Second entry for the Summer History Challenge
Title: The Other Side of Sorrow
Fandom: Tsubasa Reservoir Chronicles
Characters: Kurogane/Fai, Kurogane/Sakura, Syaoran/Sakura, Himawari, Tomoyo, mention of Ashura
Prompt: 084. He and 41. Sluts
Word Count: 7,239
Rating: Mature
Summary: Kurogane's marital problems lead him to a dark alley one night where he meets a blond who promises to make him forget all his troubles.
Author's Notes: I have to admit, I picked the time period for no other reason than I am comping on Oscar Wilde in this upcoming semester at school. Important things to know about the the very late 18th century are that strict rules regarding homosexuality were being enforced, the maximum punishment for which was three years hard labor imprisonment.
X-posted to fanfic100, smut69, and kuroxfai
The hour was late and the street he was walking down was poorly lit as Kurogane made his way through the rain, avoiding the deeper puddles along the street with his hands in his pockets. Whores called to him from the side of the streets where they were protected from the rain by awnings. None of them seemed truly interested in pursuing him because none of them were willing to step into the rain to get more intimate with him. He only stopped when his path was blocked by a blond man smiling at him and standing in the middle of the road. He tried to step around the man, but the blond stepped to the side, effectively blocking his path again.
“You should not be down this road if you are not willing to talk to those who are trying to proposition their bodies to you,” the man told him with a grin.
“Then what are you doing here?”
“I’m trying to proposition my body to you.” Kurogane looked over the man whose clothes were being molded to his skinny body by the rain and determined he was most likely completely serious. He had heard of such things before, but he had yet to meet a man who actually participated in such activities. “Well,” the man prompted after Kurogane had been staring for a few minutes, “do I meet your approval?”
“What makes you think I would want to do it with another man?” Kurogane thought the blond was assuming a bit too much about what he wanted, especially considering they had never met before.
“Because you are walking down a street known for its brothels, yet you are ignoring all the lovely ladies that are calling to you.”
Kurogane supposed the man did have a point; he would have no other purpose in walking down the dirty street that was flooding from the rain unless he had a specific purpose for being there.
“Won’t you come inside and get out of those wet clothes?” the blond suggested, turning towards the building he presumably worked in.
“No.” The rentboy looked disappointed, but there was no way Kurogane was going to be seen walking into a brothel that hired men. He did have his reputation to think about, and the laws. Three years’ hard labor was too much to pay for what he wanted to do. “However, if you’re willing, we can go back to my house.”
“That will cost you a good deal extra.”
Kurogane could tell the man was intrigued y the prospect. “Money is of little consequence to me.”
“Oh, an aristocrat. Lead away, Mr. Rich Man. My name is Fai, by the way,” the blond said as Kurogane started leading the man through the streets of London back to his townhouse.
“My name is Kurogane.” Nobody would think too much of a male visitor coming to his home at that hour since the night was still young. He led the man inside his house and straight into the living room.
“This is a rather nice home,” the man told him while looking around the room.
“I inherited it from my parents after they died,” he explained as he guided the man to the couch. “Wait here and I’ll go get your payment.”
Kurogane went upstairs to his bedroom and pulled a locked chest from underneath the bed. His mother would be severely disappointed if she knew what he was doing, but he would not expect a woman to understand. He grabbed the key from the secret drawer in his desk and went back downstairs.
“Will this suffice for your payment for services and coming to my house?” he asked as he handed both key and chest to the man.
The blond unlocked the chest, exposing the diamond jewelry inside. “Kuro-love, with the money I’ll be able to get for this, you can have me for the week.”
“I only need you for the evening.”
Fai closed the box and placed it down on the floor. “Are you sure it is okay to be paying me so much?” the man asked suspiciously.
“The jewelry was a wedding present from my mother to my wife,” he offered in explanation. He would feel much better if anything connecting his wife to his family was not in his house.
“If the jewelry belongs to your wife, then I certainly cannot accept it.”
“You do not understand. My wife is not here currently because she is out with another man, and she thinks I am not aware.”
“So this is how you are extracting revenge,” the blond teased as he started slowly pushing Kurogane’s wet jacket off his shoulders, “by having sex with another man yourself.” Fai chuckled as he lowered himself back to the sofa. “How ingenious.”
“It did not matter whether it was a man or a woman.” Just as long as his wife could smell the sex when she returned, he would be satisfied. “You were the first one I found not completely repulsive.” Once he could see him more clearly, Kurogane determined not only was he non-repulsive, but the man could be considered attractive as well. His light blond hair looked as if it would be quite fluffy while dry, and his blue eyes sparkled with a mischievousness that intrigued Kurogane.
“I suppose I should count myself lucky that the gay ladies do not realize the rain smears their make-up. So what does Kuro-darling like to do?” Fai asked as he shifted to his knees and placed his hands on Kurogane’s chest.
“I don’t know,” he admitted. He had not visited whores frequently in his earlier days because of the horror stories he had heard, and his sex life with his wife had been rather bland. Sometimes he wondered if that was the reason she was cheating on him. “I’ve never been with a man before.”
Fai did not seem in the least bit affected by his comment, and he had the oddest sensation that the man was pleased by his confession. “Well, I shall just have to teach you a few things then,” Fai promised. Grabbing both of Kurogane’s hands in each of his, the blond pulled the aristocrat’s hands behind his back and slid them down the back of his pants. “I should inform you, I like to be touched, and your large hands are just the perfect size for caressing me,” Fai whispered as he manipulated Kurogane’s hands into squeezing his ass. Fai let go of his hands in favor of wrapping his arms around Kurogane’s neck instead. “So, does Kuro-sweetie like to touch me?” the blond asked before leaning up to kiss under Kurogane’s chin.
Kurogane slid one hand up the man’s spine and slid it back down. The rentboy’s skin was smooth, but he could feel the firm muscle underneath. “Yes.” Fai had started unbuttoning his shirt, kissing down Kurogane’s chest as the man’s skin was exposed to him.
“Kuro-love is tasty,” Fai murmured as he continued his way down, bringing his hands to rest on Kurogane’s waist. Kurogane shivered as the blond licked his belly button. “If you sit down the real fun can begin,” Fai teased with a gentle tug on Kurogane’s waist.
As soon as Kurogane was seated on the sofa, Fai was off of it, gliding backwards away from him. “Where are you going?” he growled, because he had paid good money for the man and he wanted to make good use of his time.
“Just far enough away to give you a proper view,” Fai responded as he started unbuttoning his own shirt. Kurogane watched as the man undressed, torn between the pale skin being exposed to him so deliciously slowly and the man’s heated gaze locked on him. After undoing the last button, Fai turned around as he slid his shirt back off his shoulders, all the while looking back at Kurogane. “Well, Mr. Aristocrat,” Fai began as he tossed his shirt to the ground and turned back around. “Shall we do this in here or shall we move to your wife’s bedroom?”
“If I’ve paid enough, I think I’d prefer both rooms.” If his wife could go have a good time with her boyfriend, he should prove he was fairly capable of having an extremely good time without her.
Fai crawled over his lap on the sofa with a small laugh. “With as much as you paid, you can do me in every room of this house if you can keep it up.” The blond started kissing him along the jaw again, and Kurogane placed his hand on the man’s waist.
His parents’ old bedroom was certainly out of the question, but Kurogane was certainly willing to try most of the other rooms in the house. Some of them he couldn’t even remember being in before. “Shall we get started then?” he asked because the man had started moving against him.
“Silly, we started several minutes ago,” Fai teased in between kisses to Kurogane’s neck. “Do you need some help getting up?” Without waiting for a response, Fai moved down to kiss Kurogane’s chest.
Kurogane didn’t particularly think he needed help of any sort in the present moment, but he was quite content to allow the man to do whatever he wanted with him for the time. Somewhere the thought flitted perhaps he should be the one using the other’s body for his own pleasure, but he decided to ignore it for the time being. Fai was nipping and licking down his chest and stomach, slowly moving from his position in Kurogane’s lap to kneeling on the floor between the lord’s legs. Kurogane had placed his hand in the man’s hair and was subconsciously pushing the man lower.
“Does Mr. Kuro-sweet enjoy this?” Fai asked with his hands on the fastenings of Kurogane’s pants. “I’m sure you will if I do it for you.” Fai’s fingers set to work, and Kurogane decided not to watch as the rentboy unfastened his pants and he tilted his head back to stare at the ceiling.
Without looking, he tried to concentrate on what the blond was doing to him. He tried to focus on the sensation of that warm mouth moving across his length and the delightful shivers created by the velvety tongue. The rentboy kneeling in front of him was really all he wanted to think about. Still, unbidden thoughts of his wife came, thoughts that perhaps she was currently doing the same thing for her lover, and suddenly he did not want the blond doing that to him anymore. He pulled Fai away from him and onto the couch next to him by the back of his hair.
“Ow,” Fai whimpered when he was released, gingerly rubbing the spot where Kurogane had pulled. “If you want to be rough, you could at least have the decency to warn me.” Kurogane had never intended to be rough with the man, but he had extremely disliked the thoughts that had come to him. “I take it you’ve had enough of that and are ready to move onto something else?” The blond asked the question innocently enough, but there was nothing even remotely innocent about his posture or the way he was looking at Kurogane with half-lidded eyes. “Well, then, are you going to fuck me?”
He no longer cared what or who his wife was doing as, with a growl, he crawled over the man’s body, pinning him to the sofa beneath him. The blond had managed to remove his pants while he had been servicing Kurogane, and Fai allowed the lord to settle between his legs and wrapped his arms around the other man’s neck as Kurogane kissed him fully on the mouth. The blond was quite aggressive in kissing him back and pulling his body closer as the grip on the back of his neck tightened. He started to thrust into him and heard Fai moan against his mouth. Finding it regrettable, Kurogane pulled away first as it was difficult for him to concentrate on breathing through his nose with everything else that was going on. Fai instantly resumed nipping along his neck with heated pants against his bruised skin. The feeling was too incredibly new, and Kurogane was unsure how much longer he was going to last. His wife had always given the impression she wanted it to be over with quickly.
“Don’t try to hold out,” Fai panted in his ear. “We have the rest of the evening to discover what you can do.” Kurogane groaned and buried his face against the man’s hair. “Don’t worry about a thing. With as much as you paid, you can come wherever you want.” The naughty prospects of that statement caused Kurogane to lose what little control he had left and after a few more thrusts he collapsed breathlessly on top of the other man. Fai lay perfectly still beneath him, running his fingers lightly through the aristocrat’s hair. “I have to admit, I thought you would last a little longer than that given your earlier requests to do this in more than one room.”
Without saying anything, Kurogane stood and hoisted Fai over his shoulder. The man was just as light as Kurogane had expected him to be. “Where are we going?” Fai asked as Kurogane started to carry him out of the room.
“To my wife’s bedroom.”
“How perfectly naughty of you, Kuro-honey.”
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
Kurogane allowed the blond to take a rest in his bed late in the morning while he remained awake, still naked next to him, watching the minutes tick by and waiting for the time he knew his wife was going to be coming home. He wanted her to feel the pain of knowing he was having an affair with someone else, but he saw no reason for her to know the identity of that person. As the time drew near, he shook Fai awake. “Wake up. You have to get dressed and get out of here now.”
The man yawned and blinked at him a few times. “Oh, Kuro-love, what’s going on?”
“My wife will be coming home at any moment. You can’t still be here when she arrives.”
Fai finally seemed to understand what he was saying and got out of the bed on his own. “Are all my clothes downstairs in the sitting room?” he asked as he started out the door with Kurogane following closely behind.
As Fai struggled to get his clothes back on, Kurogane chanced to look out the window and saw his wife walking down the street. “Hurry, you’ll have to leave through the back door,” he growled, pushing the man in that direction as Fai was still fighting with the buttons of his shirt.
Fai turned around to face him as Kurogane pushed open the door. “Will you come to see me again?”
“Now is not the time to be discussing that.” He could hear his wife approaching the front door.
Fai took him completely by surprise when he leaned up to give Kurogane a quick kiss.
“I know where to find you again.” Fai slipped quickly out into the street, the door closing behind him just as the front door opened.
“Kurogane, I’m home,” he heard his wife calling from the entryway. He supposed he should have thought to put clothes on himself in his efforts to get the blond out the door, then decided it did not really matter for he wanted his wife to know about what he had done. “Kurogane, where are you?” he heard his wife ask as she started to move through the house.
“By the back door,” he responded and within a moment his wife was within view.
She gave a slight start when she saw him, and he found he could look at her with nothing but indifference when he had once regarded her with such adoration. He had been so happy when she had agreed to marry him.
“Kurogane, you are usually not in such a state of undress,” she remarked, and he did nothing to cover himself. He didn’t care if she knew he had been having sex with someone else all night when she had likely been doing the same.
“How was your visit to your friend’s?” It felt like the proper thing to say at the moment.
“Kurogane, I want to tell you the real reason why I went to visit my friend this weekend.” He found it odd she was willing to confess to her affair, but from the frightened look on her face, he could hardly think of anything else she might be preparing herself to say.
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
“Kuro-love!” He had been sitting at the open window in the front parlor smoking a cigar when he heard the call from his front ledge. He looked out the window just in time to see the blond lean against the ledge.
“What are you doing here?” He had not expected to see Fai again, especially since he had no intentions of going back to that road.
“I sold the jewelry you paid me with and decided it was too much for what we did that evening and thought I would offer my services to you again.”
“I’m not interested.” He offered the man a cigar which Fai waved away.
“Where is your wife today?”
“Upstairs in my parents’ bedroom. She doesn’t like hers anymore.” He took a long drag from his cigar. “My wife is pregnant,” he finally admitted to the man after a long exhalation.
Fai’s cheery demeanor was lost instantly. “Is there any chance the child is yours?”
Kurogane wondered how he could ask such a bold question when they had only met a few days ago. “Given how far along she believes herself to be, he is as likely to be the father as I am.” He had made his way through several cases of cigarettes in the intervening time since he had heard the news and had finally moved into cigars that morning.
“Does Kuro-darling want me to come inside and comfort him?” Fai asked, reaching up to cover Kurogane’s hand with his own.
“Not now, my wife is inside.”
Fai seemed to have barely heard him and had picked up his hand to start kissing the tips of his fingers. “I enjoyed your fingers so much,” the blond whispered as he continued to kiss Kurogane’s hand. “I especially enjoyed your fingers inside of me.” Fai pulled the very tips of Kurogane’s fingers into his mouth.
“I told you, not now.” Kurogane pulled his hand quickly away from the man’s mouth. The blond was certainly enticing, but even in his current state, Kurogane was not willing to risk three years on the chance that his wife might come downstairs.
“Then when?” Fai asked, leaning further into the open window.
Kurogane put out his cigar. “The next time my wife goes to visit her friend, I shall come find you.” The man looked eager, almost as if he would try to force Kurogane’s wife out of the house. “Do you still work on the same street?”
Fai shook his head. “No, it would be better for you to seek me at my day job.”
Kurogane did not know why he was so surprised to learn that the man had an occupation other than rentboy. He figured the blond slept most of the day. “And where is your day job?”
“I work as secretary for Lord Ashura in the House of Lords.” The job seemed so natural for a man that age that Kurogane wondered why the man had also decided to sell his body in the middle of the night.
He did not have long to ponder before he heard his wife open the door upstairs. “You have to leave now. I will search for you when she leaves again.”
Fai gave his hand another kiss before waltzing away down the street. Kurogane watched him go until his wife entered the room, and he turned his attention toward her.
“Kurogane, I thought I heard you talking to someone down here,” she said, looking around the room.
“It was no one,” he told her, pulling out another cigar.
“I could have sworn I heard you talking with someone.” Kurogane was sorely tempted to tell her it was the whore she had smelled him with the other day, but he decided to remain silent on that point. “Kurogane, I think I should go out into the country again next weekend.”
He knew exactly why she wanted to go; she wanted to tell her boyfriend how he had responded to the news about her pregnancy. He could have forbidden her to go if he had really wanted to, but in the end, he gave her his consent. Besides, he had promised the blond he would see him again.
The days became tiring as he waited for his wife to leave for the country. More often than not, his mind was occupied with thoughts of the rentboy. A deeper relationship was out of the question considering the man sold his body to the first bidder of the evening. He had to question why he was pursuing a mindless sexual relationship when his marriage was falling apart, and the government was punishing those who had same-sex relations. Still, he could forget about his problems for a little while when he was wrapped within the blissful embrace of sex. On the day his wife was scheduled to leave to go to the country again, he went to Parliament in search of the blond. Even though he technically had an office there, it was the first time he had ever actually been inside the building.
A young male greeted him in the front entryway and offered him assistance.
“I am looking for Lord Ashura’s office,” he admitted, hoping the blond had told him the truth about his other job.
“Up the flight of stairs and to the right. His office is one-thirty-two.”
Kurogane took a step towards the stairs then turned back around to face the lad. “Do you mind telling me the number of the Suwa office?”
“One-twelve,” the boy answered quickly. “But I would not bother knocking on the door. The young lord has never been here.”
He dismissed the man’s words and went up the stairs in search of the rentboy, passing the closed door of his own office along the way. He could feel the weight of the key in his breast pocket, but he wanted to take care of his original business first. He paused outside of Ashura’s door for a moment, wondering if the Lord knew about his secretary’s nightlife and if Kurogane’s unexpected presence at his office would be thoroughly questioned. He knocked on the door.
“Come in.” He recognized the voice as the blond’s and boldly stepped into the office. Fai was sitting at a side desk, head down as he scribbled furiously away on a sheet of paper. No one else was currently in the office. “Lord Ashura is not in at the moment, but I would be more than happy to take a message for you.” Kurogane counted himself quite lucky indeed.
“That will not be necessary. I came here to see you.”
Fai dropped his pen and looked up at him, a look of wonder in his eyes. “Kuro-love…”
He did not trust relaying information to the other man in another office. Ashura might be spying on his secretary for all they knew, especially if he disapproved of what the man did at night. “Not here. When your Lord returns, ask permission to leave for a few minutes and come to my office one-twelve.”
Fai nodded eagerly. “I’ll be there.” The secretary went immediately back to the work he had been doing when Kurogane arrived.
Kurogane went back to the office that had once belonged to his father and now belonged to him. After a moment’s hesitation, he unlocked the door and stepped inside. No one had been in the office for two years - expect for the occasional cleaning woman he realized as he noticed the lack of dust (and the mystery charge on his father’s bills had finally been explained). His father had spent as much time in that office as he had at home. Kurogane had initially avoided the office because he did not want to fall into the same pattern as his father who had spent more time at his desk then he had with his loving wife. Kurogane collapsed into the worn leather chair at the desk to wait. On the desk was a photo of himself and his mother. She was wearing a white sundress that day and was laughing as she struggled to keep her son still for the picture while he squirmed to get out of her arms. He knew there had been much more dignified portraits of himself and his mother, and he wondered why his father would choose that one to look at everyday while he was at work. Granted, his mother looked stunning, but he looked like one of those apes they had in the newspaper the other day. He reached his hand to put the frame facedown, but at the last second pulled away in honor of his father’s memory.
He waited for the blond to arrive, looking around the room while tapping his foot against the floor. Other than the picture on the desk, there was no evidence that the office had once belonged to his father. He felt like he was waiting in a stranger’s office which made him feel more uncomfortable. He changed his thoughts to the rentboy instead, remembering that warm body arching and moaning beneath him, above him, and how delicious that warm mouth had felt moving along his heated skin. It was as if his thoughts of the man had summoned him into the room.
“Ashura thinks I’m having lunch,” Fai explained before hastening across the room into Kurogane’s arms and pressing his mouth hungrily against the aristocrat’s. Fai trailed one hand down Kurogane’s chest onto his crotch and pulled away with a lecherous grin. “Kuro-darling wants some office play,” the blond teased before dropping to his knees in front of him.
“That is not why I came here,” he started to explain, but Fai was already unfastening his pants. Other thoughts were driven from his mind with a groan as the man’s tongue flicked lightly across his heated skin. Kurogane attempted to regather his words, but Fai was making coherent thoughts and words extremely difficult to form. “My wife is going to the country for the weekend.”
Fai temporarily stopped what he was doing and pulled away to look up at Kurogane. “How long will she be gone?”
Kurogane could tell the rentboy was excited. “She won’t be coming back until Monday afternoon.”
“Can I come over tonight?” Kurogane nodded and shivered as Fai’s fingers ghosted over his cock. “But first, I should take care of Kuro-love’s current need.”
In the dim light of his father’s office, Kurogane again enjoyed the service of the man who had started as the key instrument in the revenge against his wife and was rapidly growing into an addiction Kurogane couldn’t define.
Fai spent the entire weekend at Kurogane’s townhouse, lounging in an open shirt or more frequently nothing at all. They spent most of the time in Kurogane’s bedroom to keep him hidden from the servants as much as possible. Kurogane could offer no explanation for giving them the entire weekend off, so they all stayed, and Kurogane was sure to take extra large meals in his room to make sure the blond had plenty to eat as well.
Kurogane tried to offer Fai more money, thinking it was only fair since the blond could not get any other money if Kurogane was monopolizing all of his time. Fai had initially refused, saying he had been paid more than enough the first evening, but the next morning, when Kurogane offered again, Fai made a big show of being reluctant about it, but he accepted the money anyway. After that, the blond accepted any gift Kurogane tried to offer him over the weekend.
Kurogane began to grow suspicious of the man’s motives, but when Kurogane offered him a single red rose, Fai accepted the gift with the same relish he had accepted all the other gifts worth monetary value.
At the end of the weekend, around an hour before his wife was scheduled to come home, he escorted the blond out of his home and took a train out to the country. If his wife had not lied about what time she was coming home, she should not still be at the house when he arrived. The ride was not long, and he was soon walking briskly towards the front door.
“I need to speak to Tomoyo on urgent business,” he informed the butler as soon as the door was open and without waiting for a response, pushed his way inside. The butler followed him, but Kurogane made his way directly to where he knew Tomoyo would be waiting for him with her usually kettle of tea.
“Kurogane, what a pleasant surprise,” she said as he entered the room with the butler panting behind him.
“My lady, should I remove this ruffian from your presence?”
“That won’t be necessary.” Tomoyo did not speak to him until the butler left and closed the door. “I’m sorry, Kurogane, but if you are looking for your wife, she has already left for home,” the lady informed him as she poured two cups of tea.
With a scowl, Kurogane sat down in the chair across from her. “I want to know who was here this weekend besides my wife.”
“Myself, Himawari, and the servants of course.” She was smiling, and Kurogane did not believe her. “Why do you ask?”
“Because of the affair my wife is having that you have been facilitating.” He couldn’t bring himself to drink her tea, even though the tea did look awfully tempting.
“I don’t know what you are speaking of Kurogane,” she said, innocently taking a sip form her tea.
“Don’t play that game. If you don’t want to tell me, I’ll just go ask Himawari.” He started to rise from the chair.
“Don’t you dare bring her into this.” Kurogane lowered himself back into the chair, confident that Tomoyo would be more willing to talk to him now.
“Why not? Himawari cannot lie to me, especially if the truth will be hurtful.” It was through Himawari’s questioning if he enjoyed sleeping alone at night that first made him question his wife’s activities.
“You know that is not her fault.” Tomoyo was far too protective of her ward, and Kurogane almost regretted using that information against her. “I swear to you, no one else was here this weekend.” She seemed to be telling the truth, but Kurogane did not trust her to choose him over his wife. She was perfectly capable of lying to him if it meant protecting his wife. “You should go home and spend time with your wife. A woman’s first child can be a difficult experience. Or so I’ve heard.” Tomoyo had never married, neither had her sister, which made Kurogane feel she was a bad influence for his wife. She might have had an illicit affair or two of her own.
“Thank you for the advice.” Kurogane saw no reason to stay any longer and started to leave. On the way out, he saw a brown-haired lad he did not recognize speaking to Himawari who smiled and waved when she saw him. He nodded to her and continued on his way back to the train station.
On the ride back to London, his thoughts were torn between images of the blond rentboy and memories of his wife. He had loved his wife once; now there was the complication of both of them having affairs with other men. At least he was reassured they were not sleeping with the same man, given they were having affairs at the same time.
“Kurogane, welcome home,” she said as he walked into the door. Her bags had already been taken upstairs, but she was still wearing her usual traveling clothes, given to her by Tomoyo. She still managed to look cute, even thought Kurogane knew she had done it for her boyfriend and not for him. She did not bother to ask where he had been.
“How was your stay with Tomoyo?”
“Fine. Himawari and I practiced our German together.”
Kurogane did not understand the need young women had to learn as many foreign languages as they possibly could. He approached his wife and placed his hand on her stomach thought she looked up at him in confusion. “Have you picked any names yet?”
“No, I thought we could do that together when the baby arrives.” She was not looking at him, so Kurogane assumed she was not thinking about him. “Kurogane…” She leaned up to give him a quick kiss. “I’ll be waiting for you in your bedroom.”
Kurogane wondered briefly if the pregnancy had been doing odd things to her mind, because she had never wanted sex in the daylight hours before. Still, perhaps with additional simulation, he could coerce the child into being his.
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
He realized a few days later, no matter how much he loved his wife, nothing could change the fact his wife was having an affair and the child she was carrying may not be his. He had taken to walking the streets at night though he avoided the streets with brothels as much as he possibly could. He did not want to be reminded of whores on any of those evenings. Fai had not been to the townhouse to visit him recently, as if he had got what he wanted from Kurogane and no longer had any use for him. He knew he should not have lavished so much attention on the man, but he just couldn’t bring himself to stop. He did, however, wander dangerously close to the street where he had first met the blond.
He passed a couple snogging, but he ignored them for a while. Until he recognized the smaller of the two with the shorter blond hair as Fai.
“Get the hell off of him,” he growled, pulling the man away from Fai and punching him. He pulled Fai close to him though the rentboy struggled.
“I paid for my whore, I’m fucking my whore,” the man growled, trying to grab Fai, but Kurogane kept a firm hold on the man.
He fished around in Fai’s pockets and threw the money at him and pulled more money out of his own pocket to join it. “There’s more money for you. Go get yourself another whore.” The man cursed at Kurogane, but he gathered his money and stormed off.
“Kurogane, what the hell do you think you’re doing?” Fai had finally managed to wiggle free of Kurogane’s grasp. The blond glared at him.
“What am I doing? What they hell were you doing?” From what he could tell, Fai had not been particularly enjoying that kiss with the man with the long blond hair.
“My job, remember?”
Kurogane froze as he realized he had forgotten when he saw Fai with that other man, he had allowed a jealous rage to come over him and had forgotten the man did much more with other men on a nightly basis. “You have no idea what it’s been like for me, with my wife pretending that she still loves me.” She had just pretended a few days ago, and Kurogane knew she had been thinking about her boyfriend at the time.
“Maybe she does still love you,” Fai offered.
“What do you know about love?” He ignored the hurt expression on the rentboy’s face. “You give your body to whoever wants it; you’ve never had sex for love.”
“Sometimes I do.”
Since had had never had sex with the blond without paying, Kurogane knew any feelings he had for the man could not possibly be mutual. “Will you come back to the house with me?” He could hardly bring himself to look at the man. “I’ll pay since I removed your customer for the evening.”
“Of course.” Fai walked by his side as they made their way back to the townhouse. Once inside, Kurogane immediately began leading the man upstairs. “Where is your wife this evening?”
“I don’t know. She could be somewhere in the house for all I know.”
Fai looked panicked for a moment and started peering through every door they passed. “Kuro-love, I’m not entirely sure this is a good idea.” Fai kept looking back over his shoulder as if he wanted to dart back the way they had come. “If your wife finds out and reports us, we’ll go to jail.”
“We are not going to jail.” He grabbed Fai’s wrist to make sure the blond did not try to run out on him. He pulled the blond into his bedroom with him and pushed him onto the bed, collapsing on top of him and kissing his neck.
“Kuro-darling, I really don’t think this is such a good idea,” Fai weakly protested, but he allowed Kurogane to undo his pants and start rubbing against him.
“Kurogane, are you home?”
Fai froze underneath him as Kurogane looked over her shoulder to see his wife standing in the doorway. She seemed incapable of looking away from them, and Kurogane realized he had the good fortune of never having to see his wife in the actual act of having an affair.
“Sakura, go downstairs,” he ordered. She nodded and quickly moved out of the doorway.
While Kurogane had been distracted, Fai had managed to wiggle out from underneath him and was refastening his pants. Kurogane supposed not even rentboys could recover from everything.
“Was that your wife?” He kept looking to the spot where she had been standing.
Kurogane nodded.
“She looked awfully young.”
“She was only sixteen when I married her.” The youngest of the family and she had been the first one married.
“She’s quite lovely.”
Kurogane thought he detected a hint of jealousy in the man’s voice. “She is no longer mine.”
They were silent for a while except for the panting which had yet to subside, until Fai timidly asked, “Can I meet her?”
“Why would you want to meet her?” Kurogane was unsure he liked the idea of his wife and mistress meeting.
“Because I hope if she meets me she won’t want to throw me in jail. Unfortunately, you are the one who cheated on her, so you don’t have any hope.”
“She’s not going to like you very much either.” Still, if his wife was going to remain downstairs, a confrontation between the two of them was going to be unavoidable. He made sure he was presentable again before leading Fai downstairs. His wife was sitting patiently in the drawing room with a box in her lap that looked incredibly familiar to Kurogane. He looked at Fai who merely shrugged. He wanted to go back upstairs and hide, but his wife had already noticed their presence.
“Sakura, this is Fai,” he said, introducing the blond to her. Fai smiled and extended his hand.
“Is that really your name? I’ve heard prostitutes will often take on a second identity.”
Fai retracted his hand slightly with a nervous laugh. “Of course it’s my name.”
Sakura finally shook his hand and offered him the box in her lap. “I believe this is supposed to be yours. I found it hidden in my room, along with some other trinkets I supposed Kurogane had used to pay his whore.” Sakura set the box back on the couch, and Kurogane noticed all the other trinkets he had attempted to give Fai, except for the remains of the rose.
“You never took any of my money.”
“I think it’s wonderful, Kurogane, that you have found someone to love you so dearly.” Sakura smiled up at Fai. “But I must insist on you getting a new job if you wish to continue loving my husband.”
Kurogane thought he understood why his wife was being so understanding about his affair. Even if she did love him, she had found someone she loved even more in the form of her lover. “Who is the name of the person who loves you so dearly?”
“He’s one of Tomoyo’s stableboys. His name is Syaoran.” Kurogane felt cheated that Tomoyo had managed to protect his wife’s affair from him without actually lying to him either. “Fai, I suggest you move in with us so that you may continue your relationship with my husband without fear of suspicion.”
“I think people might be suspicious of one of us if an unrelated man suddenly moves in with us,” Kurogane reminded them since they both seemed to be very keen on the idea. Still, he would personally feel better if the man was living with them. He would have ultimate proof that the man was not selling his body to anyone else during the night. “Why were you with that man the other night if you love me?”
“A man has to get money some way, and Lord Ashura is out of money and unable to pay which was why I had to take the second job in the first place.”
Sakura extended her hand back towards Fai. “We’ll tell everyone that you’re my cousin who has run on hard times and is going to stay with us until he can get out of debt. You can work as my husband’s secretary so that people actually believe you are trying to earn money so you may move out of our house.”
Fai kissed her hand lightly. “Thank you for letting me stay with you, Cousin Sakura and Cousin Kurogane.”
Sakura turned her attention to her husband. “In return for my services, you shall allow me to go to Tomoyo’s as often as I like so that I may see Syaoran.”
Kurogane supposed it was impossible for him to hold onto both of them at the same time. He was starting to realize that the way he felt for the blond was quite different from the way he felt for his wife. He thought perhaps it was comparable to his wife’s feelings for that stableboy. “All right. Since you have been so instrumental to my happiness, I shall aid you in yours.” He decided he would not have to ever come into contact with the boy at any rate, and he could continue to pretend that the man did not exist.
Fai returned the following day with his meager belongings and placed himself in Kurogane’s room and refused to move his things anywhere else in the house even though they had had the servants clean up a spare room and prepare it for him to sleep in. Sakura’s child, when she was finally born, ended up looking exactly like her mother, so Kurogane realized he would never know whether the child was his or his wife’s lover’s. Fai, however, decided to distract him shortly afterwards, and Kurogane never really had much time to think about it. He never worried about the government discovering their secret either, for Fai could be quite distracting when he wanted to be.
Fandom: Tsubasa Reservoir Chronicles
Characters: Kurogane/Fai, Kurogane/Sakura, Syaoran/Sakura, Himawari, Tomoyo, mention of Ashura
Prompt: 084. He and 41. Sluts
Word Count: 7,239
Rating: Mature
Summary: Kurogane's marital problems lead him to a dark alley one night where he meets a blond who promises to make him forget all his troubles.
Author's Notes: I have to admit, I picked the time period for no other reason than I am comping on Oscar Wilde in this upcoming semester at school. Important things to know about the the very late 18th century are that strict rules regarding homosexuality were being enforced, the maximum punishment for which was three years hard labor imprisonment.
X-posted to fanfic100, smut69, and kuroxfai
The hour was late and the street he was walking down was poorly lit as Kurogane made his way through the rain, avoiding the deeper puddles along the street with his hands in his pockets. Whores called to him from the side of the streets where they were protected from the rain by awnings. None of them seemed truly interested in pursuing him because none of them were willing to step into the rain to get more intimate with him. He only stopped when his path was blocked by a blond man smiling at him and standing in the middle of the road. He tried to step around the man, but the blond stepped to the side, effectively blocking his path again.
“You should not be down this road if you are not willing to talk to those who are trying to proposition their bodies to you,” the man told him with a grin.
“Then what are you doing here?”
“I’m trying to proposition my body to you.” Kurogane looked over the man whose clothes were being molded to his skinny body by the rain and determined he was most likely completely serious. He had heard of such things before, but he had yet to meet a man who actually participated in such activities. “Well,” the man prompted after Kurogane had been staring for a few minutes, “do I meet your approval?”
“What makes you think I would want to do it with another man?” Kurogane thought the blond was assuming a bit too much about what he wanted, especially considering they had never met before.
“Because you are walking down a street known for its brothels, yet you are ignoring all the lovely ladies that are calling to you.”
Kurogane supposed the man did have a point; he would have no other purpose in walking down the dirty street that was flooding from the rain unless he had a specific purpose for being there.
“Won’t you come inside and get out of those wet clothes?” the blond suggested, turning towards the building he presumably worked in.
“No.” The rentboy looked disappointed, but there was no way Kurogane was going to be seen walking into a brothel that hired men. He did have his reputation to think about, and the laws. Three years’ hard labor was too much to pay for what he wanted to do. “However, if you’re willing, we can go back to my house.”
“That will cost you a good deal extra.”
Kurogane could tell the man was intrigued y the prospect. “Money is of little consequence to me.”
“Oh, an aristocrat. Lead away, Mr. Rich Man. My name is Fai, by the way,” the blond said as Kurogane started leading the man through the streets of London back to his townhouse.
“My name is Kurogane.” Nobody would think too much of a male visitor coming to his home at that hour since the night was still young. He led the man inside his house and straight into the living room.
“This is a rather nice home,” the man told him while looking around the room.
“I inherited it from my parents after they died,” he explained as he guided the man to the couch. “Wait here and I’ll go get your payment.”
Kurogane went upstairs to his bedroom and pulled a locked chest from underneath the bed. His mother would be severely disappointed if she knew what he was doing, but he would not expect a woman to understand. He grabbed the key from the secret drawer in his desk and went back downstairs.
“Will this suffice for your payment for services and coming to my house?” he asked as he handed both key and chest to the man.
The blond unlocked the chest, exposing the diamond jewelry inside. “Kuro-love, with the money I’ll be able to get for this, you can have me for the week.”
“I only need you for the evening.”
Fai closed the box and placed it down on the floor. “Are you sure it is okay to be paying me so much?” the man asked suspiciously.
“The jewelry was a wedding present from my mother to my wife,” he offered in explanation. He would feel much better if anything connecting his wife to his family was not in his house.
“If the jewelry belongs to your wife, then I certainly cannot accept it.”
“You do not understand. My wife is not here currently because she is out with another man, and she thinks I am not aware.”
“So this is how you are extracting revenge,” the blond teased as he started slowly pushing Kurogane’s wet jacket off his shoulders, “by having sex with another man yourself.” Fai chuckled as he lowered himself back to the sofa. “How ingenious.”
“It did not matter whether it was a man or a woman.” Just as long as his wife could smell the sex when she returned, he would be satisfied. “You were the first one I found not completely repulsive.” Once he could see him more clearly, Kurogane determined not only was he non-repulsive, but the man could be considered attractive as well. His light blond hair looked as if it would be quite fluffy while dry, and his blue eyes sparkled with a mischievousness that intrigued Kurogane.
“I suppose I should count myself lucky that the gay ladies do not realize the rain smears their make-up. So what does Kuro-darling like to do?” Fai asked as he shifted to his knees and placed his hands on Kurogane’s chest.
“I don’t know,” he admitted. He had not visited whores frequently in his earlier days because of the horror stories he had heard, and his sex life with his wife had been rather bland. Sometimes he wondered if that was the reason she was cheating on him. “I’ve never been with a man before.”
Fai did not seem in the least bit affected by his comment, and he had the oddest sensation that the man was pleased by his confession. “Well, I shall just have to teach you a few things then,” Fai promised. Grabbing both of Kurogane’s hands in each of his, the blond pulled the aristocrat’s hands behind his back and slid them down the back of his pants. “I should inform you, I like to be touched, and your large hands are just the perfect size for caressing me,” Fai whispered as he manipulated Kurogane’s hands into squeezing his ass. Fai let go of his hands in favor of wrapping his arms around Kurogane’s neck instead. “So, does Kuro-sweetie like to touch me?” the blond asked before leaning up to kiss under Kurogane’s chin.
Kurogane slid one hand up the man’s spine and slid it back down. The rentboy’s skin was smooth, but he could feel the firm muscle underneath. “Yes.” Fai had started unbuttoning his shirt, kissing down Kurogane’s chest as the man’s skin was exposed to him.
“Kuro-love is tasty,” Fai murmured as he continued his way down, bringing his hands to rest on Kurogane’s waist. Kurogane shivered as the blond licked his belly button. “If you sit down the real fun can begin,” Fai teased with a gentle tug on Kurogane’s waist.
As soon as Kurogane was seated on the sofa, Fai was off of it, gliding backwards away from him. “Where are you going?” he growled, because he had paid good money for the man and he wanted to make good use of his time.
“Just far enough away to give you a proper view,” Fai responded as he started unbuttoning his own shirt. Kurogane watched as the man undressed, torn between the pale skin being exposed to him so deliciously slowly and the man’s heated gaze locked on him. After undoing the last button, Fai turned around as he slid his shirt back off his shoulders, all the while looking back at Kurogane. “Well, Mr. Aristocrat,” Fai began as he tossed his shirt to the ground and turned back around. “Shall we do this in here or shall we move to your wife’s bedroom?”
“If I’ve paid enough, I think I’d prefer both rooms.” If his wife could go have a good time with her boyfriend, he should prove he was fairly capable of having an extremely good time without her.
Fai crawled over his lap on the sofa with a small laugh. “With as much as you paid, you can do me in every room of this house if you can keep it up.” The blond started kissing him along the jaw again, and Kurogane placed his hand on the man’s waist.
His parents’ old bedroom was certainly out of the question, but Kurogane was certainly willing to try most of the other rooms in the house. Some of them he couldn’t even remember being in before. “Shall we get started then?” he asked because the man had started moving against him.
“Silly, we started several minutes ago,” Fai teased in between kisses to Kurogane’s neck. “Do you need some help getting up?” Without waiting for a response, Fai moved down to kiss Kurogane’s chest.
Kurogane didn’t particularly think he needed help of any sort in the present moment, but he was quite content to allow the man to do whatever he wanted with him for the time. Somewhere the thought flitted perhaps he should be the one using the other’s body for his own pleasure, but he decided to ignore it for the time being. Fai was nipping and licking down his chest and stomach, slowly moving from his position in Kurogane’s lap to kneeling on the floor between the lord’s legs. Kurogane had placed his hand in the man’s hair and was subconsciously pushing the man lower.
“Does Mr. Kuro-sweet enjoy this?” Fai asked with his hands on the fastenings of Kurogane’s pants. “I’m sure you will if I do it for you.” Fai’s fingers set to work, and Kurogane decided not to watch as the rentboy unfastened his pants and he tilted his head back to stare at the ceiling.
Without looking, he tried to concentrate on what the blond was doing to him. He tried to focus on the sensation of that warm mouth moving across his length and the delightful shivers created by the velvety tongue. The rentboy kneeling in front of him was really all he wanted to think about. Still, unbidden thoughts of his wife came, thoughts that perhaps she was currently doing the same thing for her lover, and suddenly he did not want the blond doing that to him anymore. He pulled Fai away from him and onto the couch next to him by the back of his hair.
“Ow,” Fai whimpered when he was released, gingerly rubbing the spot where Kurogane had pulled. “If you want to be rough, you could at least have the decency to warn me.” Kurogane had never intended to be rough with the man, but he had extremely disliked the thoughts that had come to him. “I take it you’ve had enough of that and are ready to move onto something else?” The blond asked the question innocently enough, but there was nothing even remotely innocent about his posture or the way he was looking at Kurogane with half-lidded eyes. “Well, then, are you going to fuck me?”
He no longer cared what or who his wife was doing as, with a growl, he crawled over the man’s body, pinning him to the sofa beneath him. The blond had managed to remove his pants while he had been servicing Kurogane, and Fai allowed the lord to settle between his legs and wrapped his arms around the other man’s neck as Kurogane kissed him fully on the mouth. The blond was quite aggressive in kissing him back and pulling his body closer as the grip on the back of his neck tightened. He started to thrust into him and heard Fai moan against his mouth. Finding it regrettable, Kurogane pulled away first as it was difficult for him to concentrate on breathing through his nose with everything else that was going on. Fai instantly resumed nipping along his neck with heated pants against his bruised skin. The feeling was too incredibly new, and Kurogane was unsure how much longer he was going to last. His wife had always given the impression she wanted it to be over with quickly.
“Don’t try to hold out,” Fai panted in his ear. “We have the rest of the evening to discover what you can do.” Kurogane groaned and buried his face against the man’s hair. “Don’t worry about a thing. With as much as you paid, you can come wherever you want.” The naughty prospects of that statement caused Kurogane to lose what little control he had left and after a few more thrusts he collapsed breathlessly on top of the other man. Fai lay perfectly still beneath him, running his fingers lightly through the aristocrat’s hair. “I have to admit, I thought you would last a little longer than that given your earlier requests to do this in more than one room.”
Without saying anything, Kurogane stood and hoisted Fai over his shoulder. The man was just as light as Kurogane had expected him to be. “Where are we going?” Fai asked as Kurogane started to carry him out of the room.
“To my wife’s bedroom.”
“How perfectly naughty of you, Kuro-honey.”
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
Kurogane allowed the blond to take a rest in his bed late in the morning while he remained awake, still naked next to him, watching the minutes tick by and waiting for the time he knew his wife was going to be coming home. He wanted her to feel the pain of knowing he was having an affair with someone else, but he saw no reason for her to know the identity of that person. As the time drew near, he shook Fai awake. “Wake up. You have to get dressed and get out of here now.”
The man yawned and blinked at him a few times. “Oh, Kuro-love, what’s going on?”
“My wife will be coming home at any moment. You can’t still be here when she arrives.”
Fai finally seemed to understand what he was saying and got out of the bed on his own. “Are all my clothes downstairs in the sitting room?” he asked as he started out the door with Kurogane following closely behind.
As Fai struggled to get his clothes back on, Kurogane chanced to look out the window and saw his wife walking down the street. “Hurry, you’ll have to leave through the back door,” he growled, pushing the man in that direction as Fai was still fighting with the buttons of his shirt.
Fai turned around to face him as Kurogane pushed open the door. “Will you come to see me again?”
“Now is not the time to be discussing that.” He could hear his wife approaching the front door.
Fai took him completely by surprise when he leaned up to give Kurogane a quick kiss.
“I know where to find you again.” Fai slipped quickly out into the street, the door closing behind him just as the front door opened.
“Kurogane, I’m home,” he heard his wife calling from the entryway. He supposed he should have thought to put clothes on himself in his efforts to get the blond out the door, then decided it did not really matter for he wanted his wife to know about what he had done. “Kurogane, where are you?” he heard his wife ask as she started to move through the house.
“By the back door,” he responded and within a moment his wife was within view.
She gave a slight start when she saw him, and he found he could look at her with nothing but indifference when he had once regarded her with such adoration. He had been so happy when she had agreed to marry him.
“Kurogane, you are usually not in such a state of undress,” she remarked, and he did nothing to cover himself. He didn’t care if she knew he had been having sex with someone else all night when she had likely been doing the same.
“How was your visit to your friend’s?” It felt like the proper thing to say at the moment.
“Kurogane, I want to tell you the real reason why I went to visit my friend this weekend.” He found it odd she was willing to confess to her affair, but from the frightened look on her face, he could hardly think of anything else she might be preparing herself to say.
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
“Kuro-love!” He had been sitting at the open window in the front parlor smoking a cigar when he heard the call from his front ledge. He looked out the window just in time to see the blond lean against the ledge.
“What are you doing here?” He had not expected to see Fai again, especially since he had no intentions of going back to that road.
“I sold the jewelry you paid me with and decided it was too much for what we did that evening and thought I would offer my services to you again.”
“I’m not interested.” He offered the man a cigar which Fai waved away.
“Where is your wife today?”
“Upstairs in my parents’ bedroom. She doesn’t like hers anymore.” He took a long drag from his cigar. “My wife is pregnant,” he finally admitted to the man after a long exhalation.
Fai’s cheery demeanor was lost instantly. “Is there any chance the child is yours?”
Kurogane wondered how he could ask such a bold question when they had only met a few days ago. “Given how far along she believes herself to be, he is as likely to be the father as I am.” He had made his way through several cases of cigarettes in the intervening time since he had heard the news and had finally moved into cigars that morning.
“Does Kuro-darling want me to come inside and comfort him?” Fai asked, reaching up to cover Kurogane’s hand with his own.
“Not now, my wife is inside.”
Fai seemed to have barely heard him and had picked up his hand to start kissing the tips of his fingers. “I enjoyed your fingers so much,” the blond whispered as he continued to kiss Kurogane’s hand. “I especially enjoyed your fingers inside of me.” Fai pulled the very tips of Kurogane’s fingers into his mouth.
“I told you, not now.” Kurogane pulled his hand quickly away from the man’s mouth. The blond was certainly enticing, but even in his current state, Kurogane was not willing to risk three years on the chance that his wife might come downstairs.
“Then when?” Fai asked, leaning further into the open window.
Kurogane put out his cigar. “The next time my wife goes to visit her friend, I shall come find you.” The man looked eager, almost as if he would try to force Kurogane’s wife out of the house. “Do you still work on the same street?”
Fai shook his head. “No, it would be better for you to seek me at my day job.”
Kurogane did not know why he was so surprised to learn that the man had an occupation other than rentboy. He figured the blond slept most of the day. “And where is your day job?”
“I work as secretary for Lord Ashura in the House of Lords.” The job seemed so natural for a man that age that Kurogane wondered why the man had also decided to sell his body in the middle of the night.
He did not have long to ponder before he heard his wife open the door upstairs. “You have to leave now. I will search for you when she leaves again.”
Fai gave his hand another kiss before waltzing away down the street. Kurogane watched him go until his wife entered the room, and he turned his attention toward her.
“Kurogane, I thought I heard you talking to someone down here,” she said, looking around the room.
“It was no one,” he told her, pulling out another cigar.
“I could have sworn I heard you talking with someone.” Kurogane was sorely tempted to tell her it was the whore she had smelled him with the other day, but he decided to remain silent on that point. “Kurogane, I think I should go out into the country again next weekend.”
He knew exactly why she wanted to go; she wanted to tell her boyfriend how he had responded to the news about her pregnancy. He could have forbidden her to go if he had really wanted to, but in the end, he gave her his consent. Besides, he had promised the blond he would see him again.
The days became tiring as he waited for his wife to leave for the country. More often than not, his mind was occupied with thoughts of the rentboy. A deeper relationship was out of the question considering the man sold his body to the first bidder of the evening. He had to question why he was pursuing a mindless sexual relationship when his marriage was falling apart, and the government was punishing those who had same-sex relations. Still, he could forget about his problems for a little while when he was wrapped within the blissful embrace of sex. On the day his wife was scheduled to leave to go to the country again, he went to Parliament in search of the blond. Even though he technically had an office there, it was the first time he had ever actually been inside the building.
A young male greeted him in the front entryway and offered him assistance.
“I am looking for Lord Ashura’s office,” he admitted, hoping the blond had told him the truth about his other job.
“Up the flight of stairs and to the right. His office is one-thirty-two.”
Kurogane took a step towards the stairs then turned back around to face the lad. “Do you mind telling me the number of the Suwa office?”
“One-twelve,” the boy answered quickly. “But I would not bother knocking on the door. The young lord has never been here.”
He dismissed the man’s words and went up the stairs in search of the rentboy, passing the closed door of his own office along the way. He could feel the weight of the key in his breast pocket, but he wanted to take care of his original business first. He paused outside of Ashura’s door for a moment, wondering if the Lord knew about his secretary’s nightlife and if Kurogane’s unexpected presence at his office would be thoroughly questioned. He knocked on the door.
“Come in.” He recognized the voice as the blond’s and boldly stepped into the office. Fai was sitting at a side desk, head down as he scribbled furiously away on a sheet of paper. No one else was currently in the office. “Lord Ashura is not in at the moment, but I would be more than happy to take a message for you.” Kurogane counted himself quite lucky indeed.
“That will not be necessary. I came here to see you.”
Fai dropped his pen and looked up at him, a look of wonder in his eyes. “Kuro-love…”
He did not trust relaying information to the other man in another office. Ashura might be spying on his secretary for all they knew, especially if he disapproved of what the man did at night. “Not here. When your Lord returns, ask permission to leave for a few minutes and come to my office one-twelve.”
Fai nodded eagerly. “I’ll be there.” The secretary went immediately back to the work he had been doing when Kurogane arrived.
Kurogane went back to the office that had once belonged to his father and now belonged to him. After a moment’s hesitation, he unlocked the door and stepped inside. No one had been in the office for two years - expect for the occasional cleaning woman he realized as he noticed the lack of dust (and the mystery charge on his father’s bills had finally been explained). His father had spent as much time in that office as he had at home. Kurogane had initially avoided the office because he did not want to fall into the same pattern as his father who had spent more time at his desk then he had with his loving wife. Kurogane collapsed into the worn leather chair at the desk to wait. On the desk was a photo of himself and his mother. She was wearing a white sundress that day and was laughing as she struggled to keep her son still for the picture while he squirmed to get out of her arms. He knew there had been much more dignified portraits of himself and his mother, and he wondered why his father would choose that one to look at everyday while he was at work. Granted, his mother looked stunning, but he looked like one of those apes they had in the newspaper the other day. He reached his hand to put the frame facedown, but at the last second pulled away in honor of his father’s memory.
He waited for the blond to arrive, looking around the room while tapping his foot against the floor. Other than the picture on the desk, there was no evidence that the office had once belonged to his father. He felt like he was waiting in a stranger’s office which made him feel more uncomfortable. He changed his thoughts to the rentboy instead, remembering that warm body arching and moaning beneath him, above him, and how delicious that warm mouth had felt moving along his heated skin. It was as if his thoughts of the man had summoned him into the room.
“Ashura thinks I’m having lunch,” Fai explained before hastening across the room into Kurogane’s arms and pressing his mouth hungrily against the aristocrat’s. Fai trailed one hand down Kurogane’s chest onto his crotch and pulled away with a lecherous grin. “Kuro-darling wants some office play,” the blond teased before dropping to his knees in front of him.
“That is not why I came here,” he started to explain, but Fai was already unfastening his pants. Other thoughts were driven from his mind with a groan as the man’s tongue flicked lightly across his heated skin. Kurogane attempted to regather his words, but Fai was making coherent thoughts and words extremely difficult to form. “My wife is going to the country for the weekend.”
Fai temporarily stopped what he was doing and pulled away to look up at Kurogane. “How long will she be gone?”
Kurogane could tell the rentboy was excited. “She won’t be coming back until Monday afternoon.”
“Can I come over tonight?” Kurogane nodded and shivered as Fai’s fingers ghosted over his cock. “But first, I should take care of Kuro-love’s current need.”
In the dim light of his father’s office, Kurogane again enjoyed the service of the man who had started as the key instrument in the revenge against his wife and was rapidly growing into an addiction Kurogane couldn’t define.
Fai spent the entire weekend at Kurogane’s townhouse, lounging in an open shirt or more frequently nothing at all. They spent most of the time in Kurogane’s bedroom to keep him hidden from the servants as much as possible. Kurogane could offer no explanation for giving them the entire weekend off, so they all stayed, and Kurogane was sure to take extra large meals in his room to make sure the blond had plenty to eat as well.
Kurogane tried to offer Fai more money, thinking it was only fair since the blond could not get any other money if Kurogane was monopolizing all of his time. Fai had initially refused, saying he had been paid more than enough the first evening, but the next morning, when Kurogane offered again, Fai made a big show of being reluctant about it, but he accepted the money anyway. After that, the blond accepted any gift Kurogane tried to offer him over the weekend.
Kurogane began to grow suspicious of the man’s motives, but when Kurogane offered him a single red rose, Fai accepted the gift with the same relish he had accepted all the other gifts worth monetary value.
At the end of the weekend, around an hour before his wife was scheduled to come home, he escorted the blond out of his home and took a train out to the country. If his wife had not lied about what time she was coming home, she should not still be at the house when he arrived. The ride was not long, and he was soon walking briskly towards the front door.
“I need to speak to Tomoyo on urgent business,” he informed the butler as soon as the door was open and without waiting for a response, pushed his way inside. The butler followed him, but Kurogane made his way directly to where he knew Tomoyo would be waiting for him with her usually kettle of tea.
“Kurogane, what a pleasant surprise,” she said as he entered the room with the butler panting behind him.
“My lady, should I remove this ruffian from your presence?”
“That won’t be necessary.” Tomoyo did not speak to him until the butler left and closed the door. “I’m sorry, Kurogane, but if you are looking for your wife, she has already left for home,” the lady informed him as she poured two cups of tea.
With a scowl, Kurogane sat down in the chair across from her. “I want to know who was here this weekend besides my wife.”
“Myself, Himawari, and the servants of course.” She was smiling, and Kurogane did not believe her. “Why do you ask?”
“Because of the affair my wife is having that you have been facilitating.” He couldn’t bring himself to drink her tea, even though the tea did look awfully tempting.
“I don’t know what you are speaking of Kurogane,” she said, innocently taking a sip form her tea.
“Don’t play that game. If you don’t want to tell me, I’ll just go ask Himawari.” He started to rise from the chair.
“Don’t you dare bring her into this.” Kurogane lowered himself back into the chair, confident that Tomoyo would be more willing to talk to him now.
“Why not? Himawari cannot lie to me, especially if the truth will be hurtful.” It was through Himawari’s questioning if he enjoyed sleeping alone at night that first made him question his wife’s activities.
“You know that is not her fault.” Tomoyo was far too protective of her ward, and Kurogane almost regretted using that information against her. “I swear to you, no one else was here this weekend.” She seemed to be telling the truth, but Kurogane did not trust her to choose him over his wife. She was perfectly capable of lying to him if it meant protecting his wife. “You should go home and spend time with your wife. A woman’s first child can be a difficult experience. Or so I’ve heard.” Tomoyo had never married, neither had her sister, which made Kurogane feel she was a bad influence for his wife. She might have had an illicit affair or two of her own.
“Thank you for the advice.” Kurogane saw no reason to stay any longer and started to leave. On the way out, he saw a brown-haired lad he did not recognize speaking to Himawari who smiled and waved when she saw him. He nodded to her and continued on his way back to the train station.
On the ride back to London, his thoughts were torn between images of the blond rentboy and memories of his wife. He had loved his wife once; now there was the complication of both of them having affairs with other men. At least he was reassured they were not sleeping with the same man, given they were having affairs at the same time.
“Kurogane, welcome home,” she said as he walked into the door. Her bags had already been taken upstairs, but she was still wearing her usual traveling clothes, given to her by Tomoyo. She still managed to look cute, even thought Kurogane knew she had done it for her boyfriend and not for him. She did not bother to ask where he had been.
“How was your stay with Tomoyo?”
“Fine. Himawari and I practiced our German together.”
Kurogane did not understand the need young women had to learn as many foreign languages as they possibly could. He approached his wife and placed his hand on her stomach thought she looked up at him in confusion. “Have you picked any names yet?”
“No, I thought we could do that together when the baby arrives.” She was not looking at him, so Kurogane assumed she was not thinking about him. “Kurogane…” She leaned up to give him a quick kiss. “I’ll be waiting for you in your bedroom.”
Kurogane wondered briefly if the pregnancy had been doing odd things to her mind, because she had never wanted sex in the daylight hours before. Still, perhaps with additional simulation, he could coerce the child into being his.
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
He realized a few days later, no matter how much he loved his wife, nothing could change the fact his wife was having an affair and the child she was carrying may not be his. He had taken to walking the streets at night though he avoided the streets with brothels as much as he possibly could. He did not want to be reminded of whores on any of those evenings. Fai had not been to the townhouse to visit him recently, as if he had got what he wanted from Kurogane and no longer had any use for him. He knew he should not have lavished so much attention on the man, but he just couldn’t bring himself to stop. He did, however, wander dangerously close to the street where he had first met the blond.
He passed a couple snogging, but he ignored them for a while. Until he recognized the smaller of the two with the shorter blond hair as Fai.
“Get the hell off of him,” he growled, pulling the man away from Fai and punching him. He pulled Fai close to him though the rentboy struggled.
“I paid for my whore, I’m fucking my whore,” the man growled, trying to grab Fai, but Kurogane kept a firm hold on the man.
He fished around in Fai’s pockets and threw the money at him and pulled more money out of his own pocket to join it. “There’s more money for you. Go get yourself another whore.” The man cursed at Kurogane, but he gathered his money and stormed off.
“Kurogane, what the hell do you think you’re doing?” Fai had finally managed to wiggle free of Kurogane’s grasp. The blond glared at him.
“What am I doing? What they hell were you doing?” From what he could tell, Fai had not been particularly enjoying that kiss with the man with the long blond hair.
“My job, remember?”
Kurogane froze as he realized he had forgotten when he saw Fai with that other man, he had allowed a jealous rage to come over him and had forgotten the man did much more with other men on a nightly basis. “You have no idea what it’s been like for me, with my wife pretending that she still loves me.” She had just pretended a few days ago, and Kurogane knew she had been thinking about her boyfriend at the time.
“Maybe she does still love you,” Fai offered.
“What do you know about love?” He ignored the hurt expression on the rentboy’s face. “You give your body to whoever wants it; you’ve never had sex for love.”
“Sometimes I do.”
Since had had never had sex with the blond without paying, Kurogane knew any feelings he had for the man could not possibly be mutual. “Will you come back to the house with me?” He could hardly bring himself to look at the man. “I’ll pay since I removed your customer for the evening.”
“Of course.” Fai walked by his side as they made their way back to the townhouse. Once inside, Kurogane immediately began leading the man upstairs. “Where is your wife this evening?”
“I don’t know. She could be somewhere in the house for all I know.”
Fai looked panicked for a moment and started peering through every door they passed. “Kuro-love, I’m not entirely sure this is a good idea.” Fai kept looking back over his shoulder as if he wanted to dart back the way they had come. “If your wife finds out and reports us, we’ll go to jail.”
“We are not going to jail.” He grabbed Fai’s wrist to make sure the blond did not try to run out on him. He pulled the blond into his bedroom with him and pushed him onto the bed, collapsing on top of him and kissing his neck.
“Kuro-darling, I really don’t think this is such a good idea,” Fai weakly protested, but he allowed Kurogane to undo his pants and start rubbing against him.
“Kurogane, are you home?”
Fai froze underneath him as Kurogane looked over her shoulder to see his wife standing in the doorway. She seemed incapable of looking away from them, and Kurogane realized he had the good fortune of never having to see his wife in the actual act of having an affair.
“Sakura, go downstairs,” he ordered. She nodded and quickly moved out of the doorway.
While Kurogane had been distracted, Fai had managed to wiggle out from underneath him and was refastening his pants. Kurogane supposed not even rentboys could recover from everything.
“Was that your wife?” He kept looking to the spot where she had been standing.
Kurogane nodded.
“She looked awfully young.”
“She was only sixteen when I married her.” The youngest of the family and she had been the first one married.
“She’s quite lovely.”
Kurogane thought he detected a hint of jealousy in the man’s voice. “She is no longer mine.”
They were silent for a while except for the panting which had yet to subside, until Fai timidly asked, “Can I meet her?”
“Why would you want to meet her?” Kurogane was unsure he liked the idea of his wife and mistress meeting.
“Because I hope if she meets me she won’t want to throw me in jail. Unfortunately, you are the one who cheated on her, so you don’t have any hope.”
“She’s not going to like you very much either.” Still, if his wife was going to remain downstairs, a confrontation between the two of them was going to be unavoidable. He made sure he was presentable again before leading Fai downstairs. His wife was sitting patiently in the drawing room with a box in her lap that looked incredibly familiar to Kurogane. He looked at Fai who merely shrugged. He wanted to go back upstairs and hide, but his wife had already noticed their presence.
“Sakura, this is Fai,” he said, introducing the blond to her. Fai smiled and extended his hand.
“Is that really your name? I’ve heard prostitutes will often take on a second identity.”
Fai retracted his hand slightly with a nervous laugh. “Of course it’s my name.”
Sakura finally shook his hand and offered him the box in her lap. “I believe this is supposed to be yours. I found it hidden in my room, along with some other trinkets I supposed Kurogane had used to pay his whore.” Sakura set the box back on the couch, and Kurogane noticed all the other trinkets he had attempted to give Fai, except for the remains of the rose.
“You never took any of my money.”
“I think it’s wonderful, Kurogane, that you have found someone to love you so dearly.” Sakura smiled up at Fai. “But I must insist on you getting a new job if you wish to continue loving my husband.”
Kurogane thought he understood why his wife was being so understanding about his affair. Even if she did love him, she had found someone she loved even more in the form of her lover. “Who is the name of the person who loves you so dearly?”
“He’s one of Tomoyo’s stableboys. His name is Syaoran.” Kurogane felt cheated that Tomoyo had managed to protect his wife’s affair from him without actually lying to him either. “Fai, I suggest you move in with us so that you may continue your relationship with my husband without fear of suspicion.”
“I think people might be suspicious of one of us if an unrelated man suddenly moves in with us,” Kurogane reminded them since they both seemed to be very keen on the idea. Still, he would personally feel better if the man was living with them. He would have ultimate proof that the man was not selling his body to anyone else during the night. “Why were you with that man the other night if you love me?”
“A man has to get money some way, and Lord Ashura is out of money and unable to pay which was why I had to take the second job in the first place.”
Sakura extended her hand back towards Fai. “We’ll tell everyone that you’re my cousin who has run on hard times and is going to stay with us until he can get out of debt. You can work as my husband’s secretary so that people actually believe you are trying to earn money so you may move out of our house.”
Fai kissed her hand lightly. “Thank you for letting me stay with you, Cousin Sakura and Cousin Kurogane.”
Sakura turned her attention to her husband. “In return for my services, you shall allow me to go to Tomoyo’s as often as I like so that I may see Syaoran.”
Kurogane supposed it was impossible for him to hold onto both of them at the same time. He was starting to realize that the way he felt for the blond was quite different from the way he felt for his wife. He thought perhaps it was comparable to his wife’s feelings for that stableboy. “All right. Since you have been so instrumental to my happiness, I shall aid you in yours.” He decided he would not have to ever come into contact with the boy at any rate, and he could continue to pretend that the man did not exist.
Fai returned the following day with his meager belongings and placed himself in Kurogane’s room and refused to move his things anywhere else in the house even though they had had the servants clean up a spare room and prepare it for him to sleep in. Sakura’s child, when she was finally born, ended up looking exactly like her mother, so Kurogane realized he would never know whether the child was his or his wife’s lover’s. Fai, however, decided to distract him shortly afterwards, and Kurogane never really had much time to think about it. He never worried about the government discovering their secret either, for Fai could be quite distracting when he wanted to be.