Slippery Conditions (IDP #5)

It had seemed straightforward at the time. You could find out for yourself. Takumi had won against Takahashi Keisuke, and against the Night Kids, and even against Mako and Sayuki, on their own mountain. He wanted more. He wanted to know if he really was fast, or just lucky.

"Takahashi --"

"-- Ryousuke --"

"--Gunma's number one superstar," Itsuki added, as if that just made it worse, "--for Takumi?"

Apparently, Ryousuke didn't see it like that. Or else he just had an even worse sense of humor than Takumi had suspected. He stared at the enormous bouquet of roses in the gas station manager's arms, then down at the neatly typed note that had been tucked in among the flowers , and tried to think of an explanation. Um, you see, after my race with Keisuke-san -- No, that was bad. When Ryousuke-san came to the water park -- yes, I knew he would be there -- well, actually, he was there just to talk with me -- That was worse. Oi, what's wrong with going out with a guy? Two guys. Um. Definitely no. Where was an earthquake when he needed one?

Iketani took the note from Takumi's hand, and read it aloud. "September 15th, 10 PM. At the peak of Mount Akina."

Kenji snatched it in turn. "Oi, that's all it says?"

"But..." Itsuki's eyes had gone wide. "But that's..."

It wasn't a date, Takumi thought frantically. When Ryousuke wanted a date, he called. Or just showed up. It wasn't what it looked like!

"Finally," Iketani said solemnly. "Takahashi Ryousuke has sent him a challenge for a downhill battle!" And the three Speed Stars shivered in shared delight.

They see what they want to see, Ryousuke's voice murmured in Takumi's memory. Takumi stifled a sigh. It was a challenge. A challenge he wanted. A challenge he'd sort of incited, even. But it was a lot easier to feel confident about challenging the White Comet of Akagi when he was lying naked between his lovers, pleasantly achy from amazing sex, than standing here with friends who still called him 'you idiot' half the time.

His lovers. Keisuke and Ryousuke.

He was really going to race Ryousuke. Ryousuke, who'd been able to keep up with him effortlessly, during a race. Ryousuke, who intimidated even his brother sometimes.

Ryousuke, whom he'd seen naked and panting and coming apart under his hands and mouth. More than once. And he still wanted to race him, maybe even more than before.

He wasn't sure if it was good or bad when Natsuki called on Saturday evening and informed him that he was taking her up to Lake Akina, because they were supposed to be dating and she hadn't seen him in ages and she wanted a walk. He picked her up after lunch, and for a while, they'd just strolled along the lake shore, her talking about whatever while he half-listened. She must have stopped without his noticing, or he said something and she'd noticed, because she stopped walking and said abruptly, "What's wrong, Takumi-kun?"

He jumped, and tried to remember what she'd been talking about. "I..." Dammit. "Nothing's wrong. I'm fine."

"But you don't look very interested. You look out of it." She tilted her head thoughtfully. "Not that that's anything new." Takumi muttered a protest, but Natsuki ignored him. "You look like your mind isn't here," she said firmly, facing him. "If you're not having fun, then Natsuki is heading home."

"I am having fun." It wasn't a lie. Natsuki was pleasant company. She didn't expect anything from him except just being there. It wasn't her fault his head was somewhere on Akina, or maybe Akagi. "I'm sorry, I apologize."

Natsuki mmmed, head tilted. "Then what were you thinking?"

"Um--"

"I won't forgive you unless you tell me."

Well, there's this race, with this man -- Had he told her anything about racing? He couldn't remember now. "It would be difficult for you to understand even if I told you," he tried.

Natsuki stared at him, then rolled her eyes and turned on her heel. "I'm going home."

"Okay, I'm sorry," Takumi said hastily. "I'll tell you." She'd understand, wouldn't she? Natsuki wasn't stupid -- she'd figured him out before he had.

It took him a while to explain. He hadn't realized how deeply into it he'd gotten: he kept using racing terms, and then having to double back and explain that no, he wasn't going to fight someone exactly, they just called a car race a 'battle,' and things like that. He tried to avoid talking about Keisuke or Ryousuke more than he had to. He was pretty sure he failed.

"I didn't know Takumi-kun liked that kind of thing," Natsuki said finally, sitting down next to him on one of the benches facing the lake.

"I didn't intend liking it. I was kinda dragged into it. " Racing, Takumi reminded himself. They were talking about racing. "Ryousuke-san -- my next opponent's very good and famous. I haven't been able to help thinking about it since the challenge arrived."

"Do you like him?"

"It's not about that!"

Natsuki giggled, but didn't push. Instead, she said, "Takumi-kun is good at driving, so you'll be okay."

"It's not that easy." She didn't understand after all. It was one thing, just driving out for a day at the beach or an afternoon at the lake. That wasn't the same kind of driving as in a race. She'd never seen him doing that kind of driving.

Natsuki was watching him right now, though, with a little frown on her face. "If it's so difficult, why don't you ignore him?"

Takumi frowned at her. "I wouldn't do that. I'm not going to run away." Ignore a challenge? He wasn't the ignorant kid from the beginning of the summer who didn't care about his reputation as a racer. "It's just that I don't know if I can win."

He'd thought that last had been under his breath, but Natsuki laughed again, and said, "That's just like you."

"Eh?"

"That's why you were so quiet. You want to race deep in your heart, don't you?" Takumi opened his mouth to protest again, although he wasn't sure what he was protesting. Natsuki ignored him. "And you look calm, but at the bottom of your heart you absolutely hate to lose." She leaned in, looking at him through her eyelashes. "Natsuki doesn't dislike that type of personality."

Takumi stared at her, wide-eyed. She was kidding, wasn't she? Keisuke and Ryousuke confused him enough on their own, without someone else added in! Natsuki stared back for a long minute, then sat back, giggling hard. "Sorry, sorry," she managed through her giggles. "Takumi-kun is so cute when he blushes!"

Takumi rubbed the back of his neck, and looked away from her, willing the heat in his face to die down. "Oi, I was not."

Natsuki's giggles gradually died down, and they sat quietly together. Finally, Takumi stood up. "We should head home."

"Mmm." But Natsuki got up too, and followed him along the path to the parking lot where he'd left the 86.

He was just latching his seat belt when Natsuki said quietly, "At first...at first, before you told me about the car racing, Natsuki thought you'd had a fight with your boyfriend."

His own voice repeated in his memory, lazy and sated: You could find out for yourself. "Not exactly," Takumi said, and hoped he wasn't blushing again.

"Natsuki..." She hesitated a moment, then abandoned the cute third-person: "I can't go out with my boyfriend like this." A tiny wave of one hand seemed to indicate the beach, or maybe the car. "It's nice to just be able to sit with someone like this and talk. Sometimes..." She turned in her seat to look at him again, and her words came out in a rush: "sometimes Natsuki wishes she was wrong about you liking boys."

"Um." Now he was definitely turning red. "But you were right." Keisuke had proved that with a single kiss.

"Takumi-kun is a complicated person," Natsuki said, as if that were an agreement. She wasn't looking at him.

Takumi looked away too, staring down at the steering wheel. He couldn't just turn the key and head back home, not right after something like that. He didn't know what to do.

"Natsuki knows why you fought the soccer club sempai in the locker room," Natsuki said into the silence. "After Takumi-kun quit the club, one of the members quietly told me." She turned in her seat to look at him again, voice getting louder and more intent. "Takumi-kun got angry because of Natsuki. I'm sorry I didn't understand you for such a long time. Maybe if I'd known sooner --"

"It's okay," Takumi said, raising his head once more. "It doesn't mean anything now." He didn't know any more if he'd liked her then, or if it had just been because he didn't like to hear someone talk about anyone else like that. It didn't matter. He had someone else now -- two someone elses -- who did understand him.

He reached out to turn the key, and saw movement out of the corner of his eye. He turned to see what it was, just in time for Natsuki to kiss him.

He sat there, frozen, for what felt like a very long moment. It wasn't like kissing Keisuke or Ryousuke. Not because she was a girl, though. It was a gentle kiss, just the soft press of her lips to his. Unassuming. Undemanding. Sweet. It was nice, it was just...sweet.

What was he supposed to do with sweet?

She sat back finally. "I'm very sorry," she said. "I wanted...I wanted one kiss."

"Mogi--"

"Do you have someone?"

Takumi's memory obligingly summoned the feel of being pressed up against the 86, Keisuke's tongue in his mouth, Ryousuke's eyes hot on them both. Takumi swallowed, and said, "Uh...yes."

Natsuki's hands were fisted on her jeans. "Are you happy?"

"Yes." He didn't need to hesitate on that one. Even if the Takahashi brothers did confuse him sometimes, he was pretty sure that was normal for dating someone.

"Then that's what's important," she said firmly, and reached for her seat belt.

Finally, a little part of Takumi thought, but a larger part made him say, "Mogi, are you happy?"

She smiled at him. "Of course I am!" She held up a hand, and started counting off: "I have Takumi for a friend, and I have a boyfriend, and soon we'll finish high school and go on to college --"

Takumi blinked at her. "You're dating someone in high school?"

"No," Natsuki said. Her smile tilted sideways for a moment. "I learned better." And she changed the subject to a movie she'd seen recently, to Takumi's relief.

He called Ryousuke that night, to say, "Roses, Ryousuke-san?" and hear Ryousuke laugh. He didn't need to say yes. Ryousuke already knew that.

It didn't help the distraction at all.

Three days later, Itsuki grabbed him as soon as they both got off work, and all but dragged him to Itsuki's car. Takumi buckled his seat belt, and waited for an explanation, or more of an explanation than I need to talk to you about something. But Itsuki only hunched in the driver's seat and drove them up Akina, glowering out the front window as if the mountain had offended him somehow.

About a third of the way to the top, Takumi gave up. "What do you want to talk about?"

Itsuki didn't even look at him. "You've been going out with Mogi without telling me, haven't you?"

"Oh, that?" Not about the race with Ryousuke, not about the roses, just about Takumi having a sort-of girlfriend.

"'That'?" Itsuki echoed indignantly.

"I didn't think it was something I had to tell you." Natsuki had said she was supposed to be his cover, or whatever it was called, but nobody had asked any questions that would need a cover, and he wasn't going to boast about something that didn't really exist.

"No excuses! Answer my question!"

"Eh?" What question?

Itsuki swallowed hard. "H...how far have you gone?"

Takumi blinked at him blankly. Does he mean sex? Maybe he didn't. He hadn't even known about Natsuki, so he didn't know about Keisuke, much less Ryousuke. Itsuki didn't even suspect that part. He couldn't suspect it. He had no reason to suspect, except for Ryousuke's twisted sense of humor.

"How far have you gone with Mogi?" Itsuki said impatiently, when Takumi didn't answer right away. "Be honest."

"'How far'...?" Takumi repeated. With Natsuki? Well, they'd gone to the beach that once, but he didn't think that was what Itsuki wanted to know.

Itsuki turned his glare from the road to Takumi. "If you're my best friend, tell me honestly!"

"Itsuki -- " The car was madly skewing from one lane to the other. "Look ahead, look ahead!"

Itsuki looked, and with a cry of dismay, frantically turned the wheel. The car over-corrected, and zoomed dangerously along the edge of the road. Takumi grabbed for the door-handle. "Calm down! I'll tell you, all right, I'll tell you!"

Itsuki eased up on the gas pedal, and the car settled back into its proper lane. "Go ahead."

"Last Sunday..."

"'Last Sunday,'" Itsuki repeated.

"The two of us..."

Itsuki flinched, but echoed, "'T...two of us...'"

"Went to Lake Akina."

He'd hoped that Itsuki would laugh. Instead, Itsuki's jaw dropped, and the car skidded back almost out of control until Takumi yelled for Itsuki to pay attention again.

"That's not what I'm asking," Itsuki said sharply, bringing the car back into line. "It's about going from A to B to C!" His hand chopped the air into a tidy progression. "You're really an idiot."

"'A to B'...?" Takumi echoed in his turn. If C was actual sex, what was B? He suspected Keisuke had skipped straight to H.

Itsuki visibly nerved himself up, then said, "D-did you kiss?"

"Yeah."

"Say what?!"

Oh, no, there went the car again! "Hey, Itsuki, stop! Stop!"

Itsuki got the car under control once more, but he finally gave up the interrogation until they'd reached the top and gotten out of the car. Takumi looked down the mountain at the lights of the town, and the highway beyond it. In two weeks, he'd be up here in the 86, with Ryousuke's FC beside him, gunning its engine.

And then what? He wanted this race, but what happened afterwards? If he lost, would Keisuke and Ryousuke lose interest in him? If he won, would it be too much? He had to accept this battle. It was like everything this summer, all the races, all the people he'd met, had all been leading up to this one race. But after the battle...what would happen then?

Itsuki was staring at him. Takumi looked over at him, and asked, "What're you looking at?"

Itsuki jumped as if surprised, but covered it by saying, "You've been acting strange lately."

"Have I?" He'd didn't think so. He'd still shown up to work on time, done his homework, delivered the tofu, all the usual stuff. Not enough sleep, but that was as usual too.

"It's not like you to think so much," Itsuki said. "But you've been thinking a lot lately."

Ah. "Yeah, you're right." Takumi hesitated a second, eyes drifting back to the lights down below them. Akagi was out there somewhere, if he could just follow the lights. "I'm wondering what'll happen in the future."

"In the future?!" Itsuki turned red, and grabbed Takumi by his shirt. "How dare you say such a dirty thing in front of a lonely driver! I know what happens after a kiss!"

"What?" A kiss? He wasn't racing with Ryousuke because of a kiss. "What do you mean?"

"There's only one thing!" Itsuki was almost sobbing.

"What're you talking about? We aren't talking about the same thing." A kiss? Itsuki must still be thinking about Natsuki. Did he have a crush on her, and Takumi hadn't noticed? "What I mean by the future..." Itsuki was looking at him blankly, tears drying on his cheeks, like he'd never thought beyond his 'A to B to C.' Takumi sighed, and shrugged out of Itsuki's hold. "Oh, whatever. I don't like to think about difficult matters."

Itsuki shook his head, and kept watching him. Takumi ignored him, and looked back out over the lights. Two weeks. Less than two weeks. And then...and then...

This was pointless, he told himself firmly.

It didn't work.

*

"Are you coming?"

"Yes, I'll be there." Takumi leaned out the door between the shop and the living quarters to make sure no one was close enough to hear. His dad was nowhere nearby, as usual. The old man had a sixth sense for these kind of conversations.

"You will?"

Keisuke didn't need to sound so surprised. "Yes. Itsuki came up and started talking about it, and had it all arranged before I said anything."

"That's not why I hoped you would come."

"Keisuke-san..." How could he say things like that, and not flinch away? "I'm not just coming because of Itsuki," Takumi offered, lowering his voice. "I wasn't sure -- it's awkward no matter what."

"Not as awkward as it could be," Keisuke said. "Aniki won't be there. He didn't want distractions."

"I didn't think he was a distraction to you," Takumi said. The brothers had raced together for years. They must be used to each other being there, even if afterwards...

Keisuke chuckled in his ear. "Not until after the race," he said, unintentionally echoing Takumi's thoughts. "Although if you're there --"

"With Itsuki," Takumi reminded him.

"Damn. Can you hand him off to one of your friends?"

He should protest. Itsuki was one of his friends too, even if he'd spent the past week watching Takumi a lot less subtly than he thought he was, and jumping to the wrong conclusions for what he saw. "I don't know. Not on our way there."

"Then we'll try something afterwards," Keisuke said firmly. "I want to see you after I beat Nakazato, and aniki wants to see you regardless."

I thought he didn't want to be distracted. But maybe Ryousuke was already distracted the way Takumi was distracted, trying not to think about what would come next. "I'll come," he said. He'd apologize to Itsuki later.

*

It was still raining.

Takumi had turned the 86 toward Akagi as soon as he dropped Itsuki off. He wasn't even going to try to sleep. His body felt like it was humming, like he'd forgotten to downshift as he slid around a corner, like he might still spin out if he wasn't careful. Not because of his own battle, although that had added to it. This had started when he stood near the summit of Mount Myogi, and watched Keisuke Takahashi's FD glide ahead of Nakazato's GT-R.

Keisuke was good. Better than good. And Takumi had beaten him.

The drum of the rain on his roof sped up. Takumi absently switched his windshield wipers to high speed.

He'd seen Keisuke's eyes narrow as that boy -- Kenta Nakamura, he'd said -- turned to him with bright, angry eyes and demanded a race. Nakamura was a Red Sun, but he and Keisuke seemed to know each other more than that. Nakamura knew Takumi's name, not just his car. Who else would have told him?

So he'd agreed, despite Keisuke's objections. Nakamura wasn't Ryousuke, or Keisuke either, but he knew them. He raced with them. Perhaps he'd give Takumi a way to shake off the restless worry that kept sneaking up on him when he thought about what came after next Saturday.

But he hadn't. Takumi caught up with him within three corners, breezed past him, then headed straight for the finish line. He needed to get home. Itsuki was flailing and screaming in his back seat, and the rain hadn't stopped.

It had eased by the time he reached the Takahashi house. He parked the 86 in the same place he had the last time he'd come here, and got out into the heavy mist. The car door closing behind him sounded loud in the quiet, and he hesitated for the first time, looking up at the house. There was a light on in one of the rooms on the second floor, and the faint shadow of movement against the blinds.

Keisuke was already home. And they both wanted to see him. Takumi scrubbed his hands through his damp hair, trying to shake out the worst of the wet, then rang the door bell and waited.

Ryousuke opened the door, and stepped back to let Takumi in. Takumi blinked up at him, then remembered his manners as he stepped inside. "Hello, Ryousuke-san. I hope I'm not too late."

"Not at all." Ryousuke picked up a towel that had been lying on the counter, neatly folded, and held it out to Takumi. "If you'd like to shower, Keisuke should be out by now."

"Thank you," Takumi murmured, accepting the towel with a dazed feeling. He'd spend the last week with his head spinning, not sure what was going to happen after next Saturday -- and Ryousuke invited him in and asked if he wanted a warm shower, as if they'd been dating (or whatever this was) for months instead of weeks. "I'd like that."

Ryousuke smiled, that faint smile that was more in his eyes than anywhere else, and gestured to the stairs.

Takumi didn't take long in the shower, not with both Ryousuke and Keisuke waiting. He rubbed himself dry as quickly as he could, refusing to linger, then wrapped himself in the yukata that Ryousuke had left by the door, and headed down the hall to the door to Ryousuke's room. Ryousuke had left it ajar, spilling light into the dim hallway.

He found Ryousuke at his desk and Keisuke leaning over his shoulder to look at something on the laptop. Keisuke's yukata was still wrapped tightly around him, but Ryousuke had stripped off his shirt, and Takumi could see a couple reddened marks on his neck. Keisuke hadn't learned patience yet, he thought. The image surged up: Ryousuke in that chair while Keisuke straddled him, mouth hot on Ryousuke's skin as Ryousuke threw his head back and groaned.

Takumi swallowed, and shut the door firmly behind him. At the sound, Keisuke looked over his shoulder. "Fujiwara!" He straightened up easily, then folded his hands in front of him and bowed politely. "I apologize for Kenta's challenge."

"Oi, you don't need to apologize--"

"He's my protege," Keisuke said, letting his hands fall loose again. "I should have been able to talk him out of it."

"You tried," Ryousuke said quietly, turning his chair to face Takumi and Keisuke.

Keisuke grimaced and leaned back so he was half-sitting on the desk. "And he didn't listen. Ch', some teacher I am."

"It doesn't matter," Takumi said firmly. Both brothers looked at him again, Keisuke with raised eyebrows, Ryousuke with that little smile from earlier. Takumi felt himself flush, but went ahead with it. "I couldn't lose. I'm not allowed except to one of you."

Ryousuke laughed, and abandoned his chair entirely to go over to the bed. Keisuke only blinked at Takumi for a moment, before finally shaking his head with a wry grin of his own. "Told you often enough. I'm glad you agree."

"It wasn't that much of a compliment," Takumi grumbled, but he accepted a still-chuckling Ryousuke's hand and let him pull him down to sit on the bed, half in his lap.

Keisuke shrugged, and pushed away from the desk, casually tugging at the tie on his yukata. "Not against Kenta, no."

"And I know better than to think you would hold back against me," Ryousuke said, almost into Takumi's ear.

Of course not. What would be the point? But he didn't say that, because Keisuke's yukata had fallen to the floor, and Ryousuke's hand was sliding up his back, warm through the thin cloth, and he had better things to think about than next week. Like Ryousuke's breath on the bare skin above the yukata, and Keisuke coming over to the bed to kneel over his lap and smile down at him.

Then he leaned over Takumi's shoulder, and kissed his brother. Takumi turned his head to watch them as Keisuke's mouth opened against Ryousuke's in something slow and lazy. Parallel drift, part of him thought, the kind of driving you could only do when you knew the other driver as well as you knew yourself. The kind of thing that was showing off for an audience.

Figured. This was Keisuke, after all.

A touch to Keisuke's hand got him to take it off Takumi's shoulder and shift his weight so Takumi could escape off to the side. He slid off the bed and pulled the knot on his yukata free, watching out of the corner of his eye as Keisuke bent back down and kissed Ryousuke again. He recognized what Keisuke was doing now, that not-as-slow-as-it-felt tease of hands down Ryousuke's chest to tug at the top of Ryousuke's slacks. Ryousuke moaned into the kiss like Takumi had done, and Takumi forgot the yukata in favor of watching openly. This must've been what Ryousuke felt like in the parking lot, this weird mixture of pride and arousal, watching Keisuke lose himself and bring his lover along with him.

Then Ryousuke broke the kiss, long enough to lean over to his nightstand and pull something out of the drawer. Keisuke chuckled softly at it, and leaned down to resume the kiss.

Behind Keisuke's back, Ryousuke tossed the thing in his hand to Takumi. Takumi caught it, barely, and blinked down at it. The lube, of course. Ryousuke kept it here.

And he'd just handed it to Takumi.

Takumi looked up. Keisuke had slid his hands into Ryousuke's slacks, and Ryousuke's eyes were hazed with that, but he was watching Takumi over Keisuke's shoulder with dark eyes, like this was another challenge. But the lube wasn't roses. Kind of a relief. Takumi shrugged out of his yukata, knelt on the bed again, and popped open the lid as quietly as he could.

Keisuke jumped when Takumi slid his fingers between his legs, and looked back over his shoulder. "Takumi --" He looked back and forth between Takumi and Ryousuke, then shook his head, huffing out a laugh. "Oh, right. You're both sneaky bastards."

"Am not," Takumi said mildly, stealing a quick kiss of his own. "Not my fault if you weren't paying attention." He pressed one finger a little inside Keisuke, more of a tease than a demand, and heard Keisuke's muffled moan as he pushed back against it.

Then Ryousuke's hand grasped Takumi's wrist. Not to pull him away, just to make certain where it was, because the next thing Takumi felt was Ryousuke's fingers sliding up to join him, twined between Takumi's until they were nearly as slick. Ryousuke didn't hesitate the way Takumi had: instead, he pressed farther, pressed in. Keisuke's groan wasn't muffled any more. Takumi belatedly remembered he needed to breathe, and pushed in his own finger, following Ryousuke's lead on the slow, careful in and out. Keisuke's head had fallen back against Takumi's shoulder, at exactly the right angle for Takumi to bite gently at his ear.

This time, the noise Keisuke made was too loud to be called a groan. He pushed back in the touch again, demanding, and growled, "Ryousuke!"

"What would you like?" Ryousuke's voice was quiet and husky, just barely loud enough for Takumi to hear him over Keisuke's rapid breathing. He met Takumi's eyes, and pressed thier fingers even deeper into Keisuke. Keisuke's breath caught on a strangled sound, and he shoved back into their touch, hard.

Ryousuke pulled their twined fingers out again, though, never looking away from Takumi's gaze. "Not yet, Keisuke. What would you like?"

Keisuke huffed out another half-laugh. "You do that and want me to think?"

Ryousuke chuckled, and another of his fingers slid in alongside the two already there. "You're the one who won tonight. What do you want? Fujiwara's hands? My mouth?" He leaned forward, pressing his fingers and Takumi's deep into Keisuke again, and nipping Keisuke's neck before stealing a quick kiss from Takumi. "Or perhaps you want one of us to fuck you?"

Takumi swallowed hard, and heard Keisuke's hissed curse, and the tremble of his muscles as he stopped moving back into their fingers. Takumi hid his face against Keisuke's neck, and didn't let himself think about that possibility, no matter how hot and tight Keisuke was around his finger. Ryousuke was right. Keisuke had won, so he chose.

"Tonight..." Keisuke took a deep breath and let it out. "Tonight I want aniki to fuck me, and I want to suck Takumi off."

Takumi raised his head and caught Ryousuke's eyes -- not triumphant, just thoughtful. Takumi licked his lips, and carefully withdrew his hand from Keisuke. Keisuke grabbed his other arm before he could sit back, and kissed him, awkwardly but hard. "Tonight," he repeated, with an intensity like it was meant for a promise, and Takumi felt himself flush as the image came back, himself buried in Keisuke the way Keisuke had been in him.

It wasn't hard to arrange themselves: they'd all been perched on the edge, so all Takumi had to was scoot over into the center and lie back, propped up on his elbows. Keisuke settled between his legs, and Ryousuke knelt behind him. Keisuke grinned up at Takumi, then licked his stomach, next to Takumi's cock. Takumi was startled into his own laugh.

Keisuke's grin widened. "You're ticklish?"

"No!"

Before that grin could translate into anything not at all fun, Ryousuke said dryly, "So are you," and ran his fingers lightly up Keisuke's sides.

Keisuke squirmed involuntarily, bucking back into his brother to try to escape the tickling. "A - Ryousuke!" Keisuke's eyes went wide, and Ryousuke's closed, and Takumi realized what had happened -- whether deliberately or not, Ryousuke had been right there, and Keisuke's movement had pushed him inside. Takumi watched as Keisuke groaned Ryousuke's name again, hoarsely, and pushed back against him more deliberately, and for a second wanted to be there, sprawled on his stomach, with one of his lovers sliding into him.

Then Keisuke relaxed again, carefully, and kissed Takumi's thigh, as if in apology. Before Takumi could respond, he bent down again and swallowed Takumi's cock -- no hesitation, no teasing, just hot wetness around him.

Takumi forgot to breathe for a second, but only a second This was worse than the first time: there wasn't any hesitation, no lazy patience in Keisuke's tongue along his cock. This was demanding and wild, as if Keisuke was determined that Takumi was going to come before he did. And Ryousuke watched, eyes half closed, each thrust of his hips into Keisuke driving him that much more.

No. Takumi didn't look away either. He sprawled under Keisuke's mouth, and let one hand thread into Keisuke's hair (Keisuke purred agreement around him), and met the challenge in Ryousuke's eyes. It wasn't about him, or about Ryousuke either. This was for Keisuke.

Next week, it would be one of them.

He couldn't stop the thoughts this time. It wouldn't matter if he lost or if he won: next week, he would pull into that parking lot, and Ryousuke would follow him, and then -- and then --

He wasn't sure if he came first, or Keisuke. Or maybe it was at the same time. Keisuke still swallowed around him, but he was more experienced with this. And Ryousuke must have come, but by the time Takumi remembered to look, Ryousuke had pulled out and had settled on the other side of Keisuke, stroking his brother's hip while Takumi retrieved the expected washclothes from the nightstand.

"Keisuke?"

Keisuke obligingly rolled over enough to let Takumi help with the clean-up. At least he hadn't gotten much on his face. He wasn't grinning any more, but in the grin's place was a small, almost smug look. More than sated, Takumi translated to himself. "You look happy," he said anyway.

"Mmm," Keisuke said, and opened his eyes enough to look at Takumi. "Like you weren't, last time?"

"Oi." His face had flushed at the memory: even if he hadn't felt it, Ryousuke's soft chuckle would've told him.

Keisuke's smile widened, and he reached back to loosely catch Takumi's wrist. "And I was a virgin. If you lose next week, aniki gets your ass."

"Mmm," Takumi said in turn. He leaned down, and bit gently at Ryousuke's lower lip, and said softly, "I still don't intend to lose."

"Good," Ryousuke said, and they smiled at each other over a half-asleep Keisuke.

-end-