Fic for fr_gal

[formation_akame]

Title: Handle With Care
By: becroberts
Pairing: Kame/Jin
Rating: R
Genre/Warnings: AU, Romance, bit of Angst
Notes: This is for fr_gal, who didn't want any cheating, but I'm hoping that if it's all in the past it doesn't count. If not, please forgive me.

Summary: Behind every successful telepath there's a handler with a clipboard.


Handle With Care

The first time Jin ran away, they sent Nakamaru to bring him back. This proved to be a mistake, because Jin's handler had terrible trouble enforcing discipline where his unruly charge was concerned, and it had taken a week of pleading, coaxing, and bribery with a month's supply of ice cream before Jin had reluctantly agreed to return to the institute.

The second time Jin ran away, they sent Ueda to bring him back. This was widely considered to be "the last resort", because Ueda carried a whip and wasn't afraid to use it, despite his cheerful smile and amiable demeanour, and most of the runaways he'd retrieved came back in handcuffs. Jin had been the exception, returning with a fur coat and a couple of new CDs, because he and Ueda had discovered they shared a taste for rock music.

But this wasn't enough to make him stay. When Jin ran away for a third time, Dr. Takizawa said he needed a completely new handler, someone to make him more cooperative, someone with whom he'd actually want to work. Dr. Domoto and Dr. Domoto, who were not related but everyone thought they were, suggested a name from Jin's past, a young man who'd since moved into their profession and was working in the Yokohama branch. The details of their split were unknown, but everyone agreed that something had to be done and the only thing they could do, short of chaining Jin to his bed (which some of them secretly wanted to do but for different reasons), was to contact Jin's high school boyfriend and ask him if he'd agree a transfer to Tokyo.

And so when Akanishi Jin opened his eyes at the start of the second week of his latest escape, the first face he saw belonged to Kamenashi Kazuya. It wasn't a happy one.

"Kame!" Jin spoke the old nickname without even thinking about it. "What...why are you sitting on my bed?"

"Because you're my new assignment," Kame said coldly, "which means this is going to be your bed for all of about five seconds longer. Get dressed; I'm taking you back to the institute. You've got tests scheduled for eleven."

Kame couldn't be serious, could he? Jin concentrated as hard as he could, staring unashamedly at Kame's one-broken-nose-away-from-perfect face, older now, with gentle curves softening the sharp lines and sleek, shapely eyebrows over brown eyes that had regarded him with a tender warmth, once. If he pushed just a little, if he reached out to make that connection...

He recoiled when Kame hit him in the face with a pillow. "What was that for?"

"Stop trying to read my mind. You couldn't do it six years ago and my shields have only improved since then. If you tire yourself out before today's tests this will have been a complete waste of a day."

There was nothing Kame hated more, Jin recalled, than wasting time. Even back in high school he'd had more intense focus than some of their teachers, putting no less than a hundred percent of his energy into everything he did, whether it was his lessons, his beloved baseball, or his relationship with Jin. They hadn't been in the same classes, of course - Jin was almost two years older - but they'd seen enough of each other for Jin to know Kame only had two modes: full on or full stop.

"What makes you think I'm going back?" he sulked. "It won't last. It never lasts. It's a voluntary study and I don't have to take part."

Kame rose from the bed, started folding Jin's clothes into neat piles to be packed away in his bag. "You volunteered yourself for three years, Jin, and you've got two left to go. You signed a contract. Now get up before I tell the landlady the real reason you know the keycode for this apartment."

Jin had no wish to be arrested. Using psychic powers for personal gain was on shaky legal grounds, at best, and rummaging around in someone's head to find a keycode for an apartment where the owners were on holiday would get him thrown in a cell for the night. They'd have to let him go eventually, without proof, but he'd have a hard time of it if the landlady tried to prosecute. Reluctantly, he left the nice, warm covers for the bathroom to make himself presentable. Kame could clear up.

-----

"If you don't sit still I'm going to tie you to your chair!"

Kame's threat reminded Jin uncomfortably of their high school days, notably those where alcohol and amour had combined to make life interesting. But there was a big difference between playing student and teacher in the classroom after dark, and sitting in the bright, boringly bland laboratory, trying to read the words on a page being read by a volunteer in the next room.

"I'm trying," Jin protested, "but I don't see how destroying my back is going to help with the tests. This chair has to be some kind of torture device." He rubbed the small of his back, wincing for effect. Hard white plastic without so much as a cushion for padding was not his idea of a comfortable seat, and he'd been stuck there for a whole fifteen minutes now.

"You're not always going to be in relaxing surroundings when you have to use your ability. Learn to live with it." Kame wasn't being helpful at all.

"I'm never in relaxing surroundings. I bet that's why my results are so bad - no one around here ever tests me somewhere I want to be."

"Like your bed?"

Jin ignored Kame's sarcasm, answering honestly, "It's the most comfortable place for me."

Kame shook his head. "You'd fall asleep the second you hit the sheets if we let you. Maybe your previous handlers were happy to coddle you but you can give up any idea of that with me."

He had all of Jin's test scores at his disposal, of course, and videos of every session were available if he cared to watch them. Jin had to admit to browbeating Nakamaru from time to time, or simply pestering him until he gave in; even Ueda, he'd been able to work to his advantage on the odd occasion. It helped that both of them, while good handlers in their own way, had cracks in their mental shielding that allowed Jin to get inside, to learn things about them he could use.

Kame's shields had no such flaws, and even when the two of them had been at their most intimate, he'd rarely let them drop. The only real qualification a handler needed was the ability to keep psychics under control, to help them deal with their powers and explore their limits in a controlled fashion. J&A, the institute run by Johnny Kitagawa and his associates, employed the best scientists money could buy to study the range of psychic powers: telepathy, possession, clairvoyance, pyrokinesis and telekinesis. Working side by side with the scientists, the handlers conducted the tests and supported their individual assignments, befriending them and guiding them through the program.

Jin was used to mixed treatment from his fellow residents - after all, there was no telling what information a telepath might extract from an unshielded mind - but in general the handlers liked him, even if they found him exasperating and hoped never to receive him as an assignment. How Kame felt about being assigned to Jin...well, Jin didn't need to read his mind to know that. Kame's icy, clinical detachment, the way he all but snapped instructions like they'd never huddled together against the wall, up on the school roof, hiding from biting wind and teachers alike and giggling into each other's mouths - that spoke volumes.

"Don't compromise your professionalism on my account," Jin muttered.

"I wouldn't dream of it. Now tell me what you see."

"An uptight workaholic whose roots are showing and-"

Kame bopped him over the head with a clipboard. "I've been too busy to re-dye it because someone ran away and made me have to transfer cities. Do you have any idea how much stuff I had to pack up and put in storage?"

"No, but if you drop your shields I could probably tell you."

"Don't push me, Akanishi. If I say you can't be salvaged they'll tear the contract in two and you'll never see the rest of the money. That's why you signed up in the first place, wasn't it? Because you were broke, and your telepathy was too unstable to depend upon it to keep you fed, clothed and housed."

Kame's words stung; they were intended to. "Sure, that's why I signed up," Jin said quietly, "but I don't have to stay. I've got more control now."

"Prove it to me."

Never one to shy away from a challenge, Jin temporarily set aside his grudge against the chair to let his mind wander to the next room, where he knew a volunteer was waiting with a text of some kind. It was always harder when the subject was out of his line of sight, more so when distance or obstacles were involved. When Jin couldn't see the subject it was easier for him to become distracted. That was the whole point of the plain, featureless rooms - fewer distractions.

While he searched for the pulsing brainwaves that told him another living creature was nearby, Jin kept half an eye on Kame, watching him scribble rapid notes on his clipboard while he, in turn, was monitoring Jin. When Kame suddenly glared at him, Jin knew he'd been reaching in the wrong direction.

He tried again, this time finding a familiar mind. On this occasion it was Tanaka Koki, the guy who lived two doors down from Jin. Koki's ability was pyrokinesis, which meant he was handy to have around if your lighter was empty and you were dying for a cigarette, but he was a real sweetheart otherwise for all his gangster delusions. His shields were nothing to write home about. Jin was exceptionally good at slipping undetected into the minds of others - Kame was one of the few who'd ever noticed his attempts - and Koki's mind was a known quantity, presenting itself as a house with heated floors, soft cushions and small dogs.

His disembodied self couldn't use Koki's body to look at the text - that was for those who practised possession, quite a different skillset - but what he could do was pick up the words from Koki's mind as he read them. They scrolled across a small display screen at the far end of Koki's mental lounge. For a moment, Jin was simultaneously looking inside Koki's head and looking at Kame, a jarring sensation he didn't care to repeat, and then the words were tripping off his tongue and Koki was very, very far away.

"Classy like none of these hoes, pretty little frame under her clothes...what exactly is Koki reading in there?"

Kame shrugged. "Song lyrics, I think. He said you like to practise your English so I suggested he bring a text in that language. I didn't vet it."

"Was I right?"

Kame showed him the clipboard and drew a shaky red circle around the lines Jin had quoted. Jin liked being right. He also liked the look of the song and made a mental note to ask Koki about it later. Those lyrics were sheer genius.

"Do I pass?"

"You took too long and let yourself get distracted. But yeah," Kame dropped his professional mask for a moment to allow a small smile to slip through, "you pass."

When they returned to the lab for the afternoon session, Jin found a cushion on his chair.

-----

Most of the volunteers at the institute had their own rooms. They had to live on site, as did the handlers, while the rest of the staff could stay there or live separately as they chose. Jin had had a roommate for the first two weeks, a fellow telepath by the name of Tegoshi, but they'd nearly come to blows trying to sneakily read each other's minds and Tegoshi had been transferred. The spare bed had been empty since then.

Now it had a resident, and he wasn't too thrilled about it.

Jin hadn't been back to his room - when Kame had found him at the apartment, they'd gone straight to the lab, pausing only long enough to hand Jin's bag to a staff member. He'd been tied up with testing since then, and whenever he hadn't been in the lab he'd been in the dining hall, stocking up on the calories he knew he was going to need to make it through the coming weeks. Kame had returned to the lab after bolting his dinner, muttering that he'd see Jin later.

It was free time after dinner, no more tests for the day, so Jin had joined Koki and the others in the rec room for a movie. It had been a good evening until Koki had gotten a little overexcited by the sight of the aliens landing, and accidentally set the carpet on fire. He'd been most apologetic. Nakamaru came to the rescue - luckily he was a dab hand with a fire extinguisher.

After the movie Jin had stopped by the kitchens for a late snack before returning to his room. He hadn't been expecting to see Kame until morning. A new roommate hadn't been in his plans. Kame had obviously moved in a few days ago, judging by the way he'd taken over half the room, and Jin wasn't amused by the way his clothes had been nudged aside to make room for Kame's extensive wardrobe.

"Comfortable?"

Kame looked up from the magazine he was reading on the bed. "Very. I don't like it either but my bosses decided having a roommate might stop you running away, or at least slow you down. We're stuck with each other."

They'd have welcomed that, once, back when two beds would've been one too many and the spare would rarely have seen use. Now there might as well have been an invisible wall dividing the room.

"You still sleep in the nude?" Jin asked casually, like he didn't still find Kame attractive and would in no way be tempted to peek.

"Why? Worried I might get ideas?" Kame set his magazine down, smirking. "No, not since I found myself underdressed during an earthquake. I have to at least wear something I could run outside in, now."

Pity. While Jin didn't think leering would necessarily improve the situation between them, the view would've been worth the trouble. Kame had always been slight but years had given him a touch more meat on his bones, rounded sharp edges that had once dug into Jin's tender flesh. He'd felt, sometimes, like he was being sliced open by Kame, but he hadn't minded. Had wanted to be able to feel Kame all over him, inside and out. All the things an awkward high school boy hadn't known how to put into words.

Jin turned his back to strip down to T-shirt and boxers, feeling Kame's eyes on him, saying nothing. By the time he returned from the bathroom Kame was similarly attired. Kame took his own turn in the bathroom and then they were sliding under their respective covers, Jin stretching out on the silk sheets he'd talked Ueda into buying for him.

"Bed is the most comfortable place for you, isn't it?" Kame had the light switch. "Try reading somebody down the corridor."

"You can't test me now," Jin complained. "It's been a long day and I want to sleep for at least eight hours. Or maybe ten, ten would be better."

The muffled sound might've been Kame laughing into his pillow, Jin wasn't sure, but the light went off and no more was said about testing.

-----

The next few days were a hazy blur as Kame proceeded to ignore Jin's test results and start again from scratch, using his own methods. Where Nakamaru had always asked politely, only starting to lose patience after Jin had begun to play the fool, Kame just asked politely the first time. After that, he seemed to take the tack that if Jin was going to behave like a small child, he should be treated as such.

"Why are you talking to me like I'm four years old?" Jin asked.

"Three years old, actually, because my niece is four and you're acting younger than she is."

Jin momentarily forgot to be bratty. "You have a niece?"

"Yeah, and she's cuter than you, too."

Whenever Kame smiled his real smile, not the one he kept for job interviews and formal photos, the whole world lit up. Even the lab became a brighter, warmer place, full of hinted laughter and stars that outshone anything to be found in the night sky. Jin hadn't seen it for years; he'd forgotten how much he loved it.

"You get to see much of her?" Jin said.

"Not as much as I'd like, but I knew when I started this job I'd have less time to see my family. Unless of course a certain someone behaves himself and can be trusted not to take off the moment I leave the building..."

Ouch. They both loved kids and Kame knew that. Jin didn't have much hope of having any of his own - not while he was still under contract, anyway - and Kame worked too hard to find time for one. The aforementioned niece was probably the apple of Kame's eye, and using her as leverage to make Jin cooperate wasn't fair, damnit.

"You have a picture?"

Kame's smile grew calculating. "Yes, but I'm going to get someone else to look at it for you. Don't move, all right?"

Jin squirmed a couple of times in the chair while Kame was out the room, but he didn't really count that as "moving". The cushion helped a lot. He knew it had to be Kame's - who else was going to have a Yokohama BayStars cushion to hand?

The door flew open; Kame rushed in, slightly out of breath. "Three people in the rec room are looking at my photos right now: only one is of my niece. You'll know it when you see it. Check their heads and find the right picture."

"The rec room's miles away!"

"Do you want to see my niece or not?"

The exertion was probably going to leave him with a massive headache and the dizziness he sometimes experienced when he pushed too hard, but Jin did want to see the photo. Not just because he liked kids, but because he wanted to see this small, but obviously important piece of Kame's life, a piece he knew nothing about. They'd gone their separate ways years ago and Jin had never bothered to keep track of Kame's life. Well, they hadn't been on speaking terms at the time, there had been no need. Seeing Kame again had dredged up all sorts of memories and feelings Jin couldn't classify, didn't want to think about because it would be pointless when the past had to stay in the past, where it belonged.

He closed his eyes this time, let his mind drift towards the rec room. Though it might not have been miles away, physically, it cost him far more to reach than it would have done on foot, and there were many minds en route to distract him, keep him from moving forwards. In the background, Kame stayed silent, a steady presence lingering at the edge of Jin's awareness.

Right room, wrong mind. The first, a mind Jin didn't know, was looking at a photo of a surfboard standing tall and proud on a sandy beach. The picture flashed through the girl's mind (he knew it was a girl thanks to all the unpleasant thoughts about period pain) like a slideshow with only one image, and Jin moved on.

The second was a familiar mind, Dr. Takizawa, and Jin didn't want to stay in there too long. Dr. Takki, as they all called him, could be quite peculiar at times. He was looking at a photo of Kame in the uniform of their high school baseball club, standing at the plate with bat swung back, ready for the pitch. Nice picture but no little girl. Dr. Takki hung his pictures on the wall, each one replaced by fresh images as his focus changed.

Jin didn't know the third mind, but based on the giant TV screen and multiple games consoles he guessed it belonged to Taguchi Junnosuke, the game-obsessed clairvoyant who stayed on the other side of the building and used his power to tell jokes to people he already knew were going to laugh. Junno displayed his images on the big screen, and Jin knew for certain he'd found the right photograph. He retreated before the lure of the games consoles became too great.

"Find it?" Kame said.

"She's adorable! Does she always kiss you like that?"

Kame chuckled. "Usually whenever I see her, I kiss her, and this time she gave me a kiss back. Just to make sure you're not cheating, describe the photo."

"Outside somewhere, you in sunglasses and a black hat, holding a little girl who is kissing you on the cheek."

"Correct!" Kame scribbled on his clipboard and beamed. "You realise that's the most success you've ever had with pictures, according to your test results? The only time you've even managed to pick up that there was more than one human in the picture before was when the subject was standing right behind you."

Praise was always welcome; Kame's evident pleasure, more so. While Jin didn't really care whether or not he tested well, so long as he got his money, he liked having Kame's approval. It had been the other way around when they were in school, with Kame ecstatic that Jin would even deign to notice him, until one thing led to another and they both realised the awkwardness was mutual and it was impossible to be smooth and suave when your hormones were driving you crazy.

"Guess it depends on my motivation," Jin said.

"I'll have to get volunteers to think about kids," Kame said. "And food; you're quite good at picking up on images of ice cream and recipes for chocolate cake."

"Are you implying that I might be a bit too fond of my food?"

"If it means we can go eat off-site, I'm not complaining. It says in the contract I'm supposed to take you out for testing in other environments."

"I think they mean out in the countryside and stuff, Kame, not restaurants."

"It's all wilderness," Kame waved a hand airily, "only some of it happens to be urban wilderness."

Leave it to Kame to get creative. "Why are you suddenly being so nice to me?" Jin couldn't help being suspicious, given Kame's initial treatment of him. "Because you can't leave if I don't behave?"

Kame turned the question on its head. "And you're behaving better this afternoon; why is that?"

Jin didn't have an answer for him. Rather, he did, but it was kind of confused and involved some decidedly mixed feelings about seeing Kame again that he didn't care to admit even to himself. "Because I'd kill for some squid ink pasta and you're my best hope of getting some."

When Kame shot him a look that said he couldn't believe Jin had even bothered to say that to him and stormed out the door, Jin knew their afternoon session was over and that if he wanted pasta, he was going to have to bribe the kitchen staff.

-----

Bribing the kitchen staff didn't go too well when all Jin had at his disposal was good looks and charm. There were telepaths who could use their power to influence the thoughts of others, but Jin wasn't one of them and besides, even if he could've done it, brainwashing someone to make him food seemed kind of petty. He scanned the dining hall while eating his curry but Kame never showed.

He wasn't in their room either, only slipping in after Jin was already in bed, duvet drawn up to his neck and eyes closed, though not yet asleep. Jin lay still, listened to Kame creeping around as he prepared for bed, and waited till the lights went out again before opening his mouth.

"Did you eat?"

"Huh?" Rustling told Jin that Kame was sitting up. "Did I eat?"

"You skipped dinner. I just thought you might be getting back into bad habits, forgetting to feed yourself. I'm not taking the blame if you faint away from hunger tomorrow."

Kame snorted and crashed back down to the pillows. "I've moved on since high school, thanks. I had some notes to type up so I grabbed a sandwich from the kitchens and asked Ueda to keep an eye on you."

That explained the feeling of dread Jin had endured all through the meal, of being watched by some silent predator. "So you weren't trying to avoid me, then?"

"You're my assignment; I get paid not to avoid you."

"You've avoided me for six years - what's one more?"

Bright light flooded the room. Jin peeked through his fingers to find an infuriated Kame glaring at him, one hand on the light switch, the other clenched into a fist.

The need to whisper barely diluted Kame's anger at all. "I avoided you since your graduation, if you've forgotten, because you had a sudden masculinity crisis when you read the thoughts of some of your so-called friends and discovered they were jokingly referring to you as my "girlfriend", then set out to sleep with every girl in sight just to prove to yourself you still could!"

Jin blinked until the light became bearable and he could stop covering his eyes. Kame's rage shone brighter than any light bulb, anyway. "It wasn't exactly like that... Haven't you ever done something you regretted?"

"Plenty of things, but nothing that involved cheating on someone I'd been dating for two years. Do you have any idea how much it hurt, watching you pick up girls left, right and centre while you were barely even speaking to me?" Kame unclenched his fist, stared at the palm of his hand, speaking calmly now. "Would a real man deliberately hurt someone he cared about? Is that the kind of person you thought your friends would like?"

"I didn't..." Jin fidgeted with the hem of his T-shirt under the duvet and wished he'd never brought up the subject in the first place. "I didn't think..."

"You're right, I'm pretty sure you didn't think. Your natural instincts are good, Jin, but sometimes they lead you in the wrong direction. Goodnight."

Sleep usually presented no problem for Jin. Not tonight. He lay awake long after the last trace of light died, wondering if they'd survive the rest of his contract. The odds were better of Koki becoming a water sprite.

-----

No matter how great his animosity towards Jin, Kame was always able to conceal it with a mask of professionalism, at least while they were being recorded in the labs. Dr. Imai was reviewing their sessions personally and he'd have spoken to them if he'd noticed anything amiss. Kame even smiled, sometimes, when Jin performed exceptionally well. As Jin's success tended to relate largely to his mood, which depended in turn on his comfort level and boredom threshold, any successes were self-perpetuating, for a smile from Kame could always improve Jin's mood no matter how uncomfortable his surroundings.

Kame had good reason to dislike him, Jin admitted. Jin's desperate teenage need to appear "cool" in front of his friends wasn't much of an excuse for doing something so colossally stupid. At the time he'd been unable to feel shame or regret, acting in a panic without regard for the consequences, not caring how Kame might feel about the situation because they were both guys, and it was mere high school fun, not a marriage, and it was going to have to end sometime anyway, and...

Jin fought his way free from the mire of excuses. If nothing else, he knew how to be honest, because artifice was not his forte and if he was six years too late with an apology, at least he now knew one was due. He wondered why Kame had agreed to the transfer. Surely it would've been less painful for him to refuse, to never see Jin again?

One morning his curiosity got the better of him, after they'd stopped for a coffee break and Kame appeared to be in a relatively good mood. "Why'd you take the transfer?" he asked.

Kame speared another marshmallow - toasted by Koki during his own morning test session - dunked it in the bowl of coconut, and waved it playfully under Jin's nose. "They offered to double my salary. How could I turn it down?"

"That's the only reason?" Jin wasn't convinced.

"I get to be closer to my family and old friends, my favourite restaurants are all here, I like the shopping..." Kame grinned, clearly just teasing. "If you really want to know, don't ask."

A flash of their old rapport told Jin exactly what Kame meant, no explanation necessary. "I thought you didn't want me trying to read your mind?" He gave it a quick go, was rebuffed in less than a heartbeat.

"I didn't say I wanted you to try now, did I?"

Another time, then. The break was almost up and Kame had nearly finished all the marshmallows while Jin hadn't even had one yet. Snacking took precedence: lunch was a long way off.

When lunch finally rolled around, the dining hall was packed. A group of scientists, psychics and handlers from the Osaka branch was visiting for a technique exchange, and they were taking up all the seats. Jin spotted his former roommate amongst them and made a point of ignoring Tegoshi as hard as he could. There were only two seats left by the time Jin and Kame emerged from the lunch line with their trays; it was hot in the dining hall, crowded and stuffy, and the last thing Jin wanted was to engage in idle chitchat with some of his more eccentric neighbours.

He didn't have a choice. The moment he sat down, Junno turned to him with a concerned expression and said, "You really ought to get that cut looked at."

"What cut?" Jin brushed a hand across his forehead, since that was where Junno appeared to be looking. "Where?"

"The one you're going to get in a couple of minutes."

"Eh?"

Junno smiled and turned back to his food. Jin wondered if he could hide under the table without looking like he was doing it for illicit purposes.

"Kame, do you-" he began, then all hell broke loose.

The trouble started, so Dr. Takki informed them afterwards, when Tegoshi had tried to use his abilities to chat up a pair of twin blondes by rummaging around in their minds and finding out what they liked. Unfortunately, both of them noticed and took great exception in a most physical fashion. Tegoshi's friends had responded in kind and before long, people were being thrown into walls - mostly without anyone laying a hand on them - and fires were cropping up all over the dining hall. It was impossible to leave without suffering assault of some kind. Nakamaru had his work cut out for him, extinguishing the fires, but Ueda successfully bullied enough people into helping that the damage to the building was minimal.

Damage to the people was another matter.

"Ow!" Jin batted Kame's hand away from his forehead. "That stings!"

Kame sighed. "It's your own fault for ducking under the table."

"I was trying to save my dessert!"

"If you hadn't been trying to hide under the table with your tray, that little blond guy with the purple skirt wouldn't have crashed into you and you wouldn't have gotten hurt. Now quit complaining and let me finish with this antiseptic."

Grudgingly, Jin shut up so Kame could tend to his cut, quietly relieved it didn't require trimming his hair. Kame gave him a plaster and a sweet from his secret stash, in lieu of the ruined dessert, but wouldn't let him off the afternoon session no matter how many hints he dropped about the horrible effects of his grievous injury and how he couldn't possibly do any testing while his head hurt so badly.

"Does it really hurt?" Kame asked after Jin's most blatant piteous plea.

"Well...not much, unless I touch it."

Kame rolled his eyes. "Then stop touching it." He raised a hand to Jin's head, held out his thumb and forefinger in a circle as if he was going to flick the wound...and stopped millimetres from the plaster. "We'll make it a short session. I'd like to know how you operate with such a 'grievous injury'."

-----

With no one keen on venturing into the dining hall and the kitchen staff threatening to strike, most of the residents were happy to cram into the rec room and eat takeaway pizza, to be billed to the Osaka branch. Kame had a better idea.

"As long as you're not about to be overcome with dizziness over your gaping head wound, what do you think about going off-site for a meal?"

Jin had a brief moment of concern over first the sarcasm and did Kame really mean it, and then whether it meant Kame was asking him for a date and if so, how he wanted to respond. Then he realised Kame was probably just as starved as he was - lunch had been cut short, after all - and the only desire he felt was for the main course. One couldn't go without the other, not yet, because Kame was supposed to stay in the same building as Jin and if Jin went out by himself, everyone would assume he'd run away again (though most people ran further than the nearest Italian restaurant).

"Let's go before Junno shows up with any more predictions." Jin grabbed his coat from the rack. "I could end up with a broken leg."

"Which you'd probably have obtained after tripping over while trying to escape."

"Nothing wrong with trying to save food, Kame."

"No, but I'd rather eat it than save it."

Jin got his squid ink pasta after all. It felt weird, sitting in a restaurant with another person for the first time in over a year, watching the world pass by from the comfort of a corner table. During his "escapes" he'd had to be cautious with money, mostly employing his power to pick the minds of restaurant employees for back doors and unseen passages so he could make a fast getaway without paying his bill. Unfortunately when enough restaurants reported a spate of it, that caught attention back at the institute, and they knew more or less where to look for him.

Nakamaru had tried to take him off-site once - he said the lavender fields would make a good testing location. Jin had pointed out that if the two of them went to the lavender fields together, everyone was going to think Nakamaru was "handling" more than Jin's telepathy, and the subject was promptly dropped.

Ueda had once suggested Jin come shopping with him, both so that they could test how well Jin could pick out thoughts in a crowded shopping mall, and so Jin could help him choose a birthday gift for Junno. When Jin had suggested an exploding present, Ueda had figured that even as indecisive as he was when it came to shopping, he could do a better job alone. He'd left Jin in the rec room watching Dragonball reruns, surrounded by eagle-eyed witnesses who tracked his every move.

"Anyone would think you hadn't eaten for months," Kame said, amused by the speed at which Jin was clearing his plate.

"You're not exactly taking it slow and steady yourself," Jin retorted through a mouthful of bruscetta. They'd ordered side dishes to share after Jin had satisfied himself that he wasn't going to be stuck paying the entire bill. Kame had expensive tastes, especially when it came to looking at the wine list.

Kame raised his glass in acknowledgement, then caught sight of Jin's Coke. "No alcohol? I guess you have changed a bit since high school; you'd never have missed an opportunity then."

"I was underage then, it had more appeal." Jin debated internally over how much to tell Kame, settling on the embarrassing truth since handlers ought to know that sort of thing. "I actually can't drink anymore. It...it makes my ability go weird, like I can't shut it off? I'm looking in people's heads whether I want to or not, without even trying. Doesn't stop until the alcohol's out of my system."

"I'll be finishing this, then." Kame moved the wine bottle closer to his side of the table. "You're in charge of getting us home."

"Some handler you are..."

"Think of this as my night off. But I can see why you stopped drinking. What's it like?"

There were no clinical terms Jin could think of. He shrugged. "Like being surrounded by a million televisions, each one showing something different, all of them on maximum volume. It gives me a headache. Most of the time, I'm seeing things I don't want to see."

"Such as?" Kame had to keep pushing, didn't he?

Jin toyed with his fork, threading it through his fingers. "Um...you remember my last year of high school, the Shirota brothers were holding the party to end all parties?"

Kame's face darkened. "Yeah, it was just before you started...oh."

"Yeah." Every word was another nail spat out. "My telepathy was weak back then - I couldn't do much even when I tried. I got in a drinking contest with Yamapi - remember him? - and I think he came out of it best."

"He won?"

"He lost horribly, but at least he was unconscious. I got to sit there for the next hour and eavesdrop on every mind in the neighbourhood, including those who had thoughts on you and me they weren't about to tell us. Some of the images I got were...colourful. It didn't help that you found me sprawled on the couch, decided I'd had enough, and practically carried me out the door."

"You'd rather I'd left you there, surrounded by empty bottles and semi-conscious classmates?"

Jin smiled weakly. "Don't forget the broken crockery and pools of vomit."

"I think I did us both a favour by getting us out before they asked for help cleaning up, personally." Not strictly true; Kame had always been a touch obsessive when it came to cleaning. Had he remained in the house much longer, he'd likely have started clearing up while the party was still in progress, never mind that he didn't even live there.

"I'm grateful for that, but..."

"Jin, do you even know whose thoughts you were hearing? Your friends, my friends, our friends...or people who were barely acquaintances? You always used to tell me not to care so much about what people thought, to do what made me happy because I owed it to myself. You should've taken your own advice."

Their waitress reappeared to refill the water glasses, took one look at their expressions, and beat a hasty retreat. "Distraught" didn't even begin to cover it. Jin was used to having Kame focus on him in the lab, but sitting on the opposite side of a very small table felt more intimate than they'd been in some time. Disastrous first date, take two.

Their real first date had been no more successful, though for different reasons. Kame had been in the audience, cheering Jin on at one of his soccer games, and by mutual unspoken consent they'd declined to join the rest of the team at the victory celebration and gone out for yakiniku instead. Two hours later, Jin had a badly bruised knee after the table collapsed, Kame's vintage jeans were covered in sauce, and they both got sopping wet when it started raining on the way home.

A couple of weeks later, they'd tried a similar approach after it had been Jin's turn to cheer Kame on at one of his baseball games. When a fire broke out in the kitchen, they realised that restaurants just weren't for them.

Six years later and things hadn't changed, except now they were bringing all the problems on themselves.

"I wish I had taken my own advice," Jin said softly, almost to himself.

Kame took pity on him and wrote the whole meal off as "Expenses".

-----

The next morning both of them had headaches - only Kame's was alcohol-related - and it took ten minutes of fumbling with fiddly cellphone keys for them to call Dr. Imai and say they weren't moving from their beds until at least after lunch. Kame ordinarily didn't believe in calling in sick and would show up to work come what may, but there was no point in his turning up at the lab without Jin, and Jin saw no merit in either of them moving more than they had to.

"Did he say anything about delivering painkillers?" Jin asked when Kame hung up the phone.

Kame groaned and rolled towards the sound, hair an unkempt mess and eyes barely open. "Stop shouting or I'm going to throw this at you."

"I'm not shouting and you can't see to aim."

"Don't need to see, I'll just wind up and pitch it in your general direction. I'm a former MVP, I'm bound to hit something."

Jin grinned and burrowed deeper under the duvet, relishing the thought of another few hours of precious sleep. Possibly being hit by a flying cellphone didn't worry him, though he knew firsthand how well Kame pitched. His headache, he surmised, was a result of yesterday's close encounter with the dining hall table, while Kame's was thanks to the wine. In both cases, he thought tension might've been a contributing factor. If lying four feet away from Kame had been awkward when things between them had been frosty, it was downright excruciating now that the situation was increasingly temperate.

With the aid of painkillers kindly sent by Dr. Imai (accompanied by Dr. Takki's patented hangover cure, which Kame didn't dare touch), both men were able to rest and recuperate their way through to early afternoon. Lunch passed them by. Koki showed up bearing grilled chicken sandwiches (he'd grilled them himself, a touch unevenly, but not bad for a first attempt) and a message from Dr. Domoto and Dr. Domoto to say their usual lab had been cleaned that morning and the bleach fumes were still lingering, so it would be best if they avoided it in the afternoon, too.

No arguments from Jin and Kame.

"I'm glad they thought to tell us," Kame said.

"Must've been Dr. Koichi," Jin said. "Dr. Tsuyoshi wouldn't have remembered. Pass the mayonnaise?"

Both felt better with something in their stomachs. Jin was quite happy to spend the remainder of the day in bed - one could never spend too long there, he felt - but Kame had a tendency to fret if he did nothing for too long. As a peace offering, Jin agreed to let Kame test him a little from their room, provided he didn't have to move.

"It would be unethical of me to ask you to search minds at random, so let's try something specific." Kame rubbed a hand over his eyes, grabbed a robe, and staggered towards the door. "I'll be back in a couple of minutes."

Jin did the same, only towards the bathroom door. "So will I."

Ten minutes later, Jin was back under the covers, resisting the urge to return to sleep. Kame had adopted a more business-like pose, sitting upright on the edge of his own bed, but it was hard to take him seriously in his underwear.

"No clipboard?" Jin said. Kame was rarely without it during the testing sessions.

"Not this time. We'll see how it works out, replicate and document later."

How unorthodox. But then, there were no video cameras in their dorm room - Jin hoped - so it wasn't as if the session would be recorded. This was strictly unofficial. Jin knew Kame wasn't averse to breaking the rules on occasion, so long as he had sufficient motivation. Evidently post-hangover laziness was good enough.

"So what do I have to do?"

"I told Koki how impressed I was with his grilling abilities and he agreed to be a volunteer for a bit." Kame smiled beatifically. "Ah, he's a good guy, isn't he? A bit...intense, maybe, but nice.

"Anyway, he's a couple of doors down, in his room, listening to music on headphones. He's going to start walking away from us until I call him and tell him to stop. That might be when he gets to the end of the corridor, it might be once he's out the front gates, who knows. What you need to do is tune into his thoughts and tell me the lyrics as his mind processes them. Keep following him as he moves, until you're not getting the lyrics anymore. Then we stop and ask him how far away he is. You said you'd be stronger working somewhere comfortable - here's your chance to prove it!"

What Kame had neglected to mention, as Jin discovered when he made first contact with Koki's mind, was that Koki was listening to American rap music and while there definitely were lyrics, puzzling them out was an effort. Kame didn't seem to mind as long as Jin was babbling something, and since Kame's English was less advanced than Jin's (Jin had spent six months "finding himself" in LA a couple of years back after a Californian psi institute had taken an interest in him) he had no way to tell if the lyrics were accurate.

It was the first time Jin had attempted to maintain contact with a moving target. Koki flickered in and out of Jin's consciousness, making Jin an inconsistent guest in Koki's mental lounge where music blasted from speakers overhead. He wasn't hearing the actual music; rather, he was hearing how Koki's mind interpreted the sounds, but for all intents and purposes they were the same thing.

"Still got him?" Kame asked when Jin fell silent.

"His last thought was that he'd reached the end of that playlist. I hope the next one's easier to understand."

Koki's next playlist mixed Western and Japanese rock. Jin sang along with the ones he knew, careful to stop whenever he lost contact.

Kame was checking the time on his watch. "He must be out the building by now! Ah, maybe I should've told his handler..."

To the best of Jin's recollection, Koki had never run away from the institute. He doubted they'd have cause for concern. "I know he's outside now, I just got a flicker of him choosing which way to go."

"Are you still maintaining contact?"

"Sort of." Jin ran a hand over his plaster; the headache was beginning to return. "I'm getting snippets of music, then someone new crosses his path and the connection breaks. Now he's outside there are a lot more people around." He was grateful to be lying down; if the telepathy-induced headache was on its way, dizziness wouldn't be far behind. He'd knocked himself out a couple of times in the early days - once, memorably, by running up against Kame's shields. When he'd regained consciousness, Kame had been caught between concern for Jin and uncontrollable laughter, a combination Jin claimed he found offensive, but Kame had made it up to him in ways that kept them occupied for the better part of a Sunday afternoon.

"Don't push yourself so hard you pass out," Kame warned. He obviously remembered it too.

"I'm not eighteen anymore, thanks." Jin broke off the conversation as he caught Koki's mind again, growing more distant by the minute. He was only catching odd words now - something in German, possibly - and fixing himself to Koki required all the concentration he could muster. Intermittent flashes from other people interrupted the flow of lyrics: here a guy wondering if his girlfriend would prefer red roses or white, there a woman mentally composing a grocery list. Jin didn't stop to catch their thoughts. They wove in and out of his senses without ever knowing he'd noticed them.

The headache held off longer than Jin had expected. The more he used his telepathy, the stronger he'd grown, able to reach further, to find information faster, to hold the connection for longer - he thought of it as a muscle, becoming stronger with exercise. Perhaps eventually, he'd be able to use his power freely without repercussion.

But there was one unavoidable consequence of peeking inside the minds of others - Jin had no control over their thoughts. And when those thoughts took a dark turn...

"Umm..."

"What?" Kame leaned down, took a close look at Jin. "You're shivering. Break it off; I'll call Koki. I think we can count this afternoon as a success."

"I can't. I can't break it off. It's not Koki." Jin spoke in short, staccato bursts. "There's a girl. They're at a station, on the platform. Koki's there, he was there a second ago, but she walked in front and he moved away. I caught her. She's hurting. She," his throat tightened, "she's waiting for the train. She thinks it'll make it stop hurting. Her boyfriend. She thinks if she had more courage, she'd push him on the tracks. But she doesn't, she's scared, this is all she can do."

Kame reached under the duvet to place a steadying hand on his arm. "There's a girl about to throw herself in front of a train, at the station where Koki is. Is that right?"

Jin couldn't speak, couldn't let go of the unhappy girl's brain, just nodded.

"Okay." Kame grabbed his phone. "I'm going to call Koki, get him to stop her. Can you tell me anything about the girl that he could use to identify her?"

Oh, how it hurt to look. The girl's mind was thorny, full of sharp, tangled briars making it agony to search. Jin steeled himself - imaginary pain, imaginary pain - and dug in, hunting any identifying information. "She...her name's Yuriko. She's a third year in high school. She hates her looks. She thinks maybe if she was prettier, her boyfriend wouldn't have dumped her for another girl."

"High school girls either have too much confidence or none at all," Kame muttered. "What about the minds nearest her? If they see her at all, their brains will be processing the image and you can pick it up."

"Right, good idea." Jin wrenched himself away from Yuriko's mind, immediately feeling lighter of spirit. He had to move quickly. The nearest mind was a man, and he didn't share Yuriko's feelings about her looks - quite the opposite. Jin saw a fantasy version of the girl - pale, slender, beautiful in her quiet unhappiness - and hoped it was close enough to reality for Koki to spot her.

He described her to Kame as well as he could, left it to Kame to call Koki, left it to Koki to be kind to the girl and take her to someone who could help. He'd done all he could.

"Hey." Kame shook him gently, once the phone call was made and Jin had tuned out, hoping they'd managed to beat the train. He couldn't connect to anyone now, not even close to home. "Still with me?"

Once, Jin would've cracked, "Always." "Sort of."

"You're still shivering."

"It's cold," Jin explained. "I've never been inside such a cold mind before. Most people have minds that are simple on the surface, no matter how complicated they get when you start looking beneath, but this girl... Most of her was on the surface, and it was sharp. I could've cut myself on her thoughts. She'd given up." He added, in a whisper, "I hope she gets warm soon."

"Koki approached her while I was still on the phone with him; I think she'll be all right for the moment. He said she was pretty, when I told him who to look for. If he's got any sense he'll say that to her face."

Jin managed a half-smile. "That would help."

"And what would help you? A big mug of hot chocolate? A hot water bottle? That fur coat I saw in your wardrobe?" There was no option for 'none of the above', but Kame read his answer from his face and nodded. "Move up."

The bed was just big enough for two, at a squeeze. Jin rolled to the left to make room for Kame, who spooned in behind, placing his hands on Jin's wrists, folding their arms together over Jin's chest. Simple human touch had given Jin a problem for years, ever since his telepathy had begun to materialise, because whenever someone touched him he'd focus on them, slipping into their minds without warning. He'd gotten better at dealing with it except when he was upset, but he still preferred to avoid crowded trains and anywhere else he might accidentally form a connection.

He'd never had that problem with Kame, whose mental shields were as close to perfect as Jin had ever seen. Most people didn't even know they could do it. Kame had worked on his to keep Jin out - not to hurt him, but to help him. But since Kame could actually tell whenever Jin reached for his mind, it served them best for Jin to practise too, to control the impulse that made him reach in the first place whenever Kame so much as brushed past him.

"Warmer?" Kame's breath tickled the back of Jin's neck, blowing hair every which way.

"Working on it," Jin murmured, leaning back slightly to take the weight off their arms. They were nothing so much as a dishevelled heap, locked together in a untidy bundle of rumpled T-shirts and hair that needed a good brushing to restore it to order, but they were comfortable. "Thanks."

"Just doing my job."

Jin begged to differ. "None of my other handlers ever curled up in bed with me."

"Would you have wanted them to?"

"Nakamaru would've had a heart attack if I'd ever asked him, and I don't think it's safe to go to bed with Ueda. They don't call him "The Dictator" around here for nothing, you know." Besides, neither had the history Jin shared with Kame, and while he was fairly sure they'd both have indulged him if he could present them with some sort of sensible reason, because most people gave in to him eventually, he didn't think he'd have been half as comfortable.

Kame snuggled closer, one hand now brushing lightly over Jin's chest. "What makes you think it's any safer being here with me?"

"If you were going to kill me as revenge for teenage stupidity, you'd have done it days ago. Anyway, the others have cracks in their shields, ripe for me to fall through. I couldn't crack your shields with a sledgehammer."

"Try."

"Now? I don't think I have anything left."

"Try anyway," Kame said firmly.

If that was what his handler wanted...

Jin closed his eyes, reached for the warmth beside him. Kame's mind was a star in a midnight sky, shining bright enough to block out the rest of the universe, shining just for Jin. Wonder of wonders, Jin could touch that star without being repelled. He circled, searching, then...there! It wasn't a crack so much as a door, deliberately left ajar, wide enough for Jin to slip through.

Inside, Jin found a beach. Waves lapped gently at golden sand under a brilliant blue sky. Where was he supposed to look? What did Kame want him to do? He scraped idly at the sand, disembodied self oddly corporeal, without uncovering the secrets he knew must lie beneath the surface.

Then he ventured over to the ocean. He knew it wasn't real. No genuine ocean was ever so clear. Jin stared into the water, caught sight of his own face. Locking eyes with himself unlocked a treasure trove of thoughts, a wealth of precious jewels, each one with himself at the centre. Excited, he skimmed the contents for details. Kame had lots of thoughts about him. Many of them were happy memories, of pointless arguments that ended in shared laughter, of stolen moments during school, stealing food from each other's lunches, eyes shining with secrets and promises to meet later.

There were sad thoughts too, and those made Jin's heart ache. Kame was good at maintaining a poker face and great at carrying on regardless, no matter what life threw at him - even when it threw him a knife in the back, courtesy of the person he loved most.

Those were all old thoughts. Jin discovered some fresh ones, about their time since Kame had become Jin's handler: these ranged from exasperated to proud. Kame had expended more patience on him than he'd deserved, and they both knew it. Why?

The answer was hidden in the final jewel. Why had Kame taken the transfer? Because he wanted to see Jin again, no matter how painful it might be. Because he still had hope.

Kame's mind snapped shut, then, casting Jin out. "You found the answer to your question?"

"Mmm." Jin opened his eyes, turned his head far enough to give Kame a satisfied smile. "Does that mean you'll forgive me?"

"I don't think you've suffered enough yet..."

"I've just been in the mind of a suicidal teenage girl - you can't tell me I haven't suffered enough."

"I can try." Kame's smirk was practically audible. "I know your weak spot, remember?"

That was all the warning Jin received before Kame tugged the neck of his T-shirt down and attacked his collarbone, tongue first. His most ticklish spot. Kame knew it well. Jin couldn't retaliate, couldn't get away, couldn't do much of anything but wriggle and make protests that lacked any real heat. Kame traced Jin's bones with a wet, warm caress, dipping his tongue in the hollows, all the while refusing to let go. Under normal circumstances, Jin had a tendency to run a mile when anyone touched his collarbone. Kame was proving to be the exception.

"I think you're getting my shirt all wet," Jin complained, a trifle breathless, not really annoyed but feeling the need to register some sort of disapproval at how Kame had deliberately targeted his most vulnerable area.

There was an easy solution for that one. "Then take it off."

"I'd need room for that and you haven't left me any."

Kame conceded that yes, space was at a premium, and any attempt by Jin to divest himself of clothing was likely to wind up with Kame getting a black eye. He backed off, enough so Jin had room to pull his T-shirt over his head and toss it over Kame, out into the space between their beds where one of them was sure to trip over it later.

"If I break my neck on that you're definitely not getting forgiven," Kame warned.

This time Jin had the easy solution. "Then you'll just have to stay here, won't you?"

"If someone walks in and has a heart attack on seeing us, you're taking responsibility."

"It's about time I took responsibility for something," Jin agreed.

"You saved a life this afternoon, so I'd say that's probably enough for one day. How irresponsible do you want to be?"

Jin didn't need to read Kame's mind to know what he was asking. "Not that irresponsible. I didn't exactly swing by a chemist while I was on the run. You?"

"I was hopeful, not optimistic. And I thought you might still be out to do anything in a skirt - which would include the guy responsible for that cut on your head, I might add."

"He wasn't my type. Guys in skirts only do something for me if you've got a schoolgirl costume stashed in the wardrobe somewhere."

Kame hooked a leg over Jin's, pulled him close enough to get one hand on his waistband. "I can probably arrange something if you agree to dress up as a nurse in return."

"You'd never get a uniform to fit me."

"I wouldn't bet on that..."

Jin wouldn't have bet on it, in any case, but he was more interested in how near Kame's lips were now. A little further, one tilt of the head...

Kame dipped; Jin rose to meet him. He didn't try to slip through the cracks again. Didn't need to; Kame's thoughts were plain to see and Jin agreed with them wholeheartedly. Not that thinking was easy when Kame was cupping him through his boxers, and Kame broke the kiss to gasp when Jin retaliated, needing to touch him back.

A brief separation sufficed to remove all obstacles, adding to the collection of potential hazards on the floor, and when Jin shuffled back towards the wall, it was with Kame half on him, half beside him, and all over him. One of Kame's legs insinuated itself between Jin's while the other pressed close, skin warm and familiar.

"Am I a pillow now?" Jin asked.

"I could probably make a fortune selling a range of Jin-pillows, but there's at least one part of you that wouldn't be very comfortable."

Maybe not for someone else, Jin was willing to admit, but personally he felt extremely comfortable with Kame's hand working its way up his thigh to wrap around him, settling into a rhythm he remembered from years ago. Kame's fingers sketched patterns along his skin, skilled in a way that belied his lack of artistic talent; Jin marvelled at the focus in Kame's eyes - he'd never been one to do things by half-measures.

"You look happy," Kame said. "I must be doing something right."

"Everything," Jin assured him, voice uneven for all the best reasons. He'd have added further encouragement but Kame's ministrations didn't leave him much breath for talking. Kame didn't seem to mind the lack of conversation, though, to judge by the pressure against Jin's thigh; the little pushing motions he made, apparently unconscious, persuaded Jin to take action of his own.

Kame didn't mind that, either.

Their neighbours were unlikely to be around at that time of the afternoon - neither of them had to worry about being overheard - but Jin liked watching Kame lose the battle to keep quiet. Jaws clenched tight, allowing barely a strangled moan to escape. With every stroke of Jin's hand, Kame came undone a little more, flushed and happy and not caring who knew it. It had always driven Jin crazy, listening to Kame's voice slide lower when he was aroused; the sounds he made as he thrust against Jin's palm bypassed Jin's conscious mind and went straight to his baser self, prompting him to respond in kind.

Kame approved of that, too. "Even when we were in high school you had the voice for AV work."

"If only you'd told me sooner, I wouldn't have wasted my time studying for exams." His words ended on a hiss as with a twist of Kame's wrist, Jin forgot he'd had to sit exams, along with everything else he'd ever known. His world extended no further than Kame's touch; Kame's short, quick breaths warm on his cheek finding an echo in his own. He didn't think he'd ever wanted Kame more, not even in high school when raging teenage hormones had them desperate to touch at all manner of unsuitable times. They'd grown older, grown up since then. Learned to deal with emotions they hadn't been able to name.

Two boys, full of pride and longing, sure of each other yet uncertain of themselves, had no understanding of the future. Two men could learn each other anew, could build a future together if they were willing to try, and Jin wanted that more than anything.

In Kame's mind, that same desire existed. Jin had seen it in his own face in the ocean - not a flawless fantasy version but real, with the small beauty mark by his right eye, and eyebrows slightly too thick, and lips a little chapped as they parted in a wide, honest smile. He'd shattered Kame's illusions about him once. Only truth remained.

Kame kissed him again; lightly, laughingly, less a kiss than a faint reminder to touch. Jin tried to pay more attention but it was difficult to focus, to keep his hands busy on Kame when his concentration was rapidly approaching breaking point. He expected to snap before too long. He was being drawn out, urged towards a welcome climax by touches too frantic, too erratic to be gentle, now, but that didn't matter.

"Let go," Kame whispered, and Jin did, giving himself up to the sensation of waves washing over the sand. For one brief moment the ocean was scalding, burning itself into his senses; when the waves receded, Jin was sticky, breathless, empty, hands clawed around Kame where he'd frozen, simply forgotten how to move.

"Am I going to have to resort to self-service?" Kame asked when Jin didn't start up again. "Because you're still lying there looking like you've just been hit by an ice cream truck, only happier."

Jin's laughter was unsteady but genuine. "Sorry. I'd forgotten why I could never concentrate in my afternoon classes after spending lunch with you, but you've just reminded me."

"And I couldn't concentrate in my morning classes, thinking about spending lunch with you." Kame grinned. "It's a miracle either of us graduated; it's obvious we weren't thinking with our brains at all."

"I suppose we're so mature and intellectual now that mere physical pleasure has no place in our lives anymore?" Jin teased.

"Speak for yourself. Or better yet, save your energy for other things." Kame caught hold of Jin's hand, held it for a moment, guided it where he wanted it most. "You owe me."

Kame was so worked up, it didn't take long. Jin wrapped his free hand around Kame's back, felt the shudder run through his whole body the moment he came; brought them together and held on. Kame released his breath all at once and lay still, for a change not caring what a mess they were making of Jin's formerly clean silk sheets.

"I owe you a lot more than that," Jin said. "And I'm not talking about all the sex you didn't get over the last six years."

"Oh, I got some - just not with you." Kame propped himself up on one elbow, gave Jin a tired smile. "But you're making a good start on paying me back."

"I'll have to pay in instalments."

"Fine by me. We've already got a contract. Think you can stick it out here the remaining two years?"

Jin's contract was with the institute, but Kame was his assigned handler, bound to him for the duration unless they had a reason to change - and Jin wouldn't have changed for the world. Nobody else knew him quite the way Kame did. Nobody else could challenge him, tease him, frustrate him and reward him the same way Kame could. And nobody had ever loved him the way Kame had, helpless against the strength of feelings he hadn't been able to articulate. Even now, their casual banter hid secrets and needs, unspoken but never unacknowledged.

"I guess I could stay...but no transferring back to Yokohama, all right? If I'm stuck here, so are you. Okay?"

"If you want to know how I feel about that, take a look," Kame invited.

They both knew Jin didn't need to.