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Business as Usual	By : laurabryannan Category: +S to Z > Samurai Champloo Views: 5366 -:- Recommendations : 0 -:- Currently Reading : 0
Disclaimer: I do not own Samurai Champloo, nor any of the characters from it. I do not make any money from the writing of this story.

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Business
as Usual, XXIII
by Laura Bryannan

Jin
refused! Mugen couldn't believe it.

“I'll cut you, but
only if you choose something else,” he argued.

“Why
not a pinwheel?”

“It's difficult to explain.”

Jin looked so guilty and uncomfortable, it made Mugen even
more determined. “That or nothing,” he
declared.

“Nothing, then.”

“Nope,
that.”

“Why would you want a mark that means
nothing to you?”

“It does mean something to me,”
Mugen insisted. “It obviously means a hell of a lot to you, so
that's why it's important to me.” Jin's resistance meant the
mark would lose some of its power if it was shared, so that's exactly
what Mugen wanted. He needed to steal that energy, diffuse it and
claim what he could for himself.

“That's ridiculous,”
Jin stated.

Mugen folded his arms across his chest, scowling
back. “You either cut it on me or tell me why you can't.”

Jin growled, eyes angry, clearly unwilling to do either.
Mugen was amazed. He'd asked for the mark as a game, to catch a
little buzz and match Jin's energy, but Jin's response made it
something else. Now it was serious, a Must Be. He decided some
wheedling was in order.

“Look, I know you didn't wake
up yesterday and decide to put this mark on yourself, you're just
making the best of a bad situation. But you got that cutting cuz of
me and I feel bad about it, so I want one too, on my ass in the same
place you've got my name inked on yours. I don't know what it means
to you, but it will mean its own thing to me cuz you got one too.
Just do it, K?”

Mugen hoped his face didn't register any
triumph when Jin's frown softened a fraction and the flashing gray
eyes retreated into their usual thoughtful outlook. “All right,
I'll do it." He sighed and shook his head ruefully. "Get me
a marker so I can draw it first.”

And thus it was
accomplished, on the bed with a few towels under his hips, and Mugen
always wondered whether the time and care Jin took in creating the
design was his way of getting him back for the request. Eight cuts.
Shit! By the time Jin was finished Mugen was sweaty with the strain
of holding himself silent and still.

“Sorry if I don't
leap to drink your blood,” Jin opined dryly, bandaging the
wounds.

“Mine's not good enough for you, huh?”
Mugen laughed, definitely feeling endorphin drunk...and other things.
Rising up on his knees, head still resting on the mattress, he
stretched languidly like a cat. “How 'bout you kiss my ass
instead?”

Jin snorted, but gentle fingers parted his
cheeks and a warm, expert tongue delved, causing the purrs to erupt
of their own accord. By the time that burn was quenched by something
harder, slicked in coolness, there was only sensation remaining—the
pain of Jin's teeth in his shoulder and his hips raking against the
raw wound, the pleasure of being filled, stroked, and encouraged with
indecent and flattering words.

The fiery sting of the knife
had gone straight to his heart, and the current impalement was
deepening and widening that wound. He could feel something dripping
on his shoulders and didn't know if it was Jin's sweat or blood, but
he could taste it in his mouth still, the scarlet pounding in his
ears and obliterating his brain when the orgasm finally overwhelmed
him.

“And you thought you weren't going to take it
tonight,” a deep voice whispered later, apparently attached to
the sheltering arms and cozy body curled around him.

Mugen
had to gather a few brain cells before he could respond. “I'm
always gonna want what you got to give, pretty boy.”

Jin
sighed, kissing the back of his neck. “It's all
yours...um...except when I need it.”

Mugen smiled,
liking the sound of that. “You know the score,” he began.
Intending to say something else but feeling sleepily impish, he was
chuckling before he finished his sentence, “Spike'll put it to
Ishida any time.”

He was still chuckling when his ass
hit the floor.

------------------------------

Jin
walked into work smiling Thursday morning and his crew breathed a
collective sigh of relief.

“You're looking like
yourself again,” Yuki noted with satisfaction as he entered
their office. “Mugen must have taken good care of you last
night.”

“Yes he did,” Jin replied, sitting
at his desk. “Tell me about Manhattan.”

Yuki's
eyes shone. “It's something else, Jin! Crazy like Tokyo
but...um...American. Okay, that's lame, but it's like nowhere I've
ever been so I really don't know how to describe it. I wish we could
have stayed longer, I barely got started and it was time to come
home.”

“I'm glad you enjoyed yourself so much.”
Jin arched a brow at the prominent bruise still gracing Yuki's
neck.

His ex giggled, unconsciously raising a hand to rub
there, but then his expression grew serious. “You really don't
mind that I went?”

“No, of course not!” Jin
replied sincerely. “I'm happy you had a chance to go...and keep
an eye on Mugen for me.”

“Well, for your
information, he didn't need any minding,” Yuki confided. “He
was pretty much a wet blanket the whole time. Maybe he was missing
someone.”

Jin liked the sound of that. A lot. But he
decided it would be rude to gloat and changed the subject. “Life's
not going to be the same after today,” he noted. “Fuu
arrives tomorrow morning.”

Yuki harrumphed. “Why
should your life change?” His ex gave him a pointed glance, but
Yuki did not back down. “I don't get it, Jin, I just don't get
it. Are you going to screw up your thing with Mugen for her?”

“I hope not.”

“Well, just remember
who's waiting in the wings, mister,” he warned. “If Mugen
turns to me because you're acting the fool with Fuu, I'm going to go
for it.”

“I don't intend to act the fool.”

Yuki
smirked, knowingly. “Your track record with the fairer sex is
crap, so I've definitely got a shot.”

Even though he
knew Yuki's teasing was good-natured, it still rankled, probably
because he spoke the truth. Jin stood and approached his VP's desk,
leaning near. “You keep your nose out of my love life,
Yuki-kun,” he whispered, nuzzling then biting the bruise on the
elegant neck, “and I'll keep my nose out of yours.”

Yuki hissed and Jin backed away, thunderclouds gathering,
daring him to say more. Knowing he was treading in dangerous water,
Yuki wisely chose to remain silent, holding up a printout brightly.
“See, I'm working now. Paying bills, paying bills...don't mind
me.” And with that he turned his back on his boss and began
typing up an invoice, hoping the storm would pass. It did.

The
call came in right before closing. “Jin!” Fuu enthused,
“I can't wait to see you.”

“I'm looking
forward to it too,” he replied honestly. Fuu was the only
female he'd ever met who'd made any sense to him, and it had been
almost six months since he'd seen her.

“What's our
schedule tomorrow?” she asked.

“I'll meet your
plane and we'll get you settled,” Jin told her. “The room
at the B&B is very nice and I think you'll like it. My sensei has
invited us over for dinner tomorrow evening, so we need to be at the
dojo at seven. Other than that, the day is yours, hime.”

Jin was looking forward to the meeting between Fuu and the
twins, knowing they'd find her adorable but unable to predict what
she would make of them. He'd spent a fair amount of time with Fuu
last summer but had kept her segregated from the rest of his life, so
he had no real idea how she interacted with anyone but himself. It
suddenly dawned on him he'd never shared her with any other man
before—Yuki and the children she knew in high school didn't
count—and the ambivalence he felt about that confused him.

He
told himself it would be a good thing, a way to test her to see if
she would waver or remain true. Of course, these thoughts brought
further ambivalence, as he was unsure why he should test her when he
was certain...well, almost...that his future didn't include her. The
entire matter made no sense at all.

His cell startled him out
of his reverie, face flushing as he noted the ID, feeling as though
he'd been caught cheating. “Hello, Mugen.”

“Come
over tonight, K? I invited Yuki too.”

Jin wanted to beg
off, considering how busy the next few days would be with Fuu in
town. But Yuki could gossip way too much if the two of them were
alone together all night, so he decided it would be wiser to be
present.

Unfortunately, Yuki arrived at Mugen's place before
he did, and there was no denying the cool wariness in his lover's
eyes as they ate dinner in front of the TV. Jin wasn't angry at Yuki
about it and that was strange. He felt...exhausted. The whole
complicated mess seemed totally exhausting, and his heart simply shut
down.

So perhaps it should not be surprising that he chose
not to join them when first Mugen, and then Yuki, left the room
without a word and did not return.

------------------------------

The
evening didn't go as Mugen expected, heading downhill the moment Yuki
walked in the front door. “So, it looks like your competition
is arriving tomorrow,” he announced, grinning.

“Say
what?”

“Fuu,” Yuki told him. “You
know, little miss I'll sleep on your couch...or not. Jin's taking the
day off tomorrow to collect her from the airport.”

“He
never said anything about it to me.”

“Well, he
just mentioned it to me this morning, so don't sweat it. He's always
sneaky about his private life, and about her in particular.”

“Why?
Is she a dog or something?”

“No, she's cute
enough, I suppose, if you go for that style of girl. I like 'em tall,
curvy and experienced, and she's none of those. Plus she's always
been a bossy brat, so I....” He smiled conspiratorially then
sighed. “....should shut up. Who knows? Maybe you'll actually
get to meet her.”

“Why wouldn't I meet her?”

Yuki
laughed. “Didn't you hear what I said? He's always kept her
close to his chest. She was here practically all last summer and he
never brought her to work, never brought her to the dojo, he didn't
introduce her to anyone.”

“Is he out to her?”

“I
have no idea. But if I know Jin he won't willingly bring the two of
you together.”

Thus forewarned, Mugen began to plot.
And if he graced his lover with a certain coolness during dinner it
wasn't because he was angry, but because he was thinking about the
situation and working out possible solutions to the problem that was
Jin and the girlfriend.

Mugen felt bad that he seemed
distracted every time he fucked Yuki and, unfortunately, tonight was
no different. When it became clear that Jin was not going to join
them, half of his attention was on the livingroom, listening for the
front door to slam. When it never came he was certain he'd simply
missed it during a loud or impassioned moment, so he was surprised
but grateful to find his lover sitting lotus, meditating on the couch
an hour later.

Kneeling on the floor in front of him, he
grasped the cool feet gently and waited for Jin to open his eyes. “So
your lady's coming in tomorrow, huh?”

“Yes.”

“I
wanna meet her. Lemmie take you guys out to lunch.”

“No.

It
was galling but Yuki was right, Jin refused to allow it. “I'll
introduce you eventually, Mugen, I promise. But I'm not going to
shove you in her face on her first day here, so tomorrow cannot be.”
There'd been no arguing with him either, and when Mugen continued to
insist Jin had whipped himself out, grabbed him by the ears and
occupied his mouth with more useful endeavors.

Even then,
Mugen continued to scheme. The task didn't require much thought,
after all. He decided that to approach Jin and Fuu alone would not be
wise. It would appear too threatening and could possibly force Jin to
out himself, so no go. He needed a ruse, a prestige, a plausibly
innocuous scam that would keep the girl's guard down. In other words,
he needed a woman by his side, and that meant Yatsuha.

He'd
met her at sixteen, the moment he opened his eyes in the hospital
after the Nakasone gang intervention. She'd been nineteen, a rookie
just out of the police academy and one of the four officers
dispatched to the scene when neighbors reported a gunshot. He'd given
her a memorable but humiliating first impression—naked,
unconscious, and bleeding from places you didn't want a good girl to
think about, but that hadn't scared her off.

And Igarashi
Yatsuha was nothing if not a good girl, which was why her interest in
him while he was in the hospital was baffling, as she visited almost
every day—at first, to take her reports, trying to get him to
rat on Mukuro, but later just to hang. She called him to have lunch
or coffee every so often after he got out, too, which continued to
mystify, not that he was complaining since she was totally hot.
Unfortunately she was a goddess, so resolutely virgin he'd never
tried to bed her once and, of course, she'd never jumped him.

She
was the woman he wanted on his arm at office parties, weddings and
such, for she was respectable, funny and smart, and Kohza was...not.
To become Yatsuha's mate, however, seemed an unattainable goal. She
was older, intimating and so focused on her career, it seemed too far
fetched to imagine her as anything more than a great partner in crime
when either of them had to attend boring office or family
functions.

“Hey,” he began when she picked up. “I
gotta favor to ask.”

“Another swanky lunch with
your boss? The last one was fantastic, and you know I can look at
Okuru-san all day!”

“Nope, sorry. I wanna spy on
my lover.”

“O ho! Why are you spying on
him?”

“He's meeting with this girl he's known
since he was a kid and maybe she's gonna be trouble. I wanna stake
out the scene, then possibly approach. I'm not sure. Wanna come, Ms.
Almost Detective?”

“Sure, sounds right up my
alley. I can split at noon for lunch. I'm in uniform, though, is that
going to cause problems?”

“Nah, that'd be great,
actually.”

And so it was arranged. Li-san had discovered
through her uber-secretarial means which B&B near OU campus
Seizou-san was rooming at. Mugen and Yatsuha camped out across the
street and only had to wait ten minutes before Jin and the girl
exited the building. Yatsuha moved to intercept, but he grabbed her
arm. “Wait. I wanna check her out first.” Almost as if by
request, Jin and Fuu stood on the stoop talking, her hand never
leaving his elbow. The way Jin smiled at her twisted Mugen's stomach
into knots.

She wore pink, that's what he noticed first. And
not that garish, hot pink Kohza and the gang bitches would wear
sometimes when they ventured out of their uniform black dreck, but a
soft blossom pink that seemed delicate and innocent. And to complete
the virginal picture, she wore white bicycle shorts or tights under
the mini sundress insuring no panties would ever see the light of
day.

More cute than pretty, just as Yuki said, of
undetermined height due to the platform sandals. Her hair was an
interesting color, though, lighter than usual and not bleached to get
that way. He couldn't tell how long it was because it was tied up and
held in place by old-timey sticks girls hardly ever used anymore. She
was wearing one of those girly backpacks, he could see the straps
around her shoulders, but when she turned slightly his blood ran
cold. Sticking out of one of the zippers was a pinwheel.

“Holy
fuck!” he gasped.

“What's wrong?” Yatsuha
asked.

“Uhhh, nothing,” he lied. The wound on his
ass began to itch as if it were laughing at him. Thankfully Jin and
Fuu started down the steps and his self-abuse fest had to end, as he
and Yatsuha ducked through an alley so they could walk innocently
down the street from the opposite direction. The shocked expression
on Jin's face was almost worth the ongoing freakout he was
experiencing.

“Mugen, what are you doing here?”
Jin asked, not hiding his displeasure.

“Shopping,”
said Yatsuha.

“Snooping,” said Mugen.

“We
are?!?” Yatsuha squeaked. “Oh right, we're snooping.”
She laughed and elbowed Mugen in the ribs. “I forgot who I'm
dealing with here.”

“Snooping?” blinked
Fuu, clearly confused by Jin's glower.

“I'm Ryu Mugen,”
he ventured, bowing, “a friend of Jin's. This is Igarashi
Yatsuha, a friend of mine. We were hoping to meet you but Jin wasn't
sure you'd want to be social, so we were sneaking around
instead.”

“Oh, that's just like him!” Fuu
sighed. “I'm so glad you were persistent. We're heading out for
lunch and it would be lovely to have company. Won't you join us?”
She was even cuter close up, her eyes a sparkly, honey brown.

Mugen
peeked at Jin and took a few daggers to the heart before turning back
to the yummy peach. Smiling sincerely, he enthused, “Sure,
that'd be great!”

to be continued
- 22
- 23
- 24
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Business as Usual