Without looking away from the shelf he was scowling at, Raidou tossed a crumpled ball of paper over his shoulder. He heard Genma catch it, the rustling sound as it was unfolded, and then the snort of laughter.

Namiashi,

Welcome home! Next time you're cleaning my apartment, asshole.

-- Kaguhiko.

p.s. I have licked three things. Enjoy!

"I need a better class of friends," he muttered, righting a book a fallen book. "I mean, seriously, I don't talk to the guy in weeks and now he's touching my stuff?" Did that scroll have a smudge on it? He snatched it up and frowned at the parchement, making a mental note to scrub everything.

Bastards. Couldn't they just hand out a few medals and be done with it? They didn't have to be nice.

By the door, Genma was still laughing. Raidou debated bouncing the scroll off his forehead, then tossed it back onto the shelf instead. "Shuddup," he said, swiping his key off the counter as he headed towards his friend. He paused at the door, just for a moment, and inhaled; breathed in the scent of home, still familiar, even laced with cleaners.

Watched the flicker of acknowledgment pass behind Genma's eyes, behind the laughter, as he recognized the gesture for what it was, and gave him half a smile.

"Good to be home." The rucksack was on the bed. Raidou shoved his hands into his jean pockets, carrying nothing but himself, now, and stepped out the door, kicking it closed behind him. "For five minutes, anyway. What'd they do to your place?"

"Cleaned the bathroom and the fridge, did the dishes, made the bed, took out the trash," Genma said. "No one left me a little love note, though. You think Kaguhiko did 'em both? He must have had a fuckload of late mission reports to get sentenced to cleaning duty." Which would be about par for the course with Kaguhiko. "Or he was sleeping with one of the mission assignments chicks and cheated on her." Also plausible.

He watched Raidou key the lock, eyes tracing over large, sturdy hands, up muscled forearms to pushed-up sleeves. Thought about his own hand in Raidou's, callous-to-callous, lifeline-to-lifeline. The fingers of his right hand flexed, pulled back before he could reach for Raidou. His left twitched slightly in some kind of strange sympathy.

"Wait. Didn't you have my meds in that sack?"

"What, you mean these?" Raidou asked with a grin. He hooked a trio of pill bottles out of his back pocket and shook them. "You couldn't hear the rattle?"

Genma laughed. "Now who's the smartass, smartass?"

Back in his apartment, the water was boiling. While Raidou shut the door and leaned against it, taking in the familiar clutter, Genma went to work on lunch. He tried to peel back the paper lid on the instant ramen bowls one-handed. The first one he managed with a little clever wedging of the bowl against his sling-bound fingertips and the edge of the counter. The second was a failure. The lid stuck, he tried to jerk it free, and ended up showering himself, the counter and the floor in dry noodles, seasoning powder, and dehydrated onion flakes.

"Fuck."

Tailbone braced comfortably against the door, Raidou smothered a laugh in his hand. "Nicely done."

Genma swung around to give him a look, exasperated and showing it; Raidou grinned at him. "Need a hand?" he said, waving his right. "I've got a spare."

"Yeah, you come pour," said Genma, obviously deciding to take the offer at face value, like Raidou had hoped. Genma pulled down another bowl of ramen from the cupboard and squinted at it. "Hope you like toasted sesame flavour."

"Who doesn't?" Raidou agreed, strolling over to take it. He peeled the lid off, added water to both bowls at Genma's direction, and covered them back over to let the noodles sit and stew. Leaned against the counter.

Genma's apartment looked much the same as the last time he'd seen it, albeit a little neater with the precision-made bed and the dishes done. But there were clothes still tossed into the corner around the washing hamper; books strewn across the table and stacked on the floor; a double-dozen set of potions and lotions and scents and god knows what else tossed onto the low table shoved under the window, waiting for the next mission. Only the shrine in the corner looked truly tidy, lacquered surface gleaming softly in the midday light.

Raidou regarded the wrinkled, dessicated orange slices placed reverently in front of the pictures, and frowned slightly. Thought of family, and what he'd consider fit to be laid on a loved one's grave. Then he reached across, plucked the purple flower still nestling in Genma's hair and carried it over, kneeling down a shade stiffly to swap it for the dying fruit.

When he turned back, Genma was staring at him.

"For a stand in," Raidou explained, realizing that he might have over-stepped the mark. "Until you can get more oranges."

In nearly a year of friendship, Genma had never known Raidou to be anything other than politely neutral about Genma's religious observances. That god stuff, that was Genma's purview, and Raidou was willing to accept Genma's beliefs in reincarnation and his prayers for intercession, so long as Genma was willing to accept that Raidou thought it was all a lot of bullshit. It worked for them.

This was new.

And incredibly touching.

"Uh..." Genma was, not for the first time that day, struck dumb by something Raidou had done.

"Thanks." He looked at the flower lying on the red-lacquer tray where oranges had been. At Raidou still crouching next to it, looking up almost guiltily. Maybe it was fatigue that lowered impulse control to almost nil, or maybe it was that he'd already been riding the brakes for too long, and they were all but burned out--Genma wasn't sure he cared. He left the ramen where it was, crossed the small distance between himself and the shrine, reached out his right hand to help Raidou to his feet, and pulled him into a deep, lingering kiss.

Clearly there was something to be said for sticking your fingers in someone else's religion. If this was the reaction everyone got, it went a long to explaining a human history of holy conflict...

...was what Raidou would have thought, if he hadn't been so busy trying not to swallow his own tongue in surprise. Or Genma's. He straightened up, feeling that almost-familiar angle click back into place as Genma's chin lifted and his own lowered, mouths fitting together like lock and key. As Genma's hand settled on his shoulder, and Raidou's curled around the back of Genma's neck, sliding beneath long brown hair. A flush of heat kindled in his lower belly.

And that was it, really. One hand still holding oranges, a kitchen that smelled like boiled ramen noodles, an act of something new rewarded with something newer -- and something inside Raidou snapped back together. Thought yes without adding no, or maybe, or what if?

This was right, and it felt like it, and how could he have ever thought otherwise? Ever wanted anything else.

He tightened his grip -- still careful, always careful, even while his fingertips pressed into the delicate skin surrounding bone -- and leaned in, got closer, groaned something into Genma's mouth that might have been a word but was mostly just need, strung together by breath and a quickening heartbeat.

Genma hadn't been thinking much that he could articulate in words before he'd initiated that kiss; he wasn't sure there had ever been words invented for what he was feeling now. Passion, certainly, and desperate, burning desire. Pure unadulterated lust that kindled brightly into arousal as he kissed Raidou and Raidou kissed back. Everything about it, every tiny sensation, was a thousand times more intense than it had been in that alleyway outside the school.

But there was something else fueling it. Something overwhelming.

What mattered right now, though, was his hand on Raidou's muscular shoulder, Raidou's fingers threaded through Genma's hair. What mattered was tilting his head up to catch Raidou's lips and tongue, shifting his feet so their hips ground together.

Raidou's hips pressed just as urgently back.

"Bed," Genma gasped into Raidou's mouth. Bed, now, before we fall.

Raidou's eyes flickered wide, darting towards the perfectly made bed and back. He swallowed tensely, and nodded. For a moment Genma had the sensation they were about to engage an enemy on a mission.

"Don't worry," he said, bringing his mind back into the game. He smiled and kissed Raidou again, more gently this time. "I just want to make sure no one loses his balance, you know? I mean..." He twitched his gaze to Raidou's bandages, then to the sling holding his own arm. "I mean, it's kind of easy to accidentally bump something you didn't mean to bump, if you're worrying about keeping your balance."

Raidou nodded again, still looking wary.

First time. It wasn't just Raidou and it wasn't just a man Genma desperately wanted to have sex with. It was Raidou who had never been intimate with another man.

"Don't worry," Genma repeated, drawing his hand down Raidou's arm. "You can take the lead, okay? Won't do anything you're not ready for, I promise."

Stung, Raidou snorted before he could stop himself. "I'm not a virgin, you ass," he said, flicking his fingers against the underside of Genma's jaw. "I've had sex before."

Genma just laughed. "Oh, really? Okay, good then." Warm, curving lips pressed against Raidou's, like a challange and a dare, like Genma really knew what he was doing -- then the lean body trapped in the circle of Raidou's arms stumbled. Raidou braced him, crushed his own wince, and couldn't find anything like a disagreement when Genma tossed his head up and suggested bed? again.

Three backward steps, still caught up in each others' arms, and the mattress hit the backs of Raidou's knees. Genma pushed him, hand to the unscarred side of his chest, and Raidou didn't so much sit as feel his legs give way. A squashy blue cushion nudged against his flank; he elbowed it away. Found some daring and set his hands at Genma's hips, where the muscle skimmed over bone, beneath the waistband of loose, faded jeans.

He pushed the green sweatshirt up, and kissed the flat strip of exposed brown skin. Genma shivered, breathing out slow, and Raidou felt his chest lighten. He had had sex before. He knew what worked for girls. It couldn't be that hard to switch over to guys.

Even eros-trained guys who knew every trick in the book.

Crushing that thought down, he flicked his tongue over the spot he'd just kissed, and then exhaled. Watched the little chaser of goose-bumps rise over tight stomach muscles, and rubbed his thumb over the bony arch of Genma's hip. The fine treasure trail of soft, downy hair arrowing down from Genma's belly button to beneath the waistband of his pants was new. No breasts to reach up for, either, or curves to drag his hands over. Now what?

That was some impressive taking the lead Raidou was doing, with his hot breath and questing lips teasing just above the too-loose waist of Genma's jeans. Too-loose waist above an obviously tight fly. There was no way Raidou could be sitting there, hands on Genma's hips, fingers dipping past the fabric to cling to skin, mouth on his lower belly, and not be aware of just how aroused Genma was. That thought itself, and the sight of Raidou in that position, was even more electrifying. Genma shivered and groaned, feeling weak in the knees.

That seemed to encourage Raidou, who shoved Genma's hoodie and t-shirt higher, planting another kiss closer to his navel. Genma really did almost lose his balance that time, reaching out to steady himself with a hand on Raidou's shoulder. Raidou looked up, apprehension in his eyes, and Genma grinned. "Oh my god you're hot, Rai."

Raidou looked startled, and turned his head away for a moment with something like a scowl, but then he came back and kissed again. Genma gasped in a breath and resisted the urge to grab Raidou's shoulder tighter. "Gods, Rai, I don't want you to stop, but I think I need to sit down." He could hear the huskiness in his own voice.

Raidou's thoughtful expression morphed into a sly grin. A look Genma'd seen before, just before a stunning takedown in a spar, or a hilarious (at least to Raidou) practical joke. Then Raidou's hands on Genma's waist tightened, pulling Genma down, twisting him to the side so Genma had to fall back onto the mattress. Carefully pulling. Guiding, easing Genma down without jarring his arm. When the motion stopped, Genma was on his back, cushioned on pillows, and Raidou was leaning over him, grinning like a wolf. "Like this?"

"Like that," Genma agreed, and strained up to kiss Raidou's shoulder. To slide his free hand under Raidou's shirt and up his side to where the bandages stopped him, then down again to the waist of Raidou's jeans, which didn't stop him at all.

Even with Genma's fingers a good handspan above where they needed to be, Raidou felt his hips jerk, spine flex like a snake. Heat twisted around in his lower belly, bright and startling. So startling, in fact, that he shifted away, turning back to what he knew. The steps were different with a man, but the endgame was the same. And Raidou had a lot of pride invested in knowing that he played a damn decent game.

After all, a woman didn't care what you looked like when she knew what you could do.

He caught Genma's wrist and pulled his hand up, twisting to press a kiss against the delicate pulse, before pinning Genma's arm firmly against the bed, up near his head, where he couldn't touch. Genma's eyebrows lifted, arching, and Raidou grinned at him, flashing confidence he did and didn't feel. Weight braced with his knees against the edge of the mattress, he leaned over Genma; kissed him on the jaw, the shirt-covered clavicle, ran a hand down the lean curvature of his belly, exposed by that rucked up hoodie, feeling scars and skin and muscle.

Paused at his waistband.

Okay, the steps were different with a man. But Raidou was a man, and he knew what he liked. It couldn't be that different for Genma, right?

Careful not to lean any weight on the hand holding Genma's wrist down (the same hand attached to the scarred, burned, bandage-covered side of himself), Raidou called up a memory of the last night he'd spent with a woman, more than a year ago, and borrowed one of her tricks. Something he'd liked. Without touching a single button or the zipper of Genma's fly, he splayed his hand open, leaned forward to catch Genma's earlobe in a quick, distracting bite, and ground his palm against the denim-covered bulge between his best friend's legs.

Genma's eyes went wide for a second, before they shuttered down to pleased slits. He gasped out a single sharp laugh of delight that eased off into a groan as Raidou flexed his fingers and pressed again. The looseness of his waistband proved useful at last, as it left room for Genma's erection to shift and straighten under Raidou's palm. Genma laid still, let Raidou hold him down with one hand and stroke him with the other, and just breathed through the pleasure, panting. Watching Raidou's face.

Raidou looked amazing. Concentrating, pleased with himself. Eager. His hand felt amazing, as he settled into a slow, even rhythm, massaging Genma through the thick denim.

More than almost anything, Genma wished he had his left hand free to reach for Raidou. To touch his tantalizingly pulled away body. To pull him closer for another kiss.

He wanted his mouth on Raidou, his hands on Raidou. The fingers on his right hand twitched, and Raidou's grip on his wrist shifted. Still holding Genma back. When Raidou's right hand started another teasing upstroke, Genma rocked his hips up into it. "Kiss me," he commanded. "Kiss me and oh gods, Raidou--" Another gasp, another buck of the hips. He licked his lips and looked Raidou right in the eye. "Yes."

Startled, Raidou's eyes flicked away, then back. Taking in the flush colouring Genma's cheeks, the new shine on his lower lip, the full-blown black of dilated pupils. The shift of control. Slowly, one corner of his mouth lifted. "Any particular place, boss?"

Genma's chin lifted. "Keep doing that," he said, low and raspy. "And kiss me, dammit."

Raidou felt every single muscle in his back flex and tighten as he ducked forward, weight supported by his legs, held by his stomach muscles, and dropped a kiss in the hollow at the base of Genma's straining throat. Something like a whine dragged through a growl vibrated against Raidou's mouth; Genma's breath caught and choked as Raidou pressed hard with his right hand, grinding zipper-steel against overly sensitized flesh. He felt his own breath catch as he tried not to support himself too much with either hand. Heat coiled, liquid and sweet in his stomach; sweat trickled down his spine. And Genma wasn't even touching him.

No workouts until you're cleared, the medics had insisted. But not one of them had said no sex.

Though, thinking of it like that, if they were going to end back up in hospital again, Raidou wanted it to be for something more than a quick fumble through clothes, goddammit. And he definitely wanted to yank some more of those low, gasping, growling sounds out of Genma's throat.

He lifted his head, putting his mouth next to Genma's ear. "Hold still, bossy."

Genma ignored that entirely, turning immediately; Raidou kissed him silent before he could speak, and released his wrist, flattening his own palm gratefully against the dark cotton bedspread to brace himself better. Genma's hand lifted quickly, fingers hooking up and under Raidou's shirt, finding heated skin; Raidou exhaled and ignored him, focusing away from the lightning-dance of sparking, shivering nerves (it never felt that good with girls) and fleeting anxiety. Instead he flicked open the fly of Genma's jeans, flashed a sharp smile at the arching hips under his touch, and slid his hand beneath the wide elasticated waistband of Genma's functional briefs. Found heat, and hardness, and--

Familiarity. Difference. Genma's low, gravelling groan in his ear.

Yes.

Genma held excruciatingly still for half a second, letting shivers wash through him at Raidou's touch. Slightly hesitant, inquisitive at first, and then... Gods, yes. Then more sure. Raidou had big hands, bigger than Genma's. His fingers were hot and slightly rough, and Genma groaned again, rocking up to meet them.

He slid his hand down the back of Raidou's jeans, pushed his own fingertips under the crinkled elastic of the waistband of Raidou's boxers. Caressed the hint of hard-edged spine and the tiny collection of downy hair in the small of Raidou's back. Pushed lower to stroke the curve and hollow of Raidou's ass, all toned muscle and sweat-slicked skin.

Instinct had him lifting his sling-bound arm for half a moment. Just long enough to realize it was impossible, to send a flash of irritation through him, to turn a groan into a growl. Raidou reacted with concern, face hovering over Genma's, hand stilling. "Fucking sling," Genma complained, and lunged into another kiss, crashing lips and teeth together hard enough to hurt. Just a little. Just a little pain to convey urgency. Eagerness. It could have been calculated, could have been an eros trick, but it wasn't. Artifice could mimic passion, but this was the real thing.

Genma's hips lifted again, and his hand on Raidou's ass pushed, pulled. He could feel the tension in Raidou's back, the strain as Raidou held his body carefully away. Millimeters away, so close that every breath brought them into contact. Raidou was hard--how could he not be?--but Genma could feel it, brushing his hip. Raidou wanted this.

That in itself was the hottest thing in the world. Genma gasped a breath, rolled his hips again, and slid his hand all the way into Raidou's pants, groping for the back of Raidou's thigh.

His lips felt bruised, crushed against his teeth. Raidou swallowed the sting, feeling it get lost in a body stacked with adrenaline. Pain wasn't pain anymore; everything felt good. Even burns being pulled by straining muscle could be ignored -- enjoyed, even, when endorphins turned old agony sweet.

Genma's free hand skating over his ass and down the back of his thigh raised a little more concern, even while it felt weirdly good. But if Genma was planning to do any flipping-and-taking today, he was going to have to get a lot more purchase than that. Not to mention open his mouth and ask, which wasn't a conversation Raidou expected they'd have any time soon.

Or ever. Because -- well, no.

Raidou flexed his fingers again, gripping tighter; Genma gasped into his mouth, strangled and oh-god-good. Genma's fingernails dug into the back of his thigh, shock-sharp, and Raidou's hips jerked forwards--

Oh.

Friction. Genma's hip. And that wasn't exactly part of the plan, but goddamn. Raidou hissed quietly as a rolling shudder worked down his spine, and forced his supporting arm not to buckle. He didn't want to land on Genma, despite the right-now-move urge to get closer and grind. Instead he ducked his head, pulling away from Genma's demanding mouth, and caught the side of his neck with an open-mouthed bite, far above old bruises. Tasted clean skin and salty sweat, and pulled free to groan deep-voiced in Genma's ear.

"C'mon -- loverboy. Let go, already."

"I will if you will." Genma's smile was laced through with a dare, his voice grating and shredding at the edges where control was precarious and need was immense. He rocked his hips up, hard, and pulled down, forcing Raidou to grind against him again. The momentary panic in Raidou's eyes was one Genma recognized. It was a look he'd learned to school from his own face through long practice and much repetition--the look of a man about to fall over a cliff he'd been desperately edging back from.

He could feel sweat trickling down Raidou's thigh, hear the rasp of denim against denim as loud as their breathing. "Gonna get our clean clothes dirty," he hissed. Raidou's tongue flicked a non-answer against his neck, hot and demanding. Teeth ground against the edge of a fading garrote-wire bruise, sliding a stiletto-thin blade between pleasure and pain.

Raidou's fingers tightened, pulled up, then pushed down, peeling the edges of foreskin back. His palm brushed over the exposed head. For half a second, for half a heartbeat, not even for that, Genma held on.

Raidou groaned low in his throat, rumbling against Genma's neck, and this time his groin rocked forward against Genma's hip without any help from Genma.

C'mon -- loverboy. Let go, already.

Genma gasped, and let go.

Raidou almost went with him. String-thin control and not enough pressure kept him back, kept him crystal-clear aware of the tensing, arching, falling-apart body in his arms. Laid out beneath him. Genma broke like a wave, hips lifting up, head falling back -- one long, sweet shudder rocking through him, backed by a groan Raidou could feel.

Part of him wondered if Genma had gotten training for this, too, because--

Yeah. Wow.

The rest of him was busy doing the right thing. The right-partner thing. The good thing. Grip still tight and solid where it should be, locked around sticky heat and straining flesh. Other hand still supporting his own weight, stopping him from crushing his partner flat at the worst possible moment.

Teeth doing their level best not to leave a permanent bite mark in Genma's throat. Despite how much Raidou wanted to lay claim to this particular moment for the rest of time.

Genma drew a short, gasping, highly satisfied breath and Raidou had to fight not to crow in his ear. Or punch the air. Or do something else hopelessly juvenile, like jutsu a notch into the bedpost. Was it good for you, loverboy?

Goddamn right.

He grinned broad and bright, and lifted his head to catch Genma's second breath in a triumphant, shuddery kiss. "Welcome back."

It took only the barest shift in his center of gravity, the subtlest of nudges with his knee, for Genma to topple Raidou to one side. He could feel the shuddering of Raidou's breath turn to outright trembling, as muscles gave way to fatigue and adrenaline and arousal that was beyond fever hot. For several amazing infinities, Genma had been responding with no finesse, no training -- just pure sexual response to overwhelming stimulus. Now, as the breaker crested and left a foam lip dissipating on damp sand, training came back. An awareness of Raidou and his need, and more importantly, how to respond to them: artifice so long-ago learned that it felt like instinct.

Genma rolled towards Raidou, using his hand on Raidou's hip to get leverage for himself, to shift himself so that his weight was on his left shoulder, splinted hand trapped between them. Then he pulled his hand slowly away from Raidou's ass, trailing over his hips until his palm caressed the arch of Raidou's pelvis. He pushed. "Lie back," he said. "I only have the one hand, so..."

Raidou's flushed face took on an even deeper hue. He pushed back, pulling his hand from Genma's pants to mirror the grip on pelvis. His eyes didn't meet Genma's. "You don't have to."

"I want to. I need to," Genma told him, and pushed again. "How can you lie there, having just felt this, and not know that?" He laughed, licked his lips, and yanked Raidou's fly open and boxers down in one deft, practiced move. Raidou's tense back said he wasn't sure, but the sharp, almost desperate whimper at Genma's touch belied him.

Pushing himself up was awkward. Balancing on his shoulder without hurting his hand took far too much concentration. But there was Raidou's cock, heavy and hard, purple with pent up need, weeping salty-droplets in anticipation.

"I know I don't have to, Rai. But I want to. And you want me to." Genma's fist closed around the shaft, finger tips burrowing into dense, sweat-damp hair that smelled of lust held in check for too long. He ducked his head down against Raidou's chest, and planted a hungry kiss at the base of Raidou's Adam's apple.

Raidou pushed his hips up to meet Genma's hands.

Yes. They both needed this.

Raidou caught a groan between his teeth and kept it there. Dragged his slick-sticky hand up and around, until his arm could wrap around Genma's shoulders and hold his friend there, braced sideways against Raidou's right flank. Hold him tight, because Raidou had to grab something solid or fly apart at the seams...

Genma's mouth pressed against his throat, hot and searing, half a bite away from new-burned, barely-healed flesh.

That really shouldn't feel good.

T-shirt and hoodie sticking to the sweat sliding down his back, Raidou resisted the urge to just squirm on the bed. He wanted to scratch and strip and flip Genma right back over and--

Fingers flexed, laced with old scars, and dragged a raw-bitten noise up from the base of Raidou's stomach. A noise he didn't even recognize. Genma chuckled, murmured something quiet and encouraging, and Raidou realized he couldn't even remember the last time he'd let Genma take the lead.

Five minutes ago, when Genma had kissed him. But Raidou had taken it back...

The hospital, when Genma had kept watch while Raidou had slept. But Raidou had taken it back...

The mission, right before everything had gone to hell.

Maybe Genma wasn't the only one who needed to let go. But Genma was also right there and touching -- looking, yanking Raidou open from the inside out -- and it wasn't exactly easy to chill out when the most godsdammed beautiful man in the world was right there with a smile on his lips and his hand down Raidou's pants.

Fingers flexed again. Raidou's hips bucked in return, lightning-heat coiling around the twisted knots of his insides; he wrapped the fingers of his left hand, his free hand, around Genma's upper arm, closed his eyes, and tried to breathe.

"C'mon, loverboy. Let go." Genma echoed Raidou's words back to him, so low, so soft. Feather soft. His hand mirrored the change, from insistent kneading to a lighter caress. Light, then stronger, slower. He waited for the twitch, the groan, the tightening of Raidou's hand on his shoulder that said more, now, harder, don't tease. He waited for it, and reacted faster than thought. Fast enough that it had to feel like telepathy. Raidou wanted more, Genma gave him more, before Raidou could even be fully aware of his desire.

Genma's own desire was barely slaked: riding the rising maelstrom of Raidou's was intoxicating. He could feel himself grow hard again, with every one of Raidou's hitched breaths, every trembling freeze, as Raidou fought with himself: fought to let himself surrender.

"Yesss," Genma hissed. He lifted his head to kiss at Raidou's jaw, his earlobe, to catch overheated skin between his teeth. He wanted more. Wanted to push himself up with one hand on Raidou's broad chest and the other pumping mercilessly fast, urging his friend--his lover--on. But a single hand had to be enough. One free enough from bandages, one patch of skin free enough from burns.

He wanted more. He couldn't stop his hips pushing against Raidou's again. And Raidou responded, a shallow breath turning into a half-broken gasp. A shallow thrust into a long, arch-backed rigidity. Breath stopped. Motion stopped. Everything but pulse and chakra stopped, as heartbeat and throbbing cadence overlapped.

Throughout it all, Raidou barely made a sound, but the sounds he did make were exhilarating. Genma waited for the ragged gasp, the sound of a half-drowned man taking his first breath, before he dared to move again.

There was an edge -- somewhere. Raidou had the distinct impression he'd just flown off it, and now there was a cliff-face to drag his way back up.

Or he could just let Genma stay in charge for a bit.

Just for a minute.

He sighed as Genma's hand relaxed and fell away; felt his own muscles unclench and shiver their way back to something almost like loose-and-easy. Sparking aftershocks rippled through his belly. His bones felt melted.

"Heh," murmured Genma, right next to his ear. "I think you made a mess of your hoodie. Feel better?"

Blindly, Raidou reached sideways for that squashy blue pillow and smacked Genma in the face with it. Genma just laughed -- sounding as smug as Raidou had felt a minute ago -- and knocked it aside, leaning in to snatch a warm, extremely thorough kiss.

Probably a good time to open my eyes, Raidou thought dizzily, and did so. He could just about see a slice of Genma's face -- cheekbone, eyebrow, yellow-brown iris; Genma still had his eyes open. Raidou felt a little thrill, a little terror, he's looking right at me, and kissed back. Kissed hard.

Genma groaned deep and jerked; hardness and heat crushed against Raidou's hip.

Raidou's eyebrows arched high.

"Seriously?" he said, voice cracking with surprise. Pleasure. Genma was right here, with him, and ... turned on again. Raidou felt his mouth split wide, laughter surging into his throat. "Whatever they put into your meds, fearless, I want some."

"Dude, you're just that hot." Genma wriggled against Raidou and grinned a lazy, pleased-with-himself grin. He draped a leg over Raidou's leg, letting his foot caress Raidou's instep. Shifted under Raidou's arm, setting his head more comfortably on Raidou's shoulder--Raidou's right shoulder, he realized, the one with the mended shoulder blade. "Is this okay? Don't want to hurt you."

Raidou made a dismissive noise and shrugged Genma closer. "I'm fantastic. You?" One shaggy eyebrow raised, two sleepy, sated brown eyes gave a pointed look at the hand trapped in the sling between them.

Genma's answer was to smile and nod his head into the crook of Raidou's neck, shifting every so slightly, to move the splinted hand a little closer to his face."You're definitely fantastic," Genma agreed. He took a deep, sighing breath, and pressed a half-kiss to Raidou's cloth-covered shoulder.

He could hear Raidou's heartbeat, slow now, steady, endless and calming. Feel Raidou's chakra around him in a flare of gold-green ease that was entirely familiar and at the same time entirely new. Feel his own energy field glow violet-blue, soft-edged like the calyx of a milk thistle.

"You know, this is excellent. We should have done this months ago." He let himself relax, let his eyes drift half-closed and chakra drain from pelvic coils back into his circulation. With the edge off, fatigue reasserted itself, and he yawned. His free hand could almost... with a little effort... yes. Snag the blanket and pull it up over the pair of them, ignoring sticky fingers and stained hoodies.

"I say we take a nap," he offered through a yawn, "and then go for round two with fewer clothes." His free hand fell across Raidou's chest to gently cup the bandaged, burned shoulder. A protective, possessive gesture. "If you're good with that. Because you are definitely that hot." One eye squinted open, peering at Raidou's face, hoping for...

For something. For nothing. For this to keep being as good as it was.

Raidou felt his smile drift a little, but decided to take the compliments at face value. "You already got into my pants, idiot," he muttered affectionately. "You don't need to drag out the fancy talk afterwards."

"That's not fancy," Genma protested. "If I was being fancy, I'd tell you stuff that wasn't true."

Raidou gave up. "Cute," he said, tweaking Genma's hair with sticky fingers. "Go to sleep, already."

"You ... first," Genma mumbled, interrupting himself with a yawn. His eyes were already sliding closed. Mentally, Raidou ticked off a count of six...

Right on cue, Genma's breathing slowed and evened out. Draped over Raidou's shoulder, scar-bitten fingers relaxed. Raidou let his head fall back and let out a long, slow breath, re-orienting himself. His lower belly still tingled, filled with dark, dancing sparks. A little shiver wove through the links of his spine.

So. That was gay sex, then. Or gay sex lite, at least.

Thoughtfully, he stretched out the fingers of his right hand. Flipped it over to study the palm. The drying silvery sheen didn't seem massively world-changing, even if it was a little weird -- it was Genma's, after all.

Genma who had apparently flipped from turned-on to wiped-out in an eye-blink. Raidou wondered if that was another eros trick, or somehthing uniquely Genma's. Then he shifted under the slight lapping of blanket his partner had tugged partially over them, and debated over the effort it would take to shuck both shirt and hoodie. Sweaty hair clung to the nape of his neck; his skin felt flushed.

It was still too much effort.

Besides, Genma looked pretty comfortable.

"You're right," Raidou mumbled quietly, swallowing his own yawn. He ducked down and pressed a kiss to Genma's temple. "Should've done this months ago."

He was asleep in seconds.