Breaking Even

Notes: This fic is dedicated to Mandi for being such a great friends and
for helping me out of a little bit of writers block!  (I hadn\'t been
able to write on my own for a while, and Mandi came to the rescue! 
Yay! ^_^)

Warnings: Aoshi/Sano (Wow, my first individual of this kind! :p) lemon

Breaking Even

By: Kako

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

Sanosuke Sagara drummed his fingers along the table top, looking through
the crowded room for a certain man.  The smoke was not only clouding
the room, but his nose, as he waited and waited, trying to hold off on the
sake as long as he could.  He wanted to be sober when he took this man
down... and he wanted to do it quickly.  He had been waiting for about
an hour.  The night before he had done nothing but \'gather\' information
(by gathering information, he meant going around town, kicking the shit out
of any gang member that might have known the man), and it turned out that
Hirozeki Fujitori was going to be at this gambling hall tonight.

It wasn\'t a place that Sano regularly visited.  Hell, he never went
there at all.  All the dice were fixed, but the people were bustling
in, because the prizes that they promised if you actually managed to win
were outrageous.  Trips, drugs, women; you name it, they\'d give it. 
But that was if you won.

Which meant it was never going to happen.

The place was themed as well, like a Western Saloon from the looks of it. 
The women were wearing huge, billowing shirts, tight, low tops, long gloves
that came past their elbows and had their hair tied up into a bun.  Sanosuke
wasn\'t sure if he liked the Western style; it looked rather ridiculous to
him, and all the women looked like prostitutes.  He looked over to the
bartender and quickly said, \"Another glass of tea?\"

The bartender nodded, filling his glass to the top once again and then went
about his business.  

Sanosuke slouched back in his chair.  He didn\'t really like the way
the wood felt against his back either.  Especially since his posture
wasn\'t the best to begin with.  He yawned and stretched out, shaking
his head to keep awake.  Usually the sake was the thing that kept him
going around this time, and that made it even more of a temptation. 
There hadn\'t been a sign of the man all night, and he was beginning to second-guess
his sources.  

\"Sir?  Aren\'t you going to participate tonight?  Or are you looking
for someone special?  I don\'t want to be alone tonight and...\" 
A sultry voice cooed in his ear, and Sanosuke\'s eyes casually swung over
to the owner of the voice.

\"I\'m waiting for someone.\"  He told the woman, who was wearing one
of those Western dresses.  Her face was painted up like a Geisha as well. 
And that made seem to be more of a slut than the others.  Literally.
 

She smiled and bowed, holding up her skirt in a curtsey that left Sano to
raise an eyebrow.  \"Very well, sir.  I hope your party arrives soon. 
I\'ll be around if you change your mind...\"

As she walked away, Sano caught a flash of sandy blonde hair.  He stood
up abruptly, trying to watch as the man made his way to the back of the room,
his chair nearly falling over at his sudden movements.  That had to
be him!

Sanosuke took to his feet and began to weave his way through the drunken
crowd over to the back room where Fujitori was slowly making his way. 
He ran over about three people by the time he found himself entering slowly
into a restricted area.  He passed through a pair of double doors and
reached an empty hallway.  He blinked, there wasn\'t a trace of the man...

Sanosuke growled under his breath as he looked around.  \"Which way did
that bastard go...!?\"

He knew that he shouldn\'t be in there, and he needed to get to a room or
find Fujitori as soon as he could...

Sanosuke\'s thoughts were cut short as a pair of arms yanked him backwards
into one of the empty rooms.  As he felt his rear hit the wooden floor
with a thud, his mind froze, and he couldn\'t help but think, \'Shit! 
My cover\'s blown!\'

He tried to spin around and look at his attacker, but before he could, he
heard a distinct and familiar hiss, demanding, \"What are you doing here?\"

Sanosuke flipped around and found himself staring into a pair of ice blue
eyes.  He froze, words caught in his throat as such he could only spat
out, \"Aoshi!?\"

A few seconds passed before the young rooster head regained his bearing
and finally demanded, \"What am I doing here?!  What are you doing here?!\"

\"I\'m here to meet with a man that\'s notorious as a pick-pocket.  But
he\'s not only a pick-pocket, he\'s also the man that created quite a ruckus
at the Aoiya, and during that time managed to slip past Misao and into the
safe where they kept the income.  I\'ve heard from numerous people that
he has quite a record of such things.  And I heard that he\'s giving
the money to people here to break even with an enormous debt that he got
into.\"  Aoshi finished and watched Sano for a moment, before asking,
\"And you?\"

\"I\'m after a guy named Hirozeki Fujitori.\"  Sano stated gruffly, picking
himself up from the floor and brushing his clothes off.  He looked back
up at Aoshi and paused.  

The man was looking at him with a grimace, and slowly began to walk toward
him.  Sano raised an eyebrow, \"What are you doing?\" and began to walk
back as the man walked closer and closer.  His eyes widened as he felt
the hallow thud of a wall behind him.  Aoshi\'s arms moved up and then
rested on both sides of him, pinning him to the wall.  \"Hey, man, what
the hell do you think you\'re doing...!?\"  Sanosuke snapped, trying not
to sound as scared as he was.

Aoshi leaned close to him and whispered into his ear, \"Just be quiet. 
The man that I\'m following -is- Hirozeki Fujitori.  Be careful
about the volume of you voice, we\'re being watched.\"

\"What are you doing?!\"  Sano demanded in a harsh whisper, \"And how
do you know Fujitori?!\"

Aoshi glared at the young man, another reminder for him to shut his mouth.

\"I already told you, he\'s the one I\'m following.\"

\"Oh... yeah... right...\" Sano said, wanting to slap himself for being so
tactless.

\"The more important question is why are you after him?\"  Aoshi said,
and Sano nearly fell over as he felt the man\'s lips over his neck, kissing
him.

\"What are you doing...!?\"   Sano demanded, and it was at that point
that Aoshi knew that he wasn\'t going to get any information, or logical response
from the boy if he didn\'t clarify.

\"Did you even know what the rooms back here are used for?  People that
pay to spend the night for certain reasons that I\'m sure you can guess, as
you saw the number of geisha\'s in Western dress out there.  As I said,
people are watching, so watch the volume of your voice and play along or
else our cover\'s blown.\"  Aoshi lectured, and Sano finally understood. 
But he couldn\'t seem to see past the fact that the stoic former okashira
was licking around his ear...

\"Fine... Fujitori banged up one of my friend\'s places, hurting a buncha
my gang and finished with stealing all the money... the same thing that he
did to yer Aoiya...\" Sano managed to get out as the older man\'s teeth nibbled
along his jaw line.

\"They\'re still here... slowly work your way over to the bed on your right...\"
The taller man dictated calmly, slowly wrapping his arms around Sanosuke.

Sano nodded and began to move.

\"No, not my right, -your- right.\"  Aoshi growled and the rooster
glared.

\"That is my right!\"

\"No, this is your right.\"  The taller man hissed, jerking Sano into
the other direction, practically tossing him down onto the bed.

Sano blinked as his back hit the bed and bounced a little.  \"Oh. 
That one.\"

Aoshi had to restrain himself from smothering the young idiot with a pillow
on the Western style bed, and settled for quickly pulling his jacket off
as Sano blinked.  He began to wonder quickly just when the men were
going to leave, and just how far he was going to have to go.  Aoshi
knew just where the men were as well, looking through the glass of a one-way
mirror.  Of course they could see Sand and Aoshi, but the couple couldn\'t
see them.

Sano gulped as Aoshi leaned down once more, after slowly removing his shirt. 
The stoic man took advantage of Sano\'s open lips and covered them with his
own, kissing him roughly.  Sano may have lain dormant up until this
point, but it was about time, he figured, that he showed the other man that
he was a bit more than a bump-on-a-log, and do something.  He leaned
up, kissing aggressively and slipping his tongue into Aoshi\'s mouth.

It was at that moment that Aoshi knew that the men were gone... but for
some reason he couldn\'t quite bring himself to left go of the younger man. 
His mind raced to find a reason why, but while he was thinking, he was oblivious
to the fact that he was removing Sano\'s jacket, and licking down the younger
man\'s chest.  Aoshi frowned, and pulled away abruptly, looking down
to the breathless young under him.

\"Is he... gone...?\"  The rooster inquired in-between breaths and Aoshi
hesitated a nod.

He wanted more... but he didn\'t know why.

Shaking his head, Aoshi looked back down to the floor and quickly pulled
on both his shirt and his jacket as the other man slowly sat up.  \"So
where is he now?\"

\"He\'s at the very end of the hall where a trap door leads down into this
place\'s safe.\"  He explained as he buttoned his shirt up.  Sano
frowned for a minute.  Before this he had neglected to notice the fact
that Aoshi was in what looked to be a Western outfit, like the geisha\'s in
the room.  Now that he thought about it there had been a lot of geisha\'s
outside, both male and female.  Was that what Aoshi had disguised himself
as?

\"Fuck, Aoshi.  You\'re a cowboy!\"  Sano broke down into laughter,
and the other man sent an icy glare his way turning his back on the man,
walking to the door.

\"It\'s the only way that I could get in and do what I had to do.\"

Aoshi\'s eyes widened significantly as he felt a hand slap his ass, and Sano
cheering, \"Giddy-up, cowboy!  Yee-haw!\"

The man spun around, looking at Sano with a promise of death in his eyes. 
\"Never do that again.\"

Sano couldn\'t help it.  He was still laughing hysterically, even if
the man was glaring daggers at him, even if the man had had been the former
leader of the Oniwaban and even if the man had a tendency of going into soldier-of-chaos
mode.  He couldn\'t help it.  \"Hmm, how\'s the business going? 
And be honest, I was wonderin\' if you were planning on riding me like one
of your horses?\"

\"Shut.  Up.  Now.  Sagara.\"

The younger man chuckled and walked up to Aoshi, swinging an arm around
his neck.  He gave Aoshi a quick kiss on the cheek in-between chuckles. 
\"Aww, come on, Aoshi!  You look good in it. Hell, ya look good in anything! 
But be careful about it, ya may rope the wrong cattle if yer not careful!\"

Aoshi decided that the best way to get away from Sanosuke and his terrible
cowboy jokes was to walk away from the situation, and to get Hirozeki Fujitori
right now.  He quickly walked out of the room, being followed by Sanosuke
chuckling, \"Just remember to keep yer feet in the stirrups and yer ass in
the saddle!\"

\"Shut up, Sagara.\"  Aoshi tried again, stalking down the hall.

Sano followed quickly, laughing all the while.

Aoshi stopped suddenly as a man walked out in front of him.  The man
looked him over, and it was indeed one of the men that was watching him earlier
through the mirror.  \'No!\'  Aoshi thought fiercely, \'
How did I miss this!?\'  His answer walked into his back almost
immediately after he questioned mentally, not seeming to realize that the
other man has stopped, carelessly giggling out, \"I go nuts for cowboy butts!\"

How tactless.  Really.

\"And where are you going, young man?\"  The old man asked, who Aoshi
knew was the manager.

\"My client told me that he needed a drink and so I--\"

\"Your room didn\'t have a sink?\"  The man questioned with a raised eyebrow.

Aoshi shook his head, \"The sink was broken.\"

\"Well use this room.\"  The manager stated, steering the former okashira
to the right where a room was.  The manager leaned in closer to Aoshi,
and whispered in his ear, \"And if I don\'t hear some moans and groans this
time, it\'s going to be your last job here.  Without pay.\"

Sano blinked as he was ushered into another room.  Aoshi ran a hand
through his hair and he heard the door shut and lock behind him.  He
knew that in this room there didn\'t have a counterfeit mirror for voyeurs. 
He didn\'t care about the job.  But he knew that he needed to collect
on Fujitori, and this was Fujitori\'s home base.  This is where Fujitori
worked, and stayed.  It wasn\'t as if he would have another chance at
another restaurant, and he didn\'t want to get bystanders involved. 
What was he going to do?

Aoshi looked over his shoulder at Sano\'s turned back.  He could always
ask the man to make some noise for those men in the hall, but knowing the
pride the gangster had, it was out of the question.  Sano peered around
at Aoshi, cocking his head, \"So what did the old, fat man ask ya to do?\"

\"Get you to make some noise so he\'s sure I\'m doing my job.\"  Aoshi
stated bluntly and Sano nodded, crossing his arms and turning his back again.

He looked over his shoulder at the costumed male geisha and asked quickly,
\"So what are ya gonna do?\"

Aoshi shook his head, walked over to the other end of the room, and took
a seat.  Sano sat on the edge of the bed, watching to see just what
the other man was thinking.  Of course Aoshi Shinomori was about asadabadable as a book in German to him, but even he could see that the man was
tense.  Sano shifted around on the bed uncomfortably and looked back
up.  \"Well, ya know, if doing it quickly would get both of us to our
goals then it might be worth considering --\"

\"Battousai would kill me.\"  The other man quickly cut in.

Sano\'s eyes fell into a deadly glare, \"So it\'s just aaaaaaaallll about Kenshin
again, isn\'t it?!  Do you know how tired I am of hearing from everyone
\'Kenshin this,\' \'Battousai that?!\'  God, I can\'t even hold a normal
conversation with anyone about anything without Kenshin\'s name coming up! 
I can\'t make any decisions without \'what would Kenshin think?!\' floating
all around me!\"

Aoshi blinked, \"\'Normal conversations?\'  And I believe that -
I- am the one making the decision.\"

\"Yeah, but the first thing that you thought of was \'what would Kenshin think?\' 
Which just proves my point again!  Fuck Kenshin!  God, he\'s just
everyone\'s hero, and the world would just end without Kenshin!\"  The
former fighter-for-hire burst out again, falling back down to the bed, sprawling
out with a frown on his face.

Aoshi chose his words carefully, afraid of neglecting to walk on eggshells
around the fiery youth.  \"Battousai\'s a respectable man, and I just
assume that if I tired anything with you, in spite of the positive outcome,
he would no longer see -me- as a respectable man.\"

Sanosuke sat up once again and hunched over slightly, looking at the man
across the room.  \"Heh, and you think that Kenshin would know about it? 
In spite of what you may think, I known when to shut up about something.\"

\"Like what?\"  Aoshi said drably, not believing a word the other man
said.

\"Like things that shouldn\'t be talked about!\"  Sanosuke bit back, \"And
I, for one, don\'t really care much about being a \'respectable man
!\'\"

Aoshi\'s eyes scanned the man over, and paused.  The room was silent
for close to ten minutes until Sano fell back down to the comfort of the
bed, a certain Oniwaban member pinning him down and kissing him roughly.

Sanosuke chuckled as he felt a trail of hot kisses being fluttered down
his chest, \"It\'s always the quiet ones...\"

\"Just make sure that you aren\'t one of those quiet ones.\"  Aoshi reminded
him, biting around his jaw while his hands continued to travel south along
Sanosuke body.  

The brunette nodded, and began to moan, quite in character, \"Aoshi! 
Mmm... more!  Aoshi!!  Please... more

He paused for a moment, even though his mouth was pressed against Aoshi\'s. 
He pulled away rather abruptly, and looked at Aoshi in the eyes, asking quickly,
\"You don\'t have an undercover name that I\'m supposed to be crying out now,
do you?\"

Aoshi rolled his eyes.  \"It\'s a little too late for that, don\'t you
think?\"

Sano nodded, breathing in heavily as his pants were torn off quickly, right
after his jacket.  He smiled as he heard Aoshi\'s zipper unzip and his
pants pool to the floor, off the side of the bed.  Sano decided, once
more, that he wanted to take a more active role and wrapped his arms around
Aoshi\'s neck, pulling him down in a devouring kiss.  Sano pushed his
tongue though Aoshi\'s lips and kissed him deeply, moaning loudly, as he was
supposed to, at Aoshi\'s touch.  He teased the raven haired man with
his tongue a little more, trying to pull him closer and closer as they continued
about their business.

Even if it was a task that had to be completed in order to fulfill the mission
as a whole, both parties were enjoying it much more than they should have.

Sanosuke\'s hand rubbed up and down Aoshi\'s neck, as the other man nibbled
on his bottom lip, hand stroking an aching erection that Sanosuke couldn\'t
explain.  Sanosuke couldn\'t explain why he wanted this man so bad, or
why he needed him.  It was all confusing to say the least, but as he
leaned up to Aoshi\'s ear, he heard himself ask, \"So just how far... are we...
mmm... going...?\"

Aoshi\'s answered by grinding his own hard-on against Sanosuke\'s inner thigh,
\"We need to make this as quick as possible.  You know that.\"

Sanosuke grunted, as he felt himself involuntarily bucking against the man\'s
touch.  \"I... need you inside... me, Aoshi!  Please!!\"

\"Not tonight, we need to get the job done... you know that.\"  Aoshi
admonished, running the heel of his palm over the base of Sano\'s cock, squeezing
roughly as he ran his hand over the thick length.

\"Ahhhhhh.... yes!!\"  Sano repeated over and over as Aoshi continued
his ministrations over Sano\'s lower regions.  \"More....!!  Harder!!\" 
He continued to shout, as Aoshi began to pump his member with fervor against
his own.

Amidst the sweet friction, Sano moaned over and over, aloud so there
was little doubt of anyone -not hearing- them, right up until his, and Aoshi\'s,
breaking point.  Sano shouted in pleasure the loudest as they both came,
spilling both their seed onto Sano\'s naked stomach at once, Sano just a little
before Aoshi.  It was that scream from Sano that pushed the silent man
over the edge.  Sano wiped the sweat from his brow, breathing in and
out deeply.  Aoshi leaned down once more to kiss Sano on the forehead
before heading back over to the sink, washing his face off quickly.

Sano blinked as a damp towel hit him in the head.  He glanced over
to the naked man at the sink and let a goofy smile come to his face. 
This was definitely not what he was expecting out of a little revenge mission. 
Yes, indeed, getting a hand job from that beautiful man was definitely an
unexpected bonus.  He cleaned up with the towel Aoshi had thrown him
and watched as the other man began to dress quickly.  \'Yeah, we still
have a bad guy to catch, don\'t we?\'

Sano didn\'t have nearly as much as Aoshi had to pull on.  Just his
shoes, pants and jacket, seeing as how Aoshi didn\'t bother to unravel the
bandaged.  They were more trouble than what they were worth.

\"Do you know if Fujitori would still be in the vault?\"  Sanosuke asked
quickly, after he finished dressing.

Aoshi nodded, \"He had quite a number of goods to distribute while he was
down there, and I don\'t doubt that he had a meeting with his superior down
there was well.\"

Sanosuke grinned and stretched out a bit, \"Then what the hell are we waiting
for?!  Let\'s get going!\"

Aoshi nodded, opening the door again quickly.  This time he was more
careful about not getting caught, and this time Sanosuke wasn\'t as much of
a distraction.  They silently slipped down the long hallway, not second-guessing
the other moans and groans coming from the other rooms in that area. 
Aoshi looked around cautiously as they reached the end of the hall. 
Under a rug was a hidden trapped door, which he quickly slipped down into,
Sano following close behind.

The room was poorly lit by two oil laps at best, and Sano was having trouble
getting down the ladder silently.  As he reached the bottom, he did
what Aoshi did and remained frozen.  The room led to another hall, lit
by only one torch.  As they silently crept deeper into the hall, they
could hear the clicking of coins, and the thud of bags being stacked up further
down.  \"So is that all the money that he took?\"  Sanosuke asked
suddenly, keeping his voice low.

Aoshi nodded, \"Undoubtedly.\"

\"How are we going to get all that shit back without making a big deal about
it?!\"  Sanosuke demanded as he began to count the number of bags he
heard being thrown, one on top of the other.  He had reached over thirty
by now.  All of them.  Money.

\"By paying Fujitori back personally, and by reporting the rest of it to the
police.  I\'m sure that there have been many robberies reported, but
no cases turned up.  This will pay them all back.\"

\"You sound so sure.\"

\"Of course I do.\"  Aoshi stated, pulling out one of his kodachis.

Sano froze.

\"Where the hell were you keeping that?!\"

\"Keep your voice down!\"  Aoshi ordered, and Sano froze as he heard
the bags stop.

They hurried the pace down the hall, and burst in through the door, the sandy-haired
man looking down a gun barrel at them.  Sano didn\'t bother to stop,
nor did Aoshi as they ran into the room.

\"Stop!\"  Fujitori called.  \"I\'m warning you!!\"

\"Warning us what?\"  Sano called with a grin, \"The only one that\'s gonna
be hurting is you!\"

Aoshi\'s kodachi slashed forward and made quick work of the gun, cutting
it into six neat pieces on the ground, and Sano leaned in for the kill. 
He kicked the man once in the gut, slamming him into a brick wall next to
the safe.  Sano then grinned at the fallen man, and looked at the wall. 
Taking in a deep breath, he thrust his fist forward into a quick Futae no
kiwami and caved part of the wall down on the man.  Fujitori lay there,
bleeding and unconscious as Sano winked at the man with ice-blue eyes.

\"I\'d say that\'s a case closed, wouldn\'t you agree?  Now all you have
to do is call the policnd and all\'s well that ends well, right?\"  Sano
said, digging his hands into his pockets.

\"So that\'s all you came for?  To kick him around a little?\"  Aoshi
asked dryly, looking at the pathetic mass of flesh that used to be a man
on the ground, lined in rubble.

Sano nodded with a smirk, \"\'Course.  And now I\'m gonna be headin\' out!\"

Aoshi watched Sano\'s back as he began to leave.  However, the young
rooster looked over his shoulder one last time before exiting.  \"Oh yeah,
-we- still need to break even, don\'t we?  Remember, next time ya need
to ride a horse, come see me, cowboy.\"

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

Owari