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400 Years Apart	By : Cynthermes Category: +M to R > Mirage of Blaze Views: 4238 -:- Recommendations : 0 -:- Currently Reading : 0
Disclaimer: Mirage of Blaze and its characters solely belong to Kuwabara Mizuna. I’m just going to creep into a corner of her sand box and play the part of a wannabe historical writer. No profit has been made in the construction of this story.

Chapter List
- 28
- 29
- 30
Chapter 29:

ULTIMARINA, Pearl in the Deep: Part 7

A/N: Loved by her beloved, loved by all men, she weighed herself down the sea; never to return to the land of the rising sun.

Disclaimer: See (chapter one)

Warning: And yet another one* (laughs) comes your way. Rated Serious M for graphic, detailed, and hot KotarouXSaburo sexual interaction. If this pair isn’t your cup of tea then click the BACK button now. NO underage readers please. Those below 18 (You poor things) are not suited to reading this eeebil material. As it turns out the major pairing emerging from this story is KotarouXSaburo but not in the real timeline. You’ll see.

…

Looking down into those deep pools of midnight with a single speck of light in them made Saburo absently wonder when exactly did their positions reverse? One moment they were almost level with each other, before he had to break their mutual gaze so Kotarou wouldn’t see so much internal conflict and confusion in his eyes. No, he didn’t have to. Kotarou didn’t need any encouragement tonight. His protector undressed him without his usual ghostly finesse or his excessive reverence. The man was pulling (tearing) away at clothing almost… impatiently like he was one of those bushi that had returned from battle after so long and has finally come home to meet his wife. He was one of those men tonight… so eager… so needy… so… depraved… Come to think of it, it has been a while since they had done it.

But… Oh, if he sucked any harder, that would leave a bruise.

He once thought that the opposite effect was bound to happen.

Don’t predators lose interest in their prey after a long hard chase was over? Once satisfaction from the hunt was obtained and savored, won’t there be nothing more to look forward to? The initial excitement should die down after the first taste. So why… In his case does it make Kotarou more impulsive… more aggressive?

Why do you keep wanting me?

Sharp teeth bite down at the delicate curve of his shoulder and nipped another violent mark. It hurts… but it feels so good at the same time. What is he doing to me? Is he slowly bringing me towards insanity?

Kotarou laves at the hollow of one collarbone when the youth suddenly had an urge to be suckled at his nipples. Those were one of the perverted places that he secretly desired more attention to. And that was probably where things spiraled out of control. As he unknowingly expressed his own need, tugging Kotarou’s head towards his breast and offering one firm rosy nub to be encased within those lips… the man’s arms came up and around his clothed back swiftly bringing Saburo down together with him.

The youth’s lithe form was cleverly made to straddle the shinobi’s hips. His clenched hands were planted over the sides of his protector’s head, his slender legs were folded at either of Kotarou’s torso, and a hard erect object was pressed against his lower back while his own manhood equally twitched in its high perch. For every careful clench of teeth, insistent pull of lips, and swirl of talented tongue, Saburo’s body would writhe and shudder. “Ngh… Oh…!” His resolve in staying quiet deteriorated at the feel of one hand creeping down his bare abdomen and grasping his rigid shaft while the other gripped his hip with almost injurious strength. Saburo could already expect a dark bruise on his pelvis at the end of this ordeal… if he would survive it.

After a last hard suck on one very erect nipple, Kotarou moved to claim the other without pause… until, “Wait,” Saburo laid a palm over the shadow’s clothed chest, trying to get his disordered breathing under control. As his protector’s warm breath ghosted over the untouched nub, the skin of the areola tingled. The lordling shivered and forced himself to meet Kotarou’s questioning look. The desire in those eyes did not diminish one bit making his nervousness return. “C-Can’t you… suck my chest without… touching me down there?”

Kotarou’s thumb stroked the weeping slit making the youth hiss. “Does Wakasama want to prolong the sensation without getting off so quickly?”

And he nearly hit the insolent shinobi with this blunt remark. Damn him for embarrassing me so easily with his crude words! And yet Saburo wanted to damn himself as well for not coming up with a scathing retort. His mental faculties become so distorted before this unexpectedly lecherous man. In the end a breathless, “Yes,” was his only response.

“Very well. I promise not to move my hand, Wakasama but I want to hold this part of you… if you ever change your mind.” To say that he was shocked of this illicit response from Kotarou would be gross simplification.

The curses about to fly out of his mouth, however were drowned in soft moans. True to his word, the man soon engulfed the other nipple begging for undivided attention while his fingers remain curled around the pulsing flesh of his charge. “Uhh… mmn… ah!” Saburo couldn’t stop it… these wanton sounds kept coming out of his mouth. They were urging the man to keep going at his poor sensitive nub.

“Enough,” he panted.

Kotarou bit him instead and his eyes went wide as pre-orgasmic pleasure raced throughout his lower body. He was close… so suddenly that his hips pushed involuntarily against that lascivious hand. And the shadow had the audacity to ask, “Are you going to come, Wakasama?”

“Will you stop being so…!” Saburo couldn’t find the right words to describe Kotarou’s naturally flat attitude in the midst of their licentious activities. Truly… this man is just so… hopeless?

His irritation was however doused with surprise and he gasped as their positions changed yet again. Kotarou suddenly rolled them over so Saburo was the one lying beneath. The youth only had enough time to bite the sleeve of his robe before a strangled scream escaped him.

Without much of a warning, Kotarou had taken the proudly erect thing between his legs inside a hot mouth. His voice disintegrated into whimpers as the shinobi decisively sucked his manhood.

Oh, not there! He gritted his teeth as his face contorted in agony… the pleasure was just too much. He felt about to go mad with it… the thin robe started to become soiled as he sweated feverishly.

Kotarou took him deep down his throat without effort, tightened his lips around the trembling member and tongued the slit just as expertly like—Saburo clutched the kerchief tighter… Naoe.

But just as Saburo was about to reach completion, the shadow’s ministrations gentled and slowed leaving him hovering at the brink but not getting there. Then Kotarou slid off him completely, planting his lips by the youth’s inner thigh in apology. “Saburo, can you endure a bit longer?”

And he was just sorely tempted to smack that insolent head right now. “Why? You suddenly changed your mind about having your way with me?” Besides the massive pang of hurt there were a few things the youth regained: A clear mind and a steady voice.

“I still want to have my way with you.” Kotarou tried to restrain the need that thickened his voice but his charge heard it keenly enough.

“Then, what are you…?” The youth huffed with a confused look only to witness Kotarou undressing before him.

“I still want to pleasure you with my mouth but if you come, won’t you be tired for more?” The man said with a hint of challenge as he shed the dark burgundy fitted garb he wore for the night.

The lordling’s eyes hungrily devour every expanse of skin exposed even when he snapped, “And since when is that up to you to decide?” He was about to sit up and pretend to not want it anymore then dismiss Kotarou coldly as revenge for having changed his mood.

But the sight of the man completely nude, agile and defined lean body in full view to be appreciated… Saburo once again caught himself staring blatantly at the strong, flexible visage of his protector. His wide eyes travel from where Kotarou’s spidery fingers untie the riband binding his long black hair as they cascade down his back in straight silken strands and wander further down where a man’s object was monstrously upright. “Then what has Wakasama decided upon?” Kotarou asked with a knowing glint in his very dark gaze.

Saburo gulped. He knows…

The shadow wasn’t about to let him off easy tonight… In fact the shinobi plans to please his young master to exhaustion until he can’t even stand. I'll keep him off your mind. As he covered the tense smaller body with his larger frame he intertwined their hands together, easily snatching that troublesome kerchief away. The youth’s cry of protest was swallowed by a sly mouth that insistently wrapped around his own.

The man becomes entranced on the rosy hue tainting his beloved’s face when all of a sudden sharp pain stung his lip.

Salty, tangy, blood…

His young master had bitten him and it wasn’t careful in the least for he was shoved away with a strength unheard of from the young general-in-training. “Give that back!”

The young master was furious and not only that... he has stood with the stance of a warrior.

…Combative and aroused was an intriguing combination. Does this mean that Kotarou needs not to hold back in dealing with his young master anymore? This probability was so enticing that the elite shinobi dangled the coveted kerchief before the youth and proceeded to tear it slowly into pieces.

Saburo’s reaction was immediate, “YOU! I’ll make you regret doing that!”

Kotarou uncharacteristically raised a brow, “Is sparring the young master’s idea of foreplay tonight?” He was barely able to raise a fist to block the sudden blow that crashed against his wrist joint.

Fast, strong, and accurate at the vital points as well…

If he puts it that way…

The shinobi waits for the predictable second strike but it never came, instead an unexpected caress falls at the strands of hair close to his face. Delicate, beautiful fingers fiddle and play with the silken tendrils, “Your mouth has been spouting so many uncomely things that displease me. I think it’s best to silence it and equally please me at the same time.” This mood swing was so… sudden.

It turns out that his young temperamentally predictable lord was not so easy to read after all. Kotarou finds this concealed streak of cruelty and display of authority incredibly attractive. “What does the young master want of me?”

“Or of your mouth, rather…” Hair-wreathed fingertips casually brush against the man’s torn lip. Saburo pierced him with a sharp glare. “Actually I very much wanted your face to receive the brunt of my fists.” He tugged none too gently and the guardian relents. “But the need you have carved in me is far too great that ignoring it would be unbearably painful.”

Something predatory flashed into heavily dilated twin orbs of void. “Anything for my young master.”

“I want your mouth.” The lordling grabs his guardian by the hair. “Let my need silence you.”

Kotarou succumbs to the unspoken command and was on his knees before he could bolster the lordling’s ire. He gives the swollen head a tentative lick and purrs darkly, “My silence to your loud cries... for every soul to hear. A fitting trade.”

Saburo gasps at the dangerous creature crouched at his feet, which then proceeds to defile him with its hot, salivating mouth. Insistent and greedy hands clutch at the firmness of his buttocks while young throbbing flesh was consumed within blistering wetness. “Unh—! Uhh… Ha… a…ah…!” Broken sounds of harsh pleasure were uttered by the helpless youth.

Let them hear you…

Let HIM hear you… “Be louder, Wakasama.”

“Bas…tar…d,” The youth pants and realizing the way he was making so much noise, painfully grits his teeth… He was so close… very close to the end with each push of his manhood down his protector’s receptive throat… he was going to—

Kotarou violently impaled the twitching member as deep as it could go, bites the base gingerly and scrapes the hypersensitive shaft with his teeth as it exits. Wasting no time, he pushes a thumb against one tense sac and runs lightning-quick strokes of tongue against the leaking head.

“Nnngh! Ah!” Saburo forcefully jerks at the intense sensations flooding his body and then in an uncontrollable instant comes… shooting sticky threads of semen inside an awaiting mouth.

DIRTY.

One word plagued Saburo’s mind looking at the man kneeling before him deliberately swallowing his essence. Foul… Filthy… disgusting! But the shameful heat refused to leave his face and the strange feeling… why was he still feeling so aroused after witnessing such… animalistic debauchery?

“Satisfied, Young Master? I’m surprised you’re still standing."

He supposed the double meaning was intended but such arrogance… The young lord’s eyes narrowed. Whenever they were in the middle of coupling, Kotarou would act as if they were equals. Any other day, Saburo would not have minded but his will was still hell-bent in outlasting the shadow to come and negotiate with a certain Nagashiro.

I won’t let you stop me.

Taking a deep breath, the tiger-eyed lord throws a daring command, “So bend over.” He eagerly awaited the negative response and associate it with cowardice.

If it were possible, Kotarou’s heated stare scorches him more. He gives the stiff length, slow lascivious strokes. And the man audaciously whispers in his ear, “I always wondered how… Wakasama would feel inside me.”

Saburo’s eyes become impossibly wide and he wonders for an instant if he had just committed a very bad mistake.

The man presses him against the matted floor. “I should warn you though, Wakasama that a man’s insides are tighter than a woman’s. I have never been copulated in such a way and I will be very tight. Once you push your manhood inside my willing body I will do everything in my power to keep it there. Greedily I will wring your flesh to expel fluids until you come. And who knows if I will let you exit my body once you reach the deepest part of me?” These obscene words ignite an indescribable fear upon the youth. Despite assuming the role of a dominant, the man was still perfectly capable of making him feel humiliated.

“H-How dare you!” The youth sputtered in indignation thinking fast on how to turn the tables but coming up with none.

“Young Master is hesitating now?”

Damn, don’t let him win! The lordling resumes control by pushing against a lean well-defined chest. “Your mouth is starting to annoy me. Lie down and let me mount you.”

The protector obediently lies down and makes his lord straddle him without protest. The sight of the very swollen object between Kotarou’s hips distracts him, however. His mouth instinctively waters and he swallows his nervousness down. What if he were to touch it? Would he get the desired reaction? And as if his hand had a mind of its own wraps the hard length with his trembling fingers. He barely gets to stroke it to feed his curiosity when the man suddenly growled and sat up making the youth perch on a naked lap. Kotarou held him in a crushing embrace and the shakiness and the strain of his voice as he warned, made Saburo blush like a virgin, “Young master, if you don’t want me to behave like any other man and forget about submitting to you as asked, then you will not touch me there without much less of a warning. Or if you don’t want me flipping you over and pushing it in so deep my vows of subservience be damned.”

His hardness twitched at this insolence and the youth wanted to curse himself. Its effect on his libido was profound and he was sporting a full erection even before the man pushed him against the wall. Just when did they get here? The man knelt wide before him but it has nothing to do with deference. Currently his rump was pressed against Kotarou’s waist and his slender legs were wrapped around it. His wrists were shackled above his head, held by possessive deadly fingers and the flimsy robe that prevented his back from scratching the surface of the wall was getting more and more rumpled.

“You liar. I knew you had no intention of letting me have my way.”

The shadow looked straight into those frightening eyes. “But aren’t you saving your strength, Wakasama? If I let you control the pace of our coupling you will be asleep right in the middle of it—”

One of the lordling’s hands balled into a fist. “Are you mocking me? Let go so I could hit you, fool.”

“If I let go of Wakasama’s hand there is a chance that it will stray again. I would not want to let that happen. And Wakasama didn’t let me finish. I believe touching me was his body’s way of making me realize its true need. If he touched my other place then I would know he wants to have his way instead of the other way around.”

Saburo wanted to break something badly right now. He would probably start with that blank, neutral face. Kotarou was just so… so… irritating sometimes with his lewd speech mismatched with his unaffected, almost dull tone. And on top of that… his sexual prowess was being questioned. Perhaps if he was serious enough, Kotarou would really bend over and let him be in control for once.

Wakasama, I know your body very well…

He sighed. His intentions of letting the man have him and then escaping afterwards was glaringly obvious here. Should he concede defeat?

Unbeknownst to the troubled youth… the shadow, in a sudden change of plans, aims to let him get away in the end only to carry his scent to the other man… so Nagashiro would know to whom exactly the young master belongs.

He would never know.

“Kotarou, a while ago you were expecting me to be tired after you have taken me in your mouth but I am still able and not wobbling in the least. I have proven you wrong, you insolent fool. Now my exceptionally skilled contract pleasure me to exhaustion as you have intended and if I am not very satisfied at the end… I will make you terribly regret ever trifling with me again!”

A thin curve spreads across the shadow’s lips. “When have I ever disappointed you, Young Master?”

Saburo couldn’t help but shrink away from that penetrating stare. Trapped against the wall there was no escape… but he would not submit… never willingly anyway.

Kotarou beholds his very naked young master, spread out, thighs and arms against the wall, disheveled raven’s hair fanning out like black silk, breathing deeply, enticing milky white skin glowing with sweat and come in the lantern light and was looking at him with those tiger’s eyes defiantly… challengingly despite his vulnerable position.

This arrogance, this pride has always enticed any man who has ever dared to lay eyes on you.

An insurmountable need to make love was stirring inside the protector. As Kotarou feared, this was one of those circumstances that he could no longer hold himself back.

And yet…

And yet…

He would not sunder without assent.

The man slackened his hold on captive wrists and looked straight into those blazing orbs. Conveying the strongest emotion he felt in a single steady gaze, he watched for any sign of rejection reflected in his esteemed lord’s.

A heated look devoid of any contempt or malice was currently making the protector lose more of his self-restraint. “I’ve never seen you hesitate so many times while we’re like this,” said those cruel pair of lips that quirked in amusement. “What are you waiting for, Kotarou?” Saburo was able to speak like this despite the thickened head touching the tingling rosette of his opening.

The protector wanted to say, permission but the sudden mocking quality in the boy’s tone provokes him in uttering, “Your surrender.”

It instantly strikes the flint of rage behind the lordling’s eyes. “Fool. I will never—!”

The man seizes that moment to push inside making the youth gasp. All the way and without stopping, the hardness of the man entered, receiving minimal resistance until it was completely sheathed within warm rippling flesh.

Saburo’s brow creases in agony not borne of pain. He turns his head to the side still in defiance and bites his lip to stifle any wild sound. In turn he breathes more raggedly to maintain the effort. His body’s trembling and the straining object between his thighs openly communicated what he truly wants, however.

“Being a man is troublesome is it not, Wakasama? When what you want to desperately hide from me is blatantly displayed here.”

And much to his shame, the boy’s rigid manhood twitched in response. The clear fluid leaking from the tip was flowing down in copious amounts. Just a little stimulation and the beloved body would be finished. Kotarou knew by smell alone that his young master was very close and as much as his need was roaring in his ears, he briefly contemplated if he could accomplish what happened between them on their first night. If he could bring the lithe sensitive body to numerous climaxes despite the male limitations then it would surely be satisfying.

Getting used to the feeling of overwhelming fullness, the lordling wondered what was taking the shadow so long to start moving. What was with his contract now? Surely the fool doesn’t expect of him to actually take control of their coupling just as he blithely mentioned, did he?

‘I want your surrender.’

Saburo glares. If he expects me to beg, we could stay joined against this wall for all eternity!

Kotarou returns it with a look of pure desire, gone was his mask of blank subservience for the time of words has ended.

…

With each undulation of the man’s hips, the youth would gasp, moan, and writhe against the wall. Saburo’s legs were tightly coiled around his pleasure-giver’s waist. His slender hands that were previously restrained, now desperately latched on fistfuls of Kotarou’s long silken hair. Kotarou’s mouth devoured his skin without pause, murmuring praises he alone could hear. Despite Saburo’s continued pretense of not wanting to do with any of this, the lecherous hard object thrusting in and out of his wet hole was eroding his mind away. Over and over it stroked the sensitive nerves nestling inside his intimate place. With the regularity of coupling, the youth’s insides become receptive to penetrations and when especially aroused, even forceful rutting could only bring delirious rapture.

Having gone far too long with his scorching need, the man immediately escalates the pace and rhythm of their lovemaking. And the more he pounded against the youth’s pleasure spot, the more waves of ecstasy pulsated in his groin. The walls of flesh clutching his manhood were getting tighter and tighter. The shadow momentarily succumbs to pure sensation…Wakasama—!

The youth was impaling himself against the man’s weakness with abandon. He was setting Kotarou’s loins on fire with every answering thrust of his hips. Young master… is so assertive tonight.

Saburo was breathing heavily, his flexible and sweat-slicked body enabled him to glide effortlessly up and down the throbbing shaft. He had been at the precipice of climax a long while ago but turning the tables on Kotarou and assuming control in this way made him endure. Being a man himself he was no longer stranger to the male body’s minutest sensitivities when it comes to sexual congress. He wishes to make the stoic shadow lose himself completely first.

The young master was… fighting him again.

He was fighting in an entirely different way.

Disheveled robes twisted in the savagery of their fierce mating, raven silk hair in disarray, clinging to half of the youth’s face and his sweaty back, unforgiving hands wrung his loose mane in pitiful strands, and the beautiful face… despite the sexual blush the boy had not lost the sharp luster of his gaze. He was… the young master had an odd expression:

Saburo was wearing Tono-sama’s smile.

And then he was drawing the man’s head towards his and they were soon a mad tangle of lips and tongue.

“Hnngh! Nn…! Mmm…” The youth uttered noises of pleasure inside the man’s mouth gradually tipping the scales to his favor. For every insistent swing of finger-bruised hips, the man’s weakness grew tenfold. And soon enough it was Kotarou trying his damnedest to stop himself from crying out. The moist heat that surrounded and befuddled his reason were tearing at the last shreds of his sanity.

As Saburo gasped for breath his hands let go of his protector’s hair and placed them on the shadow’s uncharacteristically heaving chest. Feeling for Kotarou’s rapid heartbeat… he had a devious plot forming in his surprisingly clear mind. He knew that he wouldn’t last… the feeling of fullness, the friction, and the fevered stroking of flesh against flesh would ultimately ravage him but he still had enough cognizance of their current state unlike the man.

Kotarou’s face was contorted in agony: the image of the young master earlier. He appeared ready to crack under utmost pressure and the steady flow of moisture that further tainted Saburo’s insides indicated that the man was ready to burst.

Saburo opened his mouth. “Are you going to come, Kotarou?” He brushed the man’s erect nipple with his thumb and to his delight, the man shuddered. “How come you can’t answer me?”

The elite shinobi could only grit his teeth. Since when did this happen? Since when did their roles change?

Merciless fingers proceeded to tease, tug, and play at the man’s chest. “But you will always answer to me.” He squinted at the rush of pleasure assaulting his erogenous zones. By sheer willpower alone, he maintained his façade of control. “Nn…Now obey me… when I say…

COME.”

Kotarou suddenly stiffened and began to tremble.

Then a soft helpless sound of rapture escaped him before he abruptly slammed his mate against the wall with inhuman strength. Like an animal he rutted furiously inside the youth coming hard as he did so.

Saburo’s eyes rolled upwards… the toes of his legs twitched. Something peculiar was happening to his body. A prolonged sensation of an urge to urinate washed over him. At the height of their brutal sex, he yelled suddenly realizing too late that despite having reached his orgasm Kotarou had not stopped thrusting. The youth began struggling, instinctively attempting to run away but his violator firmly held him in place still eager with his assault.

Something delicate snapped and then uncontrollable cries of ecstasy were spilling out of his lips as his entire body convulsed.

One after another an onslaught of terrifying climaxes shattered his body.

It was terrifying because… he couldn’t stop.

He couldn’t stop coming!

It was too much! He could take no more… “Ah! I can’t—! Oh please…!”

Kotarou was still going at it and showed no sign of exhaustion or relenting at all. A mad look of intense wanting was frozen in the man’s face.

When the mad sensations threatened to make Saburo pass out, the man drove into him one final time, held onto him for dear life and groaned woundedly.

Saburo gasped as he felt a gush of wetness spill inside him and trickle down one leg. The man, flushed crimson with his unusual panting pulled out of him, rolled them swiftly to the floor before collapsing on top.

As the youth recovered he was puzzled to find that the man had not moved at all despite their uncomfortable position. They exactly didn’t make it to the bed so why was Kotarou… heavy burden as he is not getting the hell off him? His irritation faded when he happened to glance upon that handsome sleeping face and the occasional soft snoring was heard.

He fell asleep on me. What in the name of Buddha—?

A soft rapping by the sliding doors sent the youth flailing just to get out of this humiliating scene.

“Saburo-gimi, I was told you never had supper so I brought some for you. I’m going to enter now.”

HARUHIE—? At an inconvenient time like this? Should his page witness this wanton display what would Haruhie think of him now? Panicking, he could not think of something fast enough to say before the shoji was half-open and a petrified Haruhie who nearly dropped his tray, appeared.

And the best thing he could come up was… “It’s not what it looks like!” Saburo blurted with an utterly horrified expression.

Gathering his wits, Haruhie managed to shut the door once more while balancing the tray in one hand and tried not to look too scandalized at the obvious lame excuse his lordling could come up. Saburo had turned his burning face away in shame while making a futile attempt to cover both their exposed bodies with his flimsy robe.

Haruhie could only stare haplessly at the tangled heap of limbs before him. He couldn’t help but let his eyes rest on the supposed protector of his lord. Was this really the man who singlehandedly wiped out the sohei army as well as his guard escorts in Hakone? Seeing him so defenseless in obvious sleep in Saburo’s arms that protectively covered his back instead of pushing him outright, Haruhie could not imagine him to be the same cold-blooded weapon who brought such deathly fear in his heart that he thought it had stopped beating then. It made him realize that Fuma Kotarou was still human after all. And it was because of this boy that made him act human again.

When Saburo finally came to terms that Haruhie was not going away to leave him to his plight, he decided to ask for help instead. Kotarou would not remain unconscious for long, he thought with dread.

“Um… alright. I apologize for my uncomely appearance but Haruhie could I ask you to turn a blind eye to this for now? Instead I would like to ask your assistance in getting this cumbersome load off me… gently so that he would not wake.” The lordling said awkwardly much to the page’s amusement while hiding it in a neutral expression. To experience this youth’s adorable side firsthand was enough compensation.

“Saburo-gimi should be comfortable with me. His private affairs are no concern of mine unless he deems it so. I respect him just the same.” Haruhie replies as he helps disentangle his lord from the tenacious embrace of the protector. “Shall you require a bath first?” He tentatively asks.

“No, that’ll take too long.” Saburo said immediately though he mentally cringed at his decision. He hauled a wide blanket and draped it over the shadow’s prone slumbering frame. He then crouched beside the man and after deliberating for a short while, to the page’s surprise lands a solid smack to Kotarou’s unmarred cheek. Fortunately, the man barely stirred. “Hmph. I’ve been intending to do that before he fell asleep on me.”

Haruhie prudently didn’t answer and passed the herb-scented washcloth he had brought along with the tray of food. He gives his charge privacy as Saburo sketchily wiped most of the man’s seed off his skin. Avoiding dalliance, Saburo started to dress frantically in a semi-formal kamishimo colored maize at the vest, sea-green haori and a pearl hakama. The page helped him comb and tie his hair in a presentable manner while Saburo busied himself with affixing his swords.

The young lord appeared to be going to some official business and Haruhie couldn’t let his curiosity pass this time. “Saburo-gimi, if I may not be so forward, where exactly are you headed at this time of night?”

Haruhie almost thought he had offended the lord when Saburo gripped his arm and dragged him outside the room with him.

Feeling a little safe, the youth sighed. “I’m going to have a secret meeting with one of my brother’s closest retainers. His name is Nagashiro and there’s something I need from him to end my uncle’s despair.”

Haruhie appeared to be confused even as he nodded in assent. In truth he never remembered a bushi by that name that was a close vassal of the daimyo. “Saburo-gimi, are you saying that you’ll be visiting this Nagashiro without the knowledge of Ujimasa-kou?”

The youngest lord of the Hojo gave him a stern look. “Yes. In my opinion, one has to do something about our current situation. Though I risk angering my brother in collaborating with his vassal that could help me find answers, it has to be done. If you fear aniue’s wrath I won’t hold it against you if you don’t wish to be involved.”

The determination in those eyes makes Kakizaki Haruhie to throw caution to the winds. In his secret captivity with the Hojo, only one person was able to make him feel at home. His honor be damned if he would let that person fight his battles alone. What kind of great samurai’s son would he be?

Father…

“Saburo-gimi, I am your page, one of your most valuable ally. And I wish to let me stay by your side no matter the circumstances.” He was rewarded with a breathtaking smile and Haruhie glowed.

“Then follow me.”

~TBC

Post A/N: I’m getting the inkling that I will be able to finish this story. Please keep those reviews coming. And for those who already reviewed and liked this story or those who continue to read this, thank you very much for the support. It means a lot to me from the bottom of my heart. m(_,_)m
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400 Years Apart