama's stupid face into her pillow before falling asleep.
--
But when she wakes this time, Kageyama's turned on the light and has even dared to seat himself on her bed in his stupid pajamas. His glasses are gone, and he's breathing heavier than usual. Whatever she cried out in her sleep has made him come running in an awful hurry. She turns over onto her side facing away from him.
"False alarm," she mumbles.
"My lady," he says, and this time his voice isn't quite so confident. "My lady, are you quite alright?"
She doesn't even remember her dream, nightmare, whatever it was. She looks at dead bodies all the time; something like that's bound to give her bad dreams once in a while. Since her hands and her stuffed animals are all in their proper places, he has nothing to give her grief about.
"Shall I turn the light off? Will you be alright on your own? Perhaps I could bring in a sleeping bag..."
The thought of Kageyama sleeping on her floor is initially horrifying. What would her parents say if they found out? But it could be the sleep talking because suddenly the idea is one she might like quite a bit. She's tried and tried to ignore whatever it is she thinks about Kageyama when she isn't thinking of what a jerk he can be.
She scoots over, leaving maybe a third of the bed space open behind her. She keeps her eyes shut. The last thing she wants to see is Kageyama's reaction to what she's about to say - hearing it will be difficult enough.
"If you're so concerned about me, Kageyama, then why don't you just sleep in the bed?"
"My lady, I could never..."
"If I order you to, then you have to." She scoots over maybe one more inch. He's bigger than she is anyhow; he probably needs the space. "All you do is barge into my room, interrupting my sleep cycle. So then stay. Stay tonight and if I still have a bad dream, then we'll know your presence is of no help whatsoever."
She thinks she sounds confident when she says this, but inside her heart is beating like crazy. It's the unknown that scares her, like when Kageyama had rudely let go of her when she was riding the bicycle. It's scary and exciting and odd all at once.
"What's your answer? If you refuse, you are fired." She's used this threat plenty of times. Even during dinner that evening when he'd criticized the way she sliced up her chicken.
Kageyama is obedient to a fault, though. "If that is your wish, my lady."
She hears him move across the carpet, shutting off the lights and closing the bedroom door firmly. Reiko realizes that this is probably not something she should have ordered of him, but it's way too late now. He pauses at the side of the bed.
"My lady, do you prefer for me to have my socks on or off? In the extremely rare chance of my feet interacting with yours..."
"Oh, just hurry up," she says defiantly. Better to just rip the band-aid off, Reiko decides. She's ordered him to do something that's most likely not in his job description. May as well just go all the way.
"As you wish."
And then the mattress creaks a bit and the covers shift and Kageyama is behind her. He's polite though and puts his back to hers as he adjusts himself until he's comfortable. Reiko hasn't shared a bed with anyone since maybe high school when one of her friends stayed overnight for a sleepover. But having her butler in her bed is definitely not like a high school sleepover.
She panics and panics and panics until she finally lets out a strangled little whimper.
"Have I done anything inappropriate, my lady? I do apologize if my bare feet are cold, though I don't think they actually..."
"Good night," she says angrily and moves over until she's at the opposite end of the bed, curled up in a ball of confusion.
"Sweet dreams, my lady."
--
Despite her horror at first, Reiko ends up having one of the best nights of sleep of her life, if one could tabulate such a thing. When she wakes, she feels completely and thoroughly rested. When she rolls over to sneak a peek at her bedmate, she notices that Kageyama is already gone. Long gone, she discovers when she puts her hand to the mattress and discovers it's cold.
But it hadn't been the worst thing in the world. He hadn't made any odd movements, she hadn't noticed any noisy snoring. She finds herself blushing at how easily she'd shared a bed with him, as if it was the most natural thing in the world.
There's bacon and eggs and fresh fruit already waiting for her in the dining room when she comes downstairs. Kageyama looks perfectly put-together as usual, ready to serve her. "Good morning, my lady. I trust that you had a pleasant sleep?"
"It was just okay," she lies with her nose in the air, letting him push in her chair.
He doesn't say anything else about what transpired, nor does she. In fact, the day goes on the same as pretty much any other. There's nothing to investigate once Kageyama drives her to the station. Only piles and piles of paperwork that Kazamatsuri-san dumps on her desk and tells her to write up while he's off on his vacation to Macau to gamble away more of his family's earnings.
She complains about this workload to Kageyama during dinner, and she can sense his disappointment. He'll probably spend his week reading manga instead of following her around. After dinner there are no problems to solve, save for one. The problem of Reiko's bedroom, and just who will be inside it when the lights turn off.
She'd been so calmed by Kageyama's presence, and he's been kind to her all day. Well, as kind as someone arrogant like Kageyama can manage. So when she gets up and Kageyama says he'll prepare her bath water for her, she stops him with a hand to his sleeve.
"Kageyama," she says in what she thinks is her most commanding voice. "You will sleep in my room again."
"Is something the matter, my lady?"
"No," she says airily, crossing her arms. "I just think one night wasn't enough to prove your usefulness in chasing bad dreams away. You yourself wouldn't settle on a culprit based on such a flimsy set of evidence. So...after my bath, I will expect you."
He bows low to her. "As you wish."
--
Reiko panics. She paces the floor in her nightie post-bath. For some reason, she's prepared herself by slathering on some lotion and putting on some lip balm and brushing her hair until it shone. Though what exactly she's now prepared for is something she isn't quite sure about.
It's just Kageyama, and things had gone without a hitch the night before. But this time her strange dreams won't be disturbing Kageyama's sleep. He'll be in here with her the moment her head hits the pillow. She thinks back to all the dreams he's disturbed over the past few weeks, her body so very much in need of release and with no conscious ability to make it happen.
What if she cries out for him in the night or tries to molest him or he catches her in the midst of a dream-induced fantasy with her hands inside her panties? She shrieks, quietly though, lest he come charging through the door with his smug "My lady, are you incapable of something so simple as preparing to bed down with your butler?" face.
She lets out an exhausted sigh and takes one final look in the mirror. You're the one who created this mess, she tells her reflection. You and your silly need for...ahem ahem!
Reiko arranges herself in her bed, pulling the covers up and lying back against her pillows. She moves onto her stomach instead, then her side, then her other side before once again ending up on her back. It seems like an agonizingly long time before Kageyama enters. Perhaps he's perfectly calculated the amount of time she takes to get ready for bed so he doesn't barge in when she's changing.
"My lady," he says as a way of announcing himself. She's left the lamp on by her bedside, but otherwise the room is mostly dark.
"Don't linger in my doorway, I'm tired! Hurry up!"
He's changed into his ridiculous pajamas and obediently turns off the lamp and slides in beside her. She can just kind of sense that he's on his side facing away from her again, taking up as little space as necessary to be polite and appropriate.
"Good night, my lady."
"Good night, Kageyama."
And then silence descends upon Reiko's bedroom, save for their breathing. Reiko lies awake forever, her body too alert and confused and nervous. She turns onto her side, then turns back, then moves to her other side. Much as she doesn't want to admit it, having a man in her bed, even a rude, impudent jerk like Kageyama, has excited her.
"Kageyama."
"Yes, my lady?"
She pauses. "I can't sleep."
"Yes, I can see that." He seems to shift around beside her, making the sheets rustle. "Shall I return to my room? Would you like some warm milk?"
Always with the warm milk! But suddenly he seems much closer. Or maybe with all her shifting around she's moved closer to him in the bed, and when she reaches her hand over, she finds his sleeve. "Can I tell you something in the strictest confidence? And without your judgment? You have to promise, Kageyama, because if you so much as laugh at me you are immediately fired."
"I will endeavor to curb my tongue."
"You'll do more than endeavor. You will promise me!"
"I promise."
Well, it's now or never, Reiko.
"Kageyama," she says again, hearing him breathing evenly and normally beside her when she's an utter train wreck. "Kageyama, you told me that I was...stubborn for not...attending to things. But believe me, I have tried. I really have tried. I'm worried there's something quite wrong with me. And maybe that something is why I don't have fifty thousand potential husbands lined up outside the door. Everything else about me is perfect, don't get me wrong, but I simply cannot...I simply do not know how I am supposed to..."
"My lady, are you trying to ask me something?"
"Yes."
"Something...that explains why for nearly the past month you've been crying out in your sleep for me?"
She's stunned. So all those times she's woken with her hand against her most intimate of places or with a damn stuffed animal under her, all those times Kageyama's come rushing in without taking a moment to bring his glasses or run a comb through his hair...
All those times she's been dreaming about him in THAT way?
"I said no judgment," she insists.
"My lady, I am not judging you. But let me only remind you of what your father pays me to do and what propriety states that I am not to do..."
She turns onto her side, leaning on her elbow to squint at him in the dark. "Kageyama, my father pays you to keep me happy. And try as I may on my own, I can't seem to. So tell me now, ignoring your stupid butler propriety - are you willing to make me happy?"
He hesitates. Actually hesitates! Kageyama has been paid to protect her, escort her, cook for her, attend to everything she requires. But he certainly hasn't been paid for such a request as this. And as her heart seems ready to explode at the request she's made of him, her body feels differently. It's like all of her logic and sense has vanished, only for this sudden feeling of urgency between her legs. She's not able to get a reaction like this at the thought of her own hands on her person, but the mere idea of Kageyama's being there...
"If this is what you truly wish for," he says quietly. "I do not necessarily want to compromise the trust and respect we have built..."
What respect? He takes every opportunity to tease her, and she grows impatient. She fumbles for his hand and squeezes it. "Yes or no, Kageyama. I need an answer from you! And if it's no, then get out of here already and stop being so indecisive around me!"
Well, her butler doesn't seem to like being accused of indecisiveness as he pushes her over onto her back and yanks the blankets off of her. "Please relax and let me take care of you then," are the last words he says.
His hand is warm when it finds the hem of her nightgown and tugs it roughly up, exposing her belly and thighs. He moves his hand across her abdomen slowly, almost painfully slow, his fingers drifting over her navel to find the waistband of her panties. Instead of moving inside, his fingers linger on the cotton and she finds herself parting her legs slightly so he has better access.
Her eyes are shut tight, and she's having trouble breathing. Nobody's ever been this intimate with her before, and the excitement is driving her crazy. He touches the soft skin on the inside of her thighs, a ticklish sort of gentleness before his hand is once again on her panties. They're growing slightly damp with her interest in a way that she's never been able to experience on her own. She bites her lip when his hand moves back up, and his fingers slip inside.
The feeling of Kageyama's fingers is way different from her own. Where her own attempts to touch herself were fumbling, awkward, and futile, Kageyama's fingers don't hesitate. He finds her immediately and without warning he slips a finger inside her. She gasps, trying to stay focused, trying to concentrate on just how he's working to please her. She may not always have him near. Maybe he can teach her a thing or two.
He's not rough, not forceful but he's got a rhythm that makes her want to move along with it. Instead, she stays completely still, turning her head away from him to try and deny him any sort of knowledge of what this is doing to her. One finger soon becomes two as he waits for her body to adjust and be ready for further attention. It's all new, all more amazing than she could have imagined. That the same man who spends half his days daydreaming about tea time is now slipping his fingers in and out of her makes it even more difficult to focus.
The heat between her legs continues to build with Kageyama's efforts and soon enough his fingers leave her. Just as she's ready to complain about his negligence, he starts to rub, insistently, round and round in circles and figure eights. She's certainly never found this place on her body before, hasn't really known what to do. But Kageyama does, alternating between slower movements and faster ones, adjusting in accordance with her own breathing.
It's grown heavier, her breathing, and it's pretty much impossible to think about anything but the wonderful way his simple touch makes her feel. That she's pretty much ordered him to do this is the furthest from her mind, for he's so ridiculously good at knowing just where she needs to be touched. "Relax and let me take care of you," he'd said to her, but she's too far gone to relax now.
Is this what she felt in her dreams that made her scream for Kageyama in them repeatedly? No, nothing in a dream state could be like this. Reiko finds herself opening her legs wider, finds herself moving against Kageyama's hand, and he seems responsive to it. His fingers slip back inside her, faster and faster. They're inside and back out, perpetual motion, and she's so slick and wet for him.
It's suddenly too much; she's going to lose it. She's going to lose it, and she tries to place her shaking hand over his. "Kageyama, wait," she moans, but then she's helping him along. She pushes down on his hand, arching her body up with none of Kageyama's fluid grace. He doesn't let up, and right then, right in that moment, she's consumed with the idea of Kageyama being all around her, the idea of Kageyama inside her, filling her with something other than his fingers, and the crudeness and lustful feelings overwhelm her.
Her whole body seems to shake, and she gasps. If she says Kageyama's name or not, she has no idea. Her hand stills as he continues to stroke her, finally slowing down. She lies there, unable to speak, her breath coming in frenzied, heaving gasps. She wants to laugh, she wants to cry. She's never been able to do this to herself, never been able to make herself feel this good. But where she's failed, Kageyama has once again succeeded.
She tries to reach for him then, wants to thank him, wants to beg him to do this for her every night until the end of time, but she misjudges the full extent of her happiness. She finds the back of his head and instead of saying the words, she pulls him down and kisses where she thinks his mouth must be.
This, finally, startles him, and he tries to back away with a murmured "my lady," but for once she's quicker than he is. She's still coming down from her lusty high, not bothering to kiss him politely or sweetly. She's over on her side, his face between her hands and she lifts her leg up to rest it over his hip. She hasn't given him a chance to take his fingers away from her yet, so his hand's a bit awkwardly positioned between them, and she rudely tries to buck her body against it.
"Please," she says against his mouth, "please, Kageyama, more."
"Please slow down, my lady," he begs her, finally extricating his hand and placing it on her bare leg in caution, but she can't slow down. Not when she's still feeling so perfect.
"Touch me," she whispers, "touch me again or...or...or I'll fire you..."
He laughs, not his usual mean-spirited little butler chuckles, but the laugh of an ordinary man. He clears his throat and detangles himself from her, pulling away until she flops over onto her stomach with a murmured "oof!"
"Kageyama," she whines, smacking her pillow with her fist.
"My apologies," he says, though he doesn't sound remotely apologetic. "But you do have to work tomorrow. I would be incredibly remiss in my duties if I kept you up all night." He finds his way around the other side of the bed, pulling her covers back up over her and tucking her in.
She fumbles around until she's comfortable. "So you're that type, are you? The one who leaves right away?"
He sighs. "I most definitely am not, but if I continue to share your bed tonight, I will have difficulty getting to sleep myself." She hears him situate himself on the rug beside her bed.
Reiko smiles. "Oh, I'm too much for you? Is that it?" She tosses him a pillow.
He catches it and is probably smiling back at her in the dark. "Most assuredly, my lady."
--
In the morning, Kageyama is once again gone, and reality comes crashing down, reminding her of what's now transpired between herself and her butler.
But when she enters the dining room breakfast awaits, and Kageyama's there smiling. He's not angry with her, not disgusted with her. In fact, he seems rather cheered to see her.
"I trust you slept well?"
"Very well, Kageyama," she declares as he sets an omelette down before her. "All thanks to you."
He seems pleased with the compliment, humming happily to himself as he pours out some freshly squeezed orange juice for her.
"Don't grow too complacent," she warns him with a grin. "I may require far more of you next time."
He turns away, perhaps to hide a flush in his cheeks. "I will endeavor to do all that you require, my lady."
She sips at her juice, remembering the night before happily. "You'll do more than endeavor. You will promise me!"
He bows with a hand to his heart. "I promise."
Rating: NC-17
Characters/Pairings: Kageyama/Hosho Reiko (Nazotoki wa Dinner no Ato De)
Summary: "My lady, are you so stubborn that you will not even allow yourself one of the most basic of all human necessities?"
Notes/Warnings: For the JE New Year meme, yessss Kageyama and Reiko!!
His voice in the dark wakes her from whatever dream she's having. "My lady?"
She opens her eyes, feeling a draft on her bare legs. She's somehow kicked her blankets all the way to the foot of her bed. There's a dampness on her pillow where she's managed to drool in a most unladylike fashion. And then worst of all, her hand is firmly pressed between her legs. Reiko is, in order: confused, alarmed, embarrassed, horrified.
"My lady, did you have a bad dream?" Kageyama asks again. "Shall I turn on the light?"
"No!" she screams, probably much louder than she should. She immediately wrenches her hand away from where she's managed to place it, turning over onto her side and shutting her eyes again. "I mean," she says, pulling the blankets back up over herself, "I mean to say, don't trouble yourself. Everything's fine."
She can hear Kageyama shifting from foot to foot in the doorway, his hand twisting the doorknob every few seconds in his seeming worry. "I could bring you some warm milk? Help you get back to sleep?"
"Shove your warm milk, you Peeping Tom butler!" she shouts back at him irrationally, clutching her blankets in her fists.
She can sense the smirk on his face, even if she can't see him. "As you wish, my lady."
The door closes, and Reiko's wide awake. How awful, she thinks. Had she cried out in her sleep? Had she been...making noises? She flops over onto her back and sighs. Dedicating one's life to solving crimes and being a beautiful heiress leaves little time for a love life. Maybe her unconscious brain is trying to rebel against her more rational side.
She decides to ignore the baser impulses of her body and tries to return to sleep. As she drifts off, she has trouble forgetting that Kageyama had simply entered her room. She just hopes that one of his stupid butler traits isn't the ability to see in the dark.
--
"My lady, what's wrong?"
Reiko wakes in a panic the following night, discovering one of her cute stuffed animals has been used for the most nefarious of deeds. Bobo-chan the hippo is firmly ensconced between her thighs and the mattress, and she's face first into her pillow. She rolls over hurriedly.
"Get out!" she screams in the general direction of Kageyama's voice. She launches Bobo-chan in that direction, only for the stuffed toy to bounce off of one of the posts of her bed. "Get out get out get OUT!"
But because Kageyama is rude and terrible and the complete opposite of what a butler should be, he turns the light on. She squints and screams and has thankfully already pulled her blankets up to her chin. Reiko has always thought the weirdo slept in his uniform or didn't sleep at all, but he's there in black silk pajamas that even have a stupid butler-looking bow-tie on them. They would be slightly cute at any other time, but not now.
"Kageyama!" she shouts at him. "I said get out!"
He approaches her bed, leaning against the bedpost. "My lady's dreams have been troubled of late. Please, allow me to brew you something."
She doesn't need another bizarre potion for him to stir up in his creepy looking Chinese medicine cauldron. Instead she pulls the blankets all the way up over her head. "I have work in the morning. You know, important work. Where I solve murders."
"Of course, my lady. You do your job admirably."
She knows he's taking advantage of her halfway sleepy state to be cruel, but that's typical for some jerk like him. Her voice is mostly muffled by the blankets. "Go away, please?"
"It is my duty to ensure you are well looked after," he reminds her. "This is two nights in a row that have had you crying out. I only wish to see you at peace."
Sure, he sounds sincere. Maybe he's just waiting for her to lower the blankets so he can call her stupid or weird or god forbid, a perverted woman in severe need of a boyfriend. She peeks over the edge of the blanket. She just hopes he's oblivious about these sorts of things. Her heart's still racing from whatever kind of naughty dream he's interrupted.
"I don't really like warm milk," she admits.
"My lady, may I be brutally honest with you for a moment?" he asks.
She wrinkles her nose. Tell him no, she thinks. Tell him he's fired and tell him to pack his bags and tell him to go away forever! Instead she nods.
He walks over to the bed with his usual precision and grace, leaning down until they're awkwardly nose to nose. "My lady, are you so stubborn that you will not even allow yourself one of the most basic of all human necessities?"
She arches an eyebrow. "And what necessity is that, Kageyama?"
He leans back with a smirk, cleaning his glasses with a cloth from his pajama pocket. "My lady..."
She feels a flush strike from head to toe. Reiko wasn't born yesterday, much as Kageyama seems to think so. He's just implied that she refuses to...
Well, it's not so much refusal as much as she doesn't really know how to...
"Say it, you creep! You think you know everything about everything!"
He grins. "I'll be back with your milk."
And he leaves. He leaves! Leaving her red in the face, all flustered. She's a busy woman! She has an important job! She has an important place as the heiress to the Hosho Group! Where would she have learned how to...when would she have had an opportunity to...
She throws off the covers and stomps her way over to the door. She locks it firmly and shuts off the light. When she's back in bed, she lays on her back, staring up into the black nothingness of the darkened canopy overhead. That Kageyama even presumes to speak about her sex life, or lack thereof. It's not his place, anyhow. And he's a pervert for thinking about it.
Reiko inches her fingers down the soft cotton of her nightie, stopping at the elastic band of her panties. She's not naive. She's just...inexperienced. And it's none of Kageyama's concern.
--
She stays up late in the library the next week, sipping the tea Kageyama's brewed her. The later she stays up, the more likely she is to sleep solidly through the night. Work has been rather dull, and even Kageyama seems disappointed. There had been three cases that week: one turned out to be a suicide, another a complete accident, and in the third incident, the culprit confessed as soon as Detective Kazamatsuri started to blab at him.
Reiko is happy for three quickly solved cases, but Kageyama's obviously bored. He hasn't been able to try and do her job for her, and thus he must actually be an ordinary butler rather than a mystery solver. He's been rather pushy every evening, pressing her for details about the cases. But she hasn't had anything for him to worry about.
Of course, she's had other things to worry about. Mostly her own ineptitude, not that she'll ever admit to it as such. She's been raised properly - to do such things like...like...ahem ahem to herself would be dirty. They would be wrong. Although she's tried anyhow. Tried to consciously press her hand between her legs, tried to maneuver poor Bobo-chan into a position, but she just can't seem to do it right. Or more like she's completely aware that she's the one doing so. And then it's just hopeless.
She tries to pretend she's someone else. She pretends to be the exotic Shourei-san from overseas, but it doesn't help. That only makes her think of Kazamatsuri-san falling over himself to chase after her, and he's not someone she wants to think of, definitely not. But the only other person in her life is Kageyama, and he's mean and cruel and rude.
And also thoughtful, she chides herself as she sets down her empty cup. He takes her anywhere she wishes to go, helps her with things, keeps her company. Of course, that's only because her father pays him to. Any butler would do the same. She shakes her head angrily. How pointless to think of Kageyama like that. He's the one who called her stubborn for not attending to her needs when she could have easily had him fired for speculating about her in that way.
She gets to her feet in a huff. "Kageyama, I'm tired. I'm turning in for the night."
"Of course, my lady. Shall I fluff your pillows for you?"
She ignores him, brushing past him on her way out of the library and to the stairs. Her room is hopelessly empty when she enters it, changing out of her evening wear and into her nightie. She stares at herself in the bathroom mirror as she brushes out her hair, wipes the makeup from her face, brushes her teeth. She's the most beautiful person in the world. Dozens of men should be clamoring for her hand in marriage. And what's her reality? A stupid boss and a rude butler.
She can think of nothing but rude butlers once she's under the sheets. In the bed he makes for her, without fail, every day. So when she squeezes her eyes tightly shut and tries to slip her fingers into her underwear, the first face she imagines is Kageyama's.
"No," she grumbles to herself, "no, not him. Please, not him."
Kageyama doesn't disappear, and Reiko imagines a life where Kageyama isn't just at her side by day but at night as well. It's so strange. Has Kageyama ever had sex before? Probably, she tells herself. He's a pervert and he has weird hobbies. He's probably found girlfriends through butler fantasy websites. Not that Reiko would want to see one. Or even look for one.
And by the time her mind's drifting there, her fingers have stilled against her abdomen. Hopeless. She turns over to lay on her stomach and shouts mean things about Kageyama's stupid face into her pillow before falling asleep.
--
But when she wakes this time, Kageyama's turned on the light and has even dared to seat himself on her bed in his stupid pajamas. His glasses are gone, and he's breathing heavier than usual. Whatever she cried out in her sleep has made him come running in an awful hurry. She turns over onto her side facing away from him.
"False alarm," she mumbles.
"My lady," he says, and this time his voice isn't quite so confident. "My lady, are you quite alright?"
She doesn't even remember her dream, nightmare, whatever it was. She looks at dead bodies all the time; something like that's bound to give her bad dreams once in a while. Since her hands and her stuffed animals are all in their proper places, he has nothing to give her grief about.
"Shall I turn the light off? Will you be alright on your own? Perhaps I could bring in a sleeping bag..."
The thought of Kageyama sleeping on her floor is initially horrifying. What would her parents say if they found out? But it could be the sleep talking because suddenly the idea is one she might like quite a bit. She's tried and tried to ignore whatever it is she thinks about Kageyama when she isn't thinking of what a jerk he can be.
She scoots over, leaving maybe a third of the bed space open behind her. She keeps her eyes shut. The last thing she wants to see is Kageyama's reaction to what she's about to say - hearing it will be difficult enough.
"If you're so concerned about me, Kageyama, then why don't you just sleep in the bed?"
"My lady, I could never..."
"If I order you to, then you have to." She scoots over maybe one more inch. He's bigger than she is anyhow; he probably needs the space. "All you do is barge into my room, interrupting my sleep cycle. So then stay. Stay tonight and if I still have a bad dream, then we'll know your presence is of no help whatsoever."
She thinks she sounds confident when she says this, but inside her heart is beating like crazy. It's the unknown that scares her, like when Kageyama had rudely let go of her when she was riding the bicycle. It's scary and exciting and odd all at once.
"What's your answer? If you refuse, you are fired." She's used this threat plenty of times. Even during dinner that evening when he'd criticized the way she sliced up her chicken.
Kageyama is obedient to a fault, though. "If that is your wish, my lady."
She hears him move across the carpet, shutting off the lights and closing the bedroom door firmly. Reiko realizes that this is probably not something she should have ordered of him, but it's way too late now. He pauses at the side of the bed.
"My lady, do you prefer for me to have my socks on or off? In the extremely rare chance of my feet interacting with yours..."
"Oh, just hurry up," she says defiantly. Better to just rip the band-aid off, Reiko decides. She's ordered him to do something that's most likely not in his job description. May as well just go all the way.
"As you wish."
And then the mattress creaks a bit and the covers shift and Kageyama is behind her. He's polite though and puts his back to hers as he adjusts himself until he's comfortable. Reiko hasn't shared a bed with anyone since maybe high school when one of her friends stayed overnight for a sleepover. But having her butler in her bed is definitely not like a high school sleepover.
She panics and panics and panics until she finally lets out a strangled little whimper.
"Have I done anything inappropriate, my lady? I do apologize if my bare feet are cold, though I don't think they actually..."
"Good night," she says angrily and moves over until she's at the opposite end of the bed, curled up in a ball of confusion.
"Sweet dreams, my lady."
--
Despite her horror at first, Reiko ends up having one of the best nights of sleep of her life, if one could tabulate such a thing. When she wakes, she feels completely and thoroughly rested. When she rolls over to sneak a peek at her bedmate, she notices that Kageyama is already gone. Long gone, she discovers when she puts her hand to the mattress and discovers it's cold.
But it hadn't been the worst thing in the world. He hadn't made any odd movements, she hadn't noticed any noisy snoring. She finds herself blushing at how easily she'd shared a bed with him, as if it was the most natural thing in the world.
There's bacon and eggs and fresh fruit already waiting for her in the dining room when she comes downstairs. Kageyama looks perfectly put-together as usual, ready to serve her. "Good morning, my lady. I trust that you had a pleasant sleep?"
"It was just okay," she lies with her nose in the air, letting him push in her chair.
He doesn't say anything else about what transpired, nor does she. In fact, the day goes on the same as pretty much any other. There's nothing to investigate once Kageyama drives her to the station. Only piles and piles of paperwork that Kazamatsuri-san dumps on her desk and tells her to write up while he's off on his vacation to Macau to gamble away more of his family's earnings.
She complains about this workload to Kageyama during dinner, and she can sense his disappointment. He'll probably spend his week reading manga instead of following her around. After dinner there are no problems to solve, save for one. The problem of Reiko's bedroom, and just who will be inside it when the lights turn off.
She'd been so calmed by Kageyama's presence, and he's been kind to her all day. Well, as kind as someone arrogant like Kageyama can manage. So when she gets up and Kageyama says he'll prepare her bath water for her, she stops him with a hand to his sleeve.
"Kageyama," she says in what she thinks is her most commanding voice. "You will sleep in my room again."
"Is something the matter, my lady?"
"No," she says airily, crossing her arms. "I just think one night wasn't enough to prove your usefulness in chasing bad dreams away. You yourself wouldn't settle on a culprit based on such a flimsy set of evidence. So...after my bath, I will expect you."
He bows low to her. "As you wish."
--
Reiko panics. She paces the floor in her nightie post-bath. For some reason, she's prepared herself by slathering on some lotion and putting on some lip balm and brushing her hair until it shone. Though what exactly she's now prepared for is something she isn't quite sure about.
It's just Kageyama, and things had gone without a hitch the night before. But this time her strange dreams won't be disturbing Kageyama's sleep. He'll be in here with her the moment her head hits the pillow. She thinks back to all the dreams he's disturbed over the past few weeks, her body so very much in need of release and with no conscious ability to make it happen.
What if she cries out for him in the night or tries to molest him or he catches her in the midst of a dream-induced fantasy with her hands inside her panties? She shrieks, quietly though, lest he come charging through the door with his smug "My lady, are you incapable of something so simple as preparing to bed down with your butler?" face.
She lets out an exhausted sigh and takes one final look in the mirror. You're the one who created this mess, she tells her reflection. You and your silly need for...ahem ahem!
Reiko arranges herself in her bed, pulling the covers up and lying back against her pillows. She moves onto her stomach instead, then her side, then her other side before once again ending up on her back. It seems like an agonizingly long time before Kageyama enters. Perhaps he's perfectly calculated the amount of time she takes to get ready for bed so he doesn't barge in when she's changing.
"My lady," he says as a way of announcing himself. She's left the lamp on by her bedside, but otherwise the room is mostly dark.
"Don't linger in my doorway, I'm tired! Hurry up!"
He's changed into his ridiculous pajamas and obediently turns off the lamp and slides in beside her. She can just kind of sense that he's on his side facing away from her again, taking up as little space as necessary to be polite and appropriate.
"Good night, my lady."
"Good night, Kageyama."
And then silence descends upon Reiko's bedroom, save for their breathing. Reiko lies awake forever, her body too alert and confused and nervous. She turns onto her side, then turns back, then moves to her other side. Much as she doesn't want to admit it, having a man in her bed, even a rude, impudent jerk like Kageyama, has excited her.
"Kageyama."
"Yes, my lady?"
She pauses. "I can't sleep."
"Yes, I can see that." He seems to shift around beside her, making the sheets rustle. "Shall I return to my room? Would you like some warm milk?"
Always with the warm milk! But suddenly he seems much closer. Or maybe with all her shifting around she's moved closer to him in the bed, and when she reaches her hand over, she finds his sleeve. "Can I tell you something in the strictest confidence? And without your judgment? You have to promise, Kageyama, because if you so much as laugh at me you are immediately fired."
"I will endeavor to curb my tongue."
"You'll do more than endeavor. You will promise me!"
"I promise."
Well, it's now or never, Reiko.
"Kageyama," she says again, hearing him breathing evenly and normally beside her when she's an utter train wreck. "Kageyama, you told me that I was...stubborn for not...attending to things. But believe me, I have tried. I really have tried. I'm worried there's something quite wrong with me. And maybe that something is why I don't have fifty thousand potential husbands lined up outside the door. Everything else about me is perfect, don't get me wrong, but I simply cannot...I simply do not know how I am supposed to..."
"My lady, are you trying to ask me something?"
"Yes."
"Something...that explains why for nearly the past month you've been crying out in your sleep for me?"
She's stunned. So all those times she's woken with her hand against her most intimate of places or with a damn stuffed animal under her, all those times Kageyama's come rushing in without taking a moment to bring his glasses or run a comb through his hair...
All those times she's been dreaming about him in THAT way?
"I said no judgment," she insists.
"My lady, I am not judging you. But let me only remind you of what your father pays me to do and what propriety states that I am not to do..."
She turns onto her side, leaning on her elbow to squint at him in the dark. "Kageyama, my father pays you to keep me happy. And try as I may on my own, I can't seem to. So tell me now, ignoring your stupid butler propriety - are you willing to make me happy?"
He hesitates. Actually hesitates! Kageyama has been paid to protect her, escort her, cook for her, attend to everything she requires. But he certainly hasn't been paid for such a request as this. And as her heart seems ready to explode at the request she's made of him, her body feels differently. It's like all of her logic and sense has vanished, only for this sudden feeling of urgency between her legs. She's not able to get a reaction like this at the thought of her own hands on her person, but the mere idea of Kageyama's being there...
"If this is what you truly wish for," he says quietly. "I do not necessarily want to compromise the trust and respect we have built..."
What respect? He takes every opportunity to tease her, and she grows impatient. She fumbles for his hand and squeezes it. "Yes or no, Kageyama. I need an answer from you! And if it's no, then get out of here already and stop being so indecisive around me!"
Well, her butler doesn't seem to like being accused of indecisiveness as he pushes her over onto her back and yanks the blankets off of her. "Please relax and let me take care of you then," are the last words he says.
His hand is warm when it finds the hem of her nightgown and tugs it roughly up, exposing her belly and thighs. He moves his hand across her abdomen slowly, almost painfully slow, his fingers drifting over her navel to find the waistband of her panties. Instead of moving inside, his fingers linger on the cotton and she finds herself parting her legs slightly so he has better access.
Her eyes are shut tight, and she's having trouble breathing. Nobody's ever been this intimate with her before, and the excitement is driving her crazy. He touches the soft skin on the inside of her thighs, a ticklish sort of gentleness before his hand is once again on her panties. They're growing slightly damp with her interest in a way that she's never been able to experience on her own. She bites her lip when his hand moves back up, and his fingers slip inside.
The feeling of Kageyama's fingers is way different from her own. Where her own attempts to touch herself were fumbling, awkward, and futile, Kageyama's fingers don't hesitate. He finds her immediately and without warning he slips a finger inside her. She gasps, trying to stay focused, trying to concentrate on just how he's working to please her. She may not always have him near. Maybe he can teach her a thing or two.
He's not rough, not forceful but he's got a rhythm that makes her want to move along with it. Instead, she stays completely still, turning her head away from him to try and deny him any sort of knowledge of what this is doing to her. One finger soon becomes two as he waits for her body to adjust and be ready for further attention. It's all new, all more amazing than she could have imagined. That the same man who spends half his days daydreaming about tea time is now slipping his fingers in and out of her makes it even more difficult to focus.
The heat between her legs continues to build with Kageyama's efforts and soon enough his fingers leave her. Just as she's ready to complain about his negligence, he starts to rub, insistently, round and round in circles and figure eights. She's certainly never found this place on her body before, hasn't really known what to do. But Kageyama does, alternating between slower movements and faster ones, adjusting in accordance with her own breathing.
It's grown heavier, her breathing, and it's pretty much impossible to think about anything but the wonderful way his simple touch makes her feel. That she's pretty much ordered him to do this is the furthest from her mind, for he's so ridiculously good at knowing just where she needs to be touched. "Relax and let me take care of you," he'd said to her, but she's too far gone to relax now.
Is this what she felt in her dreams that made her scream for Kageyama in them repeatedly? No, nothing in a dream state could be like this. Reiko finds herself opening her legs wider, finds herself moving against Kageyama's hand, and he seems responsive to it. His fingers slip back inside her, faster and faster. They're inside and back out, perpetual motion, and she's so slick and wet for him.
It's suddenly too much; she's going to lose it. She's going to lose it, and she tries to place her shaking hand over his. "Kageyama, wait," she moans, but then she's helping him along. She pushes down on his hand, arching her body up with none of Kageyama's fluid grace. He doesn't let up, and right then, right in that moment, she's consumed with the idea of Kageyama being all around her, the idea of Kageyama inside her, filling her with something other than his fingers, and the crudeness and lustful feelings overwhelm her.
Her whole body seems to shake, and she gasps. If she says Kageyama's name or not, she has no idea. Her hand stills as he continues to stroke her, finally slowing down. She lies there, unable to speak, her breath coming in frenzied, heaving gasps. She wants to laugh, she wants to cry. She's never been able to do this to herself, never been able to make herself feel this good. But where she's failed, Kageyama has once again succeeded.
She tries to reach for him then, wants to thank him, wants to beg him to do this for her every night until the end of time, but she misjudges the full extent of her happiness. She finds the back of his head and instead of saying the words, she pulls him down and kisses where she thinks his mouth must be.
This, finally, startles him, and he tries to back away with a murmured "my lady," but for once she's quicker than he is. She's still coming down from her lusty high, not bothering to kiss him politely or sweetly. She's over on her side, his face between her hands and she lifts her leg up to rest it over his hip. She hasn't given him a chance to take his fingers away from her yet, so his hand's a bit awkwardly positioned between them, and she rudely tries to buck her body against it.
"Please," she says against his mouth, "please, Kageyama, more."
"Please slow down, my lady," he begs her, finally extricating his hand and placing it on her bare leg in caution, but she can't slow down. Not when she's still feeling so perfect.
"Touch me," she whispers, "touch me again or...or...or I'll fire you..."
He laughs, not his usual mean-spirited little butler chuckles, but the laugh of an ordinary man. He clears his throat and detangles himself from her, pulling away until she flops over onto her stomach with a murmured "oof!"
"Kageyama," she whines, smacking her pillow with her fist.
"My apologies," he says, though he doesn't sound remotely apologetic. "But you do have to work tomorrow. I would be incredibly remiss in my duties if I kept you up all night." He finds his way around the other side of the bed, pulling her covers back up over her and tucking her in.
She fumbles around until she's comfortable. "So you're that type, are you? The one who leaves right away?"
He sighs. "I most definitely am not, but if I continue to share your bed tonight, I will have difficulty getting to sleep myself." She hears him situate himself on the rug beside her bed.
Reiko smiles. "Oh, I'm too much for you? Is that it?" She tosses him a pillow.
He catches it and is probably smiling back at her in the dark. "Most assuredly, my lady."
--
In the morning, Kageyama is once again gone, and reality comes crashing down, reminding her of what's now transpired between herself and her butler.
But when she enters the dining room breakfast awaits, and Kageyama's there smiling. He's not angry with her, not disgusted with her. In fact, he seems rather cheered to see her.
"I trust you slept well?"
"Very well, Kageyama," she declares as he sets an omelette down before her. "All thanks to you."
He seems pleased with the compliment, humming happily to himself as he pours out some freshly squeezed orange juice for her.
"Don't grow too complacent," she warns him with a grin. "I may require far more of you next time."
He turns away, perhaps to hide a flush in his cheeks. "I will endeavor to do all that you require, my lady."
She sips at her juice, remembering the night before happily. "You'll do more than endeavor. You will promise me!"
He bows with a hand to his heart. "I promise."