One Step at a time: 21st Chapter
Pairings: tetsu x hyde
Rating: n-17
Disclaimer: You're kidding, right? Don't own. As in, at all.
Summary: A (hopefully) enormously long story of L'Arc~en~Ciel as seen from the perspective of a Tetsuhai fan
This does not mean the end of my "hiatus". I'm actually really busy nowadays, but I'm just in a really good mood now and felt like shouting out "I'm still alive here!" XD The chapter is nothing special plot-wise, but it's something to read if you're bored before I'm back for good :)
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Chapter 21
The roles they play
Taking into account the fact that they did not have any more shows planned for a long time after Pero’s Goodbye live, the time following it turned out to be unexpectedly busy.
Sakura left the next day after the said live, still having some project back in Tokyo to finish before he could concentrate completely on L’Arc~en~Ciel. However, Tetsu could now officially inform Danger Crue that Sakura would be the one to record the album with them. It was no real news to the label as they were informed about the possibility beforehand and they had no problems with the change of the drummer as long as they still basically got the same band and the same music that they initially agreed to sign up. So the deal was made without a hitch.
His position as their permanent drummer, on the other hand, they still left hanging, figuring that they had all better think about it very carefully instead of making a light decision. Sakura, after all, had never been a permanent member of a band before and Tetsu, especially, was hesitant to rush into making him join before they had the opportunity to get to know each other well enough. They had until the end of the recording at the least to decide, after all.
Danger Crue gave them a week to finish up in Osaka before they were expected to come to Tokyo. There was a bit of a rush as they hurried to settle things with the part time jobs that they had held up until then. They also had to find people willing to look after their apartments while they were gone.
One of Tetsu’s sisters agreed to do it for him on the day he went home to inform his parents about his departure to Tokyo. He received some good wishes from them, but there was otherwise little fuss or excitement about the news. Not that Tetsu really expected anything different.
Hyde’s parents, however, were overjoyed at the news and even organized the three of them a sort of farewell dinner. Both Tetsu and Ken had always been welcome in the Takarai residence. In fact, Mrs. Takarai had all but adopted Ken after she heard of his situation with his family and used every opportunity she had to dote upon all three of them and feed them homemade food. There was no question about her agreeing to look after both her son’s and Ken’s apartments.
To Hyde’s slight horror, she also made a big show of teasingly asking them all if they packed enough underwear and then laughing at their expressions. After realizing they’ve been had, however, all of them felt thankful rather than mortified. After all, even though none of them would have admitted to it, they did feel a little nervous about the impending journey to Tokyo. So this short escape to a homely and casual atmosphere did wonders in making them relax.
Ken, not surprisingly by now, did not hear from his own parents at all.
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Hyde was no stranger to train rides. And even though this one lasted longer than usual and they were bringing more luggage with them than he was used to, his only problem with the journey itself was that, in accordance to Tetsu’s wishes, they rode in a no smoking car. Truthfully, with all the commotion that the idea of going to Tokyo initially brought, the trip was, indeed, not only uneventful, but straight out dull.
Anything new or unusual to them was not supposed to begin until they got to Tokyo itself after all. The vocalist was not sure if it was very clever of him, but he was looking forward to anything that would stave off the boredom.
But almost all of their steps from then were preplanned so there was actually very little space for anything unexpected to happen. People from the label were kind enough to take care of finding a living place for them for the duration of their stay. It was a two-person apartment that was perfect for them since Sakura promised one of them could stay in his apartment comfortably enough. Ken immediately jumped on that particular offer (later mentioning something about not wanting to interfere with certain somebodies’ night life) even though none of them really cared about it that much since they, from experience now, knew that they would mostly be staying in the studio during the recording anyway.
The label also offered to send somebody to meet them at the station and help them find their way around the unfamiliar city. But Tetsu, always one to feel better about doing things himself rather than relying on someone else, politely declined. However, later he did end up agreeing to Sakura’s offer to do the same. Knowing the leader as well as he did by now, Hyde knew that was something Tetsu was not feeling that sure about up until the very minute they saw that the drummer was already waiting for them in the agreed spot.
“Welcome to the city of insane crowds,” the black-haired man greeted them with a smile as they finally made their way to him through the people rushing all around them, “I hope you guys are not too tired, because it will take a while for us to get to the place,” he continued with no other preamble, “Come on, let’s get going.”
Having said that, the drummer quickly moved, and, before Hideto even realized what was happening, swiftly took the petite man’s small, but rather heavy, bag from his hand and started leading them from the bustling station without saying another word.
For half a second Hyde stood completely dumbfounded. But then Tetsu’s and Ken’s amused glances his way, as they turned to follow their so called guide with their own significantly larger burdens, snapped him out of it. Immediately blood rushed into his cheeks (half from shame, half from anger) and he purposefully stomped forward to catch up to Sakura. Soon, he outran his bandmates and turned around, blocking the drummer’s way and glaring at his possible bandmate-to-be, making their small party come to a sudden stop. The taller man made no indication that he knew what he did to deserve such treatment and just raised an eyebrow in question.
“I’m neither a woman nor a child and am fully capable of carrying my bag for myself, thank you very much,” Hyde snapped, stretching out his hand, fully expecting the bag to be returned to him without further ado. Tetsu, Pero and Ken were currently the only ones that could still get away with teasing him about his feminine appearance and the drummer’s assuming he already earned the right to it as well annoyed Hyde immensely. But at the same time, it almost didn't seem that Sakura did this just to tease him. His expression implied that he felt it was completely normal for him to treat Hyde this way. The vocalist knew he had to set the drummer straight about this immediately. But, unfortunately, it did not turn out to be as easy as he had expected it to be.
“Now, now,” the drummer stated rather calmly, but a certain twinkling that suddenly appeared in his eyes told Hyde that Sakura might actually be just teasing him after all, “there’s nothing wrong about me treating you right, is there?”
Inwardly, Hyde started seething, but, painfully aware of all the people bustling around them, he was unwilling to make a scene.
“Just give it back,” he asked as politely as he was able to while speaking through his teeth, giving up on making his point for the time being. The drummer’s answer was instant:
“No.”
And just like that, the younger man went around him and continued on walking as if the interruption did not happen. Unable to do anything else, the vocalist followed him, pointedly ignoring the smiles on his bandmates’ faces.
He kept quiet all through the rest of the long journey, perfectly satisfied with sulking and leaving the other three to find subjects to talk about without his input. His eyes unconsciously returned to his bag in the drummer’s hand again and again, as if trying to make the bag magically return to his own hand.
But it was not until they eventually reached their apartment building that he finally saw his chance to get it back. As they got onto the elevator, the drummer carelessly put his bag on the ground beside him while they were going up to their floor and Hyde wasted no time in snatching it back up himself. He could not help but grin victoriously at the surprised face of the drummer, as silly as it was.
The door of the elevator dinged open right then, and Sakura did not have any time to retaliate in their small competition or even say anything as he had to step out. Hyde followed him smugly this time and was inwardly gloating about his so-called victory. Completely content with not getting involved in whatever was going on between the two men, Tetsu unlocked the door of what was supposed to be their apartment and slipped inside, Ken following right behind him and then…
Hyde’s smug smile slid away. Grinning cheekily, Sakura was gallantly holding the door open for him, immediately reversing the score in his favor. It did not seem he was giving this up.
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Tetsu and Hyde left their bags in the tiny apartment that was to be their home for the next while and the four of them wasted no more time in there before setting out again - to Sakura’s apartment this time. Coincidentally and rather fortunately, it turned out that the drummer lived only a block away from them and they were soon free to, as they were supposed to, go and check out the place they were to record their album at.
Despite being located in a completely undescriptive building and being the second smallest studio from the four that Danger Crue rented for the use of their artists, the recording studio was much better than what they had rented for the recording of their first single. However, they had little time to marvel at the shiny new and, by their standards, seemingly expensive equipment before they were bustled off to meet with one member of the staff after another and then had to sit down for an impromptu meeting and draft out a rough recording schedule for themselves.
By the time they were free to go “home” and rest up after their journey to gather strength before they were to start working, Hyde was feeling rather numb and tired. Thus he was more than happy to crawl into one of the beds with his lover and felt grateful (not for the first time) for Ken’s decision to let them have this tiny bit of time alone.
“They all looked at us like they’re expecting something,” he spoke after a long while of just sitting there in silence, obviously referring to the staff members. “It was a little bit creepy.”
“Well, they are expecting something from us,” Tetsu smiled, shifting them a little so he could hold Hyde a little tighter to himself. “An album, to be exact.”
Hyde just shook his head.
“No, I meant more like they expect us to perform a miracle. Or screw up completely. I can’t decide which is more likely.”
“Relax, Hideto. I’m sure most of them are just expecting us to do our job. Besides, they won’t all be there the whole time, they just came to introduce themselves today.” He put a finger under Hyde’s chin and made the vocalist look up and meet his eyes. “At this moment, we are all just small fry for them and they’re likely to look down on us, but we will do our job and we’ll do it well, just like always, right?”
“Mmmmkay,” was all Hyde managed to answer with before Tetsu shifted them once again and silenced him with a kiss, full with enough need and hunger to immediately make the vocalist forget what they were talking about before in favor of concentrating more on moving his lips and tongue instead of exhausting his brain with useless thoughts.
“I don’t think we’ll have many chances for this for a while, so don’t you think it’s a good idea to take this opportunity tonight?” the bassist mumbled into Hyde’s neck where his lips had by now traveled, leaving a trail of kisses down the vocalist’s jawline.
“I think that’s the best plan I’ve heard this whole day,” Hyde agreed, occupying himself with sliding his hands up beneath Tetsu’s loose shirt and lightly running his fingers over the bassist’s flat stomach and his sensitive sides, making the younger man gasp out loud against his neck and capture the vocalist’s wandering hands with his own.
“Lube,” he breathed out in explanation at Hyde’s inquiring look and stumbled to turn on the bed so he could reach out towards his still mostly full bag and dig around in it for the aforementioned object. His search did not go fast as Hyde decided it would be a good idea to not waste time and use it to rid the bassist of his pants instead. He did not stop there either, and when Tetsu finally managed to find what he was looking for, the vocalist had already rid him of his underwear as well and had succeeded in leaving Tetsu’s shirt as the only piece of article between the two of them.
Tetsu was far from having anything against this development and he took the opportunity to roam his eyes over the smaller man’s perfect body as he carelessly threw the lube onto the pillow so he could take off his shirt as well and move back to deeply kiss his more mischievous than usual lover.
“I love it when you get like this,” he whispered after a few minutes, enjoying the feeling of Hyde’s lips traveling slowly down his body and gasping when the vocalist licked an especially sensitive spot on his side, needing a few seconds to catch his breath again after that before he could talk.
“What do you think of trying something different tonight?” he half groaned out, his fingers slipping through the vocalist’s hair gently trying to urge him back up so they could indulge in far less one-sided ministrations. Interested, the older man let him.
“Different?” he repeated after the bassist, his face slipping back into his lover’s view. “Something kinky, perhaps?” He asked, almost purring as he lied down onto the leader’s body, gasping at the full contact of their heated skin and the feeling of Tetsu’s arousal now pressing against his own.
“Not kinky, no, but I’ll remember your interest in that on the next opportunity that we'll have,” the bassist grinned back up at him, moving his hips slightly to create friction that was more teasing than actually fulfilling.
“Then, ah, what did you mean?” Hyde asked again, trying to push down himself, but failing as strong hands gripped his hips now and kept him from doing just that.
“I was just wondering,” the bassist said, making sure that his breath ghosted over Hyde’s neck just the right way and made the vocalist shiver ever so slightly, “if you didn’t want to try and reverse the roles?”
Hearing this, Hyde’s eyes, which were already half closed in pleasure by then, shot open. He was not sure he heard right.
“Huh?”
In response, Tetsu took the vocalist’s hand into his own and gently guided it down, towards where his own opening was, making Hyde’s eyes widen further in surprise as it was suddenly all too clear what his lover meant and just how serious he was about it.
“Don’t you want to do this?” the bassist asked enticingly and Hyde gulped, his heart suddenly thumping loudly in his chest.
“Of course, but… I figured it wasn’t really… your thing,” he explained haltingly, and was almost surprised himself to feel that he was blushing.
It was the first time Tetsu had made this offer, and though Hyde was quite sure the bassist was in no way a virgin in bottoming, but being a natural born leader he did not seem like someone who would like to give up the control. Since Hyde did not mind it at all, he never even mentioned the matter. Though, admittedly, he had wondered about it a few times. But now that the offer was made, the thoughts of trying out how it would feel to be buried inside that most adored body were almost overwhelmingly tempting.
“Let’s just say that I‘m greedy,” Tetsu replied in a whisper, slipping the lube that he somehow managed to find again into Hyde’s other hand, “I want to have all of your firsts possible,” he explained, smiling. “Actually, I was a bit surprised when you never asked,” he continued, fleetingly brushing his lips up the other’s cheek, "We've been together for more than a year now, after all.
Hyde looked down to the lube in his hand and then back up, meeting his lover’s eyes with his own.
“Are you sure about this?” He asked, still feeling hesitation for some reason. Tetsu just smiled at him.
“Come on, love, you remember how annoyed you were when I kept asking you that, during our first time?” He teased and bucked his hips a little bit upwards, making them both gasp a little as their members rubbed pleasurably against one another. “Just go for it,” the bassist urged him again and seductively spread and bent his legs, giving the vocalist complete access to his own body.
It was an unfamiliar view for the older man, seeing his lover opening up for him like that. But it was in no way not enjoyable and was enough to convince him to throw away all of his doubts. And though his hands were trembling quite a bit, he very quickly succeeded in uncapping the lube and covering his own fingers in it. Resolutely moving so he was in a more suitable position for this, he raised his eyes to look at Tetsu’s face once more, as if searching for something.
“I'm sure that you know what to do,” the younger urged him on and then gasped as the vocalist listened to him and he finally felt the first digit entering him, probing both a little shyly and purposefully at the same time. “Ah yes, like that,” he said and soon started moaning in time with the finger’s movements as he felt Hyde starting to slowly stretch him.
Carefully, the vocalist added another finger and almost moaned himself as he saw and felt it breaching the tight ring of muscle. The sounds of pleasure that his lover was making convinced him that he was doing things the right way and encouraged him even more. He started scissoring his fingers carefully, reaching a tiny bit deeper with every move, trying to cause as little discomfort as possible and judging by Tetsu’s reactions, succeeding quite well. His eyes were jumping back and forth from the face of his lover, contorted in absolute pleasure, to his own fingers, that were reentering the beloved body again and again, as he was unable to choose which sight was more enticing. His breaths were coming out as short as Tetsu’s by now and, when the bassist started meeting his thrusting fingers by moving his body downwards onto them in the same rhythm, he could not help but moan and finally slipped in the last finger.
He winced sympathetically when the bassist suddenly sucked in a breath, obviously feeling some pain and the vocalist felt the muscles clench and unclench around his fingers. Apologetically, he leaned down to capture the bassist’s lips and tried to distract the younger man from what he knew to be a not really comfortable feeling of three digits moving and stretching him from inside. With a few last thrusts he finally removed his fingers as gently as he could, but the bassist still broke their kiss with a slightly startled gasp.
“Alright?” Hyde asked a little worriedly, brushing away Tetsu’s sweat soaked hair from his forehead with his unsoiled hand and meeting the bassist’s hazy eyes.
“I’m fine, it’s just obviously been a while,” the bassist smiled at him after finally managing to even out his breathinf and focus his gaze, his own hand sneaking behind Hyde’s neck to gently urge him down for another short kiss. “Come on, Hideto, don’t keep me waiting,” he asked once more after their lips eventually parted and the vocalist nodded before snatching the lube again and squeezing out a no small amount onto his hand which he then brought to his own erection. Hissing slightly at the half expected coolness he swiftly covered himself with it and then looked back down to his lover.
“Ready?” the smaller man asked again, his hands gripping the younger’s legs and shifting him ever so slightly for a more comfortable position as he himself got ready.
“Of course,” the bassist whispered back and Hyde finally moved forward, slowly entering the body beneath his and groaning in pleasure at the tightness and warmth that met him inside. Tetsu’s hands unconsciously shot up to grip the older man’s shoulders as his eyes briefly squeezed shut at the intrusion. His breath speeding up again as he felt Hyde sheathing himself inside of him, filling him in the most pleasurable, if slightly painful, way and then unable to hold back a moan when the vocalist hesitantly started moving back and forth.
“Feels… so good…” Hyde struggled to breathe out as he steadily quickened his pace and started to thrust harder, the sounds of his pleasure mixing with Tetsu’s groans and gasps of agreement. He adjusted his angle again and again before he finally hit something that made Tetsu let out something between a groan and a full out shout of pleasure, the bassist’s hands inadvertedly tightening their hold of the vocalist’s shoulders. Glad to have finally found what he was looking, Hyde made sure to hit the same spot again every time he went in, striving to pleasure his lover as much as possible as he felt himself approaching his own orgasm with a frighteningly rapid pace.
“Touch… me… please…” Tetsu groaned out between the ever strengthening thrusts, his voice breaking down into unintelligible whimpers when Hyde obeyed him and slipped a hand between their bodies, curling his fingers around the younger man’s arousal and starting to pump it while trying to maintain the even pace of his own pounding at the same time.
It did not take much longer for him to send his seed spurting into the pleasurable heat and he had only just enough presence of mind to deliver a few more thrusts and strokes to his lover to bring him over the edge together and the bassist came only moments after, his own seed splattering in pearly drops all over their stomachs and Hyde’s hand.
Completely out of breath now, the two of them just lied there gasping for air in their afterglow for quite some time before Hyde could gather himself up and dutifully search around for something to clean both of them up a little.
“I saw a tissue box on that table,” Tetsu told him still breathlessly, noting his frustration at not finding anything and pointing at the place he spoke of with his hand. Grateful, Hyde went to it and snatched a few tissues out of it, quickly cleaning himself up and throwing them out before taking the whole box with himself as he returned to the bed to tend to his lover.
“This is far more work than I expected,” the vocalist complained jokingly as he finished with his task and put the tissue box away on the bedside table before collapsing back onto the bed and his lover, nuzzling his face into the chest that was still wet with sweat.
“You don’t have worry, this is the kind of work I’m more than happy to do,” Tetsu answered, with a smile as loud as it was wide, while his hand slid suggestively down the vocalist’s back and settled over the base of his spine.
“Give me a bit more time to catch my breath and I just might take you up on that, you workaholic,” the smaller man murmured back, lovingly, turning his head only slightly so he could bestow a few kisses on the glistening skin.
“So, do you feel manly enough right now?” Tetsu asked jokingly after a while and Hyde, realizing immediately what the younger was alluding to, halfheartedly hit him in the side.
“I hate Sakura,” he mumbled only partly legibly, but Tetsu just chuckled at him.
“Actually, I though you looked like you were having quite a bit of fun arguing with him,” he noted. “Or, at the very least, it was quite a bit of fun to look at you arguing with him,” he teased and Hyde hit him again, slightly harder this time.
“Shut up,” he pouted and then let out a startled gasp as the bassist’s wandering hand slid even lower and teasingly brushed over his entrance, making his back arch in pleasure over the promise of more, “Oh fuck,” he moaned, a little surprised at his own body’s eagerness for a continuation. Admittedly, it had been a while since they had time for this…
“I think I can do that,” the bassist smirked at him, effortlessly rolling them over and then looking down at him lustfully. "That is, if you've had enough time to catch your breath?”
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Next day, when Sakura, with a devilish grin on his face, made to gallantly help Hyde go up the stairs, still playing up his gentleman’s role, Tetsu was the only one present who was not surprised when Hyde went with it and even took the offered hand.
If Sakura was going for war, Hyde would make sure he’d get more than he'd bargained for. And while the vocalist would never admit it out loud, but sometimes it did feel good to be treated this well.
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Random: Yasouka is such a beautiful song! I've listened to it so many times lately (the Close by DUNE performance, to be exact) and I just can't get past it. And the lyrics... Really, those guys were geniuses from the very start. /random
Hope you enjoyed the chapter XD Please comment if you did. Actually, comment if you didn't as well, criticism is just as welcome XD
Also: I went through the previous chapters and made some changes. Just corrected mistakes here and there and whatnot. Nothing major and absolutely nothing to the plot (that would be cheating XD) so there's no need to read them again or anything. Just thought I'd mention it XD It's probably not the last revision anyway, as I'm still not satisfied with some things, but it's a little bit better :)
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Previous chapters: Chapter 1, Chapter 2, Chapter 3, Chapter 4, Chapter 5, Chapter 6, Chapter 7, Chapter 8, Chapter 9, Chapter 10, Chapter 11, Chapter 12, Chapter 13, Chapter 14, Chapter 15, Chapter 16, Chapter 17, Chapter 18, Chapter 19