Wild Card in the Water
by Talya Firedancer

Mikagami Tokiya stared at the ruined, withered shell of a house and felt emotions swirl within him, trapped by his frozen expression.  Meguri Kyoza had lived here.  Tokiya had lived here for a long time, as well – it had been his training ground, the beginnings of his ice-locked heart and a determination for vengeance.  The elder sword master had taken the impotent rage and hatred of a young boy and forged it into a weapon, along with the rest of him.

Ultimately, he’d discovered, it was a weapon intended to turn on its own creator.

Meguri-shishou must have known that some day, Tokiya would discover his duplicity.  Perhaps he had even hoped for it – he had nurtured the determination for vengeance within the boy’s heart, making him an even better, more disciplined master of Ensui.  It was he who had taught Tokiya to lock his emotions away in a barrier of ice, for emotions could only get in the way of cool logic.  They could only disturb his balance during a fight.

What had the Master given him?  He had set him on a twisting path of Shura that led straight back to the training-ground and the man who had taken him in.

Why?

Tokiya stared at the shell of the house, no hint of bitterness or anger registering on his smooth pale face.  Emotions may have begun to stir within him recently as he fought as a member of Team Hokage, as bit by bit he began to admit his caring for Yanagi-san and Koganei and even Recca and the others.  However, that didn’t mean that feelings were any easier for him to express.

The depth of his bitter sense of betrayal was something even he hadn’t fully felt yet.  He had come back here hoping for some sense of resolution.  Meguri’s death would be necessary to that, sooner or later.  The man no longer had the right to command the respect of the title of ‘Master.’  Everything between them had been a lie.

Pulling his hands from his pockets, he strode into the wreck of the house, nudging aside charred floorboards with his sneakers.  Pale cobalt eyes surveyed the fire-gutted wreck calmly.  Someone had gotten here before he had; perhaps Meguri himself had burned the house out, hearing of Tokiya’s victory at the Ura Buto Satsujin.  He knew that it wasn’t so much a sign of flight as it was strategic retreat.  They would meet again on Meguri’s terms, unless Tokiya could manage otherwise.

He’d lived and trained here for years.  Memories of determination and the fierce will to live up to Meguri’s discipline were imprinted on memories of sunlight filling up the honey-colored, polished wooden floor.  Dust motes turning lazily as he brandished a bokken of the same heft and balance as Ensui, moving in precise practice strokes.  He lifted a pale hand and touched a blackened beam, then turned it over and gazed at his ashy skin.  Now he was filled with emptiness as he moved through the wreck of his former training ground.  It had been a haven after his sister died, a place to grow stronger.  All of that was tainted now with the bitterness of knowledge.

Why would a dead man lie?  Kai had set him free from the chains of the past, but it bound him even more tightly to a dreadful obligation.  The man he had been seeking for vengeance, and the man who had trained him to enact it, were one and the same.

“Cozy, ain’t it?”

The Kansai dialect snapped him out of his partial fugue of memories and Tokiya whirled, poised on the balls of his feet and alert, fingers already closed tight on the hilt of Ensui in his pocket.

“You,” he hissed slowly, tension relaxing minutely in recognition.  The dark elfin face was overshadowed now by a broad baseball cap instead of the elaborate pointed joker’s crest, but the brown braids falling over one shoulder were the same.  The giant twisted staff was wrapped in cloth, looking about as harmless and unobtrusive as a wrapped broadsword.

It was Joker.

“What are you doing here?” Tokiya asked, still holding himself ready for battle.  His other hand closed on the bottle of water he used to form the water-blade, Ensui.

“Hey, hey.”  The other young man lifted up his hands, letting the covered weapon prop itself on one shoulder.  “I ain’t here to fight ya, Mikagami.”

Tokiya eyed him, cobalt gaze dubious.  “You’re Uruha.”  It was like a declaration of war.  Tokiya had allied himself with the Hokage side, and the Uruha were against them.  The end of the tournament was by no means the end of their enmity.  Mori Kouran was still alive, after all.

“Yeah, but I was Kurei-sama’s Uruha,” Joker declared with an easy shrug.  He let his hands fall to his side, still not grasping the weapon, as if to prove he wasn’t going to start anything.  “Kurei-sama and Mori had a difference of opinion, so the Uruha who were loyal to Kurei-sama are scattered all over the place now.”

“And you’re one of them?” Tokiya said with a delicate snort.  “Loyal?”

“Look,” Joker said, voice suddenly heated.  Tokiya got the impression that if he could see the man’s eyes, they would be flashing with anger.  “You people may not understand why we followed Kurei-sama, we loyal ones, but he’s not like Mori.  He gave us purpose when the rest of the world had thrown us away.”

Tokiya was silent.  His eyes roamed over the casual clothes Joker was wearing, not unlike his own current ensemble – or Koganei’s usual garb.  He wore a vest thrown over a baggy T-shirt, and oversized denim shorts cinched on with a woven belt.  His sneakers looked at least a size too big for his feet.  Somehow through the clothes, he got an impression of the other young man’s body being tall and rangy.  He’d seen the way Joker had moved – the man was powerful, with a fighter’s easy rippling grace.  And fast.  He didn’t want this to come down to a fight.

“How old are you?” he asked suddenly, not even sure himself where the question came from.

The mouth quirked, showing him a hint of fang.  “Why, you wanna make sure I’m dating material?”

“I-I don’t know what you’re t-talking about!” Tokiya sputtered, thin cheeks warming with an uncomfortable flush.  He felt as flustered as he’d been with Yanagi-san on their pseudo-date.  Even then, he could tell she was devoted to Recca.  And the honest part of him had admitted he’d been trying to recapture Mifuyu through her.

“I’m around twenty,” Joker informed him, gripping the covered haft of his weapon.  The smile got wider.  “Not too old for you, eh?”

Tokiya remained silent, an uneasy knot of feelings stirring in him.  He was completely virginal, but he understood what Joker was referring to and he didn’t know how to respond.  Was he attracted to men?  He’d spent his entire life devoted to swordplay, and he’d never bothered to learn about…about…the other sort.  His cheeks warmed uncomfortably again.  So he didn’t know.  What he’d felt for Yanagi-san had nothing to do with sexuality.

Though he had no idea, the faint tint spreading over his white skin had a very appealing effect.

Joker eyed the Hyomon-Ken master from beneath the brim of his hat.  He had come here at Neon’s request, putting tabs on the members of team Hokage for when Kurei would be recovered and capable of appreciating the information.  Mori would certainly make his next strike through them, since Hokage would be the only ones capable of opposing his next move.  Whatever that was.  Only Kurei-sama knew, and Kurei-sama was still incapacitated.

He’d never expected to find this pale willowy-limbed creature so appealing, outside of the fighting arena.  Joker had watched Mikagami’s matches avidly, because it was a real pleasure to watch such toned swordsman’s discipline at work.  Now that they were both removed from the context of the Ura Buto Satsujin, he hadn’t expected to feel the tug of attraction.  Even though he was a self-professed lover of males, he’d never been drawn by Mikagami’s type before.

“What are you doing here?”  Tokiya fired the question point-blank at him and Joker shifted on his feet, tugging at his brown braids with a casual hand.

“You think I killed your master?” the young Uruha shot back, deliberately taking an oblique tack.  From the blink of the pale blue-crystal eyes the thought hadn’t even crossed the boy’s mind.

Joker was struck with the sudden vision of running the flat of his hand over Mikagami’s bare, ivory-pale skin.  This grim-mouthed sword master would be *so* lovely in bed, he was sure, and it would be worth all the fighting and coaxing to get him there.

“No,” the young man said, the single word low and vibrating with menace, “but if you know anything…”

Joker blinked.  In an instant, Mikagami’s fighting aura had peaked to an almost visible manifestation.  He revised his estimation – it would take a *lot* of fight to get this boy in bed; he was no tractable thing as his looks suggested.

“I don’t,” he let the haft of his weapon drop back against his shoulder, waving his hands deprecatingly.  “Honest, Mikagami, I didn’t know the place was burned out until I got here.”

“Did you follow me here?” the boy asked next, some of the battle readiness easing from his posture.  He took a step to the side, ruined floorboards creaking under them, obviously unprepared to turn his back to Joker.

“In a way,” Joker said lazily.  There was no need to tell him that Neon had given him the Seeker.  It was somewhat like Kage Houshi’s Eikai Ball, only this elemental weapon was limited to finding other elemental weapons, not simply scrying out any scene its user wished.

Tokiya gave him a distrustful look.  Finally, he muttered, “Around twenty?”

Joker’s slight smile widened into a grin.  He’d noticed that, had he?  “Yeah, I don’t know exactly how old I am,” he replied offhandedly.  “Kurei-sama kinda recruited me off the streets.”

“You’re an orphan?” Tokiya said, in a far less sharp tone.  Something moved behind the pale sapphire eyes.

Joker shrugged.  “Dunno.  If I ever had any parents, I sure don’t remember ’em.”

“Is it worse not knowing?”  The pale boy’s tone was almost gentle now, and inquisitive.  Oh, right.  Mikagami Tokiya was an orphan, too.

“Saa,” Joker shrugged again.  “Knowing might be worse than not.  They might’ve abandoned me, and then I’d really hate them, wouldn’t I?  This way, I can imagine them dead and perfect.”

“Hn.”  Eyes fixed on him, Tokiya shifted in the ruins again.  His hands were still in his pockets – probably on his weapon and bottle of water, just in case Joker decided to be aggressive.  Joker had studied his moves and knew exactly how quick Mikagami could be with that bottled water trick of his.

That was why, when the floor caved under him with a creaking, pained groan, Tokiya’s arms were trapped in his jacket and he plunged like a stone, unable to catch hold of anything.

“Ou-tah!”  Joker dropped his weapon and lunged, bracing his knees on the staff he’d dropped on the floor as he tangled both hands on Mikagami’s collar and held tight.  The staff held firm against the groaning floorboards, and Joker used it as support, hauling Mikagami up from the gaping hole in the floor.

“Get your hands out of your damned pockets, Mikagami,” Joker gasped, barely managing to haul him up by the scruff of his jacket.  Joker was strong, but he was in a bad position for lifting in this way.  And Mikagami, damn his slight twiggy body, was heavier than he looked.

Slowly, to prevent himself from overbalancing his rescuer, Tokiya extracted his hands from his pockets.  He reached up for Joker, who leaned forward to permit Tokiya to put his arms around the older boy’s neck.

“You’ve got to be kidding me,” Tokiya said, normally expressionless face warmed by the pulse of adrenaline.  One of his eyes twitched.  “I am not some damsel in distress.”

“Yeah, well if you go through the fuckin’ floor, I’ll try to remember that,” Joker told him.

Pale long-fingered hands crept around his neck, clasping at the base.  Joker’s skin shivered, maybe with excitement.  A trickle of sweat ran down his face.  He was too busy to think about that now.  He hauled Tokiya closer and the boy helped, both of them all too aware that any negative shift in balance could make them both plummet through the hole in the floor and possible death or disfigurement.

“All right,” Joker muttered.  “ORYAA!!”  With a mighty heave, he hauled Tokiya up and out, simultaneously rising to his feet and slamming them to the floor, using the leverage to leap backwards.  With a shuddering groan, the entire floor caved beneath them, but Joker was already in the air, powerful legs having launched them from the weakening wood.  Tokiya’s arms tightened around his neck and the slender body impacted with his then Joker felt ground under his feet.  He bent his knees to lessen the shock of contact.  With a clatter, his cloth-wrapped weapon had tumbled to the lower level along with the rest of the ruined floor.

Tokiya stared after it.  “Why?”

Joker slanted a look at him under the brim of his cap.  He gave the boy a hint of fang.  “Why did I risk losing my madougu to save you?  Me, an Uruha?”

Tokiya nodded, willow-pale hair whispering around him with the movement.  His face was smudged with ash and he was gorgeous.  Joker wanted to lick his thin luscious lips and force his mouth open; wanted to be the first one to twine tongues with the boy.  Ah, sure, it was adrenaline aftermath, but a large part of it was Tokiya’s unwitting attraction.

“I didn’t.”  Joker raised his wrist, and twanged the wire there, so thin it could only be seen when the light struck it just right.  He pinched it between his thumb and forefinger just the right way to avoid cutting himself and hauled on it.  With a clatter and small explosion of ash, his weapon came flying out of the wreck of the floor.  Joker caught it one-handed and flashed another grin at the young man, whose eyes had widened in the pale face.

“Just like that kid…” he heard Mikagami mutter.  “Okay, but why did you risk your life?”

“Well,” Joker said meditatively, crossing his arms over his chest, “ya haven’t gotten your vengeance yet, have ya?”

Silently Tokiya shook his head.

“It would be a real shame if you died before you killed the bastard.”  Joker tipped the brim of his hat to the young man and tensed his legs for a disappearing act.

A beam clattered off to the side and Tokiya’s head turned sharply.

With a powerful kick-off, Joker leapt into the tree above, stared at the pale disheveled head for a moment, then leapt silently to the ground a good distance away and loped off silently.

There was plenty that would *not* be going into his report.  There were some things Kurei would approve of that Neon would never understand.

Mikagami Tokiya eased himself into the steaming water with a low hiss and the whisper of flesh slipping into the liquid embrace.  He dipped his head back, wetting the length of his willow-gray hair.  This hot spring was far away from Tokyo and his teammates – merely his classmates now – but it gave him a needed break for thought.  School started again in a few days.

So much had happened this summer.  More than any year before, he had learned shattering truths that changed not only the shape of his future, but threw a new significance onto the events of his past as well.

Although his typical composure had held through it all – mostly – nevertheless, things had affected him so deeply he felt he needed this time alone.  He needed to re-evaluate his life and what he’d be devoting his future to.  The emotions that had been re-awakened as a part of such a close-knit team as Recca’s were prompting him to consider the direction of his vengeance.

He would still obtain vengeance for Mifuyu’s murder, and at least now he had a face to associate with that need.  The fact that it was his former shishou filled him with a pained sense of betrayal, more keen by the fact that emotions were something newly-awakened within him.

But what would Mifuyu want for him, beyond that vengeance?

She would never ask for such a thing, but it was something Tokiya had to do.  In some ways, vengeance wasn’t for the dead – it was for the living.  Yet she would ask him to think of his life after he’d avenged her.

Tokiya sighed and sank back into the hot water of the spring.  He had to get his emotions under control.

By the myriad kami, he was even beginning to respond to something so small and physical as Joker’s arms around him.  An *enemy.*

Although, it looked like that label was in dispute.  The enemy of my enemy is my ally?  Mori Kouran was a far worse enemy, with the money and motive to make life truly miserable for the “dark horse” that had shouldered its way through the ranks to win the Ura Buto Satsujin.  Did this mean that Kurei’s Uruha were their allies now?  If they were against Mori, it very well might.

And yet…and yet…

Tokiya put a hand to his hot face, knowing that the skin there was flushed and it wasn’t entirely due to the temperature of the water.

His observations about Joker’s rangy build had been borne out; while the man leapt through the air, carrying them to safety, he had been pressed against the tall frame, a body packed with flat muscle.  Joker’s face had been close to his own, mouth on a level with one cheekbone, hot breath washing over his skin.  Tokiya had never thought much about sex or even his own sexuality, and perhaps that was why the closeness had had such an impact on him.  His groin had tightened.

It was another reason to get away, to give himself time to think.  Not only about being attracted to the ‘enemy’ but being attracted to another male.

“You look nice’n comfy there in all that hot water,” a male voice drawled.  From the shiver-deep timbre and the Kansai-ben, Tokiya knew that it was Joker.

As he identified the voice, his eyes flew open.  In the tradition of older men at a hot spring, Tokiya had placed a cloth over his groin to protect his modesty.  It was this one thing that prevented him from levitating out of the water and grabbing a towel.

“What are you doing here?” he inquired, proud that he managed to maintain a calm, unruffled tone.  He angled a cool stare at the lean naked length of Joker and that was where he had trouble keeping up his composure.

Joker had eased himself into the water somehow without a ripple and lounged against the rim two body lengths away, a cloth covering not his groin, but half his face.

Tokiya snorted.  He supposed that covering his face to preserve anonymity was Joker’s way of protecting his modesty.

“Ain’t a poor Uruha allowed a splash in the hot spring once in awhile, too?” Joker said calmly, hooking his elbows over the rim of the spring.

“That depends,” Tokiya said, tone dry.  He observed Joker out of the corner of his eyes, not that Joker would see him looking with the towel over his face and all.

His brown hair was still tied into three braids that flopped over his shoulder, waving gently in the water like seaweed.  He had a pointed chin and an almost delicate, wide-lipped mouth saved from femininity by the fang peeking out.  Tokiya stared at it, fascinated.

“Depends on what?”  Joker’s voice interrupted him from his scrutiny.

“Well, for starters, why the poor Uruha is in the hot spring in the first place,” Tokiya said matter-of-factly, eyes still fixed on that fang.  It seemed to lengthen, revealed more as Joker smiled.  Obscurely that irritated him.  “Did you follow me?”

“Not exactly.”  Joker exhaled a long sigh of contentment and settled more deeply into the water, adjusting the cloth over his face.  “Quit staring, unless you’re going to do something about it.”

Tokiya jumped, causing a ripple in the water around him.  “Wh-what?”  How could Joker see him under that towel?

“Unless you’re gonna do something, like come over here and give me what that look promises, quit lookin’ at me like that.”

It was on the tip of his tongue before he thought it through.  “You’re joking.”

The other man burst out into peals of husky laughter.  “I *am* the Joker, ain’t I?” he taunted.  “But no, I don’t make stupid jokes about boylove.”

Tokiya stared at him openly now.  This was the first time in sixteen years that he’d ever been propositioned like this.  Wait…yes, yes it was.

“Why?” he said, after a long moment of consideration.  Joker was, from what he could see, an extremely attractive man, body unscarred from years of fighting.  Unless there were some hideous scars on his eyes, or something like that, Joker was physical perfection.  Why would he go for a pasty-faced boy with colorless hair who’d been mistaken for a girl many times?

“Why don’t I joke about boylove?” Joker said, shifting in the water.  An underwater current lapped over Tokiya’s midsection and his face burned.  “Or…did you mean why you?”

Tokiya nodded, forgetting that Joker shouldn’t be able to see him.

“Crap, Mikagami, have you looked in the mirror recently?” Joker demanded roughly, sitting up straight.  The cloth dangled over his face and he flipped it up, folding it carefully on his head so that it still draped in his eyes.  “You’re fuckin’ gorgeous, that’s why.  I’m surprised no one’s gone all-out for you before this.”

“Is that why you’re here?” Tokiya challenged.  “To go all-out for me?”  He brushed aside the ‘gorgeous’ statement.  He’d learned long ago that some people would say anything to get what they wanted.

“Maybe.”  Joker stood up in the hot spring, more water lapping over Mikagami, tickling his nipples this time.  Tokiya’s face would have made a tomato envious.  These liquid caresses were a vicarious extension of Joker’s intent, he knew, and it went straight to his groin.  “Maybe I’m just here for a good soak and this was a happy coincidence.”

Tokiya snorted.  He fought the urge to scoot away as Joker approached him in the water.  It would look undignified, and he was a man – and a man didn’t retreat, he stood his ground.  Despite the fact that he was completely unarmed at the moment, he still stood his ground.  Though there was water all around him, Ensui was several yards away.

Once Joker stood inches from his legs, Mikagami started in the water, sloshing ripples all around them.  “What are you doing?”  He kept the note of panic out of his voice.  He didn’t want Joker this close.  He didn’t want *anyone* this close, with the possible exception of Yanagi-san.

“Heading for the cold soak pool,” Joker said calmly.  “What, did ya think I was gonna kiss ya?”

Mikagami stared at him with wild eyes.

“Were ya hopin’?”  Joker glided closer to him in the hot water.  Mikagami was frozen as if he’d turned his own Zettai Redo against himself.  He couldn’t move even when Joker brushed against his thighs and bent close and a single, piercing emerald eye registered in his vision.

Joker has green eyes and he showed them to me, a dazed portion of Mikagami said to himself.  The rest was still frozen – in horror? outrage? wanting? – as Joker pressed heat-softened lips to his.

It was a brief brush of another mouth on his, accompanied by only a brief flick of tongue.  Mikagami’s mind was gibbering at even that small gesture.  Joker backed away in the water, standing between his thighs, adjusting his head cloth as it slipped.  Tokiya blinked.  He thought he’d seen gray.

“Did ya like that, Mikagami?” the Joker’s voice was a low rasp over his senses.

Tokiya pressed pale fingers to his colorless, slightly moist lips.  “I don’t know,” he admitted.  Then he flushed.  His body had undertaken an answer and the cloth on his lap was waving to and fro.

The Joker’s lips quirked.  Evidently he’d noticed.  “Shall we try again?” he offered.

Tokiya hesitated.  He looked down at himself in the water.  Abruptly he pulled away and stood, water sluicing off his pale body.  The Joker’s wide-lipped mouth turned down.  “I’m getting water wrinkles,” he said shortly, turning to climb out of the spring.  He was about to glance over his shoulder when he felt a hand smack his rear.  “Argh!!”  He tripped on the rim and fell on his hands and knees.

“You’re adorable with your ass in the air, Mikagami.”

“Temee!” Tokiya reddened for different reasons now.  He could have quite cheerfully cleaved Joker in two.  He climbed to his feet, snatching at a towel to tuck around his waist, then turned to confront his adversary.

Joker gave him a broad grin, wearing a piled-up turban now that slipped over his forehead to overshadow his eyes.  He, too, was wearing a towel around his waist, although the loose knot suggested it could split around one thigh at any instant.

“Why do you keep doing that?” Tokiya asked, curious about the consistency with which Joker kept his eyes covered.

“Doing what?” Joker cocked his head.

Silently Tokiya pointed to his turban.

Joker put a hand to it.  “Oh, this.  You’re askin’ if I’m deformed or ashamed of my appearance or just tryin’ to keep my face a secret, right?”

Tokiya nodded.

Joker lifted a finger, lips parting.

“That’s a secret.”

Tokiya’s eyebrow twitched.  “I don’t think I can trust someone who won’t let me see his face,” he stated.  “Besides, I still don’t know why you’re here.”

“What, you can’t trust me to kiss you?” Joker pulled a wounded frown.  “And isn’t it obvious?  I’m here for you, Mikagami.  I’m not here as Uruha.  I found this place on my own.  I just want to express my appreciation of your pale charms and see if you’ll accept anything in return.  That’s all.”

Tokiya looked at Joker, half-naked in his slipping towel, the word *‘why?’* welling up in his mind again.  What had he done to attract these attentions?  It wasn’t like Joker thought he was a girl.

He wondered what it would be like to feel the man kissing him again.  He wondered if he should resist.

Mikagami stared at him distrustfully, gathering towel around the whipcord body tight.  There was confusion on his smooth elfin face and for a moment Joker wondered if he’d pushed too hard.

Then, “Why me?” fell quietly from those pale, perfect lips and Joker smiled.

“Because you’re sexy,” Joker purred, taking a step towards Mikagami and pushing his luck.  “If you won’t let me try another kiss, at least let me buy you dinner and some sake.  This place is famous for its sushi.”

Mikagami shook his head slowly, wet gray hair clinging to his ivory skin.  Gods, was it possible the sword master was truly unaware of how attractive he was?  All that pale, glowing skin, long slender limbs, flowing hair the color of a pussywillow…surmounted by those determined, steely cobalt eyes that made the fragility seem more like the tempered edge of a balanced sword.

“I’m underage,” Mikagami was saying, and Joker felt a wash of relief that it wasn’t a refusal his headshake had betokened.

Joker gave him a taunting grin.  “You really think the proprietor cares in a backwater place like this as long as he’s makin’ money?”

Mikagami’s pale skin was starting to break out in dimples of gooseflesh.  The air was very cool after the steamy temperature of the hot spring.  He said nothing to Joker’s latest sally, only turned and moved towards the sauna.  After a few steps he glanced, involuntarily it seemed, over his shoulder.

Joker grinned widely now, taking it for tacit invitation, and hurried to catch up.

They were quiet for a long time in the hot dry air of the sauna.  Mikagami kept the towel twisted around his thighs like a loincloth, modesty keeping him from displaying what Joker wanted so badly to see.  The rest of Mikagami was so perfect, it made him wonder if that part of him was just as appealing.

Joker was somewhat surprised at himself.  The decision to follow Mikagami from Tokyo had been an impulsive one, and it had only been as he watched the hotel yukata slip from Mikagami’s marble shoulders that he realized exactly what it was he’d fixated on, and what he wanted to do about it.

That didn’t necessarily mean Mikagami would want to be his willing partner.  In fact, he had every reason to expect violent rejection.  But for reasons of his own, Mikagami seemed unsure of exactly what to do about him.

The sensation of his mouth on the other boy’s had been one he wouldn’t forget soon.  It was something he hoped to repeat, but it was one hundred percent up to Mikagami.  Those lips had been velvety-supple and he longed to explore between them.

He was utterly sure Mikagami was fey.

Whether Mikagami himself knew it or not, that sort of readily instant response between those slender thighs couldn’t be faked.  Joker had been tempted to flick aside the cloth covering his groin and let the current carry it away.

Was Mikagami tempted to pull the cloth from his eyes?  He’d already let the boy see part of his face, more than anyone had gained from him.  Except for Kurei-sama, of course.  When Kurei-sama had bested him, he’d knocked him flat and jerked the baseball cap from his head, taking a good long look at his face.  That was when Kurei-sama had showed him what lay beneath his own mask, and offered him a place at his side as Uruha (Kurenai?)

He was the same age as Kurei-sama, and had known they were the same age back then, but the difference in their skill levels had been huge.  It wasn’t such a great chasm now, but look at him!  He, Joker, had been beaten by the kid, Koganei.  But that kid’s skills had improved, too.

*Look at you,* a little voice inside him jeered.  *Reminiscing like an old man when you’ve got better things to do.*  That reminded him.  He peered through the loose folds of cloth at Mikagami, vaguely amused that the cobalt-spiked eyes were slitted in his direction.

“Ya still haven’t said if I can buy ya dinner,” Joker reminded him, half-teasing, easing back against the wood.  Gods, this felt great.  He had muscles unknotting in his shoulders and back that he hadn’t even known were tense.  Of course, there was one thing that could relax him even better than this but it required a willing partner.

One pale blue eye opened fully.  “I’m thinking about it,” Mikagami said seriously.

“Don’t know if you can trust me?” Joker goaded.

“I don’t even know your real name, nor have I seen your face,” Mikagami shot back.

“True,” Joker conceded with a slight flash of fang.  In a flurry of brown limbs he was across the sauna, kneeling to either side of the long white legs pressed chastely together, bracing himself above Mikagami against the wall.  Cobalt-spiked eyes flew open in alarm, but the pale boy remained still.  Calm, except for the barest trembling of almost transparent lips.  “Do you want to see my face, Mikagami?”

Mikagami looked searchingly at the turban obscuring his eyes, trying vainly to penetrate the shadows.  “Would it mean something to you if I did?”

Joker released a shivery breath.  It was all he could do to keep from touching the boy.  “Very perceptive.  Yes, it would.”

The teen’s eyes dropped and his thin cheeks colored.  “I don’t know.”  His voice was low and meditative, not coy, but thinking it through.  Joker was careful not to ease his weight down onto those slim thighs, but he was tempted.  Very.

He backed off a little, giving the kid room to think.  Joker’s eyes glanced down and his mouth twitched upwards at the corner.  A certain part of Mikagami didn’t need to think, from the way it was trying to fight free of the towel’s constriction.

Joker felt eyes on him again and he lifted his head slightly, enough so he could see Mikagami looking at him steadily, but not so far that the turban slipped or the shadows revealed more than he wanted.  The boy sucked in a breath slowly, held it, then reached up to pull the turban away.  His slim pale fingers had just touched cloth when Joker’s hand snapped up and caught the frail-seeming wrist.

“If I let you see my face, I won’t stop with a kiss,” he warned the teenager.

Mikagami’s eyes were assessing.  “I know,” he replied.

Joker bent his head slightly in acceptance and released Tokiya’s wrist.

His skin felt naked and exposed as the turban was peeled away, fold by fold.  He kept his eyes lowered, fixing them on the fascinating pale pink nipples that stood out on Tokiya’s white-skinned chest, lax with the heat.  Tokiya’s breath released slowly and he knew the boy was looking at the scar that formed a jagged bolt from the top of one eyebrow and slashed downwards toward the cheekbone, missing his eye by some miracle.  Joker nerved himself and met Tokiya’s eyes.  They were neutral but widened once their gazes locked.

“Your eyes—” Tokiya blinked.  “I thought so.  One is green and the other is gray.”

“You don’t sound shocked,” Joker said, masking the bitterness in his tone with joviality.

“Why should I?” Tokiya sounded puzzled.  “They’re very striking.”

Joker huffed softly with amusement and disbelief.  “You are something else, Mikagami Tokiya.  You don’t even seem to realize *you* are striking.”

“But I’m not—”

Joker cut him off with his preferred method, closing the distance between them with his mouth, leaning in close to Tokiya but still not meeting him anywhere but the mouth.  This time he caught the younger man with his lips open and took advantage, wedging his tongue between them before Tokiya could snap his mouth shut.

Mikagami was frozen, the way he’d been before.  Joker guessed that the boy was completely virginal, and the thought that *he* was the first person to slip his tongue where no man had been before thrilled him more than he expected.  He sucked at the lush bottom lip, making it even fuller, feeling the barest return of friction against his mouth, then slipped his tongue deep into the boy’s mouth, feeling Mikagami quiver in surprise.

The boy thrashed briefly, hands coming up to encircle Joker’s wiry biceps, legs knocking him off balance where he knelt to either side.  He slipped and ended up sitting on Mikagami’s lap, pressing forward to eat at the boy’s mouth.  The tongue in that velvety cavern shied away from him and Joker coaxed it, swiping at the wet warmth of inner cheeks and slick teeth.

Mikagami groaned and Joker pressed to him more closely, grinding the immodestly towel-clad lump against Mikagami’s hidden hardness.

The boy jerked beneath him, body going still with surprise.  Joker pressed his advantage, pressing Mikagami to the wall with his broad hands and a slow hot kiss.  He teased him with a leisurely dance of his hips and received a stifled moan for his prize.  Mikagami was *so* truly untouched and it was a definite advantage.

He drew back slightly, rubbing his lips against Mikagami’s moist flesh.  “Well?”

Eyelids dragged up from dazed cobalt eyes.  “A-aa?”

“You don’t have to do this if you don’t want to,” Joker murmured, keeping the bitterness from his voice.  Despite his intention he rubbed his cheek against that flushed skin, feeling Mikagami’s hot damp cheek beneath his own.  Gorgeous.  Why should someone gorgeous like Mikagami want him, now that he’d seen his face?

Mikagami lifted his head, pupils dilated as if he were drugged.  That simple action brought his lips in contact with Joker’s again.  The young man inhaled and found Tokiya’s tongue hovering at the entrance of his mouth.

With a grin that was purely mental, Joker sent his own tongue to greet it.  They shared breath and liplock for uncounted minutes.  Mikagami’s hands had finally begun to caress tentatively up from his arms and over his back.  And Joker was finally beginning to believe Mikagami was into this.

Just possibly, into him?

The clatter of stones from outside alerted them and the two young men broke away from their kiss.  Joker threw himself onto the bench beside Mikagami, seizing his cloth from the boy’s lap and piling it onto his face once again.  He folded his hands over his hard-on and grinned, noting from the corner of his eye that Mikagami was making use of the same ploy to keep his own hardness from tenting up the towel thrown over and around his hips.

A heartbeat later – a guilty one, judging from the red flush of Mikagami’s cheeks – the sauna door creaked open and two old men entered, settling themselves on the wooden bench on the other side of the room with identical rusty sighs.

“Ja, Mikagami,” Joker rose up from his bench, seizing a second towel from the rack to wrap around his hips.  “My attention is the kind that needs no audience.”  Let the old men make of that what they would.

He gave the boy a slight, mocking bow and then vanished from the sauna.

There wasn’t so much as a feeble cry of protest behind him.  But what did he expect?  He’d shown Mikagami everything, but the teenager had accepted his promise of not stopping before he had seen what he was getting into.

Exit Joker, stage left, a single glittering tear fixed on his laughing face.

The hot spring resort held a quiet sort of calm in the morning.  Tokiya emerged from his room, yukata belted tightly around the waist, his serene expression belying the confusion inside.

There had been something yielding in him last night, with Joker’s mouth on his.  Iie, it was more than that – he had felt a hard knot of maleness pressed against him, acknowledged it for what it was, and had been prepared for everything it offered, all in that moment.

Was there something wrong with him?  Or was it just that he was prepared to experience ‘boylove,’ as Joker had so casually referred to it?  What confused him most of all was that he had never been aroused in any way at all, that he could use as a reference for this moment.  Everything that was Mikagami Tokiya had been sublimated into the overpowering drive for the mastery of swordplay, and even giving up masturbation was a small price to pay for the honing of one’s ken-ki.

He lifted his face into the crisp, cool morning air and sighed.  He didn’t know what to do, or how to respond.  He supposed the most he could make of it was determining how he would take Joker’s advances, if and when they came again.

If.  There had been something guarded and painful in his eyes last night, when Joker spoke so casually of being ‘shocked’ at the sight of his face.  But Tokiya hadn’t seen anything repulsive in his countenance, nothing to merit the wealth of disguised hurt in his tone.

He had eaten at the bar alone last night, expecting to see Joker slip in beside him at any moment, somewhat surprised when he hadn’t shown.  It made him question what had gone on before, in the hot springs, in the sauna.  Was there something he should have done, or something he hadn’t?

There was a cold, clear waterfall near the hot springs where he was headed, and Mikagami paused on the path, groping for the hilt of his weapon hidden in the folds of his sleeve.  He could almost sense the water rushing through his awareness.  Because he was the master of Ensui, he had attained a peculiar sensitivity to water that most people wouldn’t even think of.

This kind of water was the best for making his sword.

Without really thinking of it, Tokiya slipped out of his yukata as he stepped off the path, draping it on a large boulder.  He toed his clogs off and left them there, wading into the pool formed by the spill of the mountain stream from high above.

The chill of the cold water made his thighs tighten, muscles tensing in shock, but Tokiya ignored it and waded further.  Even the chill of the Zettai Redo did not affect him – partly because he was given immunity as Ensui’s master, he was sure, but also from rigorous training.

Much sooner than anyone else might have, Tokiya had acclimated to the freezing temperature of the water and he swam in leisurely strokes for the waterfall.  There was something about this locale that freed his thoughts, made him process more clearly.  It was almost a form of meditation.

Tokiya climbed out of the pool on the far side and held a hand out to the churning spray of the waterfall.  Cold mist crackled in the air, spray thrown up by the impact of the falls into the pool below.  Tiny rainbows wisped around him, breaking into shards of color every time he moved his head.  Almost dreamlike, he moved into the waterfall, the stream coursing over his head and plastering pale gray hair to his body.  He closed his eyes.

Joker wanted him.  For whatever reason, his objective had nothing to do with Kurei or the Uruha.  There was nothing to be gained by pursuing him, at any rate.  He was only Mikagami Tokiya.  Kurei was either dead or missing, and even if he were alive Joker opposed Mori Kouran.  That man was their true enemy, who would stop at nothing to get what he wanted.

And so Tokiya came back to the certainty that Joker wanted him.  And he had acceded to that request – once he’d seen the older boy’s face, Joker had his tacit permission to go further than a kiss.

Tokiya’s eyes flew open.  Why had he agreed to that?  His curiosity wasn’t so thoroughly developed that he *had* to see what was beneath that cloth and the overhanging shadows.  He could have said no.  Through blurry water-distorted vision he stared at the other side of the pool, and the shape of the boulders there.  Something was moving.

It wasn’t fast or threatening; possibly someone who wanted to share the pond and would discover a nasty shock when they reached the cold near-freezing water.

Tokiya’s eyes slid closed again.  He had tugged the cloth off because he wanted to see what Joker would do to him.  He wanted that ‘more than a kiss.’  And now that he’d admitted it to himself, he was free to do whatever he liked.

“Brr!” a voice said explosively near his ear.  “It’s fuckin’ freezin’ in here, Mikagami; I dunno how you can stand it!”

Tokiya unlidded his eyes partway, staring at the mismatched eyes so close to his own.  He moved forward, freeing his face from the spray.  Joker had dispensed with his cap or the obscurement of a towel.  He had already given Tokiya permission to see his face, and he wasn’t going back on it now.

“That’s right,” Joker said, sounding amused.  “You’re the master of Hyomon Ken, I suppose a little cold water doesn’t matter to you.”

Tokiya still said nothing, glancing down and then back up to the gray eye, then the brilliant green.  Joker was naked and his skin looked tanned, almost golden.  His three brown braids snaked over one shoulder.  His wide-lipped mouth was tugging upwards at one corner, fang dimpling his lower lip.  The startling, intense eyes saved his almost pixie face from seeming feminine, and the jagged bolt of a scar made him more formidable.  Someone who had seen fighting and pain.

“Sorry I didn’t show up to buy you dinner last night,” Joker continued, voice soft.  He brought his hand up to Tokiya’s face and caressed his chin with two knuckles.  “I had some things ta do.”

“And I wasn’t one of them?” Tokiya returned with a wry twist of his lips.

Joker threw his head back and laughed.  “No, no ya weren’t.”  He moved closer to where Tokiya stood in the stream of the waterfall, shivering as the cold water caressed him.  “Besides, you never said you wanted me to.”

Tokiya tilted his head.  “I guess I didn’t,” he replied.  He reached up to grasp the fingers near his mouth and hesitated, not knowing what to do.  “You don’t seem like the kind of guy who’d let that stop you.”

Joker just *looked* at him for a moment, and his varied gaze was intense.  For a moment it was a contest of wills, each daring the other to look away.  Neither of them did.  “I don’t go around makin’ people do something they don’t want to,” Joker said at last.  “And I don’t go where I’m not invited.  Remember that, Mikagami.”

Tokiya nodded, absorbing it.  Joker had just told him quite plainly that unless he asked for it now, nothing else would happen between them.  He hesitated.  “Call me Tokiya.”  And he brought Joker’s knuckles to his mouth.

Joker shuddered, head going back in surprise.  He was taller than Tokiya but not by much, only about half a head’s worth.  Then he stepped close, ignoring the chill of the waterfall, and replaced his knuckles with his lips to kiss Tokiya savagely.

Tokiya gasped, still new to this, and a tongue pressed into his mouth.  Joker’s hand clasped at the base of his neck and slanted his lips over Tokiya’s, tongues twining in the heated interior of his mouth.  Tokiya was off-balanced, hands coming up to rest against the gold-toned chest for support.  He was so absorbed in the sensation of the kiss that nothing else mattered.  And he could admit with the newfound clarity of this morning that he wanted Joker, too.

When Joker broke away Tokiya was breathless, and wanted to be kissed again, and didn’t want to admit it.

“I’m sorry,” Joker told him, looking flustered, but his fingers were twining into the wet hair plastered against Tokiya’s face.  “I didn’t come here for this.  I have to leave.”

“Oh.”  Tokiya stepped back into the water, pulling his hands away from Joker.  Now he could feel the coldness of the falls.

“Don’t get the wrong idea.”  Joker brushed fingers over his mouth again.  “I don’t want to leave.  I’d rather stay here and…” he leaned forward and whispered something into Tokiya’s ear that made him go rigid, cheeks coloring scarlet despite the cold.

Tokiya stood dumbstruck, unable to meet Joker’s eyes now.  “I…”

“So I’ll see you again,” Joker told him, moving close and ignoring the flinch of the cold water.  He lifted a hand to Tokiya’s mouth, brushing his fingers over the young man’s lips.  “You’ve got my promise on that.”

Tokiya felt something placed between his lips and he bit, hearing Joker’s soft laughter.  Then he was gone.

He let the cold water wash over him for a spell, then shook himself and climbed onto the rocks beside the fall.  Tokiya was shivering but he knew it wasn’t from the cold.  There was something between his lips and it wasn’t Joker’s fingers.  He took hold of the flimsy piece of – was it paper?  And looked.

It was a playing card.  The Joker.

Tokiya stared at it and a peal of spontaneous laughter burst out of him.

The school bell rang and the hallways exploded into a flurry of moving bodies and the clamor of voices, released from the tension of the day.  Students headed for clean-up duty jostled past, looking resigned while the rest of their peers burst out into freedom.

Tokiya shut his locker and leaned against it.  He eyed the unruly mass of his classmates, senpai, and kouhai with cool, assessing eyes.  He smoothed down nonexistent creases in his navy uniform.  He didn’t want to be here.

The few brief days he’d spent at the hot springs seemed like a dream.  And instead of providing him with a respite to gather himself for the coming school year, to recollect himself and decide what he was going to do, it had only added another confused issue to the rest of the heap.

Tokiya had found himself furtively examining his male classmates, in the shower or gym, passing by in hallways, in the middle of class – trying to find what it was inside of him that was attracted to Joker.  The only thing he’d succeeded in determining was that none of his male classmates held any attraction for him.  By the same token, none of his female classmates did, either.

He dug into his pocket and pulled out the wild card that Joker had placed in his mouth in lieu of his lips.  It was a promise, of that he was sure.

But what kind?

*You think too much,* he could hear Joker’s voice, slyly needling, in the back of his head.

Mikagami inclined his head in silent agreement and pushed away from the lockers, flipping his schoolbag over one shoulder.  It was time to go home to an empty apartment and a cold hearth.  His financial needs were taken care of by a trust fund that had been set up from his parents’ life insurance.  He had been Meguri Kyoza’s ward until last year.  None of this had taken care of his emotional needs, but then, until now he hadn’t been aware of having any.

“Ya, Mikagami!”  Hanabishi’s brash voice cut across his introspection.

Tokiya kept walking, but craned his head slightly.

Recca took it as an invitation and jogged up alongside him, grinning like an idiot.  Oh, wait.  “How ya doin’?” the self-styled ninja beamed.  “We haven’t seen ya for a couple of weekends.”

“I’ve been busy,” Tokiya told him, not caring to elaborate.

“Ah…well,” Recca scratched his head.  “Well, Hime-chan is having a get-together at her place tomorrow, and she wants us all to come.”

“Oh?” Tokiya raised a pale brow and thought about it.  “Yanagi-san wants me to come?”

“Yeah,” Recca nodded vigorously.  “Oh, and she told me to tell you it came directly from her – she wants ta see you there, Mikagami.”

Tokiya shrugged uncomfortably.  Yanagi-san’s resemblance to Mifuyu gave her a lot of power over him, whether she knew it or not – but the gentle healer would never abuse that.  “All right,” he acceded.  “I’ll be there.”  Although a night with the monkeys wasn’t his idea of the best of times…at least Yanagi-san and Koganei would be there.  Tokiya more than respected Koganei – he had come to genuinely like the vivacious, tough little boy.

“Great!” Recca gave him a thumb’s-up and another goofy grn  “Well, I gotta jam – Domon and Fuko are waiting for me.”

“Mata ne,” Tokiya lifted a hand, still walking.  He didn’t care for their after-school cavorting and had never joined them.  His idea of a good afternoon involved a seat at a quiet café and a thick book or two.

There were no sakura petals in the air, it being the wrong season and all, but Tokiya glanced up at the black branches from time to time and thought about death and renewal.  Mifuyu wouldn’t want him to give up his own life only for vengeance.  She would want him to live past the time he killed her murderer.  After a sakura tree gave up its petals, shedding its beauty, it continued to live.  And one day it put forth blooms again.

He brushed back silvery strands of hair from his face and fumbled for the key in his pocket.  The house was a small, cramped one in a middle-to-do Tokyo suburb, but it was quiet, a good place to study, and entirely his.

Even as he turned the key in the lock, Tokiya could sense something was wrong.

The silence within his house was one that waited for him.  Tokiya slipped his school bag to the floor, pulling Ensui free from a side pocket.  There was a vase of flowers on the side table near the door, and that was what he used to form the blade.  It was somewhat green-tinged, but Tokiya was practical.  Any kind of water could hold an edge with Ensui.

Slow and cautious, sword gripped low, Tokiya started forward into the expectant silence of his house.  The hallway was dark and it took his eyes a moment to adjust.  He paced himself, unwilling to face a possible intruder with dark-blinded eyes.

The trickle of running water reached his ears and Tokiya paused for a moment, senses straining.  It was the kitchen sink.  What was going on here?

If it were an attacker, he was certain he would have been attacked by now.  Tokiya advanced more boldly now, slipping into the kitchen, raising his blade.  There was a dark figure moving in the shadowed room, and he snapped the light on.

“Dammit!  Shit!”

The softly-cursing voice alone was enough to let Tokiya relax.  Ensui fell by his side and Tokiya fixed a stern expression on his face.  “What are you doing in my kitchen?”

Joker looked up somewhat sheepishly from the vase of roses he was placing on the kitchen table.  “Shit, what did you do, run home?  Can’t you let a guy surprise you?”

“I don’t like surprises,” Tokiya said flatly, and Joker’s face fell.  He unbent enough to concede, “But I’m glad to see you.”

“Well.”  Joker gave him a rakish grin, eyes shadowed once more by the brim of a baseball cap.  Tokiya took in the change of appearance and a flicker of disappointment passed through him.  Had Joker changed his mind?  “Should I take it my advances are welcome?” the young man drawled. Maybe he hadn’t.

Tokiya moved over to the table, brushing the red petals with pale fingertips.  There was a wild card wedged between two central roses and he picked it up, flipping the card to display the clown’s head to Joker.  “What’s this for?”

“It’s like a calling card,” Joker said quickly.  A little too quickly.  He flashed a grin.

“Were you going to arrange the flowers and just leave?” Tokiya asked him, still sorting through his emotions.  Yes, he was glad to see Joker again.  A part of him was certainly…stirred by the thought.

Joker waved his hand.  “I was goin’ to come back.  Think I could stay away from you, Tokiya?”

Tokiya gave him a measuring glance.  “I wasn’t sure.”

“Why…oh, this.”  Joker fingered the brim of his cap.  “Sorry, I was on the street.  This better?”  He tugged it off and tossed it on the table.  With a shrug of his shoulders, he met Tokiya’s eyes, expression self-conscious.  His green eye was brilliant, his gray eye like storm clouds.  If either eye matched the other, it would have been merely striking.  The contrast was jaw-dropping, and Joker didn’t seem to realize.

Tokiya met his eyes without blinking.  Now that he’d caught the older boy off-guard, Joker had the aspect of a little boy with his hand in the cookie jar.  His expression was guarded but curiously hopeful.

“You left me your calling card at the waterfall, too,” Tokiya said quietly, stepping into the kitchen and setting Ensui down.

“Un,” Joker nodded, hooking his thumbs into his belt loops, advancing a step of his own.  “I remember.”

Tokiya flushed.  He couldn’t help it.  He wasn’t so experienced that the thought of sex didn’t unsettle him still, and the sexual tension was thick enough for the proverbial knife.  He’d told himself he would wait for Joker’s move.  Well, this was it.  It was a surprisingly romantic one.

He picked up the rose with fingers that trembled only a little, and bent his head to inhale the scent.  He brushed velvety petals over his lips in a chaste caress.  Then he lowered it and looked at Joker.  Red roses, for the expression of passion.  “I accept.”

Joker grinned and some of the tension went out of his frame.  In two half-strides he crossed the kitchen and Tokiya’s mouth was crushed under another’s, fingers clasping his nape the way he remembered.  “This time,” Joker gasped, pausing for breath, “I am not stopping until I score, Tokiya.”

His cheeks were burning.  Mikagami squirmed a little under the intensity of that gaze, but didn’t try to break away.  “I know.”

Joker cracked his knuckles and the sound echoed in the high-ceilinged little kitchen.  “So, were you planning on doing it here, or do I get a proper workbench?”

It was surprising he hadn’t lost feeling in his hands or feet; all the blood seemed to be rushing to his face lately.  “A-aa.  The bedroom…”

“I’ve embarrassed you,” Joker laughed softly, trapping his fingers.  “You’re so cute when you’re embarrassed, Tokiya.”

Tokiya growled and jerked his fingers away, irritated mostly because it was true – he was embarrassed.  He succeeded only in tugging Joker along with him and they stumbled out of the kitchen.

In the hallway by the stairs, Joker pulled on his arm and drew him into another kiss, nuzzling along his jawline and throat and Tokiya’s head fell back against the wall, letting him.  He was caught up in the overwhelming immediacy of sensation.  Joker’s mouth placed soft nipping kisses on his skin, tongue making small circles of tingling warmth.

There was a part of Tokiya that had craved this, submitting to a desire he’d been forbidden for so long.  He opened his mouth as Joker applied pressure at the seam of his lips and their tongues slid against one another, Joker’s coaxing urgency from him.  He felt hands on his hips and a stifled sound welled up from him, not quite a protest but not entirely wanton, either.

“Relax,” Joker whispered against his mouth, hands easing against his hips, leaning against him chest to chest.  He nibbled on Tokiya’s bottom lip and the boy gasped.  “Relax or you’ll make this harder.”

“Isn’t that the point?” Tokiya managed to ask, feeling the warmth of Joker’s body so close to his, and listened to husky laughter against his neck.  His hands clutched at the bunchy fabric of Joker’s shirt.  He didn’t stand a chance against this onslaught; he barely knew what his body wanted, but Joker was guiding them to a definite destination.

“Come on.”  Joker pulled away from him and seized his hand again, pulling him up the stairs.  “Bedroom, bedroom…ah!”  Then he paused at the threshold, forcing Tokiya to stop as well, mismatched eyes searching his face.

“What?” Tokiya asked him, seeing the serious expression on the gamine face, bolt-shaped scar puckering as Joker’s brows contracted.

“This is it,” Joker said.  “Last chance to back out.  After this, for all you know, you’re stuck with me.”

Tokiya sucked in a breath.  There was a history of hurt behind his forced light tone, and Tokiya understood it.  He was the boy with no parents, who only had an old sword master to turn to after Mifuyu’s death.  No one had wanted him.  No one would want him, pasty-skinned gray-haired girlish boy that he was, and it still surprised him that Joker had set out so determinedly to have him.  For whatever reason, Joker thought his own appearance deformed him, as well.  He’d have to convince him otherwise.

And he almost stopped breathing entirely when he realized this older boy made him think of the future.

He clasped Joker’s hand tightly to still the trembling in his own.  It *could* happen this quickly, and nothing but experiencing it firsthand would have made him believe it.  Eyes steady on that gorgeous contrasting gaze, Tokiya pulled Joker into the bedroom with him.

“I told you, I accept.  I accept *you.*”

Mikagami’s – iya, Tokiya’s face was gorgeous and calm and utterly serious as he uttered the words Joker most wanted to hear.  When had this stopped being just about sex and turned into something more intimate between the two of them?  Tokiya’s fingers were hard around his, but quaking slightly, as he guided Joker into his bedroom.

The virgin guiding the pagan into the shrine to worship, Joker laughed silently to himself.  He always had to find something funny about the things that struck him most deeply.  No one had ever accepted him like this.

It was a small, austere bedroom, but fortunately the bed was full-sized.  Otherwise he might have suggested taking the couch downstairs.  Mikagami might be a slender bony fellow, but Joker was enthusiastic enough to plummet them off the mattress onto the cold, hard floor.

They turned and faced each other.  Joker’s hands went to the collar of Tokiya’s navy uniform, wanting to appreciate the pale marble perfection of his nudity again.  Tokiya’s face was hesitant, eyes downcast.  It was far different to see someone naked in the hot springs than it was to be stripped down by another’s hands.  Joker placed a soft kiss on the bared white throat.  “I know this is your first time,” he said, nuzzling there again, “so I’ll go slowly.  And if you want me to go slower, only say the word.”

Tokiya nodded and his chin bumped against Joker’s forehead.  They laughed.  In the moment where tension had dissolved, Joker finished unbuttoning the uniform shirt and pushed it aside, sliding it down Mikagami’s slender arms and letting it heap on the floor.  Now there was only a white undershirt to contend with.  Beginning to enjoy himself, Joker took hold of Tokiya’s wrists and positioned the arms above the boy’s head, taking hold of the thin undershirt and stripping it off.  His nipples were small, pink, and perfect, beginning to stand out from the cool air or the tensions in his body or both.  Joker licked one and received a satisfying gasp from Tokiya, feeling the whipcord body tighten.  Mikagami’s hands drifted back down to his thighs and he groaned as Joker nibbled on the little nub of flesh, tasting it thoroughly, taking it between his teeth and tugging gently.

Joker trailed his fingers down the washboard-pale stomach, still lavishing his attentions on the pointed little nipple, rubbing the taut skin of Tokiya’s belly with gentle motions.  “Relax,” he whispered again.  He kissed the center line of Tokiya’s chest and moved to the other nipple, stimulating it with lips and tongue.  Tokiya was already shuddering, riveted to him by unaccustomed sensation.  If the boy kept tensing up like this, he’d only make it worse.  He let his fingers move to the top button of Tokiya’s pants.

A noise escaped Tokiya’s throat, sort of a strangled sound, as Joker unbuttoned his pants and eased them down the lean thighs.  Mikagami was a briefs sort of fellow, and quite nice blue briefs they were, too.  The painful-looking bulge in them was a definite testimony to Tokiya’s excitement.  He knelt and ran his hands over Tokiya’s flat hips and sinewy thighs and the boy was nearly shaking with tension.

“All right,” Joker muttered, standing up.  If he absolutely *wouldn’t* relax…there was a way to make this easier but Tokiya might hate him for a few minutes.  First he planted a kiss on Tokiya’s open mouth.  The boy’s eyes were unfocused and they slid shut as Joker kissed him, thrusting his tongue into welcoming heat.

Releasing him, he circled Tokiya and molded himself to the boy’s backside, fitting his hips to Tokiya’s tight bottom, stroking his hands against the angles of his hipbones, nuzzling aside silvery hair and kissing his neck.  Then he slid Tokiya’s briefs off as the boy tensed in his arms like a snapped bowstring and Joker took it in his hands, rolling it between his palms.  Tokiya’s hardness throbbed as he circled it with one hand, a slender cut cock, gorgeous as the rest of him.  Joker rubbed his thumb over the frantically leaking head and began to stroke him quickly, somehow preventing himself from shoving his own need against the tempting naked rear.

“Jokerrrr!” Tokiya growled, collapsing back into his arms, hips thrusting up into the practiced pull of his hand.  “What are you – Joker!”  He quivered in Joker’s arms, unable even to finish his sentence.  The boy keened, his body rising up to the point where Joker’s hand was steadily drawing ecstasy up out of him.

“Gods…oh gods…” Tokiya mumbled brokenly.  “Un!”  He tensed again, body surging up and up.

Joker grinned tightly and nuzzled Tokiya’s neck, nascent fangs pricking the skin lightly.  He worked his hand harder.  Tokiya kept tensing, too inexperienced to realize it would make him come even faster, body shaking in Joker’s arms as he focused on the intensity of Joker’s hand pumping up and down on him.

Tokiya’s legs folded under him and Joker was there to brace him, easing them both to the floor.  His hand never stopped the steady rocking motion, drawing Tokiya’s orgasm up out of him in regular beats.  Tokiya’s breath was short and strangled now, and he turned his head.  Joker released his mouth from the salty white skin of his neck and kissed him, tangling tongues, forcing his way into the boy’s mouth to the same rhythm as his demanding hand.

With a lurch, Tokiya released a sound that broke from a sob into a shout, and his hips were spasming under Joker’s hands.  He thrashed up into the older boy’s grip, head rolling back against Joker’s shoulder, groaning as he spilled his climax over Joker’s hand and his own thighs and the floor.  Joker kept moving his hand, easing it in long pulls, and Tokiya shuddered with a peculiar sort of whimper.  His cock throbbed in Joker’s fingers and kept spurting.  Joker rubbed him soothingly, stroking his other hand over the skin of Mikagami’s belly, and kissed his temple.  The boy was dewed with sweat.

“Ohhh…”  Tokiya sagged into his arms.  “Oh gods, you bastard.”  His voice was weak but devoid of rancor.

“Come on, up,” Joker urged him, hoisting Tokiya’s limp sated body from the floor.  He laid him on the bed, tugging the blue briefs off the rest of the way, yielding to impulse and kissing one sweaty thigh.  He licked it and Tokiya jerked, staring at him with astonished eyes.  Joker just grinned at him.  “Stay right here.”

He had to adjust himself on the way to the bathroom; his shorts were baggy but his hard-on was getting downright painful.  It wanted freedom.  It wanted Tokiya.  He grinned again.  It would get both.

Joker obtained a cloth from the bathroom, wetting it thoroughly with warm water, carrying it back to the bedroom with him and swiping it over Tokiya’s thighs and belly.  He had been tempted to clean it off with his tongue, but it was too early yet to shock Mikagami like that.  He might not want another round.

“Why did you do that?” Tokiya’s voice was curious but not upset as he lounged on the bed, looking up at him.

Joker flashed fangs at him.  “You were too tense.  I warned ya.”  He settled himself on the bed, tugging his vest off and tossing it to the floor.  “Now we can take things real slow.”  He fixed his eyes on Mikagami deliberately, unbuttoning his pants.

It was a real thrill that Mikagami never looked away.  Joker switched tactics and pulled his shirt off, breaking eye contact only briefly.  He never saw disgust or pity in Tokiya’s eyes.  Tokiya never looked away from his eyes, his shameful evidence of genetic flaw.  He didn’t know if his parents were dead or alive today, but he knew that they’d abandoned him.  He was a freak.  They’d almost killed him for it.

“Slow is fine.”  Tokiya shifted closer to him on the bed.  “What did you have in mind?”

Joker’s lips lifted.  “I thought I’d tease you for awhile, pleasure you with my mouth, then deny you immediate orgasm so that I can come inside of you.”

Tokiya’s pale cheeks flushed.  “Oh,” he uttered.

Joker shrugged, easing his pants down.  “Ya did ask,” he reminded his lover.

What a beautiful word.  Mikagami Tokiya was his lover.

Tokiya had broken eye contact now and the two spots of color remained in his cheeks as he looked at Joker’s lap.  Joker smirked.  It was childish, but he was bigger than Mikagami and that thought was satisfying as he set out to claim the boy.  He hitched closer to Tokiya on the bed and a pale hand reached out, stroking him through his briefs.

“Un!”  Joker’s hips went up involuntarily.

“Does it feel…as good…to you?”  Mikagami’s narrow face was intent.

“Oh, yeah,” Joker assured him.  “Even better if your hand was on my skin.”  He flexed a little and watched, fascinated, as his hard cloth-constrained cock bobbed under Tokiya’s curious fingers.

Tokiya nodded and hooked his fingers into the elastic waistband, pulling the underwear down.  Joker hissed as his cock pulled free and angled upwards.  Gods, he’d love to have his cock in Mikagami’s mouth, but he only had one orgasm in him, two if he was lucky, and he wanted to save it for burying himself in the tight rear he’d been so close to.

The virgin jitters seemed completely gone, Joker noted with bemusement as Tokiya lowered his head and kissed his bare thighs, continuing to pull the underwear down.

“Oh, gods,” Joker gasped as Mikagami’s cheek brushed against his aching erection.  “Don’t.”

“Why not?”  Silvery brows slanted down as Tokiya met his eyes again.

“’Cause if you do, I’ll come, and then it might all be over,” Joker told him, reaching between Tokiya’s thighs and fingering the stiffening flesh.  “I’m not some fourteen-year old, capable of coming three times in an hour.”

Tokiya snickered.  His mouth twitched.  “I know someone who might…”

“Yeah, well don’t be getting’ ideas,” Joker said, putting a hand under his chin, bringing the boy’s face up for a kiss.  “That wild card isn’t just my calling card, you know.  It’s a mark of possession.  I’ll be back for you.”

They kissed, slowly, open mouths and a lot of tongue.  Joker was pleased to note that firstly, the tension was gone so his trick had worked, and second, Mikagami was learning to French-kiss like nobody’s business.

“You’ll be back?”  There was another question behind Tokiya’s mild query.  *You’re going?*

Joker nodded, shifting closer, wrapping an arm around Tokiya and cupping his butt, pulling him closer.  They both pushed closer with soft little noises.  “I gotta go.  Uruha’s business ain’t finished yet.”  He nibbled on Tokiya’s ear.  “Mori Kouran is still alive, ya know?”

Tokiya’s tongue tasted his throat.  Joker groaned, putting his other arm around Tokiya, pulling the boy on top of him.  See how he handled it.  Then he groaned in earnest as Tokiya attacked his nipples, mouth somewhat unskilled but making up for it with enthusiasm.  Hands moved over his lower stomach, pressing and kneading, making the ache in his loins coil tighter.  Tokiya straddled him and their cocks crossed, pressing and rubbing and making them both moan.  Tokiya made a tentative humping motion and Joker grabbed his hips.

“Shit, if you start that, it’ll all be over in a few minutes,” he said hoarsely.

Tokiya looked down on him, eyes unreadable.  “What do you want me to do?”  He held himself stiffly, hard length throbbing against Joker’s, making him twitch in response.

“Kiss me?” Joker suggested, quirking his brows wickedly.

Mikagami’s lips curved.  “Kiss you where?”  Without waiting for an answer he scooted back, hard shaft dragging against Joker’s thigh, drawing a cry from the older boy.  A mouth touched one of his nipples, followed by the delicate catlike fondling of a tongue.  Joker twisted up into the touch, arching his back, trying to reach something satisfying to rub himself against.

He heard a merciless chuckle then teeth clamped down on his nipple, overloading the pleasure point of the hardened little nub.  Joker hissed, reaching down the slender back for Tokiya’s buttocks, but they were too far down.  A tongue squirmed around the teeth, stimulating him further.

“Shit, Tokiya, where did you learn this?” he demanded, settling for burying his hands in the silvery hair.

Another chuckle.  “After you left me at the hot springs, I’ve had a very active fantasy life.”

“That and the Internet too, I suppose?” he said sarcastically.  Tokiya’s mouth moved to his other nipple, nursing him with pure sensation.  He didn’t receive an answer and didn’t really expect one.  Tokiya’s tongue stabbed at his nipple and he squirmed.

“That’s it,” Joker decided, heaving up and flipping a very surprised Tokiya.  He pinned him to the bed with his body, laying on him full-length, grinning at the startled face he got and then the eyes lidding partway with a moan as Tokiya felt him grinding against his thigh.  “You want that?”

“Uu-uhn…”

He wasn’t sure if it was a sigh or affirmation but either way, Joker fitted his mouth to Tokiya’s throat, suckling the pale skin there, biting it softly, admiring the welts.  Gods, with such fair skin it would be easy to mark him.  And such a temptation.  He slanted his attention upwards and kissed Tokiya on the mouth, dipping his tongue between them, and moved back, returning his attention briefly to the enticing pink of those hard nipples.

Tokiya groaned and squirmed under him but he was trapped.  Joker smiled briefly as he ran his tongue around the rim of Tokiya’s bellybutton, making him thrash, hands reaching up to close around the moist nipples, continuing to draw out sensation.

He released them and moved down to Mikagami’s hips, rubbing the soft skin over the angles of bone, pressing open-mouthed kisses to Tokiya’s abdomen.  “Don’t tense up,” he whispered, getting a startled glance of cobalt-blue eyes before he lowered his head and took Mikagami into his mouth.

A throttled shout went off in the bedroom like a rifle, and Tokiya was trying to lunge up, pinned down by Joker’s broad hands.  He had no intentions of being choked and a virgin like Tokiya didn’t realize what he was doing.

“Ahh…ahh…” Tokiya panted, hips rolling up in tight little circles, as far as Joker would let him go.  Joker took him up and down, backed off, and swiped his tongue over the head, lapping up the droplets of precum that were once again leaking from Tokiya.  Gods, teenagers were fun.  Here not fifteen minutes from his first orgasm, he was ready for another shot.

Joker sucked the head into his mouth again, hearing Tokiya’s breath speed up.  He went down on the central vein as far as he could go, then pulled back, running his tongue along the ridge.  He took Tokiya in several strokes, increasing the pace with each one.  A broken whimper worked its way free of his lover.

He backed off again when he sensed Tokiya was getting too close.  Fingers combed through his hair, unable to find purchase where it was cut short on top.

“Joker, please,” Tokiya groaned, frantically trying to get closer.

Joker merely smiled, licked his lips, and went down on him again.  This time Tokiya’s breath came close to sobs as Joker backed off.  He let go of his grasp on one hip to press a palm against a pale thigh.  It was vibrating with tension.  “I suppose that’s enough,” Joker said, pretending regret.  He was close enough himself, unbearably hard where his cock pressed against the comforter.

“Dammit!” the profanity burst from Tokiya’s lips, “let me come!”

“Ah, ah,” Joker clucked, crouching over Tokiya’s prone body.  “The impatience of youth.  Don’t you remember what I told you?  I’m denying you that pleasure so I can come inside of you.”  He leaned over Tokiya, breathing the last words near his face, caressing the wiry body and working his way underneath, touching the tight rear.

“Then do it,” Tokiya told him, arching up to permit the caress, locking his fingers at the base of Joker’s neck.  His face was flushed, his eyes half-lidded with sex.

Joker nodded and peeled himself away from Tokiya.  The boy cried a soft guttural protest but Joker was only reaching over the edge of the bed, groping in a pocket for the tube he’d stowed there.  True, he’d been hoping and not assuming, but wasn’t he grateful for the foresight now?

He was back in an instant and nuzzling between Tokiya’s lean thighs.

“Hurry,” Tokiya urged him throatily, stroking Joker’s coarse brown hair.  Shit, and he’d thought nothing could make Mikagami *more* desirable to him…  “I don’t think I can wait that much longer.”

Ah, there was that.  Joker took the advice and uncapped the tube, coating his fingers quickly.  He did not, however, use haste as he buried a finger inside Mikagami to the knuckle.

“Ohhh…”  He looked up and was treated to the sight of Mikagami biting his own hand, trying not to make a sound.  The boy’s body had gone still under the intrusion, then the quivering-tight muscle relaxed around his finger and Joker tried not to groan.  He tried to think of dull unarousing things like Mori Kouran’s sex life or Neon on the pot…  Shit, Mikagami was flexing down on his finger.  Joker felt himself throb in response.

Carefully, he reapplied lube and the first finger was joined with another, sinking slowly into the tight heat.  He was the first.  He would *always* be Tokiya’s first, whether they ended up shacking on a regular basis or never saw each other again.  And Tokiya was the first he’d ever had like this…

“Ahh…” Mikagami’s head tossed on the pillow.  Joker soothed a tense thigh with his free hand, grasping the blushing cock and stroking it.  “Gods!  Please!”

“What do you want, Tokiya?” Joker murmured, wanting to hear it from Tokiya.  He wanted acknowledgment that he was being claimed.  As incentive, he thrust his fingers a little deeper, stroking a part of Tokiya that made the boy twist and writhe.

“In-inside me!” Tokiya gasped, his cheeks scarlet.

Joker lubed a third finger and took the bobbing column in his mouth, teasing and flicking it with his tongue to distract him from being stretched even more widely.  Tokiya moaned underneath him, not even seeming to care.  Fingers tightened on his scalp, somehow finding purchase, urging Joker further. Shit, he was so close to coming…

It was now or never.  Joker backed off, licking his lips and savoring the sweet-salty taste of precum, rearing up with Tokiya’s legs sprawled to either side of him.  Gorgeous.  Waiting.  His.

He grabbed a pillow from the head of the bed, stealing a kiss in passing, and wedged the downy object under Tokiya’s rear to prop him up, giving Joker better access to his ass.  He used the tube one final time to slick down his hard-on, hissing at the cold touch of the lube, and leaned down, positioning himself with one hand.  With the other, he touched Tokiya’s chin, lifting up his face, locked eyes with the lust-hazed boy and leaned down to bite his lip.  Then he pushed his way in.

Tokiya shouted into his mouth at first, bucking up, hands digging into Joker’s shoulders.  Unrelenting, unable to stop his own progress, Joker buried his hard twitching cock inside of Tokiya, feeling the slick flesh part the tight clamping ring that contracted around him.  He was in.  *Inside.*  Tokiya…

“Uuhn…” Tokiya breathed raggedly against his lips, moving up in little shocks that sent lightning right up Joker’s spine.  Shit, he was tight.  It felt so good…still partially aware of what his lover could and couldn’t handle, Joker exerted all of his control and held still, waiting for the boy to acclimatize to the hard shaft inside of him, considerably larger than fingers.

They held still for a moment longer and Joker kissed the boy, working at his slack lips, dabbling his tongue into the open mouth.  Finally Tokiya began to kiss him back and he felt the tight little ring relax around him, accepting him into Tokiya’s body.  Joker groaned and withdrew partially, beginning to thrust.  Tokiya drew in a breath that sounded like a sob and he tore at Joker’s shoulders, lean legs reaching up to wrap around him and fold him in a dual embrace.

Joker breathed in harsh little gasps, sharing breath with Tokiya as he worked into him, three inches in and three inches out, angling for the prostate that made Tokiya cry out and arch against him as if he were in heat.  The pale face was damp with sweat and Joker bent down to lick it away, pounding faster  now.  “Fuuuck,” he gasped.  “You’re so gorgeous…gods…”

Tokiya tossed his head, sweat-soaked bangs plastered to his skin.  “Not me.  You’re the gorgeous one,” he returned, then thrust his hips up with a pained cry that was probably more pleasure than agony.

Too involved to argue, Joker stroked his hands up and down the pale glowing skin, rubbing the erect pink nipples, taking hold of the straining cock with one hand, pumping himself deeper.  Harder.  “I want you,” he groaned, bending down and biting Tokiya’s throat, rubbing his fangs over the pale skin.

“You’ve got me,” Tokiya gasped back, thrusting his bottom up to meet the punishing rhythm.  He was locked securely into it, legs flexing in time with Joker’s thrusts, eyes half-lidded with the deep pleasure Joker was giving him.

“I need you,” Joker growled a response, barely aware he was speaking out loud.  He pulled out and heard Mikagami’s gasp of deprivation, but he only lifted the tight perfect ass off the pillow and pulled it onto his thighs, sliding into him with a deep hard stroke, grabbing Tokiya by the shoulders and skewering him.  He moved from side to side, spreading Tokiya’s legs wider, working himself in to the hilt.  Tokiya keened, legs wrapping around him again, body totally wanton as he let Joker penetrate him totally.

From this new slightly different position, Joker could stroke harder, deeper.  He bent over Tokiya, fucking him frantically now, sweat dripping from both of them, binding them together.  Tokiya’s heels pressed against his flanks, urging him on.  Their mouths collided.

*I love you…*

Was it possible after all this time?

“Ahh!  Fuck!” Joker groaned against Tokiya’s mouth, sucked into that warmth, feeling his climax being sucked right out of him, drowning in the vortex of Tokiya’s body.  He thrust deeply, the tight little ring clamping down on him, feeling spurt after spurt jet from his cock as he shuddered over Tokiya, working himself deeper.  He bent down and bit Tokiya’s neck again, harder.  Tokiya jerked underneath him.  He was in a place with no words now, only pure sensation blanketing him, white-edged bursts of pleasure crackling through the absolute, beautiful whole.  Tokiya.  Within.

*I…*

“Shit, did you come?”  Joker lifted himself partially off the shuddering length of his lover where he’d collapsed, and received a smug, satiated little twist of the lips for a response.  He laughed.  “Guess so.”  They were sealed together from belly to chest by Tokiya’s release.  He stroked a pale, sweat-dewed flank possessively.  “Not bad for a virgin.”

Tokiya lolled against him, one cobalt eye glaring, the other hidden in soaked hair.

Joker laughed.  “It’s not true?  You weren’t?”

“Not any more,” Tokiya said pointedly, leaning against him, reaching back and repositioning Joker’s hand up from flank to the mound of one buttock.

“Hmm, guess you’re right,” Joker said, rubbing it.  *He’d* been first.  That was something that would always be his.

Tokiya sighed and condescended to lie against him, submitting to his post-sex caresses with feline contentment.

“I have to go soon,” Joker whispered, and Tokiya went rigid.  He sighed.  Already, he hadn’t been intending to stay quite so long but the urge to make this perfect for Tokiya had overridden other considerations.  “You know I do.  And you know I’ll come back.”

“All right,” Tokiya said slowly.  “When?”

“I don’t know,” Joker admitted.

“So now you’ve awakened my libido and expect me to do nothing about it?”  The words were harsh but the expression on Tokiya’s face was peculiar, eyes closed, almost peaceful.

He stroked his thumb over the fullness of that lower lip.  There was a welt on Tokiya’s neck and it would probably be a hickey by tomorrow.  “No, I don’t,” Joker told him.  “I don’t expect you to wait for me, but I’d like to know I’m welcome when I come back.”  He waited a breath, tensing.

“Well, you are.”

Joker smiled in relief and threw an arm around the flat belly. *You’re mine, you know.*  “Just don’t go experimenting with that Recca kid.”

“Please,” Tokiya huffed in disgust.

“Or the Ishijima hulk.”

Tokiya mimed gagging, then a swift expirement.  “I don’t think so.”

“What about Koganei?” Joker said speculatively.  Now, the kid was another matter.  He was a little hottie.  Looked a lot the way he had, at his age…

“I’m not promising anything about Koganei,” Tokiya murmured, keeping his lashes lowered.  “He’s definitely pubescent and I know he’s interested.”

“Oh, yeah?” Joker pretended anger, groping Tokiya and holding him close, cupping a hand over lax genitals.  “He’s a little young yet to fuck you the way I do, ne?”

“Yes, but,” Tokiya looked into his eyes and smiled, making him heat up even though he knew he couldn’t come again, “I might try it the other way around.”

“Heh.”  Joker smirked.  Tokiya smirked back.  “That’s okay, then.”  They understood each other.  “C’mere.”

He pulled Mikagami close, tucking him against his body.  After awhile they slept.

Tokiya woke up with a start, senses registering the darkness at his windows that meant it was night already.  At the same time, he realized there was an empty space next to him on the bed.  Shortly after that, he winced and acknowledged the fact that his ass was sore and somewhat raw.  It was a regrettable consequence of a union he most definitely did *not* feel sorry for.

He rotated his shoulders and realized, too, that he felt more relaxed than he had in years.  Joker was gone but he wouldn’t forget that sensational climax for a long time.  Until the next time.  He had, after all, promised to come back and do it again…

Tokiya sat up, wincing a little, determined to make his slow way to the bathroom and clean himself up.

On the mattress where Joker had lain, a playing card leered up at him, the joker’s wild garbed in lurid colors.  Its mismatched eyes dared him to say something, brilliant green and stormcloud gray unblinking.

*I want you.  I need you.  I love you.*

Tokiya picked it up, fingers curling around it and clutching it tight.  “I accept.”

To the Flame of Recca Fanfic Archive [Index by Pairing], [Index by Author]