The One You're With

The One You're With part 3: Suspicion, chapter 4 (epilogue)
(aka The One You're With, chapter 3d)
Author: Tsutsuji
Fandom: Kyo Kara Maou!
Pairing: Conrad/Murata, Yozak/Murata, implied Conrad/Yozak, implied Shinou/Murata and Shinou/Daikenja.
Rating and Warning: Adult (NC17) overall, PG13 for this chapter. Angst, yaoi, ust, and, um, angst. (And waff.) Spellchecked, not beta'd.
Word count for this chapter: around 3000.
Disclaimer: Characters and settings are the property of Tomo Takabayashi and associates, and I'm just a pervy fangirl who's not making any money off of this.
Thank you for your support, lovely readers! Comments are loved and cherished!

Summary: In the afterglow of their threesome, Yozak reflects on suspicions confirmed, and Conrad reconsiders.

~~~

It took a moment for Yozak to recognize the change when it happened.

The three of them were sprawled and curled together across Conrad's bed, Murata cozily wedged in the middle with a smile of bliss on his face, and Conrad's hands gently kneading his shoulders. Conrad leaned up and looked down on Murata with an expression of concern.

"Geika?" he asked softly. "Are you all right?"

"Of course, Weller-kyo," Murata answered without opening his eyes, his voice thick and sleepy but otherwise quite normal.

He knew it had to happen, but he was still startled to see Murata and Conrad fall back into their usual roles so easily, back into being the king's adviser and kingdom's loyal servant as if they had never changed. He'd been wondering how he would ever be able to look at Murata the same way again, but he supposed if Conrad could simply go back to deferring to the reincarnated sage in the same old way after all of that, he could, too - at least, as much as he ever did.

He roused himself a little more, enough to feel that Murata was even more limp than he was, and that he looked like he might just as soon not ever move again. Even as Yozak thought this, though, Conrad caught his eye and nodded past him toward the far side of the bed. Yozak remembered the rest of their arrangements and knew what he meant, but before he rolled over to start dealing with that, he added his hand to Conrad's on Murata's shoulder, and touched his face.

"Are you sure, Geika?" he said, trying to sound as back-to-normal as they did, even though he didn't feel that way at all. "We weren't too much for you?"

He forced a lilt of humor into his words to hide the twist of concern in his gut; he'd lost track for a few seconds there at the end, but he thought things had gotten a bit rougher than he'd intended. Murata shook his head a little and looked like he might pry his eyes open, but then thought better of it. He sighed, smiling even more happily.

"Nearly... but no."

He sounded as if "nearly too much" was better than perfect. Conrad smiled across at Yozak with a little shrug, as if to say I tried to tell you...

Yozak spread his hands and shrugged back at him. How could he have guessed? He never would have expected this of either of them, but he certainly couldn't argue with such blatant evidence of success.

It seemed a shame to let it end so quickly, though. He didn't really want to pull away from them and his limbs felt pleasantly heavy, but the night was passing. He knew that if they were going to keep anyone else from guessing what they were up to here, they would have to move soon. With a stretch and a sigh, he rolled back and sat up, and reached over to grab the bundle of clothes waiting on a chair beside the bed.

Murata sat up, blinking like a sleepy child awakened too early from a nap - a very contented sleepy child, at that. Yozak's sharp eyes caught him flinching as he sat up, though, and so did Conrad, who leaned over him again quickly.

"Geika, you know you don't have to...."

Murata shook his head, cutting him off.

"I have to go back, Weller-kyo. You know that's what we decided from the beginning. I'll be fine."

Conrad frowned but nodded. He sat back, with a quick glance aside at Yozak as Murata pulled his shirt and jacket back into place and started casting around for the rest of his clothes. Yozak jumped in right on cue.

"Well, at least you don't have to walk by yourself all the way over there this time, since I'm going in the same direction," he said. He grinned when Murata looked up, startled, at him, and held up a tunic and cloak from the bundle. "Here, put these on instead of your regular clothes - more comfortable, I guarantee you!"

Murata looked doubtful but he went along with the suggestion, shedding the gold-trimmed black jacket, with another little wince from stiff shoulders. Conrad folded the jacket together neatly with the matching trousers and placed them at his side, then dipped a cloth in the pitcher by the bedside, and used it to clean them both up a little. Yozak saw him frown and brush gingerly over the bruises that were already starting to show on Murata's thighs, but Conrad's touch now was no more intimate than he might have used to help a friend bathe at a public bath.

Yozak had taken the opportunity to clean himself up a little as well. He quickly slipped into his own tunic, then held the cloak ready to drape around Murata's shoulders.

"There we are! Much better," he said as he wrapped the blanketing cloth around the boy's slim shoulders.

Then, while Murata was busy adjusting the oversized cloak around himself, Yozak quickly bent down and scooped the kid up in his arms.

"Hey!" Murata started to yelp, but Conrad quickly stepped up and placed a finger to his lips. The rule about not speaking or crying out had its practical side, after all: they didn't want the guards to come running in answer to a shout, or worse yet, the maids, not even after the fact.

"Allow me," Yozak said, mockingly gracious. Murata pouted up at him furiously, wiggling in his arms; it was all Yozak could do not to lean down and plant a kiss on those soft, bruised lips. "Anyway, I'll make sure no one sees us coming or going!" he added with a wink.

"It's for the best, Geika," Conrad said as he finished tying the sash of his own robe. He handed Murata his glasses with a polite little bow, then stepped back and grinned at Yozak. "It turns out that some people here at the castle are way more observant than we accounted for!"

Yozak saw the light of comprehension dawn on the sage's face.

"So that's how you got involved? I should have guessed," Murata said. He put his glasses on, the better to glare at them with, apparently, and folded his arms. "All right then, if you insist...."

They did insist, but Yozak felt the limp weight relax in his arms. He was sure Murata was already starting to feel glad that he didn't have to walk back to the shrine tonight, and secrecy aside, riding there on horseback would have been out of the question. He would be even more glad of it tomorrow, too.

Conrad went with them as far as the castle wall, holding doors and checking corridors, although Yozak didn't really think it was necessary. A minute later, they stepped out of the same hidden doorway that Yozak had seen Conrad leave through several weeks ago. The air outside was fresh and cool compared to the closeness of Conrad's room, and they all looked up to where the faintest glow touched the eastern hills.

Mingled satisfaction and regret settled on Yozak. He suddenly wished he didn't have to walk away and leave Conrad behind now, but that was part of the arrangement he'd walked into when he'd followed the captain that night - never expecting this is what he'd find. Shinou himself couldn't have kept him from seeing Murata back home safe and sound now, anyway, but still...

And this is what I get for spying on people from rooftops, he thought with a sigh. Plain old political intrigue would've been so much simpler.

~~

Conrad hadn't planned to walk this far with them; Murata never even allowed Conrad to see him off beyond the door of his room before, always insisting that it was safer for the secrecy of their meetings if he slipped off alone. Now that the truth of that had been disproved, he couldn't help but follow them to the out wall under the excuse of helping Yozak get through the castle with his hands full.

He tucked the clothes they'd arrived in earlier into the armful of cloak and Murata in Yozak's arms.

"Be careful," he said softly, and leaned in to place a final, soft kiss on Murata's lips - something else he didn't usually get to do before Murata left.

This time, maybe because of his comfortable position, Murata sighed and returned the kiss, sleepy and soft but still with a hint of hunger, and with a whispered "Thank you, Weller-kyo" against his lips.

Conrad pulled away with a little difficulty, reminding himself that Murata needed to get back and rest; they all did, really. Then Yozak caught his glance. He raised one eyebrow and shifted his hip higher.

"Eh... " he sighed dramatically, rolling his eyes, "Yozak doesn't get a goodnight kiss..."

Murata's lips curved upward; the early light gleamed off his glasses and hid his eyes, but Conrad guessed he was smirking at them.

"Why not?" he said. He smirked in turn when he caught Yozak by surprise by planting his hands on either side of his shoulders in the doorway.

Then he pressed his mouth to Yozak's, and thought he might have made a mistake - if not now, then earlier. They were all spent and tired, but his body hummed back to life, almost, with the familiar taste and feel of Yozak's kiss and the solid feel of his body, even with Murata wedged in between them.

It occurred to him, as if it was a thought that had been lurking in his mind all along, that if it hadn't been for satisfying Murata's needs, he might well have preferred to let Yozak do what he'd intended earlier. He had to stop that thought in its tracks - it had been too long since he'd had the pleasure he'd given over to Murata tonight, and the memory of Yozak's hard body hammering into his sent a thrill shooting through him that was hard to resist.

He pulled back from Yozak, dropping one hand to let him leave, hoping they wouldn't notice his other fist clenched tight on the door frame.

"Go," he said, but his voice was too sharp and breathless. Yozak stared back at him without moving. Waiting for him to say something, Conrad thought, and he almost said it: "come back and stay with me..."

He wondered how long it had been since they just spent the night together, sleeping and waking in each other's familiar presence, or since he saw that look of expectation in Yozak's eyes, and he wondered why it had disappeared until now. Maybe he'd just become too familiar with his old lover to see it anymore, too distracted by all their other concerns, or maybe he was just so much in the habit, now, of not looking for desire in someone else's eyes that he didn't see it when it was there.

Yozak looked away first, and Conrad followed his gaze to look down at Murata, now nestled against his chest - eyes closed behind his glasses, and smiling.

"Next time, eh, taichou?" Yozak murmured.

Conrad nodded and stepped back. He watched from the hidden doorway as Yozak walked away, silently disappearing into the shadows.

Next time...

~~

Yozak could have found the way to the shrine with his eyes closed, which was just as well since the muffled gray of early dawn was nearly as hard to see through as the black of night.

Once Murata got used to the idea of being carried like a helpless child, he'd settled quite comfortably into Yozak's arms, his limp weight an nice reminder of all they'd done in the last few hours. Safely out of sight of the castle walls, Yozak walked easily, stretching limbs that he knew were going to be sore in surprising places the next day - though not anywhere near as much so as the kid in his arms was going to be.

It was just as well that his feet knew where to go without him having to pay much attention, Yozak thought with a frown. He was starting to feel too tired to think about it anyway, but his mind kept slipping away toward other things - the revelation that Conrad could, in fact, dominate a lover, for example... the way he'd looked down there on his knees when all that control gave way.... the name that had fallen silently from Murata's lips that he probably wasn't supposed to see... the unfathomable look on Conrad's face after that last surprising kiss in the doorway.

Murata stirred as they started up the hill toward the shadowy stone towers of Shinou's keep. He gazed up at it for a while, and then turned away with his eyes falling closed again. After a moment, he spoke, so softly that it took Yozak a moment to realize the sage was talking to him.

"There's no point in being angry at Shibuya, you know," he said, in that quiet, matter-of-fact way that he had. "It's not his fault he doesn't know."

Yozak gritted his teeth and didn't reply. No point being disconcerted by the remark, either, he supposed, or denying how he felt. Trust Murata to notice, and to realize even before he did that what he'd told himself was a passing twinge of fury hadn't subsided as much as he thought.

"After all..." Murata continued sleepily, turning his head to tuck more comfortably against Yozak's shoulder, "you've never been angry at Weller-kyo for not seeing how you feel about him, have you?"

Yozak caught his breath; he glared down at the kid, but Murata had - apparently - fallen sound asleep as soon as the words drifted out of his mouth.

He sighed as he marched along up the hill, and stared up at the Shrine. "Guess you've got a point," he muttered. "Still..."

Sneaking into the shrine was not quite as easy as sneaking into and out of the castle, mainly because he'd had a lot more practice at the latter. He wasn't sure he had to bother, since Shinou knew they were coming, but he did it out of habit and just to be sure, anyway.

He had to nudge Murata awake enough to tell him the way to his room, though, since he forgot to check into that little detail beforehand. Once there, he lowered the boy onto his bed and stepped back, not sure what else he should do. He bit his lip when Murata hissed sharply in the middle of shrugging out of the cloak, even though he laughed it off and said it was nothing a second later. Yozak decided to wait around a few more minutes anyway, ignoring Murata's sleepy attempt to wave him away.

The next thing he knew, Murata was out like a light. All Yozak could do was tuck him in and make sure he was comfortable for now. He squatted down next to the bed, debating in his mind whether he should stay and keep watch, or just leave, or what. He knew Murata usually left Conrad on his own and took care of himself afterward; but that just didn't sit right with him now, to leave him all alone like this after all they'd done.

Except, he realized suddenly with a cold shudder running up his spine, Murata was not alone. He looked up into blue eyes, at once fierce and gentle as they stared down at the sleeping sage.

"Things must have gone well tonight for my sage to sleep this soundly," Shinou said, making Yozak wonder if the kid usually had trouble sleeping. "I said you would do well at this, didn't I?"

Yozak frowned. That would have sounded like a mocking sort of praise, except for the fact that Shinou's soft gaze never left Murata's face. He didn't have an answer, anyway. If Shinou meant that he'd been bound to figure out what was really going on and why they were all doing this, he was right, but that didn't make him appreciate the compliment. He glared, not exactly at anyone or anything in particular, but Shinou seemed to understand the reason for it.

"You blame me for what they've both longed for and lost. You're right to, in a way," the spirit sighed. "Daikenja knew. He predicted this, accepted even this, for my sake."

Yozak stared up at him, mouth falling open as he realized what Shinou meant. Daikenja's whole plan led to and included this: that Murata Ken would fall for the one who would save his lover's soul.

Shinou soothed his fingers through Murata's hair, watched him sigh in his sleep. The king's blue eyes were filled with sadness that Yozak ever expected to see on that bright warrior's face.

"All of this, for me...and yet, I think he only blames himself."

Shinou bent down to brush his lips over Murata's forehead and across his lips; a ghostly kiss that was little more substantial than a dream.

"Take care of his heart for me," Shinou said.

He disappeared. Yozak sighed, and left his own kiss on Murata's lips before he turned down the lamp and curled up in the chair next to the bed. His body was not going to like him for this in the morning, but he'd put it through worse for less reason.

"Sure, I will," he answered the shadows as he started to drift off to sleep. "Murata Ken's heart, and Conrad's too. Just as much as I can - as much as they'll let me." Just like he always had.

He didn't need an assignment, even one from the original king of Shin Makoku himself, to do that.

~~ the end ~~

(Actually it's not the end - the story continues in "Judgement: The One You're With part 4" posted seperately! ^.~)