Of bratty demons and mushroom heads

CHAPTER 18

Throughout the three days he’d spent with his little brother, Kazuya had gradually come to figure out what had changed in him. Now that he looked back on it, it should have been obvious from the start, but he’d never even thought to look for the signs. The way he talked about that Kirihara kid, the way he was having trouble sleeping at night as if searching for something out of reach, he’d even said the kid’s name in his sleep once (which had been disturbing). Originally he’d thought it was just Kirihara-kun, but now he knew with troubling certainty that the feelings were mutual. This was not a good thing. He had nothing against those who preferred their own gender, what he had a problem with was that this was going to cause a lot of problems for his brother.

Wakashi was supposed to take over the family dojo, be married off to some influential daughter, and produce his own heirs. He knew this all too well because that had once been his future. He had never felt guilty for placing that weight on his brother’s shoulders since Wakashi had seemed all too happy to have it. If this continued, and Wakashi allowed himself to fall too deeply into this, he may be irreparably hurt in the end.

He was leaving today, but there was still something he had to do. He knew his brother better than anyone, and he knew that talking to Wakashi about it wouldn’t do him any good, but if he could talk to Kirihara-kun… he had to at least try. Even if Wakashi got angry at him, he would forgive him eventually; this is what family did after all. Interfere were they’re not wanted but still needed.

Kazuya had been happy to announce his brother’s full recovery from being sick and had said his goodbye before his brother had gone off to class. He had wandered around the campus for a bit trying to find the Ao dorm since he’d over-heard it was Kirihara-kun’s dorm. When he got there, he asked one of the other students which room he was in. Smiling, trying not to come off too intimidating for showing up announced, he knocked at the door and waited for a response.

Akaya didn't even pause his game of DOA4 since there were very few people who ever came by his room anymore, "It's open!" he called over his shoulder and button mashed, "Oh come on! I totally got that thow! Bastard!" he growled at the screen as the letters KO came up nice and big, "Fuck!" he snapped and threw his controller across the room. Thankfully it was a nerf controller so it didn't lodge in the wall like the last one.

Letting himself in, he walked into the room and took a quick look around. The place was a mess, not a huge mess, definitely not as bad as his room used to be, but he didn’t expect this kind of mess from someone his brother was apparently seeing. “Have I caught you at a bad time, Kirihara-kun?”

At the voice he spun around and glared at the intruder, "What do you want?" he asked, not quite in the mood for pleasantries at the moment.

“I would like to talk to you about my brother.” He came straight to the point. “He doesn’t know I’m here, but I think it’s important that we talk. Correct me if I’m wrong, but the two of you are seeing each other, correct?”

Akaya’s frown deepened and he tried to figure out what to do. Should he tell the truth and possibly get Hiyoshi in trouble or lie? Well he always was a good liar (when it wasn't to his senpai or Wakashi), "What gave you that idea?" he asked and looked at Kazuya like he was crazy.

Kazuya rolled his eyes. “Let’s just say my little brother is not the best as keeping secrets. Look, I’m not here to place judgment on you or him, and rest assured I’m not going to intervene more than what happens in this room, I just want to talk.” Posture and voice as casual as possible, not wanting to upset the other boy who was obviously not in the best of moods, he asked, “May I sit?”

He frowned, why would have Hiyoshi told his brother about them when he couldn't....Ugh he didn't understand his boyfriend at all, "If you want," he grumbled and watched the man carefully. He didn't want to have to talk to the bastard more than he had to. He didn't know why he couldn't stand the guy, but every time he saw him he just wanted to punch him. Was it because Wakashi had chosen his brother over him? Probably, but that sounded petty so there had to be something else to it.

“Thank you,” He sat on the floor with his knees crossed so he was on Kirihara-kun’s level. “Please hear me out. I know that the two of you may… care for each other, but you must know that it will cause nothing but problems for my brother.” Before the boy could interrupt he continued, “You know that he has responsibilities and dreams. One’s he has chosen for himself and being involved with you hurts that.” The words came out as gentle as possible. His purpose here was not to anger the kid, just to make him see reason.

He wondered how mad Hiyoshi would get if he decked the guy. He'd probably not talk to him for a week or two, and he would probably have to wait even longer to sleep with him, but it was so tempting, "Get out," he said quietly and dangerously, his eyes flashing red as he glared at the older man. He refused to acknowledge the other mans stupid thoughts. They were happy together, that was what mattered.

He saw the look in the other boy’s eyes and sighed. Getting up, he made his way to the door. He had at least hoped they could talk about it calmly. He got to the door and stopped. “As you may well know, my brother does not always know how to look out for himself very well, nor does he become attached to people easily. When he does though, he tends to always put those people before him. He prefers to take care of people over being taken care of.” This was the truth and a huge frustration for both him and their parents. “If he truly cares for you as I suspect he does, he’s probably worried about hurting you above hurting himself. He may even be hoping that you’ll eventually leave him so that you’ll not be hurt in the end when he’ll undoubtedly have to leave you, and yes, he will eventually have to leave you.”

He grabbed his nearby controller and threw it with deadly accuracy at the spot a mere inch from Kazuya’s head, "GET OUT!" He yelled, his eyes turning red again and staying that way. He didn't care who they were, he was not going to take someone coming into his room and telling him his boyfriend was going to leave him.

He didn’t even flinch as the controller sailed by his head and smashed into the wall, having had much more dangerous things thrown at him. “Good luck, Kirihara-kun. Give my regards to Wakashi.” He walked out the door and down the hall. He wasn’t going to regret this; he would happily let Wakashi take whatever anger he had over this out on him. It had needed to be said and now he wouldn’t get involved any further.

As Kazuya left Akaya ran forward and slammed the door shut. He locked it and fell to his knees, his hands still on the door, "He's not going to leave me!" He screamed and hit the door once with both fists before he finally calmed down enough to pull his cell phone out of his pocket and typed out a message to Hiyoshi with shaking hands, 'I love you'. Short and simple. He pressed the send button and turned to sit back against the door.

There was less than ten minutes left of class when Hiyoshi felt his cell phone vibrating in his jacket pocket. Glancing down he noticed it was a text message from Akaya. Looking to make sure the teacher wasn’t watching he flipped it open under the desk to read it. ‘I love you.’ His heart skipped a beat, his breath hitched, and his face turned red. DAMN IT. Akaya should know he was in class and this was embarrassing and he… hadn’t seen his brat for more then a few minutes at a time since his brother got here… He really wanted to see him now.

The last ten minutes of class was torture. Thank goodness it was his last class of the day, the minute the class was released he ran out and headed towards Akaya’s dorm. He wondered what had prompted that message, not that he was complaining, he thought with a smile. He had been fairly certain and worried that Akaya was unhappy with him for hanging out with his brother even though it had been Akaya who had told him he could in the first place.

It only took him a few minutes to arrive since he had basically just run across campus. It couldn’t have been more than fifteen minutes since he got the text. He tried to open Akaya’s door, but it was locked. Akaya never locked his door. Frowning, he knocked.

Hearing the knock at the door, Akaya looked up from where he was leaning back against it, "Who is it?" he asked, sounding tired and pathetic. He hadn't slept well ever since Hiyoshi’s stupid brother had arrived. Without waiting for an answer he scooted out of the way and opened the door without standing up. He looked up and saw his boyfriend and was instantly on his feet. He wrapped his arms around the other man and held onto him for dear life, "don't leave me, ever, okay? Please." he said quietly.

“Huh?” Suddenly his arms were full of demon brat, not that he was complaining, but they were still in the doorway. Feeling Akaya’s death grip on him not letting up, he just wrapped his arms around him and picked him up. He was surprisingly light as he brought him the rest of the way into the room. It must be his strength was finally coming back. “What brought this on?” he asked as he maneuvered them into the room and sat down on the bed, one hand ran soothingly up and down his back while the other combed through his hair. “I’ve missed you.” He blushed, but turned to face Akaya.

"Your stupid brother," He whispered, not at all minding being picked up and carried. Right now he just wanted the contact, "I missed you too," he said quietly and sat back to look at his boyfriend with still red bloodshot eyes, "I can't make them change back, every time I think about what he said I get upset again..."

Hiyoshi’s eyes widened when he saw Akaya’s eyes. What the hell happened with his brother? Hadn’t he left? When Akaya’s eyes turned red like that it meant that something had either really pissed him off or upset him. Akaya being the priority over the problem, he leaned forward and pressed a soft kiss against Akaya’s forehead before trailing it down to his nose and settling just over his lips. “Kiss me?” he requested just above a whisper.

Without hesitation he pressed their lips together. His kiss was needy and desperate, but he didn't care. He was desperate and he did need Hiyoshi, more than anything. The little kisses to his nose and forehead calmed him down some but the kiss on the lips slowly changed his eyes back to normal.

Hiyoshi answered him kiss for kiss trying to reassure him with his lips. Slowly the kiss changed from desperate and needy to slow and tender until Hiyoshi was merely nipping at his lips contentedly, trying to catch his breath. Drawing back, still licking at Akaya’s lips as he did so, he smiled to see the red had gone to be replaced with the much favored green. Taking a calming breath for both of them, he held his brat tightly against him. “Do you want to tell me what happened?”

"You're stupid brother came by," he said quietly and pouted against his boyfriends shoulder, "He said I'm just trouble for you and that you're going to leave me......" he grumbled and wrapped his arms tightly around the other boy, like he would disappear any minute.

Hiyoshi froze in that moment for a couple of reasons. The most important one being, how did his brother find out they were together? “How did he find out about us?” He asked in a whisper, his grip not loosening.

Now that got Akaya’s attention, he sat back a little again to look at Hiyoshi curiously, "He said you weren't very good at keeping secrets....I thought you told him."

“No… I didn’t. I have no idea how he found out.” Hiyoshi sighed and leaned his head forward against Akaya’s shoulder. This was a delicate situation. The truth was, technically, Akaya was trouble for him, but he was a trouble he would rather live with than without. He was worth it to him, despite all the problems and heartache it might cause in the future. “But if he does know and he talked to you about it, he probably didn’t mean any harm by it. He won’t try to interfere.”

”I threw a controller at him...." Akaya mumbled and nuzzled the side of Hiyoshi’s head with a slightly regretful look. Mainly he was worried about his controller. It wasn't a nerf one like his main one that he'd already thrown.

Hiyoshi gave him a sideways glance and chuckled a bit. “Don’t worry, I’ve thrown much worse things at him.” Deadly weapons among other things. “I know my brother. He won’t hold it against you.”

"I don't give a shit if he holds it against me," Akaya mumbled with a little growl, "I just hope it didn't break my controller. I like that one."

Hiyoshi frowned; he didn’t like the idea of his brother and Akaya not getting along. Kazuya was the family member he was closest to. “I’ll buy you a new one if it’s broken, but couldn’t you try to get along with him? As annoying as he is, he’s still my brother.” Maybe it didn’t matter, who knew when of if they’d meet again anyway, but he still couldn’t help asking Akaya seriously. It was important to him for some reason.

He frowned, knowing this was important to his boyfriend. He sighed and nodded, "Alright........I'll try from now on......I promise....." he said quietly and rested his forehead against Hiyoshi’s.

“Thank you.” Hiyoshi smiled and just stayed there, forehead’s touching, looking at his brat, no one there to disturb them.

"Nee," Akaya said quietly, "You're feeling better now right?" he had to be to be able to carry Akaya around. He let his features curl into a devious smirk, "Does that mean we get to sleep together now?"

Eyes widened, pulse quickened. Akaya was right; he had said they could sleep together once they got back to the dorms. Only saying it and doing it were two completely different things. Wasn’t there some kind of mood for that kind of thing? Back at the hotel he had definitely been in the right mood, but now in Akaya’s room in the middle of the day? Weren’t there a lot of people around? Didn’t you have to be prepared for something like that? They had never really talked about specifics and although Hiyoshi wasn’t experienced, he wasn’t completely in the dark of what went on either. You weren’t friends with Gakuto for so many years without knowing some details… and he really needed to stop thinking about Gakuto (which killed his sex drive) when he was supposed to be thinking of Akaya (which did the opposite). They hadn’t even discussed…

Akaya noticed the change in his boyfriend’s demeanor and could tell he'd just gone off into his own little world, "Wakashi~" he said in a sing song voice, "relax, everything will be fine. If you're not ready we can wait, okay?"

Breaking out of inner-monologue la la land at Akaya’s words, he narrowed his eyes. “I didn’t say I wasn’t ready. I’m just… not completely prepared is all.” What he really meant was that he was nervous as all hell, but he didn’t want to tell his boyfriend that.

"Completely prepared?" He smiled and kissed the other man softly, "I'll prepare you as we go along, how's that?" He asked with a little light laugh in his tone, "You don't have to be nervous."

“Who said I was nervous, brat?” he asked sullenly. It really sucked being the one with less experience here. Then he smirked, “By the way, how do you intend for this to happen? You don’t think I’m just gonna let you take me, do you?” He’d been trying to warm up to the idea for weeks, but he didn’t know if his male pride could handle it.

"Eh?" He blinked and stared at his boyfriend, "You're not topping on your first time," he said and stuck his tongue out at his boyfriend quickly, "I wanna be able to walk tomorrow, besides, it's good for ya to know what it feels like to bottom before you top. You just gotta trust me and I'll teach you everything, k?"

“What do you mean, you want to be able to walk tomorrow?” he glared at his boyfriend. Obviously there were a few more things he hadn’t considered. This wasn’t sex-ed and he wasn’t Akaya’s student, maybe he needed to do some studying of his own. He stood up, making Akaya slide off his lap. “I think I need to look into this a little bit on my own first…” he mumbled out loud, and started walking towards the door.

He sighed and grabbed his boyfriends wrist, "Wakashi, stop. Look, I just meant that if the person on top doesn't know what they're doing it can be hard on the other persons body, I can handle it, but I want you to know what to do first, okay?" he rubbed the other mans wrist with his thumb lightly, "The best way to learn is by doing. So just trust me okay? I won't hurt you." He gave the others arm a tug, trying to pull him back to the bed.

Hiyoshi looked back at him warily but allowed Akaya to pull him to the bed. He didn’t sit back down, instead he crossed his arms over his chest and looked grouchily down at Akaya as he confessed, “Fine, I’m nervous. Happy?”

"That's ok," he said with a big smile and stood to wrap his arms around his boyfriend, "It's ok, we'll go slow," he said softly and kissed Hiyoshi slowly to show his point, "I love you, Wakashi, and I really wanna do this with you. I'm nervous too though," he brought the other mans hand up to his chest to let him feel how his heart was racing.

Damn it, he couldn’t maintain his grouchy composure when Akaya said that, his body immediately lightening and the corners of his mouth pulled up into a smile. Feeling his heart, indeed racing, under his palm, he knew he’d been beat. Giving up, he leaned into his boyfriend’s chest. “What do you have to be nervous about, brat?” He asked softly, “Aren’t you an old pro at this?” That thought had never bothered him quite as much as it did now.

"Just cause I know what I'm doing doesn't mean I'm not nervous about doing it with the guy I love...." He blushed and looked away, his senpai were right, it really did get easier to say after the first time. He put his foot behind Hiyoshi’s subtly and pushed him back onto the bed then crawled on top of him with a little smirk.

Hiyoshi let himself fall back onto the bed, smiling as his boyfriend crawled over him. “I guess you do have a certain reputation to maintain, having called yourself an authority on this. I better not be disappointed,” he teased. Somehow knowing that Akaya was nervous too helped a lot, and just seeing his brat’s devilish smirk on top of him was getting him excited which lessened the nerves.

He leaned down to kiss his boyfriend lightly and rolled his hips down against him slowly. He would do this right and make it something they never forgot. He braced himself on one elbow and used his free hand to run down Hiyoshi’s side and slip up under his shirt. This was what he'd been waiting for, time for just the two of them. No brothers, no parents, no senpai and no----the door opened and he groaned---Sanada......

Sanada was already in a bad mood this week then he waited for 30 minutes and his pupil never showed up. There were only two places Hiyoshi would be and he wasn't in his room, so that left only Akaya’s room. Sanada opened the door and walked in without so much as a knock because frankly he was too pissed off to care. He wasn't mad at Hiyoshi, but the younger boy had just decided to skip at one of the worst possible times. Finding the two together on the bed wasn't even enough to discourage him or disgust him right now, "Apparently you're too occupied to come to practice." he growled quietly.

When Akaya pulled away from the kiss, Hiyoshi went to follow him when he heard Sanada’s voice in the room. “Shit.” He cursed as he fell back on to the bed again. Sanada-san always had the worst timing. Practice? But classes were… oops. After Akaya’s text earlier, he’d completely forgotten about Kendo training with Sanada. “Sorry, Sanada-san. I was… distracted.” He was surprised that he wasn’t freaking out over Sanada catching them in bed… again, maybe because he was more annoyed at the moment. Either way… He started to sit up, gently pushing Akaya to the side. They both knew better than to make Sanada-san wait when he used that tone of voice.

"Fukubuchou, I--I'm sorry it's my fault," Akaya said sounding very apologetic and a bit scared. He knew that voice better than anyone, "I-if you're going to punish anyone it should be me."

Sanada crossed his arms over his chest and glared at the two, he was not in the mood for this, "Hiyoshi, if you miss practice again without telling me then I will cease to work with you. Akaya, unless you've done something warranting punishment, stop being ridiculous."

Looking over at Akaya while facing away from Sanada, Hiyoshi rolled his eyes. “I’ll be there in a minute.” He gave Akaya an apologetic look as he got off the bed. He was actually proud of how well he was handling the situation. He just wasn’t so sure if it was a good thing or bad thing he was getting used to Sanada seeing them together in intimate situations.

Accepting the answer Sanada turned on his heel and walked out to wait for Hiyoshi in the hallway. Better late than never.

Akaya groaned and tried to figure out which god he'd pissed off to make his luck so bad, "I guess I'll see you later then?" He asked and rubbed the back of his neck as his eyes followed his boyfriend around the room.

Hiyoshi finished gathering some things he would need and straightened his clothes before walking back over to the bed. Leaning down, he kissed Akaya’s forehead once, “Sorry.” Then swooped down to capture his lips in a kiss; melding their lips together for one hot moment. Leaning back, he ran his hand once through his brat’s hair. “I’ll be back later.” With a regretful look, he turned around and walked out the door to join Sanada.

The kiss was enough to make his heart race and his body ached for his boyfriend who'd just walked out. He hung his head then reached down under his bed to pull out his favorite very graphic yaoi manga, "I guess it's just you and me...." he mumbled and walked over to lock the door.