The Hymn of Lazurus Part 2
From that day on it was Nyanta, Lazarus, Koyama and Ryo, one furry, freakish, dysfunctional little family. Really, it suited Ryo just fine.
“The chop-slash killer has claimed his fifth victim according to police who have been chasing him since his reign of terror began last spring. Despite taunting notes to the police they have been unable to identify a suspect in five brutal slayings. As far as police can tell there is no pattern to the killings and they have nothing new to add to their case at this point.”
Ryo was chopping onions and it was making his eyes sting, he rubbed them against his shirt sleeve, glaring through watery eyes at Koyama’s pink chopping board.
“The weather for Tokyo today is sunny and cold, a brisk 10 degrees without a cloud in the sky.”
The onions went into a pile to be added to the meat and eggs, he’d been craving an omelette for awhile now, and every time he tried Koyama would go on and on about breakfast foods being eaten for breakfast only. Well now it was breakfast and he was going to have his damn omelette.
Soon the smell off frying egg and the accompanying sizzle filled the tiny kitchen, running just a shade louder than the softly playing radio. It was a typical lazy Sunday morning, he had the day off and so did Koyama, so they slept in and stayed home. His common law partner and arguably his better half was sitting at the old kitchen table drinking tea and reading the paper. Which one of them was the chick in their little fantasy (Ryo’s anyways) relationship flip-flopped daily.
“Here.” He set the plate down next to Koyama’s paper; the tall man had a clip in his bangs holding them off his face and straight up in the air, the tip of his pen in his mouth.
“Thanks.” He nodded his head, the pen and ponytail bobbing with the movement. With his own omelette in hand Ryo returned to the table fully intent on pestering Koyama when the other man beat him to the punch.
“What do you think of this? Two bedrooms, 4th floor, it’s on the other side of that lot, only 60,000.”
“What?” He froze with just the rim of his coffee mug touching his lips. The mug was one of the first things Koyama got when Ryo had stayed past the first three days, smiling widely as he gave it to Ryo, looking so goddamn proud of himself.
“Too far? I don’t know if there is anything closer.” Koyama looked intently at his paper. “That is, if you want to stay.”
“What?” Because Ryo really had no idea what was going on.
“I thought, if you’re going to stay, we should get a place with two bedrooms so you can have one and you don’t have to follow me around all the time.”
Firstly, of course he wanted to stay here, if it wasn’t for Koyama he really wouldn’t have anything left, he couldn’t imagine leaving the older man not when he wouldn’t kill his own spiders when they got stuck in the bathtub and could barely cook instant curry. That and he liked following around Koyama, it gave him something to do. That and he could quite possibly be in love with the other man. Well, possibly.
“That one is pretty far from work.”
“Yeah, it is isn’t it?” Koyama drew an X through the article and bent his head over the classified section once more. Ryo ate the rest of his omelette in contemplative silence, at least he got that, right?
After breakfast he went out for a walk instead of sitting on the couch with Koyama and Nyanta to watch dramas. It wasn’t like Koyama was trying to leave him, but he still felt a detached sense of betrayal. If he had his own room he wouldn’t be able to see him, wet from the shower dripping all over the floor and trying to curse quietly as he raced to pick up the phone and not wake up Ryo on the couch. Admittedly he wouldn’t be sorry to see that couch go, the floor had to be more comfortable.
Still, fucking with the status quo was a big no-no, and Ryo liked things the way they were. It had been a long time since he had a good thing, and he didn’t want to change anything. Besides if they lived above the flower shop then Koyama didn’t have to worry about hurting anything bigger then a flower and Ryo could pick up shifts there when he was bored. With no destination in mind Ryo simply walked, heading in the opposite direction as his old neighbourhood, he didn’t need to see them to make a bad day worse. He got a pack of smokes, tearing the foil off and tapping one out. He smoked the same brand as Koyama now, they smelled better than his old ones did.
After that there wasn’t much to do so he found himself back at the flower shop, looking at the darkened windows. He still couldn’t remember falling down here that first night, everything was just so hazy until he was cold and Koyama was touching him so softly. No one had ever touched him like that before, like he might break, like he was something special. Ryo liked it here.
He had to do something.
“Back already?” Koyama poked his head around the door frame.
“Yeah.”
“I think I found a good one.” He spun on his heels and Ryo followed him back into the kitchen. Then before either of them could really think about it Ryo had Koyama crowded against the table, looking shocked and trying to climb up on the table to avoid contact.
“I’m going to kiss you.”
“No, Ryo, you can’t.” The table screeched as it slid across the linoleum.
“Why not.”
“I’ll hurt you.” Koyama whispered the space between them.
“Then why did you let me stay?”
“I...” Ryo didn’t wait long enough for Koyama to finish whatever he was about to say, leaning in and tilting his head up so that his lips landed on the corner of Koyama’s mouth. They froze like that, Koyama stilling completely under him, and Ryo feeling the faint brush of skin under his lips. After a few heart beats when he didn’t spontaneously combust, or something equally gruesome for daring to kiss Koyama he let more of his weight rest against the other man’s trapped body. His arms brushed Koyama’s, and he fitted his legs so their thighs brushed. It was almost dizzying.
“See, still here.” His breath fanned across Koyama’s face and the other man shivered, his hands flapping uselessly at his sides. He pressed his lips to Koyama’s this time, slotting them so he could flick his tongue against the softness of his bottom lip. “And still here.” This time he placed his hands on the sharp juts of Koyama’s hips holding him steady.
“What about now?” He was flushed, but his eyes shone bright up close, what slivers of them Ryo could see anyways.
“Yeah, still fine.” He leaned in for another kiss, his lips finding Koyama’s as the other man’s hands rested lightly on his shoulders, fingers curling around the points like they weren’t entirely sure of their welcome.
He must have spent forever like that, pressing Koyama against the kitchen table and learning the silken interior of his mouth and the hardness of his teeth. It really couldn’t have been more than a few minutes as it was, but he could have happily stayed there for as long as it took for his heart to stop beating so fast. He couldn’t help the way he pulled Koyama closer and closer, unable to get enough now that he had the chance.
“Ryo.” He moaned, pulling back, and Ryo followed him, pressing his lips to the long line of Koyama’s neck. “Oh, do that again.”
He laughed and pressed his lips to Koyama’s neck nosing up under his fluffy hair. Ryo could be obliging when it suited him. He shifted, pressing his hips against Koyama’s thigh, eliminating the remaining space between them. “Hey, ow.”
“What?”
“Table, table.” Koyama pushed at his shoulders until they were standing a respectable distance apart. His face was flushed and his lips red. “...Ryo.”
“Shut it.” He grabbed Koyama’s hand again, lacing their fingers together. “I’m fine, you’re fine, and I’m going to make you better then fine.” It was corny but it made Koyama smile, that stupid, idiotic, goofy smile that Ryo treasured all too much.
He fell back on the bed, pulling Koyama down to lay next to him. “Is this okay?” He asked raising a hand, Ryo pressed his cheek into his palm which hovered just above his cheek.
“Fuck you, I’ve wanted to do this forever.” He ran his hand from the edge of Koyama’s palm all the way up to his shoulder, following the faint trace-work of veins under the skin. Koyama shivered.
“That?” He smiled, Ryo leaning over to kiss the corner of it.
“Not that.” He ran his fingers down and over the curve of his ribs next. “Touch you. All of you.”
“If you want.” His breath hitched, a small sound, and he let his arms fall to the side, offering himself star-fish for Ryo. He liked that, liked it a lot, cock twitching in his pants, blood pulsing and pooling heavily. “Anything.”
“Okay.” His voice cracked a bit, Ryo tilted his face nuzzling the soft skin of his collar bone. “You don’t understand how bad I’ve wanted this.”
“Ryo!” A hand pressed to his groin, cupping and rubbing making Koyama twist and writhe on the sheets. “Oh god, Ryo.”
“Yep.” He grinned like a shark, rolling so that he was pinning Koyama’s knees and hovering over him. “This will feel really good.”
“Anything.” Koyama lifted himself onto his elbows watching intently, Ryo’s tanned fingers a sharp contrast against the denim, the bulge of his erection hot between his legs. Koyama pressed his hips into the contact, almost dislodging Ryo from his perch, tossing his head in desperation. Ryo was only getting started.
He hunched his back and pressed his lips to Koyama’s chest through his shirt, finding a nipple by memory, pressed his lips against it. The fabric soaked with spit quick enough and Koyama was groaning, his fingers curling and tugging on Ryo’s shirt as he tried to pull him even closer to his chest. Pulling away he blew on the wet cotton and Koyama arched, coming close to breaking his nose. The look on his face almost made Ryo laugh, a perfect picture of shocked awe. It was sort of cute look on him, and Ryo made a mental note to see if he could see more of it.
He pushed the t-shirt up to his arm-pits leaving it there to lave the other perky nipple with the tip of his tongue. It tasted like skin, salty and faintly like soap. There was so much of it, inches and square inches of blank canvas for him to bite across. Maybe Koyama would enjoy a tongue bath later?
Koyama hummed loudly when Ryo pressed his face to the rise of his ribs, nosing his way down the flat of his belly. The spot must have tickled because Koyama let out a high sound twisting away from the sensation. So Ryo, grinning like a shark, attacked it sucking a vivid bruise to the surface while Koyama squealed. When he was done they were a laughing tangle of limbs on the bed, his elbow digging into Koyama’s hip and Koyama’s ribs squishing his nose.
“Hey.” He could feel Koyama’s voice rumbling though his sternum and he grinned kissing it and pulling away. “That wasn’t very nice.” But he was smiling, ear to silly ear. The spot was dark with a forming bruise, and wet with Ryo’s saliva.
“This will be.” He tugged on Koyama’s belt until it came loose of the hook and slithered though the belt loops when he tugged.
“Oh.” Bottom lip caught between his teeth, “are you going to...?”
Ryo paused, one hand fanned on Koyama’s tummy the other tugging at the button to his skinny jeans. “What, what do you think I’ll do?”
“Hmm?” Koyama’s hips twitched when Ryo tugged on the button.
“Tell me.” He pressed the heel of his hand into the hot rise of Koyama’s erection. “What do you think I’ll do?”
“Touch me?” He looked half terrified and half hopeful from the thought.
“Well that’s given. What else?”
“Else?” His cheeks flushed even more, going beet red to the roots of his hair. “You’re not going to...”
“Hmm maybe?” He would probably do anything Koyama asked him to at that moment. He held Koyama’s eyes for a moment, the desperate heat barely held in check drawing him in and holding him tight. He really had no idea what Ryo could do to him, completely unaware of all the filthy things his he’d been picturing. “I think I want to suck you off.”
“Ryo!” His hips jerked, dick pulsing against the back of his hand.
“You’ve seen it in porn I bet, suck you down.” He rounded his lips just to show off and Koyama let out this helpless little noise, twisting on the sheets desperately. “You’re going to like it.”
“O-okay.” He lifted his hips, pressing them towards Ryo in voiceless pleading. With that almost-consent he tugged off the jeans, taking plain striped boxers with them until all there was was endless legs, falling open for him. A pretty cock, curving up towards his flat belly all hard and thick with blood, and Ryo mouth actually flooded with saliva, lips tingling from sense memory alone.
Flattening the tip of his tongue he curled his palm around the girth of it, feeling silken skin hot in his palm, pulling it up Koyama let out a wordless cry before he even got his mouth on it. Tiny licks across his skin, mapping the network of veins with his tongue, feeling the frantic pulse of blood under his lips, each made Koyama whimper. It was heady, the taste, the feel, and how Koyama responded like this was the best thing ever.
“Please please please, please get me off, oh god Ryo please.” Koyama babbled, fisting the sheets and arching into his touch, Ryo rode the movement, pinning Koyama’s hips to the bed with his shoulders.
“Shhh.” Rising up on his elbows, Ryo guided the head of Koyama’s dick to his lips, laying a kiss on the edge of the swollen head and working saliva around his mouth. He hooded the tip with his lips and went down a little, sucking intently on the end getting a shriek and Koyama’s legs trying to close on his shoulders. He adjusted his grip so he had his forearm across that taught stomach and used his other hand to hold inner thighs apart. Lips wet, he managed to go down further this time and for all the noise Koyama was making you’d think that Ryo had swallowed him straight down. It didn’t seem to bother him at all that Ryo wasn’t the best at it, too slick and too messy, spit sliding down what Ryo couldn’t take in his mouth.
“Ryo, please oh, I can’t take it.” One hand landed almost timidly on his shoulder and Ryo spurred himself on, sucking noisily and enjoying every gasp and moan.
Koyama came with a rather flattering moan, his legs twitching and his back arching off the bed as he shuddered and shivered his way through each shock. Ryo swallowed quickly grimacing a little at the taste, but licking Koyama through the whole thing anyways, cradling his hips. “Ryo, stop, it hurts.” He pushed at Ryo’s head gentle fingers in dark hair. Crawling up that long body he rested just off to the side, his hips lining up with Koyama’s dick finding a happy place in the crease of his thigh. He kissed Koyama, licking across his tongue even as he squirmed and wiggled, friction sweet across his cock and each slick and slide sending little shocks to his balls.
Koyama kissed him back just as desperately.
Fingers curled around him, giving him a snug place to thrust and Ryo wrapped his arms around Koyama’s neck shifting his hips to give himself better leverage. The grip was a shade to loose, but the sting of sweat for lube made starbursts behind his eyes and he was already so hot from blowing Koyama that it didn’t really matter.
He came like that, slick and warm all over long fingers his whole nervous system knotting up and pulling his head in so many different directions at once until he was forced to just let go and ride it out, moaning loud and wonton.
Sticky and content Koyama curled up, one hand resting on Ryo’s elbow from his side of the bed, when Ryo looked over Koyama was staring at the point of contact intently. “This is really okay?”
“Yeah.” Ryo flopped, boneless and still high on endorphins. “It’s great.”
“I’ve never done that before.” Koyama confessed.
“I figured.” He yawned, rolling towards him, taking his hand in his own and closing his eyes to end the conversation. Post sex was for sleep anyways, that and he had to recover before he could explore more, there was still a tongue bath too be had.
~~
Ryo crossed his arms as they exited the car, scowling his best while Koyama shot him odd looks over the hood. They were in a small parkade near ‘their’ lot, Koyama’s white car the only one on that level. Another day off and instead of laying in bed and fucking until Ryo couldn’t feel his dick anymore they were sipping too-strong coffee and looking at an apartment that Ryo didn’t really want.
“Are you mad at me?” Koyama looked at him, a small frown marring his fox face and Ryo shrugged.
“No.” He reached out and pressed the buzzer for the apartment they were going to look at.
“Okay.” Koyama put his hands on his hips and it was plain on his face that the issue was so not done, but Ryo wasn’t going to talk about it, and that was that.
“Come on up.” Came the tinny voice from the speaker and the door buzzed, Ryo shouldered past his boyfriend to open it. He could feel the other’s concerned stare between his shoulders as he took the stairs two at a time. He really had figured he managed to convince Koyama that he didn’t want to move when he snapped and grabbed him that day weeks ago. Apparently Koyama had only finished the job more quietly, and he was still looking for a place with two rooms. Stupid idiot.
“Will you tell me what’s wrong?” Koyama’s dumb long legs had him matching Ryo’s pace easily.
“There isn’t anything wrong.” He snapped, and Koyama frowned deeper at him. “Drop it.”
“Ryo.” That patronizing tone wasn’t going to get him to talk, in fact he hated that tone of Koyama’s voice like nothing he’d ever hated before, even carrots.
“This one.” The door was white, a brass ‘213’ hanging at eye level. He rapped on the door, three sharp cracks with his knuckles and it opened not even a few seconds later, like he’d been waiting on the other side. Mr. Imohara was tall, taller than Koyama with thinning hair and wire frame glasses, he smiled at them. Ryo twitched his lips in return.
“Koyama?”
“Yes.” He stepped forward and tipped his head, letting Ryo take the hand offered to them. Covering for Koyama is second nature by now, he didn’t even realize he’d done it until after their hands touched. “Nice to meet you.”
“I didn’t know you were bringing someone with you.” Ryo tensed, narrowing his eyes at the man, Koyama just smiled like the moron he was.
“This is my roommate Ryo Nishikido, his input on the apartment is very important to me.”
“I see, well in that case then this way is the master bedroom.”
Koyama was checking the closet space in the master bedroom while Ryo was in the kitchen when he heard a crash, frowning, Ryo stopped counting the outlets in the kitchen. “Koyama?” He called, something moved in his peripheral vision, but he wasn’t fast enough, the blow came from nowhere and Ryo was sent to his knees. A foul tasting cloth pressed over his mouth and nose, limbs still too shocked to fight off his attacker and finally everything went dark.
His head hurt, hurt like it was splitting wide open. Ryo groaned, rolling and received a savage kick to his side that knocked the wind from his lung and almost made him black out again. A muffled series of noises kept him in the here and now, Koyama’s high whine coming from his left.
“You should have come alone Koyama, can I call you Keiichiro?”
“Bastard.” Ryo spat through the blood in his mouth and the fuzz in his head. Fury burned hot and bright alongside the pain, keeping him moving. How dare anyone touch Koyama.
“You’re just in the way, please be quiet.” Another kick and Ryo crumpled, vision going snowy for a moment, like a bad tv set, he was too hot but he clung to consciousness by force of will alone.
“You’re the one Keiichiro, you snotty bitch. Too good to shake my hand huh? I’ll show you, just like I showed the rest of them. Can’t ignore me, no, not any more.” There was a muffled stream of terrified babble from behind the gag, Ryo grit his teeth.
“You know what they call me on the news? The Chop-slash killer, it’s a silly name, but everyone knows it don’t they?” Ryo rolled until he could see Koyama, tied with black rope to a chair, gagged and bruised. He nodded frantically. “When I heard you on the phone I just knew you had to be the next one. They are going to find your pretty body; and it will be my best work yet.”
“Leave him alone.” Ryo pushed himself to his feet, rushing the man, adrenaline playing havoc in his nervous system. At first he couldn’t understand the pain, just an undefined hurt in his stomach, then burning all the way to the tips of his fingers. Imohara pulled away and Ryo clutched at his stomach, only Koyama’s were cries louder than the rush of blood in his ears. Hot and thick spread between his fingers, the room filling quickly with the copper-iron smell of his blood as it pulsed under his cupped hands.
“I told you, you’re not the point here.” His knees hit the floor with a loud crack, but the pain was nothing compared to the hole in his guts. His mouth worked, no sound coming out and he was going to bleed out fast. Koyama whined, struggling at his bonds, and Ryo met his eyes and in that moment he realized that he was going to die. He’d thought he might die before, but it was nothing compared with the certainty he felt now, cold creeping along the edges of his mind pleading with him to just give in. It was getting colder, he was going into shock, and Koyama’s eyes were so sad, so scared, and there was nothing he could do to fix it. Not all the weeds in the world would fix this one.
They were going to be the next bodies on tv, and there would be no one to feed Nyanta and Lazarus. All the happiness he’d found, all of it, just gone.
Then he hit the floor and try as he might, the hand holding his intestines in place was getting weaker. He faded in and out, snippets of voices floating over him, one smug and the other desperate, interspersed with stretches of cold darkness.
Like a defibrillator he jolted, mind flipping on like a light to a world of pain and heat. His whole body screamed, but his throat wouldn’t work, he couldn’t breathe, he couldn’t shout, and he desperately wished that he could return to that dark place. His nerves fired all at once, heat and cold washing over him in turns and tearing his mind apart, finally he managed a sob, breath coming fast and harsh.
Tears spilled hot along his cheeks, salty against his cracked lips. Then when he thought he couldn’t take any more his mind shut down to protect himself from the pain. Ryo blacked out into sweet painless darkness.
When he came too again, it was to a soft sound someone crying not too far away, breathing too harsh in his lungs, the air burned, and his skin hurt, but he was alive. That was twice now. Slitting his eyes against the soft light in the room he lifted his hand, the limb feeling oddly disconnected from his shoulder and everything else. “Ryo?” Voice thick and scratchy.
“Koyama.” He let a small smile curve against his lips, he felt like hell and brimstone, but Koyama sounded whole, and unless this was heaven then that was good enough for him.
“Are you okay?” Gentle hands on his face, turning it softly left and right.
“No.” Moving hurt, sharp pain like the knife sliding into his stomach, he had been toast and there wasn’t anything around, nothing but Koyama and he had never been so ridiculously gloriously glad that Koyama couldn’t pull life from himself. “Did you kill him?”
Koyama froze, a soft sound escaping his mouth. “There was no other way.”
“Good.” Ryo let himself go limp.
“Ryo?” Koyama was clinging to his hand, scared.
“He deserved to die.” Finally managed to open his eyes, the lights burning at his retinas, but there was Koyama hovering over him, dark circles under his eyes, face blotchy from crying and too pale. “It is okay.”
“No it isn’t.” He sniffled and Ryo smiled, “I killed a person.”
“You saved me.” Lifting himself onto his elbows failed, so he just curled his body towards Koyama’s seeking warmth to push away the cold. “I still feel like hell.”
“I think he was dying, before me, there wasn’t much ... life in him. I healed you as much as I could.”
“Hmm.”
Ryo was more-or-less alive, and Koyama was alive, that was really all that mattered. They could figure out the rest later.
**
It took three days for Koyama to get out of bed after that, Ryo didn’t bother to call the cops, but they found them anyways, and more-or-less bought the story how Imohara simply died of an aneurism since the autopsy supported them. The matter died pretty quickly after that, but sent Koyama into what passed for a bad mood for days after anyone mentioned it.
Ryo just made him his favourite food and decided not to talk about it. Eventually they would be fine again.
This time Ryo would protect them, no matter what.