nightswimming [mikhail x hikaru, nc-17]
Here's a quick one for Mikhail Kaledin & Hikaru Shinta, rated for teh boysex (watch your step, male readers). It's supposed to take place after Isherwood University, and it exists outside of the main story threads. I can put a PDF version of this up for grabs by request.
Song: "Nightswimming", from R.E.M.
Nightswimming.
“…And that would be it, sir.”
“That’s all?”
“Yes, sir. That’s all.”
Mikhail Kaledin flipped through the report, focusing with some effort on what it was trying to say. His secretary hovered near the door, cellular phone at hand and leather file case under one arm. It must have been midnight, given how quiet everything was. The guards were posted at the security camera rooms and the cleaners would be on the ground floor by then, but they were the only ones in the upper floors, where the employers of Zangyaku Heavy Industries and Exitialis Incorporated kept hard at work from dawn until well into the night to keep things running and money flowing. Activity in the Tower, however, usually stopped before the clock struck ten. After ten, a different sort of host came out to play.
Ah, and that reminds me.
“Where is he now, Hel?” he asked softly without looking away from what he was reading. There were the pause and quick words exchanged over a phone line before Helena Blackwell responded.
“He should be en-route to another meeting, Mr. Kaledin. It might be with that group you helped the boys neutralize last week.”
“Who’s with him?”
“The usual crew, as you’ve instructed.”
“Ah. Good.”
And this was how things were run. Corporations by day, yakuza lords by night, of ever-incalculable wealth and never failing to tread that thin line between unquestionably safe and downright fatal with every deal made over the table, every word spoken to agents in closed rooms. Mikhail had never considered this as an option towards the kind of life he would have liked to lead after Isherwood. Although cold ruthlessness in business was exemplary of the Kaledin name, his relatives had always tried to keep within the bounds of the law. They bent it when they could and never hesitated to usurp rival corporations or assimilate smaller companies into their plans before they could fight back, but the Underworld was a playing field that none of them dared to touch. There were other ways to make money. Safer ones, with risk that involved numbers rather than lives.
Mikhail had tried to follow their example, and he had succeeded in the beginning, for the most part. Then he had met Hikaru Shinta and everything changed.
“I think I’ll call it a night,” he said aloud, standing up. “Thanks for waiting up for me.”
“Always a pleasure, sir. Good night.”
No one but the woman manning the front desk greeted Mikhail the moment he stepped off the elevator and unto the ground floor, with his coat hanging loosely from his shoulders and his attaché case at hand. “Shall I have someone pick you up from the entrance, sir?” she asked, as Mikhail checked the time. 12:20 AM, right on the dot.
“No, I think I’ll take my car tonight… just have someone bring it up front for me.”
“Yes, sir.”
“Thanks.”
Thirty minutes later and about three kilometers away from downtown Arcis his cellular phone rang. He answered it at the stoplight.
“Busy?”
“Maybe. What’s up?”
“I’ve got something to show you. I’ll make it worth your while.”
“I’m sure,” Mikhail murmured into the receiver, trying not to smile and have it slip into his voice. “You sound happy. Did something happen?”
A soft, husky laugh. It made Mikhail remember just how long it had been since the last time for the both of them. Things had kept them busy, of late.
“Just come here as quick as you can. I’ll send the address over to you in a moment.”
Click. Mikhail looked down at his phone, bemused for a moment before the stoplight turned green and drew his attentions back to the evening traffic. The address arrived in an SMS message only a minute after the call. His curiosity with the whole matter increased when he recognized the building the moment he arrived. He remembered the place. It used to be marked down on the map as a zone that that people from the Shinta camp weren’t supposed to touch.
Five members of the demolition crew were loitering about in the lobby of the building; two of them were doing yo-yo tricks while the others were watching. The whole lot of them, however, immediately straightened up when Mikhail drew close.
“Mr. Kaledin.”
“At ease. Where is he?”
“At the rooftop, sir.”
Rooftops. Top floors. Penthouses and king-sized beds came to mind. Mikhail removed his thoughts from that particular trajectory and walked off towards the elevator. He only managed to dig out his cigarettes when he was halfway to the top, and he lit up in the corridor that he found himself in. It was eerily silent, and other than the way he had come from there was only one other place to go.
The chill of the evening came in the blast of wind that rushed over Mikhail the moment he pushed the glass doors leading to the rooftop open. All of Arcis stretched out in the darkness beyond the building, in the dizzying blur of firefly lights and swimming colors. The cityscape, however, did not demand his attentions as much as his immediate surroundings did. There was the pavilion near the opposite edge of the rooftop, cradling a hot tub and offering a vantage towards the sea. There was the pool that took up nearly half the area, with a waterfall that gave the illusion that the pool spilled off into the shadows and the streets below. And then there was Hikaru Shinta in the water, arms pillowed over the pool side facing Mikhail and smiling.
“Come in.” the lights of the city all around them were in those eyes, making them gleam with something other than whatever was already in that look and everything it said to him, between spoken words. “It’s warmer here.”
“What happened to your meeting?”
“I’m meeting you, aren’t I?”
Mikhail scoffed as he stopped at the water’s edge, kneeling down just as Hikaru reached up for him. “I’ll have to tell Hel that her information network was off, for once,” he murmured as he felt those slender arms wrap about his neck. “She said you’d be handling some negotiations tonight.” He tasted Vodka on Hikaru’s lips when they kissed. “Wasn’t this building on the blacklist just last week?”
“It’s under new management now. I believe it was placed under a certain ‘Shinta.’”
Times like this reminded Mikhail just how young his lover was, and how much of their life was still a game that Hikaru knew how to play only too well at times. That boy was the one who watched him now, expectantly, as he stood up and went towards the pavilion, where he took off his coat and abandoned his attaché case near the bundle that he assumed were Hikaru’s belongings. He discarded the rest of his clothes at the pool’s edge before stepping into the water and the full circle of Hikaru’s embrace. He quickly discovered that the younger man was as gloriously naked as he had hoped he would be.
“…Well. This makes certain things easier for me.”
Hikaru merely laughed into the crook of his shoulder. They drifted further out until they stood practically glued together in waist-deep water, where they started kissing again. “Do you like it?” he whispered into Mikhail’s ear in one of those inevitable pauses for breath. “There’s not another place in town that’s like this one. Having a heated pool and hot tub on the roof, I mean.”
“The pool is better with you in it.”
“Then it must be perfect now.”
They slipped into the water together to see how long they could subside with each other’s breath as air.
Although the pool had been pleasant in its own right, the hot tub with its jet streams and the miniature waterfall set up to one side of it was more suited for the activity that followed about thirty minutes after their water play. Mikhail knew the evening was complete the moment he found himself covering Hikaru, listening to his lover’s breath go ragged with need over the rush of water around them. It was all the younger man could do to keep himself from whimpering when Mikhail reached down to touch him underwater.
“Hush. I’ll be done with this soon.”
“…Tease.”
When those hands reached out they sought to pull Mikhail closer, to guide him where he could plant kisses on the object of his affection and suck the warmth away from that skin, to make it his own. He let them, loving the feel of those fingers threading into his hair, gripping with no force in tune to the slender body that rose against his own whenever he did something that he knew the other liked.
Mikhail had Hikaru against the edge later on, where the water spilled over his back as he pressed in deep, bringing the other near the end of his resolve and himself closer to exactly what he had grown to want and to love over the years. They spent a few moments basking in the afterglow when it was done, tangled in each other near the shallows and listening to the water.
“Don’t you ever grow tired of this?”
It was an honest question, Mikhail realized, the moment he looked down and saw Hikaru looking up at him. There was no smile to greet him, and the light in those eyes had changed. The arms were loose from around his neck, and all it would take was a simple shift and they’d slip away from him, letting him move away if he wanted to.
“I wouldn’t have lasted this long with you if I were that fickle, Hikaru.”
“…I know that… but…”
“But what?”
He kissed away the furrow on that brow, and stroked the younger man’s face with one thumb, admiring the flushed cheeks and fine skin as he held that gaze steady to his own. Hikaru opened his mouth to him in the first round of kisses, and by the time the second round was finished he was smiling.
“I should have never doubted you.”
“It’s part of your natural charm.” Mikhail drifted away from Hikaru and moved towards the steps leading out. “Come on. We better go before you catch a cold.”
When they came down from the rooftop together, the members of the demolition crew only exchanged smiles among themselves before moving to get the cars. They showered together back in the estate, cleaning each other off just as much as they partook of each other’s skin. The bed sheets that they fell into afterward were as warm as the waters of that pool on the rooftop.
“We should try out a hot spring next time.”
Mikhail let his kisses tell Hikaru that he agreed.
For the main story thread involving this pairing, check Lullabies to Paralyze.
Song: "Nightswimming", from R.E.M.
Nightswimming.
“…And that would be it, sir.”
“That’s all?”
“Yes, sir. That’s all.”
Mikhail Kaledin flipped through the report, focusing with some effort on what it was trying to say. His secretary hovered near the door, cellular phone at hand and leather file case under one arm. It must have been midnight, given how quiet everything was. The guards were posted at the security camera rooms and the cleaners would be on the ground floor by then, but they were the only ones in the upper floors, where the employers of Zangyaku Heavy Industries and Exitialis Incorporated kept hard at work from dawn until well into the night to keep things running and money flowing. Activity in the Tower, however, usually stopped before the clock struck ten. After ten, a different sort of host came out to play.
Ah, and that reminds me.
“Where is he now, Hel?” he asked softly without looking away from what he was reading. There were the pause and quick words exchanged over a phone line before Helena Blackwell responded.
“He should be en-route to another meeting, Mr. Kaledin. It might be with that group you helped the boys neutralize last week.”
“Who’s with him?”
“The usual crew, as you’ve instructed.”
“Ah. Good.”
And this was how things were run. Corporations by day, yakuza lords by night, of ever-incalculable wealth and never failing to tread that thin line between unquestionably safe and downright fatal with every deal made over the table, every word spoken to agents in closed rooms. Mikhail had never considered this as an option towards the kind of life he would have liked to lead after Isherwood. Although cold ruthlessness in business was exemplary of the Kaledin name, his relatives had always tried to keep within the bounds of the law. They bent it when they could and never hesitated to usurp rival corporations or assimilate smaller companies into their plans before they could fight back, but the Underworld was a playing field that none of them dared to touch. There were other ways to make money. Safer ones, with risk that involved numbers rather than lives.
Mikhail had tried to follow their example, and he had succeeded in the beginning, for the most part. Then he had met Hikaru Shinta and everything changed.
“I think I’ll call it a night,” he said aloud, standing up. “Thanks for waiting up for me.”
“Always a pleasure, sir. Good night.”
No one but the woman manning the front desk greeted Mikhail the moment he stepped off the elevator and unto the ground floor, with his coat hanging loosely from his shoulders and his attaché case at hand. “Shall I have someone pick you up from the entrance, sir?” she asked, as Mikhail checked the time. 12:20 AM, right on the dot.
“No, I think I’ll take my car tonight… just have someone bring it up front for me.”
“Yes, sir.”
“Thanks.”
Thirty minutes later and about three kilometers away from downtown Arcis his cellular phone rang. He answered it at the stoplight.
“Busy?”
“Maybe. What’s up?”
“I’ve got something to show you. I’ll make it worth your while.”
“I’m sure,” Mikhail murmured into the receiver, trying not to smile and have it slip into his voice. “You sound happy. Did something happen?”
A soft, husky laugh. It made Mikhail remember just how long it had been since the last time for the both of them. Things had kept them busy, of late.
“Just come here as quick as you can. I’ll send the address over to you in a moment.”
Click. Mikhail looked down at his phone, bemused for a moment before the stoplight turned green and drew his attentions back to the evening traffic. The address arrived in an SMS message only a minute after the call. His curiosity with the whole matter increased when he recognized the building the moment he arrived. He remembered the place. It used to be marked down on the map as a zone that that people from the Shinta camp weren’t supposed to touch.
Five members of the demolition crew were loitering about in the lobby of the building; two of them were doing yo-yo tricks while the others were watching. The whole lot of them, however, immediately straightened up when Mikhail drew close.
“Mr. Kaledin.”
“At ease. Where is he?”
“At the rooftop, sir.”
Rooftops. Top floors. Penthouses and king-sized beds came to mind. Mikhail removed his thoughts from that particular trajectory and walked off towards the elevator. He only managed to dig out his cigarettes when he was halfway to the top, and he lit up in the corridor that he found himself in. It was eerily silent, and other than the way he had come from there was only one other place to go.
The chill of the evening came in the blast of wind that rushed over Mikhail the moment he pushed the glass doors leading to the rooftop open. All of Arcis stretched out in the darkness beyond the building, in the dizzying blur of firefly lights and swimming colors. The cityscape, however, did not demand his attentions as much as his immediate surroundings did. There was the pavilion near the opposite edge of the rooftop, cradling a hot tub and offering a vantage towards the sea. There was the pool that took up nearly half the area, with a waterfall that gave the illusion that the pool spilled off into the shadows and the streets below. And then there was Hikaru Shinta in the water, arms pillowed over the pool side facing Mikhail and smiling.
“Come in.” the lights of the city all around them were in those eyes, making them gleam with something other than whatever was already in that look and everything it said to him, between spoken words. “It’s warmer here.”
“What happened to your meeting?”
“I’m meeting you, aren’t I?”
Mikhail scoffed as he stopped at the water’s edge, kneeling down just as Hikaru reached up for him. “I’ll have to tell Hel that her information network was off, for once,” he murmured as he felt those slender arms wrap about his neck. “She said you’d be handling some negotiations tonight.” He tasted Vodka on Hikaru’s lips when they kissed. “Wasn’t this building on the blacklist just last week?”
“It’s under new management now. I believe it was placed under a certain ‘Shinta.’”
Times like this reminded Mikhail just how young his lover was, and how much of their life was still a game that Hikaru knew how to play only too well at times. That boy was the one who watched him now, expectantly, as he stood up and went towards the pavilion, where he took off his coat and abandoned his attaché case near the bundle that he assumed were Hikaru’s belongings. He discarded the rest of his clothes at the pool’s edge before stepping into the water and the full circle of Hikaru’s embrace. He quickly discovered that the younger man was as gloriously naked as he had hoped he would be.
“…Well. This makes certain things easier for me.”
Hikaru merely laughed into the crook of his shoulder. They drifted further out until they stood practically glued together in waist-deep water, where they started kissing again. “Do you like it?” he whispered into Mikhail’s ear in one of those inevitable pauses for breath. “There’s not another place in town that’s like this one. Having a heated pool and hot tub on the roof, I mean.”
“The pool is better with you in it.”
“Then it must be perfect now.”
They slipped into the water together to see how long they could subside with each other’s breath as air.
Although the pool had been pleasant in its own right, the hot tub with its jet streams and the miniature waterfall set up to one side of it was more suited for the activity that followed about thirty minutes after their water play. Mikhail knew the evening was complete the moment he found himself covering Hikaru, listening to his lover’s breath go ragged with need over the rush of water around them. It was all the younger man could do to keep himself from whimpering when Mikhail reached down to touch him underwater.
“Hush. I’ll be done with this soon.”
“…Tease.”
When those hands reached out they sought to pull Mikhail closer, to guide him where he could plant kisses on the object of his affection and suck the warmth away from that skin, to make it his own. He let them, loving the feel of those fingers threading into his hair, gripping with no force in tune to the slender body that rose against his own whenever he did something that he knew the other liked.
Mikhail had Hikaru against the edge later on, where the water spilled over his back as he pressed in deep, bringing the other near the end of his resolve and himself closer to exactly what he had grown to want and to love over the years. They spent a few moments basking in the afterglow when it was done, tangled in each other near the shallows and listening to the water.
“Don’t you ever grow tired of this?”
It was an honest question, Mikhail realized, the moment he looked down and saw Hikaru looking up at him. There was no smile to greet him, and the light in those eyes had changed. The arms were loose from around his neck, and all it would take was a simple shift and they’d slip away from him, letting him move away if he wanted to.
“I wouldn’t have lasted this long with you if I were that fickle, Hikaru.”
“…I know that… but…”
“But what?”
He kissed away the furrow on that brow, and stroked the younger man’s face with one thumb, admiring the flushed cheeks and fine skin as he held that gaze steady to his own. Hikaru opened his mouth to him in the first round of kisses, and by the time the second round was finished he was smiling.
“I should have never doubted you.”
“It’s part of your natural charm.” Mikhail drifted away from Hikaru and moved towards the steps leading out. “Come on. We better go before you catch a cold.”
When they came down from the rooftop together, the members of the demolition crew only exchanged smiles among themselves before moving to get the cars. They showered together back in the estate, cleaning each other off just as much as they partook of each other’s skin. The bed sheets that they fell into afterward were as warm as the waters of that pool on the rooftop.
“We should try out a hot spring next time.”
Mikhail let his kisses tell Hikaru that he agreed.
For the main story thread involving this pairing, check Lullabies to Paralyze.