The Answer to the Question

Chapter 7: The Third Question

***Does Ginji love me?***

Ban woke up face down with his nose buried in a wet pillow on the bathroom floor. Even though he was covered with a blanket, a quick check beneath it confirmed that he was still ass naked. Ban’s naked back half was sprawled out in the flooded shower stall and his equally naked front half was wrapped around the bottom of the toilet. He had no idea how long he’d been like that since his watch had stopped telling accurate time the first time it’d been hit with a shock of electricity. The second time it got hit, the watch face had cracked. By the third and fourth times, the watch had long since given up and died a painful death, with the back popped open and all the inner springs and gears gone off in search of less abusive employment.

Ban grunted with hurt as he slowly got to his feet and staggered about the small space. The Jagan Master leaned against the huge claw foot tub and after a few moments of getting himself together and making sure most of his body parts were still in reasonable working order, Ban discovered the same couldn’t be said of his ass. It hurt to high heaven and was curiously dented all over in spots that were reminiscent of furiously gripping fingertips that had dug deep into his skin during moments of heated passion. And if all that wasn’t enough, after a few ‘what-the-hell-is-that?’ sniffs at his arm, Ban found that, oddly enough, he smelled really good…like cherry blossoms!

Ban sighed heavily. Even if he managed to live through the humiliation of being forcefully turned into a soprano-singing, cherry-scented uke, he was sure his injuries would finish him off anyway.

Ban stood up and, for the first time noticed that he was alone. After drying himself as well as he could, he gingerly tiptoed out into the bedroom. Aside from him, the suite was totally empty with no sex-obsessed…or maybe that should be sex-PO-sessed Ginji in sight.

“Gin?” he called, startled to find that his voice, while it worked, had a husky and scratchy timbre to it as if it’d been used to maximum capacity during the same long moments of heated passion that’d made both his watch and his ass go AWOL.

Ban tipped over to the balcony door and stuck his head outside. Facing him was the beautiful sight of a scrolling wrought iron balcony overlooking a large, gently lit courtyard filled with fruit trees, lush green foliage and a pond illuminated with multicolored underwater lights that allowed guests to view the huge orange and white koi that swam to and fro through its aqua-colored waters. A wooden bridge that crossed the pond to the other side of the courtyard led to several seating areas of wood and wrought iron benches surrounded by beds of fresh flowers. Above Ban, a starry night sky greeted him silently; their heavenly bodies twinkling down on him from their black velvet canopy. It was all quite beautiful, Ban thought. Even after all that had happened, he wished Ginji were there to share the serene, romantic atmosphere.

Ginji…

Ban turned and closed the door behind him. He fished his pants from under the bed and found his shirt, which he shrugged on as best he could, seeing as many of the buttons were either missing or not up to doing the job they used to do as some of them seemed to have been torn in half. Shaking his head, Ban fetched his glasses from behind the room’s sole armoire. He totally refused to think about how they’d even gotten there or why he knew where to look for them.

Going back to the scene of the first crime, he confronted the root-of-all evil, the vial, which lay innocently on the floor where it’d fallen after he’d knocked it from Ginji’s hand. Ban used his long shirttail to gently wrap around and pick up the bottle and its dangerously pretty contents and shoved it into his pocket, making VERY sure not to touch it with his bare skin or even look anywhere near it.

Ban was in NO condition to take ANY chances at that point!

Easing out of the Mugs’ room, Ban went further down the hall to their own and after opening the door, he stuck his head inside and flicked on the ceiling light.

“Ginji?”

The room didn’t answer. Ban knew immediately that his partner wasn’t there—the room yielded no sense of Ginji’s unmistakable presence. The rental car keys lying where he’d left them on the bed told Ban that Ginji was still somewhere close. A bit of panic hit Ban. What if that monster aphrodisiac hadn’t worn off him yet? Was he somewhere in the hotel violating another guest without realizing what he was doing?

Ban didn’t know what about that thought disturbed him more. The thought that someone might be getting an involuntary dose of electroshock therapy or that the person getting it wasn’t him. He pushed up his glasses and made his way to the front lobby, determined to find Ginji and once and for all, resolve what had shaped up to be their strangest case yet—getting back their normalcy.

Normalcy was a thing between them that Ban knew shouldn’t be gone.

Ban reached the lobby and stopped short. It too was empty, save for him, and Miko at the counter. Miko glanced up, saw who it was and slowly pulled down the mirrored shades she had perched atop her head. Ban saw what she did and suddenly became conscious of the fact that ever since earlier when he’d used the Jagan on Mug One, Miko had been very careful to have on sunglasses whenever she saw him. He realized that she’d somehow guessed not only what he was capable of, but also how to counter it. If it’d been a normal day, he’d have been impressed with her deductive skills and that she didn’t seem to be astonished by his abilities or afraid of him like some people were after they found out about him. But today was not a normal day and Ban was in anything but a normal situation. He needed to find Ginji and while he didn’t want to have to ask Miko since she’d abruptly rebuffed his earlier social engineering efforts when he’d asked for information, he didn’t seem to have a choice. There was an aura about Miko that said she saw and understood a lot more than anyone around her and certainly more than she let on. That aura Miko had said more about her than she herself did and it was that aura which told Ban that she was the only one that could help him…and possibly help him more than even he knew.

He stood there, trying to figure out how to approach the odd innkeeper when she wordlessly set out a packet of aspirin and a bottle of spring water on the counter. Then she sat watching him quietly.

Ban blinked in surprise. It was just what he needed! He shambled over to the desk and pounced on the relief gratefully.

“How did you know that was just what I needed?” he asked, gulping down the pills and half the bottle in one swig.

“You look as if you’ve been ridden hard and put away wet,” she replied in that statement-of-fact manner of hers.

Ban snorted. How close to the truth was that! He glanced at Miko as he finished his water and wondered what else in him she could see.

“Thanks,” he said, wiping his mouth with the back of his sleeve. “That really hit the spot.”

“You’re welcome.” Miko took the empty bottle and cleared the counter.

“Hey, Miko,” he said tiredly. In spite of everything, that huskiness in his voice was permeated by an exhaustion that he felt all over, both in body and in emotion. “Have you seen Ginji—that blonde guy I came in with?”

Miko sat quietly for what seemed to Ban like a very long second of her sizing him up behind her mirrored shades. As he watched his own reflection in her glasses waiting for her response, Ban felt as if he were being looked clean through his body and into whatever made him tick.

“The Secret Inn has a very strict policy against divulging guest information,” she said finally. Her voice was as straight and strict as ever.

Ban drooped. “I know, you’ve told me that before, but I actually came in with this guy and was hoping…”

“He didn’t tell you where he was going, did he?”

“Well, no,” Ban admitted. “But—”

“What if he doesn’t want you to find him?”

The thought hit Ban like a brick. After all that’d passed between them, Ginji had left him alone and it occurred to him just then, that maybe, if the potion had worn off and Ginji had come to his senses, that he might be…ashamed of what they’d done? Or regretful…?

The image of Ginji ashamed of the two of them went right to Ban’s gut and made him even more determined to find his missing partner.

“Look, Miko,” he said, leaning against the counter. “I’m not gonna bullshit you, ok? I really need to find him. Things…things have happened between us that I…I need to straighten out. I…I don’t want him wandering off and doing something stupid or being alone and vulnerable right now and I…uhh…well…shit…” Ban faltered. How did he explain to a total stranger something the he’d only just become aware of himself? How did he explain that everything that mattered most in his life was riding on finding Ginji and figuring out once and for all what they meant to each other? And figuring out how to keep them together…

“I…” Ban didn’t want to think about life without Ginji. He couldn’t. “Please…if you saw where he went, please…tell me…” Ban gripped the counter; his frustration beginning to show. “You’re supposed to be able to get anything a guest needs and right now…I need him!”

Ban waited for her answer.

“I didn’t see where he went.”

Ban sagged against the counter. “DAMNIT!” He sucked a harsh breath through his teeth and slowly turned his back on Miko. “Sorry. Sorry to have bothered you.” His anger was tinged with misery.

He started to walk away.

“Spiky.”

Ban turned back to face Miko.

“I didn’t see where he went,” she repeated. “Even if I did, I can’t break inn policy and divulge information about another guest unless they’ve requested it of us, which he has not. That’s what this place is known for—complete discretion. But…if you take this to a customer that needs it in the grotto, I promise to help you all I can.” Miko placed a small black velvet drawstring bag on the counter. “The property is pretty big and it’s dark out. Though most of the grounds are well lit, unless you know your way around, there are plenty of places Goldilocks could hide and you wouldn’t find him til he was ready. If you want a chance at finding him now, then you might want to take me up on my offer.”

Miko pushed the bag toward Ban. “I promise to get you what you need,” she finished simply. Then sat back once again and watched him silently.

Ban looked at Miko and even though he couldn’t see her eyes, he could feel them on her, boring into him, looking right through him again. He believed her without a doubt that she would do as she said. He took up the bag without hesitation.

“Good choice. Follow the lobby to the end past the west hall and you will see double doors leading to the gardens. Go through the rose garden and turn left at the hedge maze. You’ll see a cobblestone path leading to the hot springs. There are several sections to the springs, go around all of them til you come to the back where you will find a secluded cave marked by a small waterfall. Go through the fall and you will find who you’re supposed to give this bag to.”

Ban nodded, slowly understanding what she was doing. For the first time since waking up, he felt the tense knot that had settled in his stomach and over his heart, begin to loosen and fade. He could almost see light at the end of a very long, very dark tunnel.

“If this doesn’t work, do you still promise to get what I need?” he asked as he walked away. He hadn’t really expected an answer since Miko’d already gone back to her book before he’d even turned from her. He was surprised then, when he reached out to open the double doors to hear her soft voice float back to him.

“I promise.”

Ban smiled, then he pushed through the doors and went to go deliver more than just a bag to a person that needed it.

After Ban was gone, Ayumi turned up from the west hall carrying a huge basket full of bowls of wobbly, lime green Jell-o.

“I swear,” she huffed as she hefted the basket, “I don’t know what the Wrestlemania Suite is doing, but they’ve gone through every last box of Jell-o we have in the whole inn! And it all had to be LIME Jell-o for some ungodly reason!”

Miko snorted and turned a page.

Ayumi balanced the basket and scooted closer to the desk. She leaned over it and tossed her boss a sly look.

“I heard what you told that guy, Miko. I can’t believe you finally broke house rules and gave out information!” Ayumi grinned as she said it. After years of working at the inn, it was the first time she’d ever seen Miko show actual signs of caring. Ayumi knew that Miko did care about the guests, of course, but she usually did everything with such cold, detached efficiency, that Ayumi had often wondered if her boss ever truly felt anything.

“I didn’t,” Miko said, not looking up. “I didn’t tell him who was in the grotto. I just said a customer. And as a matter of fact, the customer really does need what is in that bag.”

Ayumi winked as if she and Miko had just shared a big girly secret. “Uh-huh, gotcha!” she hefted the basket again. “Better get this to Smackdown ‘08 before someone ends up being tossed out of the ring without any Jell-o to land in.”

She started to walk away when she stopped and turned back to Miko.

“I don’t understand something though. I thought you said you didn’t know where that blonde guy went.”

“Actually,” Miko corrected, “I didn’t say I didn’t KNOW where he went, I said I didn’t SEE where he went. I really didn’t.”

“Then how’d you know where to send his friend?”

Miko paused in her reading and glanced at the bank of camera monitors. Once again, all the pictures were crystal clear save one, which was situated near the entrance to the grotto. She couldn’t see into the grotto itself or into the springs that surrounded it. What she could see, however, was errant static that rolled across the screen every so often as if the picture hiccupped—hiccups caused perhaps by the fuzzy dots of snow around the edges of the monitor that seemed a lot like tears to Miko. Tears that needed what was in the bag and more importantly, tears that needed who was carrying that bag.

“Just a hunch,” Miko answered softly. Then she went back to her book.

*** ***

*Hevn was right,* Ban thought to himself. He walked through the grounds of the Secret Inn, surprised at how beautiful it was. The property was absolutely stunning. Even at night, everywhere he looked was lush and vibrant and filled with heady scents of roses, and green plants and rich earth. Everything seemed to move and dance with life of its own. It was as if the entire place had a conscious personality and all eyes of every living thing were on him, whispering to him as he passed, greeting him with friendly hellos and waves of their leaves or telling him naughty secrets, urging him to hurry and make some naughty secrets of his own.

As directed, he turned left at the tall hedge maze and followed the well-worn cobblestone path that was lined with plants, flowers and ornate coach-style lamp posts til the sounds of rippling water reached his ears. Pools of thermal springs lay before Ban surrounded by a low fence that he could see over. Ghostly tendrils of curling steam rose up and seemed to bow to him as he peered over the vast bowls of water heated from geothermal energy deep below the earth’s crust. It all looked so mysterious and inviting and all so surreal. Aside from himself, he hadn’t seen a single other person since leaving Miko, yet, from his first step outside, he hadn’t felt alone. Rather, he felt welcomed and the elegant serenity of the place provided a blanket of peace for Ban. His worries, his cares, his everything seemed to float away on the evening breeze carried with the leaves and petals that kissed his face as they flew by.

Ban vowed that if they ever got enough money together, he’d bring Ginji there again to enjoy themselves…and each other.

Ginji…

Ban put his mind back on the task at hand and followed the path around the various sections of springs til he reached the back. Just as Miko said, the fall of rushing water greeted him as he rounded a bend and saw a natural entrance to the springs of broad, flat, step-like rocks. The pool led to the mouth of a small, natural cave, the entrance to which was covered by a veil of water that was fed by a flowing spring running atop the grotto. Ban could see that the spring ran a good ways up the forested mountainside into which the entire resort was built and on out of sight. He had no problems imagining that the thin river of trickling water starting from the very top of the mountain where snow and ice covered the ground year round.

It was all so pure.

Holding the bag aloft to keep it dry, Ban kicked off his shoes and entered the springs. He waded through the swirling currents of soothing waters and slowly walked along the smooth bottom of the pool through the curtain of water. Cold! The fall was shockingly cold! But, instead of gasping from the icy deluge, Ban enjoyed the refreshing balance it made to the hot water that surrounded him up to his hips.

Behind the fall, underwater lights had been placed at even intervals inside the small space lending a hazy, filtered sort of glow which bounced along the cave’s uneven walls worn smooth by centuries of flowing springs. The silvery ripples of water were reflected by the lights onto the ceiling, walls and everything else in the cave, including the cave’s one other occupant who was sitting at the very back along a grassy ledge that marked the end of the grotto. He sat bunched into a tight knot with his knees drawn up to his chest and his face buried in his arms. All around them, the sounds of his sobs and hiccups echoed and bounced, amplifying the abject misery that he felt.

Ban stood there holding the slightly damp bag. He opened his mouth to speak.

“Go away, Ban.”

Ginji beat him to it. His muffled voice was soggy and wet as he continued to cry into his arms.

“Well, that’s a fine greeting for a person, who after being violated multiple times tonight, still came to look for you.”

Ban’s words sent Ginji into another crying jag. His shoulders shook with the heavy tears pouring down his face.

“I KNOW! That’s why I didn’t want you to find meeee!” The last syllable of his words drowned itself in the salt water being poured over it.

Ban quirked a brow. Miko was right, he HADN’T wanted to be found. Somehow, that didn’t make Ban feel any better. He sighed, took off his glasses and shook the water from them. Then he ran his fingers through the drooping hair plastered all over his face thanks to his walk through the fall.

“So just use me and lose me, is that it?” Ban walked toward Ginji slowly, careful not to upset him anymore than he already was. “Is that how it’s going to be?”

“I DIDN’T MEAN TO DO IT BAAAAN! I’M SORRY!” Ginji was about to explode with new grief. “It was the BOTTLE! IT TOLD ME TO DO IT! WAAAAHAA….I DIDN’T WANT TO BUT IT TOLD ME TO DO YOU!”

Ban eased up beside Ginji.

“AND THEN, SINCE YOU TREASURE OUR FRIENDSHIP SO MUCH, YOU LITERALLY PUT YOUR ASS ON THE LINE FOR MEEEE WAHHHH!”

Ban almost laughed. As dire as the situation seemed, it was actually kinda funny that Ginji thought he was so giving.

It was also kinda cute. “Ginji,” he started, trying to figure out how to soothe Ginji’s obvious misconception of things.

“YOU’RE SUCH A GOOD FRIEND TO ME BAN TO LET ME HAVE MY FILTHY WAY WITH YOU WAHHHHH!””

“Ginji!”

“AND…AND…AND THEN, I PUT MY HANDS AND ALL SORTS OF OTHER THINGS ALL OVER YOU…AND IN YOU…AGAIN AND AGAIN AND AGAIN…I MADE A MAN HUSSY OUT OF MY BEST FRIEND! WAHHHH…”

“MAN HUSSY?! GINJI!”

“AND *SNIFF SNIFF* I MADE YOU CLAW AT THE WALLS AND SCREAM MY NAME OVER AND OVER AND OVER AGAIN! OHHH I CAN’T TAKE IT!”

“GIN…oh screw it!” Ban threw down the bag, snatched Ginji by the head and pressed their lips together so Ginji couldn’t say anything else…at all. Ban held Ginji there for several long, astonishing seconds that left Ginji blinking unbelievably through his tears.

Finally, when he figured Ginji was done whining, Ban let him go.

“Is that the way I have to shut you up from now on?” he asked slightly disgusted. “Kiss you till you just STOP?”

Ginji blinked. “Did…did you just kiss me Ban?”

“Yeah, it was the only way I could get you to close your yap!” Ban hoisted himself up out of the springs and pushed Ginji over so he could sit beside him on the grassy ledge.

“What makes you think I’m such a giving guy that I’m gonna turn ass up to anyone for the sake of friendship?”

Ginji blinked again. “So…you didn’t stop me because we’re friends?”

“No, Ginji, I didn’t stop you because we’re friends.”

Ginji sniffed and thought for a second. “OH MY GOD! YOU DIDN’T STOP ME BECAUSE YOU DIDN’T WANT TO USE THE JAGAN ON ME BECAUSE YOU WERE AFRAID YOU’D HURT ME SO YOU LET ME HUMP YOU TIL YOU PASSED OUT INSTEAD!! OHHH THE HUMANITY, BAN, THAT’S JUST SO SELFLESS WAAAHHH!”

“Would you get a freaking grip on yourself! That is NOT why I let you!”

Ginji’s face melted and he started crying all over again. “WAAAHH…THAT’S EVEN WORSE! YOU DIDN’T STOP ME BECAUSE YOU WERE AFRAID I WOULD BE THE ONE TO HURT YOU! I CORNERED YOU, THREW YOU DOWN AND MAN HANDLED YOU INTO COMPLETE SUBMISSION WAAAAAAAHHHH BAD GINJI, BAD GINJI!”

“Oh my fucking God! GINJI! SHUT. UP!”

“MY WANTON LUST OVERWHELMED YOU SO MUCH YOU HAD NO CHOICE BUT TO LAY DOWN AND WAIT FOR ME TO MOUNT MY THROBBING MANHOOD INTO YOUR QUIVERING, BUT EXCITED FLESH!”

Ban’s mouth dropped open.

“THROBBING MANHOOD?!” He grabbed Ginji by the jaw and literally smacked him hard with a kiss. Ban gripped Ginji so hard, he had no choice but to stop his wretched sobbing.

“Umm…mah jaw ib pobbing…” he said after a few minutes of feeling like his mouth was going to unhinge in Ban’s hand.

“Oh, sorry.” Ban immediately let go of him so he could rub the circulation back into his face. As soon as he did, Ginji opened his mouth for more torture, but Ban beat him to the quick and clamped his lips together with his fingers.

“Be. Quiet.” he said forcefully. Ginji piped down on the waterworks and settled for a bad case of the hiccups instead.

“Dare I even ask where you came by words like throbbing manhood and excited, quivery flesh?”

Ginji hiccuped. “It’s quivering but excited flesh and it came from the book Natsume lent me. It’s called Cool by Eiri Yuki…you should really try it, it’s gritty yet romantic.”

Ban screwed up his face in total disgust. “And you know it word-for-word?!”

“Well,” Ginji said, hiccupping again, “it’s really good. I hear they’re going to make an anime out of it.”

“Ok, the first thing I do when we get back is have a LONG talk with Natsume!” Ban said. “As for you, WE ARE NOT GAY! Understand? No more reading that freaky girly Nancy boy yaoi stuff, got it? If you just gotta satisfy an itch for fine literature, read “Jugs” or “Hooters Monthly” you got that?!”

“Ok, Ban,” Ginji hiccuped. “Umm, Ban. I’m not gay. I mean…I think Natsume is really cute and every time I think about Hevn’s umm heaven, I lose a lot of blood through my nose, y’know?”

“Yeah, I know,” Ban admitted. “Been there, done that, bought the box of tissues. Even still, we’re not gay, but if we’re going to do this, then hear this. Natsume AND Hevn are off limits in that sordid imagination of yours. I’m the ONLY captain of this here vessel and I’m the ONLY one who can hoist its sails and lube its anchor, got it?”

Ginji blinked at Ban. “Why are we talking about boats? I didn’t know you liked to sail! I learn something new about you every day!”

“Damnit, Ginji, that’s just a metaphor!”

“Metaphor for what?”

“Metaphor for US STUPID!”

“How am I like a boat…am I about to sink?” He tested the grassy ledge he was sitting on. “This seems like it’s firm enough…”

“JUST FORGET IT!”

Ban hunched over away from Ginji to keep from throttling him by the throat.

“You know,” Ginji said, managing a sad little laugh, “it almost sounds like you were jealous when I said I thought Natsume was cute and that Hevn was, you know…hot!”

Ban opened his mouth to refute the claim but Ginji’s heavy sigh stopped him.

“But I know that’s not right.” Ginji hung his head. “You couldn’t be. If you were, that’d mean you liked me…you know…like…love.” Ginji began sniffling and fresh tears dripped their way down his cheeks.

“I lied, Ban,” he said. He said it so quietly that Ban had to strain to hear. “The bottle told me to do those things…but it didn’t tell me anything I didn’t already want to do. Natsume is really cute and Hevn is really hot…but…” Ginji covered his eyes and looked away from Ban, completely ashamed that he was going to be unable to handle what was coming.

“But…there’s only one person that I love.”

Ginji’s shoulders shook and he tried his best to choke the sobs that were making it hard for him to breathe. “I didn’t want you to know…I tried so hard to keep it from you and then, you got mad at me earlier this week, and I did that thing in the rain because I knew you were watching and…and…I got the bottle…and…and I did all those things to you …and…now you’ll leave…me.”

Ginji sobbed out loud and to Ban, though he said nothing, it was completely heartbreaking to hear. “Now you’ll leave me because you don’t feel the same way and we won’t be friends anymore. I still want to be your friend Ban-chan, but… but…”

Ginji couldn’t finish the sentence. He buried his face back in his arms and let the misery have him.

“Goodbye Ban…I’m so sorry….I’m so sorry…”

Ginji wasn’t sure when he first felt Ban’s fingers on his face, wiping away his tears. He only became aware of a soft, but firm grip drawing him out of his human knot and into a long, warm kiss. There was nothing truly sexual about the kiss, but it was full of emotion and full of something Ginji had no idea what to call, but thought if it were anyone other than Ban, he would have called it tenderness.

Slowly, Ginji’s tears rolled to a halt.

“That really is the only way I can shut you up now, isn’t it?” Ban asked softly. Ginji had been suffering for so long in silence, never daring to say anything for fear that Ban would leave if he found out, when all along, he’d been afraid of the same thing Ban himself was. That fear of change. That fear of feelings unaccepted. And certainly, that fear of being left all alone after things didn’t go well.

Now Ban knew the truth. And he understood the torment that wracked his friend.

“Ginji,” he started, quietly. “I didn’t let you have me because of friendship. I didn’t let you have me out of obligation. And I sure as hell didn’t let you have me because I thought you’d hurt me if I didn’t!” At that, he snorted out loud. “Are you shitting me?” Ban rapped Ginji lightly on the head. “Let me tell you something, Mister! I’ve stood up to the Lightning Emperor on more than one occasion and can I say I did alright for myself? I didn’t limp away from those fights by myself, now did I?”

Ginji sniffled and shook his head slowly.

“I can more than hold my own against you or anybody else, so you get that thought out of your head right now before I knock it out!”

Ginji shook his head. “Ok, Ban, but…why DID you let me…have you then?”

Ban rolled his eyes.

“Don’t get it yet, do you?” He pursed his lips, not believing he was about to say it out loud. “Because I wanted you too.”

Instantly, Ginji’s eyes became the size of golf balls. His mouth opened and closed and opened and closed as if he were trying to talk but was doing a really bad job of it.

“You…wanted me too?”

Ban sighed and closed his eyes. “Yes, Doofus, I wanted you too. Don’t get me wrong now, us getting together didn’t go down ANYWHERE NEAR THE WAY I IMAGINED IT, so I hope you had your fill, cuz I’m here to tell you, I’m the head dick in charge, got it?! If anybody’s gonna be riding someone like a bad-tempered pony around here, then it’s me in the saddle, comprende?!”

“Why are we talking about ponies? I didn’t know you liked horses.”

“Damn it, Ginji!”

“Soo…” Ginji hesitated like it was too good to be true. “Umm…does this mean you…love me…Ban?”

Ban knew the answer. He accepted the answer. Even so, the answer was still too new and too difficult to say out loud. Instead of answering with words, Ban answered with his body. Or he almost did. He leaned in for another tender kiss when he realized something and stopped.

“You’re really gross right now!” Ban grimaced and his lips shriveled at the thought of kissing Ginji in his drippy state. “I mean seriously, you’re a mess! Your eyes are red and puffy, your nose is all runny and there are boogers hanging out!”

Ban took up the bag Miko had given him and began dumping stuff out. Out dropped a bottle of water, a packet of aspirin and some tissues. Ban glanced up at Ginji.

“You have a headache, don’t you?”

Ginji sniffled out a yes.

“Damn that Miko.” Ban shook out the two aspirin and made Ginji take them, then made him drink the whole bottle of water because he was sure his now literal partner was totally dehydrated after doing all that crying like a six-year-old girl. Then he held a tissue to Ginji’s nose and helped him blow it like a little kid with a cold.

“Blow.”

Ginji blew.

“Blow again.”

Ginji blew again.

Ban wiped Ginji’s nose and tossing the destroyed tissue, ran his fingers through Ginji’s hair, trying to clean him up a tad.

“There,” he said after a bit of grooming. “You almost look human again.”

Ginji smiled. “Thanks. Umm…you didn’t answer my question though.”

“No,” Ban sighed, “I guess I didn’t.” Slowly, he positioned himself in front of Ginji. Ban sighed again. “Ginji…”

“Yes, Ban?” Ginji leaned into Ban for the kiss he knew was coming.

“I…”

“Yes?” Ginji closed his eyes.

“You…”

“Yes?” Ginji parted his lips.

“You smell like cherries!”

Ginji’s eyes popped open and he grinned like an idiot. “Yeah, it smells good, right? I found it in the bathroom when I had you cornered in the shower and screaming like a woman! It’s the inn’s own brand of luxurious bath products guaranteed to leave your skin silky smooth and baby soft. They use real aloe and jojoba oil!”

“You rubbed me down in this too, didn’t you?”

“Oh yeah, Ban. After I bent you over like a sack of rice and rode you like I was in the rodeo, I rubbed you down all over your naked, wet, soapy body. I rubbed you down, Ban…I rubbed you down real good.”

“Ginji! What’d I just get finished saying about us not being gay?! Men wearing cherry blossom scent is definitely GAY!”

“Well, Ban, you didn’t seem to mind it at the time…although I think you were about to pass out, so you may not have known what I was doing. I mean you were drooling…”

“I get it.”

“And your eyes were rolled back inside your head…”

“OK!”

“And you were shaking like you were about to have a seizure or something. Then you sang the Japanese national anthem.”

Ban didn’t know whether to smack Ginji or just dump his ass before the relationship had even started good. In the end, Ban did neither. Instead he kissed Ginji one more time and this time, put some stank in his game! Several long, very quiet minutes on Ginji’s behalf later, Ban let him up for air.

“I’m…I’m drooling…” Ginji gasped.

“Uh-huh…” Ban then began an attack on the side of Ginji’s neck. Slow circles with his tongue against the skin of Ginji’s neck and throat made the Lightning Emperor’s eyes flutter and roll back inside his head.

“My eyes are rolling back inside my head,” Ginji gasped.

“Uh-huh…” Ban began a lazy journey down Ginji’s body, leaving the safe haven of the hollow of his throat for the more risqué places of Ginji’s chest. Without much effort, he quickly parted Ginji from his vest and wet shirt and made a couple of layovers at each of his nipples. Ban’s mouth on Ginji’s quivering, but excited flesh elicited more than a couple of involuntary utterings from the man under assault.

Ban shucked off his glasses and straddled Ginji’s legs. He took up the velvet bag again and hefted it. “There’s something else in here,” he said, knowing what it was without even looking.

Ginji locked eyes with his partner and blushed, signaling that he too knew what was left inside the bag. His skin, flushed already from the heated attention Ban was pouring over it, tinged a light red. But he didn’t look away. He bit his lip, then, almost shyly, reached both arms out for Ban, beckoning him without words to come to back down him.

It was a quiet yes.

It was a definite yes.

And as Ban bent to comply with the wordless request, he decided it was the sexiest ‘yes’ he’d never heard. Ban gazed at Ginji for a long, thoughtful moment, seeing not for the first time just how sweet his partner really was and just how much Ginji trusted him—ready to literally give him everything.

“I…I…don’t know all the words to the Japanese national anthem…” Ginji stammered. He found that words didn’t come so easily with Ban staring at him as if he were seeing him, really seeing him, for the first time.

Ban continued to gaze at Ginji—at him, over him, down him, lightly tracing the path his eyes took with his fingers across the trail of goosebumps and arching flesh down to Ginji’s center…

Ban opened Ginji’s shorts, pulled them off, and beheld proof of his partner’s want, his need and his declaration of yes.

“That’s ok. You’ll just have to improvise.”

The touch of tongue to rigid flesh forced Ginji to do just that. Breaths of heavy sighs joined a chorus of pleasurable moans to make a symphony of sex as Ban played Ginji’s body like a well-loved instrument. Every caress, kiss, lick, touch, slide, pull and swallow added another note to the song. The gentleness of the lingering melody the two were playing echoed and bounced in the small space, giving their performance a measure of acoustical harmony that can only come from two people in love.

Even if he didn’t say that word “love” out loud, Ban more than made up for it with the way he held Ginji. The way he spoke softly to him. The way he paid attention to the responses Ginji’s body gave him and gave it all that it asked for and more. The way that he let Ginji explore and undress his own body in return, this time, guided not by artificial emotion in a bottle, but by hands and whispered guidance and love that could be kissed, stroked, and held in tenderness. There was none of the frantic, all-out rawness that had marked their previous sessions. This was different. It was a pure embracement of feelings that had gone unspoken and unacknowledged for so long, that they came tumbling out on their own through gentle words of yes…silken calls of names and hot sighs of give and take.

Before long, Ban reached for the bag and the one thing he knew it contained. He shook out the small bottle of lube and snorted with amusement as he looked at it in his hands:

MoodSwing Lube…for when you’re in the mood and need to swing—New and improved waterproof formula for all your underwater sexcapades!

“I see I need to have a talk with Miko too…” Ban murmured. He put all thoughts of the strange woman out of his mind and went back to the task at hand. He poured out a measure of the gel into his hands and bending, he lifted Ginji’s legs to get at the source of his attention.

Without hesitation, Ban took his tongue to Ginji causing his boy to heave sharply and clutch at the grass; pulling up clumps of it in his hands.

“Relax…” Ban continued making love to Ginji’s entrance, first with his tongue swirled round and about, to and fro and back again and then with his lubricated finger. First innocently massaging the area, then playfully teasing with feathery slides in and out of the hot sheath. One finger, then two, they plied Ginji, both putting him at ease and ratcheting up the tension of need at the same time. Ban continued until Ginji literally begged him for more.

“Please…Ban-chan…” his need echoed in the sparkling chamber. “I…need you…”

Ban was deep in need himself. He took more lube, this time to himself and spread it with long, torturous slides over the length of his hardness. Down, up and back again, each time tightening his grip, quickening his motions, thrusting into his own hand.

“Ginji…” he breathed, exerting pants of effort through moistened lips. “I need you too…”

Ginji reached for Ban and Ban pulled him first up into a sitting position and then to him. Embracing Ginji tightly, Ban bade Ginji to wrap his legs around his waist and when the two were as one, he slid their entwined bodies into the sizzling depths of the water pool, sending dozens of light-splashed ripples bouncing across every surface of the entire cave.

“Hot…” Ginji moaned. “Please…”

Ban hoisted Ginji for better grip then, forcing Ginji up so he could gaze at him once more, began their joining.

Slide…

He positioned Ginji over his erection.

Down…

Ban loosened his arms to allow Ginji to go the way of gravity and slip down his wet chest.

Kiss…

Ban locked eyes with Ginji, then moved in for a kiss that seared them both as the Lightning Emperor arrived at his final destination.

Push…

Ginji moved down, Ban thrust up, and in one, smooth motion the two were joined in all ways. Ban entered Ginji to the hilt and sighed at the erotic sounds of Ginji’s cries.

With his strength removed and replaced by total pleasure tinged with pain, Ginji fell against Ban and laid his head in the crook of Ban’s shoulder, holding on with all that he had left.

Ban gave Ginji reason to hold on. As soon as he was sure Ginji had adjusted to him, Ban began moving the two of them in sync with each other. He pulled Ginji down as he thrust up and the two of them met skin to skin, sword to sheath, slide for push in such a heated friction that Ban found himself holding on to Ginji just as tightly.

Ban moved into and out of Ginji, claiming and taking, giving and receiving. Ginji moved with Ban, taking all that he was given and crying out for more.

“Kiss me…” Ban whispered hotly.

Ginji kissed the crook of Ban’s shoulder, sending butterfly shivers through both their bodies.

“Call me…” Ban whispered hoarsely.

Ginji stopped his fluttering kisses long enough to breathe out Ban’s name.

“Ban…ahhh…Ban…chan…please…Ban…”

Spurred on by the mounting heat in both their sex and their harsh, eratic breathing, Ban’s thrusts became faster and harder.

“Touch me…”

Ginji’s hands needed no further encouragement. They were everywhere at once. On Ban’s neck, up and down his back, over the rippling muscles of motion and through Ban’s hair—touching, pulling, scraping, scratching…

“Ahhh…Ginji…AHHH…” Ban was close and getting closer. He felt a fire in the pit of his belly and it was threatening to spread to the rest of him and burn him from head to toe. “I’m close…” he gasped.

“Please, Ban…PLEASE…”

Against his chest, Ban could feel Ginji’s own hardness pulsing against his skin. It too was begging for release, just as his own cock was demanding satisfaction.

Ban adjusted Ginji so that he once more had to look him in the eye.

The two met in their optical space—eye to eye…

“Love me…?”

“Yes…”

Ginji drew Ban into a kiss that locked the two together, while at the same time, he placed hands on himself and stroked his cock heatedly as he met Ban’s upward thrust with a downward slam that took them both sharply over the edge.

“GINJI!” Ban just managed Ginji’s name before his heavy release flooded Ginji from within. His thrusting slides became lubricated with the scorching pulses of ejection that Ban jet inside Ginji. Ginji returned the favor, milking out his own release and coating Ban’s chest with threads of his own. Fat drops of seed dripped down Ban’s skin in shots of ejaculation as Ginji clutched at Ban with his arms and his fingers; digging his nails into Ban while he shook with each and every wave of emotion-fueled orgasm that took him higher and higher til he could go no further.

Ginji collapsed against Ban and Ban, unable to stand the two of them upright any longer, spent the last of his energy leaning them both against the side of the grassy ledge.

He didn’t let go of Ginji, however, and neither did Ginji let go of him.

Several long moments of steadied breathing later, Ginji pulled back a little and very slowly pushed his lips against Ban’s as if he were making sure that the man he was still wrapped around was still there.

Ban was solid and warm and returned the peck; reassuring his lover that he was indeed real and what had happened had really happened.

“Umm…” Ginji said finally, “don’t you think this is weird? I mean…we’re still two guys.”

Ban didn’t let Ginji go. Instead he leaned Ginji back further against the side of the grassy ledge and rested his head against Ginji’s chest.

“Hell yeah this is weird!” he snorted against Ginji’s skin. “If someone had told me a month ago that I would be dipping dick with another man, I would have called his mother a nasty name.”

“Oh…” Ginji replied, not sure what to make of Ban’s statement. He squirmed a bit in Ban’s grip.

Ban still didn’t let Ginji go.

“But…” Ban continued after a moment, “if someone had told me a month ago that I’d be dipping dick with you…” Ban sighed, “I’d have still called his mother a nasty name. Then I’d have gone out to buy some extra strength lube. Maybe some MoodSwing Lube. That stuff ain’t too bad, is it?”

Ginji smiled; relief flooded him. It was a warm and happy relief.

“So, we’re still friends then?”

“Yeah, we’re still friends.”

“And we’re still the Get Backers?”

“Of course. Who else is gonna get back what shouldn’t be gone?”

“And you’re not going to leave me?”

This question hung heavily in the air.

Ban swat Ginji with his hand for being stupid.

“Of course not! Why would I leave?”

Ban looked at Ginji dead in the eye. “You owe me money!”

“Oh, Ban…”

*** ***

Some time later, the two Get Backers slowly walked back through the Secret Inn lobby. Both of them were exhausted, weak and the word ‘sore’ didn’t even begin to cover what certain parts of their anatomies were complaining loudly about.

Miko sat at the counter with her sunglasses on reading her book. She had a little something on her face that might have passed for a tiny, smug smile…on a crocodile. On her though, it just looked like a grimace. A smug one. She kept her head bent and engrossed in her book without giving them any acknowledgment in the slightest, but Ban knew better.

As tired and frankly worn out as Ban was, he couldn’t resist a jab at Miko’s completely annoying habit of seeming to know everything all the time.

“Got anything else I need?” he asked snottily as he passed. He hadn’t expected an answer since he’d gotten all that she’d promised to give him and much, much more out in the grotto, but when he heard a soft plop on the counter behind him, Ban couldn’t help but look.

Miko was still in the exact same position as she had been when they’d entered the lobby; head bent, sunglasses on, book in hand. Only now, in front of her, was a small, light blue inflated plastic donut. It was the kind of thing hospitals gave pregnant women, massive hernia sufferers and other folks in the unpleasant situation of having a hard time sitting down to ease their suffering.

Ban wanted to kick Miko, but he was certain he couldn’t lift a leg high enough to do it.

Without a word, he turned himself and Ginji back on course to the east hall and to their room.

“But, Ban,” Ginji protested, “I kinda need that!”

There was a soft plop and when the duo looked again, the donut had been joined by a friend. Two of them sat side by side on the counter in front of Miko.

Ban grit his teeth and cursed out loud…but not before stomping as best he could over to the desk and snatching the two butt cushions up.

“Nobody likes a smart ass!” he snapped at Miko before limping off to rejoin Ginji. The two of them and their bum relievers rounded the corner and were well out of sight before Miko replied.

“I get that a lot.”

“Miko?” Beside Miko a walkie-talkie crackled to life.

“Yes?” she replied to Yurika.

“Are the lights back on?”

“Yes,” Miko answered, turning a page.

“I’ve checked the fuses…again! They’re singed back here but from what I have no idea. It’s like they received some sort of power surge but I’ll be damned if I can figure out from where. They’re still working though, so I don’t know why the lights keep shutting off like that.”

Miko turned another page.

“It’s not the fuses,” she stated simply.

“Oh Lord, Miko, don’t start!”

“Ok.” Miko went silent.

“Dick?” Yurika asked against her better judgment.

“Yes.”

“Super-powered dick that can fuck with the lights?”

“Yes.”

“Spiky?”

“And Goldilocks.”

There was a crackling second of silence.

“Maybe it’s the wiring. I’ll check that while I’m here. Yurika out.”

Miko sighed and turned the page.

“They never listen.”

*** ***

After a quick look in the Mugs’ room, Ban and Ginji found things exactly as they left them—complete chaos! While there was no sign that the Mugs or anyone else for that matter had returned to do more damage, the room was far from the elegant space it’d once been. Things were knocked down and turned over and there was water seeping in over the carpet from the bathroom. The bed didn’t look none too stable either. The frame was sagging and the entire thing looked as if it would crumble into a wooden heap at any second. It was as if someone had gotten a hold of a powerful aphrodisiac, or perhaps a powerful aphrodisiac had gotten a hold of them and then a massive, no-holes-barred orgy had commenced! Of course, that’s exactly what had happened—twice! Ban and Ginji carefully closed the door, and quickly returned to the ‘Wake Up, We’re Not Here to Sleep Suite,’ completely disassociating themselves with the damaged they’d contributed to in the other room.

“Ok, here’s the plan,” Ban said, closing the door stealthily behind them. “We gotta leave as soon as we can so nobody can pin us for what we did to that other room.”

“But Ban,” Ginji said, gingerly sitting on his cushion beside the basket of “amenities” he’d left out on the bed, “nobody here knows we were in that other room, do they? We snuck in and the only people that saw us, Dr. Jackal and those interceptor teams, are gone.”

Ginji had a point, Ban had to admit and it would have been true had they been in any other place with any other person in the nearby vicinity EXCEPT Miko. Miko threw all notion of subterfuge out the window and Ban was sure if she didn’t know they’d been in the room, she’d figure out they’d had something to do with the carnage left behind in short order.

“I wouldn’t be so sure. I think Miko is on to us,” he told Ginji. “So we have to sneak out when she’s not at the desk.”

He sat beside Ginji and grabbed the keys that were still on the comforter. “Let’s get some rest. If she’s on the night shift, then maybe Ayumi or that gun thug will be on duty in the morning. If we leave early enough, we can probably get away unseen.”

Ginji flopped down on the bed. “Good, cuz I’m beat Ban-chan. I don’t think I could take another step right now, let alone a ride down that bumpy driveway.”

Ban’s ass felt the same way. He adjusted his own cushion under him. “Agreed.”

Suddenly Ginji sat up.

“Oh, Ban! What about the bottle? I left it in the other room!”

“Relax,” Ban told him. “I got it right here.” He pulled it out from his pocket. “I should probably put this somewhere so we don’t…get…su..c..k..ed…in…”

Ban’s words trailed off as he realized the cardinal sin he’d just committed…two seconds too late. He had totally forgotten about all caution and pulled out the bottle with his bare hand. Instantly, a warmth shot through his fingers all the way up his arm and spread with a rushing quickness throughout his entire body. Inside the bottle, the pinkish-purple glow pulsed angrily as if it were fed up with being inside Ban’s pocket and was letting him know about it. Inside his head, a shivery whisper assaulted him with slowly hissed words that both reprimanded him for ignoring it and heated him up with silent, erotic, colorful images that flooded his mind as if he were actually seeing them. All aches and pains and traces of exhaustion vanished within the hazy visions of sex that danced before Ban’s very eyes.

*Tell him…* the voice said over and over again. *Take what you need…take what you want…give him what he craves…*

The lights inside the bottle were like tiny falling stars that swirled as if propelled by an intelligent life all their own. They converged wherever his fingers made contact with the surface of the vial and flickered and glowed in time with the beat of his heart, that, with each passing second, grew faster.

*Open me…let me out…feel me…taste me…become one with me…let me love you…*

Ban’s eyes lit up with the pale light and it bathed his entire face in its glow.

*Open me…let me out…let me show you the way…*

Ban’s hands moved on their own and slowly made their way to the stopper.

*Open me…let me out…play with me…sway with me…*

The entire world outside the bottle and its sleepy eroticisms disappeared for Ban. It all went dark and the only thing he could see was the bottle before him and the only thing in his awareness was the warmth that was awakening an arousal within him. That…and Ginji’s steady, even breathing beside him. Another pair of fingers reached inside the picture of his vision and began to fondle the bottle right along side his own.

“Open me…let me out…sway with me…lay with me…” Ginji’s sleepy, dream-like voice sounded in Ban’s ears, repeating what he could hear voice echoing in his mind.

Together, his fingers and Ginji’s worked the tiny gold tear-drop shaped stopper from the bottle. At once they were surrounded by visible fumes that sparkled and twinkled in the air around them, filling the space with a sweet, flowery fragrance…

Ban breathed it in.

Ginji exhaled it out in a cloud like hot, sparkly breath on a cold winter’s day.

*Touch me…fill me…fulfill me…*

Ginji turned to Ban.

*Take him…take him…take him…*

Ban turned to Ginji.

*Tell him…tell him…tell him…*

Ginji reached for Ban.

“I want you, Ban…”

Ban reached back, then, he opened his mouth and spoke.

*Tell him…tell him…tell him…*

And when he did, his words echoed heavily of de ja vu.

“I want you too.”

End Chapter 7: The Third Question