By Your Side at Any Price, Chapter 4
Jul. 26th, 2011 04:25 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
lecanisOh, hey, in case anyone was reading this here instead of at FF.net, here's another chapter of the Raikou/Gau fic. Click the 'by your side' tag for quick access to previous chapters.
By Your Side (At any price) Chapter 4
Rating: M
Summary: When things change between partners, can they hold it together, or will they lose what trust was between them? The more things change...
Warning: Awkwardness, immaturity?
When Gau awakes, there are strong arms wrapped around his slight form, tight enough that he feels quite restricted, unable to simply slip out of the bed and go about his day. He isn’t sure how he feels about this, because now that it’s morning and he feels sore and bruised and slightly itchy with scabbing scratches, he really just wants to get up and dress and go make breakfast and have things be normal again.
But Raikou is...
And when Gau looks over, he realizes that his partner is awake, clutching him this tightly. Not asleep. Not dreaming of someone or something else, but looking right at him with worry in his russet eyes and pain written all over his face.
“Good morning,” Gau says softly, when what he really wants to say is ‘don’t look at me like that’ or ‘it’s okay’ or something. But none of those things want to come out of his mouth, and he’s not sure how to make them, as if he’s forgotten how to create the proper words.
He blushes, brightly, and gentle settles a hand on Raikou’s chest, gives the slightest of pushes, trying to make it clear that he wants free but isn’t angry. He doesn’t want his partner to be pained by this, when the entire point of thing had been to take care of Raikou.
“You’re crushing me a little, Raikou-san.”
That ‘-san’ is still firmly in place, is still necessary, despite the fact that they are lying in bed together, naked, still smelling of sex. In fact, it’s that ‘-san’ that makes this all right for Gau, allows him not to feel as if he has perhaps broken his own heart in some way. Because the nearness of Raikou, here in the morning light, makes his heart pound in a way that it hadn’t the night before. Now that Raikou is looking at him, at Gau, in a personal manner... he’s still attracted to this man, still wants him.
Which is why he’s relieved when Raikou laughs, pulls away. There’s a wry tone to his older partner’s voice as he speaks, and though the worry is still there, there’s something lighter about his expression as well.
“I’m making breakfast today,” Raikou declares, playfully.
Gau’s stomach turns over at the the very idea, remembering the last time Raikou made him breakfast. It wasn’t that his partner didn’t know how to cook, but just that sometimes, he got as random with his ingredients as he did with his wardrobe... and that was never a good thing.
“No, no! Here, see, I’m up! I’m just going to take a quick shower!” Just like that, Gau bounces out of his partner’s bed, despite the slight ache that persists, despite the strange feeling in his body from new exertions. Just like that, Gau gives up the warm rest against the older man’s form that had been his ‘price’ for last night’s activities. Just that quickly, it’s done.
Perhaps they won’t talk about it again. Or perhaps, the next time, he’ll ask the same thing. He doesn’t know yet. He can’t think about those things, because if he lets himself think about them, they will consume him. This isn’t about him, the teen reminds himself firmly, and whatever his partner needs from him will be what he becomes, as it has been since this man saved his life.
By the time the boy is dressed and in the kitchen cooking, he feels almost normal. There hasn’t been some kind of magic change to his mind or body that says he’s no longer a virgin, after all, and the physical aches are no worse than a particularly rigorous round of training, if not in quite the same spots. He’s a little quieter than normal as he moves around the kitchen, but the classical music coming out of the stereo on the countertop covers for that, and there’s nothing to say that it’s anything other than a normal morning.
He’s grateful for the fact that, as Raikou enters the kitchen and takes his seat, he doesn’t move to take over Gau’s task, and doesn’t speak of the night before.
In fact, nothing at all is said about it, until the dishes are cleared away, until they’re sitting at that same table with laptops, notebooks, and file folders, passing notes back and forth and putting together the latest reports for Hattori.
“Are you sure that you’re all right?” Raikou asks, his tone almost wary, as if knowing that broaching the subject might be asking for trouble.
“If I say no, do I get out of training for the day?” Gau asks, in his best childish-hopeful tone, his green eyes sliding toward his partner’s face, taking in the fact that those familiar russet eyes are glued to the screen and not facing him at all.
“Perhaps.” There’s a twitch of lips that accompanies the single word, and a flutter of lashes that might be a wink.
“There is this awful pain right in my...” Gau begins, but he can’t seem to maintain seriousness, and bursts into laughter before he can get the word ‘ass’ out at all.
“Brat!” The older partner is swinging a book at his head lazily before he can check the reaction, and they both laugh, as Gau manages to fall out of his chair trying to avoid it. And maybe, just maybe, it’s a little on purpose, but the renewed twinge in his lower half is definitely worth it for the way Raikou’s face breaks out in a smile as he reaches out to help the boy up.
By Your Side (At any price) Chapter 4
Rating: M
Summary: When things change between partners, can they hold it together, or will they lose what trust was between them? The more things change...
Warning: Awkwardness, immaturity?
When Gau awakes, there are strong arms wrapped around his slight form, tight enough that he feels quite restricted, unable to simply slip out of the bed and go about his day. He isn’t sure how he feels about this, because now that it’s morning and he feels sore and bruised and slightly itchy with scabbing scratches, he really just wants to get up and dress and go make breakfast and have things be normal again.
But Raikou is...
And when Gau looks over, he realizes that his partner is awake, clutching him this tightly. Not asleep. Not dreaming of someone or something else, but looking right at him with worry in his russet eyes and pain written all over his face.
“Good morning,” Gau says softly, when what he really wants to say is ‘don’t look at me like that’ or ‘it’s okay’ or something. But none of those things want to come out of his mouth, and he’s not sure how to make them, as if he’s forgotten how to create the proper words.
He blushes, brightly, and gentle settles a hand on Raikou’s chest, gives the slightest of pushes, trying to make it clear that he wants free but isn’t angry. He doesn’t want his partner to be pained by this, when the entire point of thing had been to take care of Raikou.
“You’re crushing me a little, Raikou-san.”
That ‘-san’ is still firmly in place, is still necessary, despite the fact that they are lying in bed together, naked, still smelling of sex. In fact, it’s that ‘-san’ that makes this all right for Gau, allows him not to feel as if he has perhaps broken his own heart in some way. Because the nearness of Raikou, here in the morning light, makes his heart pound in a way that it hadn’t the night before. Now that Raikou is looking at him, at Gau, in a personal manner... he’s still attracted to this man, still wants him.
Which is why he’s relieved when Raikou laughs, pulls away. There’s a wry tone to his older partner’s voice as he speaks, and though the worry is still there, there’s something lighter about his expression as well.
“I’m making breakfast today,” Raikou declares, playfully.
Gau’s stomach turns over at the the very idea, remembering the last time Raikou made him breakfast. It wasn’t that his partner didn’t know how to cook, but just that sometimes, he got as random with his ingredients as he did with his wardrobe... and that was never a good thing.
“No, no! Here, see, I’m up! I’m just going to take a quick shower!” Just like that, Gau bounces out of his partner’s bed, despite the slight ache that persists, despite the strange feeling in his body from new exertions. Just like that, Gau gives up the warm rest against the older man’s form that had been his ‘price’ for last night’s activities. Just that quickly, it’s done.
Perhaps they won’t talk about it again. Or perhaps, the next time, he’ll ask the same thing. He doesn’t know yet. He can’t think about those things, because if he lets himself think about them, they will consume him. This isn’t about him, the teen reminds himself firmly, and whatever his partner needs from him will be what he becomes, as it has been since this man saved his life.
By the time the boy is dressed and in the kitchen cooking, he feels almost normal. There hasn’t been some kind of magic change to his mind or body that says he’s no longer a virgin, after all, and the physical aches are no worse than a particularly rigorous round of training, if not in quite the same spots. He’s a little quieter than normal as he moves around the kitchen, but the classical music coming out of the stereo on the countertop covers for that, and there’s nothing to say that it’s anything other than a normal morning.
He’s grateful for the fact that, as Raikou enters the kitchen and takes his seat, he doesn’t move to take over Gau’s task, and doesn’t speak of the night before.
In fact, nothing at all is said about it, until the dishes are cleared away, until they’re sitting at that same table with laptops, notebooks, and file folders, passing notes back and forth and putting together the latest reports for Hattori.
“Are you sure that you’re all right?” Raikou asks, his tone almost wary, as if knowing that broaching the subject might be asking for trouble.
“If I say no, do I get out of training for the day?” Gau asks, in his best childish-hopeful tone, his green eyes sliding toward his partner’s face, taking in the fact that those familiar russet eyes are glued to the screen and not facing him at all.
“Perhaps.” There’s a twitch of lips that accompanies the single word, and a flutter of lashes that might be a wink.
“There is this awful pain right in my...” Gau begins, but he can’t seem to maintain seriousness, and bursts into laughter before he can get the word ‘ass’ out at all.
“Brat!” The older partner is swinging a book at his head lazily before he can check the reaction, and they both laugh, as Gau manages to fall out of his chair trying to avoid it. And maybe, just maybe, it’s a little on purpose, but the renewed twinge in his lower half is definitely worth it for the way Raikou’s face breaks out in a smile as he reaches out to help the boy up.
