Aki's belated birthday present!
How did I forget that summer is my busiest time?
Though I'm not surprised because I ALSO managed to delete...just about everything on Hiyori. After two days Ed got back most of my music, some of my videos, and a handful of my writing files. Don't expect to see me on very much in the next few weeks. Everybody, I swear I'll get back to comments. For now, please let me say that they do mean a lot to me and I'm very grateful you've taken the time to talk to me.
BUT! More importantly! I missed Aki's birthday (I deleted things just for YOU! orz) and I am very late with her present. But I love her completely. That's why I wrote an Ohno-is-an-incubus AU for her!
♥♥♥♥♥
Into the Parlor
As a general rule, Nino didn't frequent Hidden-World nightclubs. He didn't like to drink, Aiba made his own, and Sho didn't need the temptation. He didn't have a reason to go, generally, and he tended to stick out in the Hidden-World crowd. Plus they were never too welcoming to Nino's kind.
But there were times when Nino did have a reason to be in those sorts of places and that always necessitated bringing Aiba and Sho along. Nino might have been able to track ('a falcon! On a cloudy day!' 'shut up, Aiba') anything but even a great tracker needed information when their quarry went to ground.
Which was exactly the reason why Nino was in the Filthy McNasty trying to keep his friends from getting hit on by people he wouldn't touch with a cattle prod. He was attempting to get a solid lead on the mangkukulam for whom he was searching. He snagged Aiba by the tail. "Don't ask that Hantu Air to help you make sake. We don't need a repeat of the night at The Boar's Dead Baby, do we?"
"Nino!" Aiba laughed.
"I'll take care of him, Nino," Sho said, catching Aiba's hood. "Just find what you're after and let's get out of here. This is not a nice place."
Nino did not tease him about how he'd figured out that detail. He could see Sho's wings ruffling with agitation. "I'll be fast," he said instead, setting off in the direction of the dimly lit bar area.
Generally, Ohno was not a picky eater. It was why he never protested when Jun dragged him from one skank-sack bar to another. As long as there was something to eat, he'd find something about it that was tasty.
Jun liked to tell him that he had no taste buds.
Ohno liked to look hurt until Jun apologized and then fuck Jun through the nearest semi-solid surface. He fed off of him while he did it just to make Jun snap and fuck him back.
The aftermath was usually when Jun would suggest they hit Filthy McNasty's and have an actual meal.
McNasty's was a scum pit full of perverts, most of them out looking for the sickest sex of their lives. Occasionally there were people trying to hide (McNasty's being a great place to get lost because nobody with any decency ever wanted to be there) or looking for some banned substance or other, but mostly it was jam-packed with sexual deviants.
"Smells good tonight," Ohno observed as he and Jun stepped in. He could smell the pheromones on the stale, boozy air, could smell sex and desperation.
"It's always a feast," Jun said, flicking imaginary lint off his sleeve.
Ohno liked it when Jun acted disaffected and disdainful. It was sexy. He stretched up and nipped the corner of Jun's jaw. "I'm going to find somebody tasty," he said. "I-what?" he asked because Jun had drawn in a sudden and startled sounding breath.
"There's a fallen angel in here," Jun said, his eyes flickering with purple flame as he breathed deeper. "He wants it."
"Well, I think he's with the tanuki, but you can probably land them both."
Jun gave him a haughty look before sauntering away through the crowd.
"You're very pretty," said a voice behind Nino.
Nino ignored the voice and selected another bill from his wallet. He was getting desperate, pulling out the big bills. "Sure, you could try to collect the bounty on him. If you wanted him to be-spell the water out of your head before you could get anywhere with him," he told the Kappa behind the bar, setting the new bill down and picking up the one that he'd put down earlier.
"Very pretty," the voice from behind repeated. "You smell nice, too. I don't see a lot of humans. Jun thinks they're boring."
"Good for Jun," Nino said dryly. He kept an unforgiving stare on the uncooperative bartender. "Tell everybody I used a talisman on you," he said coaxingly. "They'll believe you because I'm Nino."
"I'm Ohno," said the voice.
Nino dropped his head for a moment and looked at the bartender from under his lashes. "There's an incubus trying to hit on me, isn't there?" he asked.
The bartender nodded faintly; it was more noticeable by the sound of sloshing water than the movement of his head.
"I'd like to do more than hit on you," said Ohno.
"Yeah," Nino said brusquely. "Considering the fact that you're a sex demon I bet I can guess what you want to do to me. And it involves sucking me dry on two levels." A snort of laughter made Nino turn and look at the demon.
"Hi," drawled Ohno with a lazy sort of nod.
Shit, thought Nino. The demon was pretty. Pretty in the way that he liked it best: a cherub-round face, dark sleepy-dreamy eyes, hands with long, lovely fingers, and though he and Nino were roughly the same height, he was built a little stockier, someone whose weight he'd be able to feel on him without feeling like it'd crush him. Subtracting the 'sex demon that will kill you as he has his way with you' part, Nino wouldn't have minded letting the guy hit on him. But there was the whole 'kill you with sex' thing to consider. "Go away," he told him.
The bartender went to the other end of the bar.
Ohno smiled at him.
Damn it, thought Nino.
"I want to do things to you," Ohno whispered, edging in close. His breath was warm and sweet against the curve of Nino's ear. "I don't mind doing it in the toilets if you don't."
Nino wanted to close his eyes and say yes which told him that he'd already let the incubus too close, close enough where everything he was could-and usually would-affect his chosen, swaying them into doing whatever the demon wanted.
He was going to have to hope that Sho's blessing held long enough for him to care about escaping and then follow through. "I mind doing anything with you." If by 'mind' he meant 'am thinking about doing things that would make this bar live up to its name'.
Ohno didn't take Nino's words seriously. Not really. The air around them felt thick and heavy with the heady arousal that laced Nino's scent and the slightest hesitation in his words and the will-gathering of his silences. "You're thinking about it," he said, "but you don't want to be. That's different."
He edged closer, backing Nino against the bar.
Nino thumped him on the shoulder but seemed to forget lifting his hand away once the blow landed and Ohno decided he liked it when Nino touched him. "Listen, pal, I've got friends here. What sort of human walks into a place like this alone?"
Ohno pressed his lips to Nino's neck, pleased with the way Nino's head tipped back automatically to let him. He flicked out his tongue, ran it up Nino's neck in a slow, thoughtful line. He tasted grace and despair and smiles and sake on the surface. "Jun is taking care of them. He likes pretty things, exotic things."
He stood firm as Nino reacted, jolting forward. "You sent a succubus after them?"
"Sucubus, incubus, there isn't any difference. We can be either." He didn't have to look over his shoulder to see the current state that Jun was in. "And he's still a guy right now. Must be what they like."
"What the hell would either of you know about what they like?"
"Everything," Ohno said. He let himself fully feel Nino against him: his heartbeat, the breath in his lungs, the tremble in his muscles, the unnameable pulse of life that flooded the very air around him. He could feel his own body and the way it responded. He licked Nino's neck again and tasted the salty sweetness of sweat. There was an emerging flavor of spice, sex. "I know everything you want."
"Well I like girls, so go away," Nino told him.
Ohno puffed out a laugh. He liked Nino. He liked the human bravado and the contrary snaps that he took at him. "I can be a girl," he said and he felt the air before he began to change, watching Nino even as the world blurred briefly.
"You still look like a boy," Nino said after a moment.
Ohno smiled at him with sweet, pink lips that hadn't changed at all when his gender had shifted. "This is what you like," he said. His voice was more girlish than his breasts, Nino thought, trying hard to not look at the way Ohno's shirt was now curving away from his body. "It excites you."
"Right." Nino tried hard for a dry and sarcastic tone. He was sure he nailed it until he noticed the dark amusement lurking at the corners of Ohno's smile.
"Everything I am responds to all the things you want," he said.
Nino felt a warm hand land on his thigh and slide up a little. He ignored it. He had to ignore it because the other options were to make it stop or to ask for more. He wasn't going to get what he wanted from the bartender or the patrons. He had his friends to think about. And he really sort of didn't want to die no matter how good the going might get. "I want to get Sho away from your friend and leave, so respond to that," he snapped.
The hand on his thigh got a little higher, a little firmer. "I don't think Sho wants to get away from Jun," Ohno said with soft sincerity.
Nino, too, was pretty sure Sho didn't want to get away from the other sex demon. "That's the problem," Nino said. "He's a fallen angel and do you have any idea what that means for him?" It was the metaphorical dose of ice water that Nino needed. He did wish it wasn't so lukewarm, however. He pushed at Ohno's shoulders (without sliding his hands down to cover those small, firm looking breasts and he was proud of himself for that) and brushed past him.
He tried to brush past him, at any rate. He really meant to.
It wasn't his fault that Ohno did something tricky with his feet and his hips and Nino fell forward and Ohno fell with him and two seconds later they were plastered together on the dance floor, dancing. It might have been his fault that Ohno was a boy again. A boy with an erection. Nino sucked in a breath and prepared to tell Ohno off.
Ohno's hands tightened on his hips and Nino found himself straddling one of Ohno's thighs. There were more muscles there than he would have thought. He let out his breath in a shaky rush. Ohno smiled. "Every demon is descended from a fallen angel," he said. "I know about falling. About sin. Temptation."
"Yeah," Nino breathed. He just bet Ohno did. Ohno's words matched the slow throb of the music, the sway of their hips, the flex of Nino's fingers on his shoulders. "Yeah, I-" he caught his breath as they moved and realized that he sounded like an eager virgin about to give it up for the first time. A really, really eager virgin. With an incubus. "I just bet you do," he tried to sound angry. "You're a demon and Sho is still an angel, so-"
"Every demon might have been a fallen angel, but not every fallen angel becomes a demon," Ohno said. "Let Jun prove that to him. He's got that tanuki with him to keep him safe."
"Aiba," Nino said firmly, "is not an ideal chaperone. His hobbies are drinking and having sex with anything that will hold still long enough for him to shape-shift into something with the appropriate appendage."
"My hobby is fishing."
Ohno had gone from being sloe-eyed and sensual to spacey and quiet-seeming and the combination, the gap, was doing it for Nino, just really doing it for him. He snapped.
"Knock it off," Nino spat.
Ohno blinked. He'd been thinking about bonitos and GT and tuna. It was the sort of inattentiveness that Jun would have scolded him for, too. "Sorry?" he tried. Nino wasn't pushing at him so he felt free to keep his hands on Nino's hips, guiding him through steps. "I just really want to catch a bonito," he defended himself. "I've been trying for years."
"Screw your fish," Nino said and for a moment Ohno wondered how Nino knew about those mermaids (not even Jun knew about them and Ohno lived with him) but Nino continued before he could ask. "I'm not going to let you kill me no matter what act you pull so knock it off. Quit acting like this."
It took Ohno a minute to understand and then he couldn't help smiling. It was possible that Nino liked him, that Nino liked him. "I'm not acting," he murmured into Nino's ear, sliding his hands up under Nino's shirt, touching the silky warmth of his back. "This is who I am."
Nino shivered under his hands and Ohno liked that almost more than he liked the feel of the skin under his fingers. "I know about demons. I know all about your kind," Nino said breathlessly, "I know about the way you ensnare people, hypnotize them."
Ohno took a moment to guide them through the throng on the small dance-floor and then crowded Nino back into a shadowed alcove near the little stage. The floor was tacky beneath his shoes but Ohno didn't mind since a lot of it was probably his fault. It was a good place for a snack. He pressed Nino against the wall and kept his hips moving. "I don't care about what you know," he said, tracing Nino's ear with his tongue. "I'm not doing anything to you. I can't stop being what I am but I'm not trying to capture you. Your friend put a strong blessing on you anyhow. You can't be hypnotized even if I wanted to." He sucked on Nino's earlobe for a moment and released it. "I don't want to, Nino. I want you."
Nino fisted his hands in Ohno's shirt and firmly reminded himself that he had a policy against dry humping strange demons in the corners of sleazy bars. "Stop it," he said, twisting his hands tighter because he wanted to let go and touch Ohno's hair.
Ohno smiled down at his shirt, where he was busily opening the top buttons. Nino wondered when Ohno had let go of his hips. He tried not to wonder about why his hips were still moving without Ohno's direction.
"Not doing anything," said Ohno, sounding distracted. He spread his hand in the opening he'd made; it was hot against Nino's chest, his thumb resting in the hollow of his throat. Ohno was deeply tan and his hand stood in eye-catching contrast to Nino's pale skin. "Pretty."
"Do you really fish?" Nino heard himself ask.
"Mmhm," Ohno hummed and the sound vibrated against Nino's collarbone. "I put on sunscreen but I forget to reapply it and I get burnt. Jun yells at me a lot." His tongue traced wet, delicate spirals over Nino's skin that Nino ignored desperately until his breath washed cool over it, making him shudder hard. "I can always change it if somebody doesn't like it but you do. You like this, too." Ohno looked up, dark eyes glittering blue and black. "I like Nino."
"I-" breathed Nino. It was hard to breathe. "I am not doing this." He pushed back and bucked his hips forward. He might have gasped at the pressure, might have moaned as he slipped off of Ohno's thigh, but he was on his own two feet and not dry humping a demon he was getting to know in the corner of a sleazy bar. "Sho and Aiba are Hidden-World. They can survive your friend."
"Sure," Ohno agreed cheerfully. His eyes were still glittering and Nino shoved him back a step just to get a little more distance between himself and that dangerous, alluring gap. "He's starving," Ohno went on as though he hadn't noticed "and normally that'd leave one of them half dead but there's two. They'll probably even be able to leave under their own power."
Leave? Nino wondered. He couldn't see the main body of the club with Ohno in front of him and he didn't want to lean into his space again. "Leave where?" he demanded, pushing at Ohno again and wishing that he wanted to take his hands off of him.
"Jun took them home," Ohno said. Then he blinked. "Probably home," he amended. "That's where he keeps all his toys. He definitely wants to play with your Sho."
"I don't need to know that," Nino snapped. "My point is that they're safe and I'm gone." He finally tore his hands away and brushed past Ohno.
He tried to brush past him, at any rate. This time he really meant to.
Ohno stopped him, catching him by the wrist and holding firm when he tried to pull away.
"Let go!" Nino was tugging at his arm, trying to get away. "I'm gone. I'm going home. Alone."
"But-" Ohno looked befuddled, adorable. "But how are you going to get home without them?"
Nino was looking at him, honestly annoyed underneath the lust now, but at least he'd stopped struggling. Ohno felt horrible having to hold him. He didn't mind catching people, but he didn't want to catch Nino. He wanted Nino to be willing. There was a little voice in his head, a little clutch in his belly, which said Nino's acquiescence would be sweeter, taste better, be more filling than anything else he could have.
"I'm a big boy. I can get to the crossways on my own."
"There are vampires in this neighborhood," Ohno objected.
Rolling his eyes Nino shook his hand free and, reaching into his pocket, he pulled out a talisman string. It looked like an old shoelace but it was twisted so full of charms and touch-pieces and spells and amulets that it was impossible to be certain about that. Nino rattled it, making the closed spells swirl and the amulets clink. "I'm not exactly defenseless," he said, tucking it away again.
"You're human," Ohno said. Protection was only good if he had time to use it. Ohno knew this neighborhood. There were things in it that no human speed or agility or strength could counter. Anything could follow one small human out beyond the crossways. "I'll walk you home."
"Grandma, what big teeth you have!" Nino squeaked in falsetto, his eyes wide. Then his eyes narrowed and his eyebrows drew in expressively. Ohno wanted to touch them and he reached out to do so. Nino smacked his hand away. "You're not walking me home. If you do I'll have to invite you in for coffee just to be polite and then Sho and Aiba will come home to find my naked, dead, jizz covered body on the kitchen floor. Get out of my way; I'm leaving."
He liked the way Nino blushed, the way Nino wouldn't look him in the eye. He really liked the way Nino was biting at his lower lip, like he'd said too much. Ohno dodged Nino's swat and touched Nino's mouth, teasing his lip free with a gentle touch. "I can be careful," he said softly, easing close carefully, mindful to give Nino a little distance so that he wouldn't run away again. "I'll be very careful," he promised. "It can be just a little taste. That'd be okay, right?"
Nino shuddered and Ohno felt a fleeting touch at his hip before Nino turned his head away. "'Just a little taste', he says," Nino snorted. "Grandma, what big eyes you have. I'm leaving. Without you."
Ohno felt his lip stick out in a pout. Jun would have whacked him for it but the air between him and Nino seemed to pound like a heartbeat. "It's not safe."
"Taking you home to suck the life out of me isn't safe either," Nino retorted. "I'm out of here."
'You haven't left yet' Ohno wanted to point out. The tension was delicious. "I'll follow you home," he said, sliding into Nino's space once more.
"Follow-?" Nino said. Ohno thought it was cute the way he was trying to sound outraged.
"I'll only come as close as you let me. Even if you decide to invite me up for coffee."
He brushed past Nino and walked out the door.
Nino was jittery on the bus ride home from the crossways. He tried looking out his window but the night-lit glass only showed him the reflection of the incubus sitting in the seat across the aisle from him. Ohno was staring dreamily out his window, two seats and the aisle away from him. Nino could feel the heat of him still, could almost feel him sitting pressed close to him if he closed his eyes. He was being followed home by a hungry sex demon who had admitted to wanting a taste of him. He was an idiot for letting it happen, he thought. "You're trying to catch bonito?"
Ohno seemed to come out of his drowsy state and looked at him, blinking and blinking like he was far away. Then he smiled goofily and Nino wanted to sit beside him, hold his hand. "I almost caught one once." he said, "but I didn't get it out of the water. These mermaids came up instead and said it was their pet and asked me to let it go, so I did."
"Sweet," Nino groused, wishing he didn't mean it. "Did you sex them to death?"
Ohno's grin made his eyes close to slits and scrunched his nose. "That would have been impossible," he said happily. "There were a lot of mermaids. I don't think I was properly hungry again for months. Jun thought I was sick."
"You are sick," Nino muttered dryly. He curled in his seat, bracing his knees against the back of the seat in front of him as he turned look at the window again. He closed his eyes, knowing his stop by feel alone.
It was by feel, too, that he knew Ohno had followed him off the bus. He spoke, confirming it. "You live in this place?" he asked incredulously.
"Try not to eat any of the pimps, hookers, pushers, or winos on your way out, won't you?" Nino told him, stalking across the street to his building. He turned when he heard footfalls behind him and saw Ohno trotting across in his wake. "What the hell?" he asked when Ohno joined him at the door. "I don't need you to walk me to the door like some sort of demented prom date."
"You wouldn't let me walk you. I'm following you." Ohno smiled, blue-black eyes gleaming with something more than just laughter as Ohno opened the door and held it for him. "Go upstairs, Nino," he said, his words brushing the hair over Nino's ear.
For as long as Nino had lived in the building, the elevator had been out of order. Normally taking the stairs was no big deal. He glared at Ohno. "You are not going to stare at my butt the whole way up," he told him, pointing at the stairwell
Ohno's smile was dark and amused. "You can stare at mine," he said, his voice as soft as a purr.
Nino scowled and followed him up the steps. It was incredibly unsurprising how incredible Ohno's ass was. He was glad his apartment was at the end of the hall and that Ohno went in the direction he pointed without making Nino lead the way. He wasn't going to see that fabulous behind again and he was going to look at it while he could. Ohno leaned against his wall, waiting, and then stepped away when Nino unlocked the door. He'd stayed out of arm's reach the entire way home from the club. Nino gripped the doorknob tightly. "Well…" he said and wondered 'well what?'. Go home? Get lost? Have a nice life? Good night? What did one say to the sex demon one had repeatedly shut down?
"If you come back next week," Ohno said, "the werewolves will be back. They're always looking for work. They'll talk to you if you pay them."
"Back to the Filthy McNasty?" Nino asked. When Ohno nodded he tried to work up a snide remark. "You going to be there?" was all that he came up with.
"I'll be looking for you," Ohno said with a small smile, moving like he was going to step back again, turn and leave.
"Just a little taste," Nino said, one hand clenched on the knob and the other wrapped, white-knuckled, around the chain on his wallet. "A kiss's worth," he said. "One kiss's worth. A tiny one."
The blue of Ohno's eyes practically glowed as he came back, came close, his walk almost a swagger. One of his hands closed over Nino's on the knob, the other touched his hip, slipping around his body to rest just over the curve of his backside. "A tiny, little taste," Ohno agreed lowly, the words ghosting over Nino's mouth.
Ohno's lips were soft, his tongue even softer, and Nino was moaning before he could stop himself, hooking one hand around Ohno's neck to keep him there while he fumbled the door open with a violent twist of the knob. "I'm out of coffee," he said, tripping through it and not caring at all that he'd landed on his ass. He'd care later, if at all. "Sorry," he added as he managed to kick the door shut.
"That's all right," Ohno said leaning back against the door and looking down at him. His eyes were glowing and somehow still darker than all the shadows in Nino's apartment put together. They only got darker as he followed Nino to the floor, covering Nino's body with his own. Nino twisted, wrapping his legs around Ohno's waist, fisted his hands in his hair. Ohno smiled, even darker still. "That's all right," he repeated. "I don't want any coffee, Nino."
Oh, god, I am so sorry. I really am.
This totally isn't what happened next, okay?
Nino woke up with a vicious hang-over. It confused him because he knew he hadn't been drinking. He never drank anything once through the crossways, not if he could possibly help it. Yet his mouth tasted like sake and his head and stomach were both bitching at him.
Or, no, that was Sho.
Sho was sitting on his stomach, as light as only an angel could be, and holding a sake bottle. "A week," Sho said, slapping the bottle on Nino's nightstand. "You've been unconscious for a week. I suppose that's better than dead," he went on, picking up a bowl of miso soup with such force that it sloshed over the sides and on to Nino's sheets. Sho didn't seem to care, shoving the spoon at Nino's mouth. "Which is how we found you, I might add."
Very rarely was Sho ever truly, honestly angry. Nino was smart enough to shut up and open his mouth, taking his soup soundlessly. He pulled out his big, helpless, puppy-dog eyes, though, as his friend continued to cram spoonful after spoonful of soup into him.
Sho pinched him. "Dead and naked."
"And covered in-" Aiba said, bounding into view.
"That's another thing," Sho roared, turning on Aiba, brandishing the spoon. "We do not lick puddles of unidentifiable semen off of our dead friends. We do not molest our dead friends to see if maybe they're still alive. Especially not when they've obviously been with a sex demon, Masaki."
"God alone knows where they've been?" Nino muttered under his breath.
Sho whipped back to him. "Not even God!" he shrieked.
Aiba wrapped himself around Sho's back, pushing his wings down to smile at Nino. "I got white sake from some shoujou," he told him. "That's why you're not dead. Is it okay to molest you now? I had to go every day for the whole week, you know."
It finally registered. Nino pushed Sho and Aiba off of him and stood; the room whirled dizzily around him for a moment and then steadied. "I've got to get back to that bar," he muttered.
"Let it go, Nino," said Sho. "It's too dangerous to go there again. You nearly died." And Nino might have considered dropping it but for the way that Sho was blushing. Even taking into account Sho's heavenly complexion, it was a very, very dark blush.
"Not a chance," Nino said cheerfully. "Besides, what are the odds that you and Aiba are going to hook up with another incubus?"
"We can call him," Aiba said. "I got Matsujun's number!"
S-seriously. So sorry. I can't help it. I had to re-write this in just a few days. While working on other porn. I'm just glad my head didn't explode all over this.
At least THIS totally didn't come after THAT?
Nino gave the Kappa behind the bar a gloating look as the group of werewolves around him disbanded. He was poorer, but no poorer than he would have been a week ago, and he had a good, solid lead.
He also had a sleazy jerk breathing down his neck. "Get lost," he said, turning to give the guy a look. He stopped and took a good look. "Oh, the succubus," he said. "Bored already? You're totally not my type."
Jun gave him an elegant eye-roll. "As if I'd want to be," he said. "I came to tell you that Aiba is unconscious in the men's room and Sho needs help getting him to the crossways."
Nino scowled at him. "Thanks for ruining my night," he said. He did have to admit that he didn't mind the way Jun laughed at him as he slid off the barstool. He also didn't mind Jun's lips at his ear, telling him that Satoshi was waiting to follow him home.
But seriously, kids, the lesson here is 'don't date sex demons'.
Related Sho-Nino back-story.
Though I'm not surprised because I ALSO managed to delete...just about everything on Hiyori. After two days Ed got back most of my music, some of my videos, and a handful of my writing files. Don't expect to see me on very much in the next few weeks. Everybody, I swear I'll get back to comments. For now, please let me say that they do mean a lot to me and I'm very grateful you've taken the time to talk to me.
BUT! More importantly! I missed Aki's birthday (I deleted things just for YOU! orz) and I am very late with her present. But I love her completely. That's why I wrote an Ohno-is-an-incubus AU for her!
♥♥♥♥♥
Into the Parlor
As a general rule, Nino didn't frequent Hidden-World nightclubs. He didn't like to drink, Aiba made his own, and Sho didn't need the temptation. He didn't have a reason to go, generally, and he tended to stick out in the Hidden-World crowd. Plus they were never too welcoming to Nino's kind.
But there were times when Nino did have a reason to be in those sorts of places and that always necessitated bringing Aiba and Sho along. Nino might have been able to track ('a falcon! On a cloudy day!' 'shut up, Aiba') anything but even a great tracker needed information when their quarry went to ground.
Which was exactly the reason why Nino was in the Filthy McNasty trying to keep his friends from getting hit on by people he wouldn't touch with a cattle prod. He was attempting to get a solid lead on the mangkukulam for whom he was searching. He snagged Aiba by the tail. "Don't ask that Hantu Air to help you make sake. We don't need a repeat of the night at The Boar's Dead Baby, do we?"
"Nino!" Aiba laughed.
"I'll take care of him, Nino," Sho said, catching Aiba's hood. "Just find what you're after and let's get out of here. This is not a nice place."
Nino did not tease him about how he'd figured out that detail. He could see Sho's wings ruffling with agitation. "I'll be fast," he said instead, setting off in the direction of the dimly lit bar area.
Generally, Ohno was not a picky eater. It was why he never protested when Jun dragged him from one skank-sack bar to another. As long as there was something to eat, he'd find something about it that was tasty.
Jun liked to tell him that he had no taste buds.
Ohno liked to look hurt until Jun apologized and then fuck Jun through the nearest semi-solid surface. He fed off of him while he did it just to make Jun snap and fuck him back.
The aftermath was usually when Jun would suggest they hit Filthy McNasty's and have an actual meal.
McNasty's was a scum pit full of perverts, most of them out looking for the sickest sex of their lives. Occasionally there were people trying to hide (McNasty's being a great place to get lost because nobody with any decency ever wanted to be there) or looking for some banned substance or other, but mostly it was jam-packed with sexual deviants.
"Smells good tonight," Ohno observed as he and Jun stepped in. He could smell the pheromones on the stale, boozy air, could smell sex and desperation.
"It's always a feast," Jun said, flicking imaginary lint off his sleeve.
Ohno liked it when Jun acted disaffected and disdainful. It was sexy. He stretched up and nipped the corner of Jun's jaw. "I'm going to find somebody tasty," he said. "I-what?" he asked because Jun had drawn in a sudden and startled sounding breath.
"There's a fallen angel in here," Jun said, his eyes flickering with purple flame as he breathed deeper. "He wants it."
"Well, I think he's with the tanuki, but you can probably land them both."
Jun gave him a haughty look before sauntering away through the crowd.
"You're very pretty," said a voice behind Nino.
Nino ignored the voice and selected another bill from his wallet. He was getting desperate, pulling out the big bills. "Sure, you could try to collect the bounty on him. If you wanted him to be-spell the water out of your head before you could get anywhere with him," he told the Kappa behind the bar, setting the new bill down and picking up the one that he'd put down earlier.
"Very pretty," the voice from behind repeated. "You smell nice, too. I don't see a lot of humans. Jun thinks they're boring."
"Good for Jun," Nino said dryly. He kept an unforgiving stare on the uncooperative bartender. "Tell everybody I used a talisman on you," he said coaxingly. "They'll believe you because I'm Nino."
"I'm Ohno," said the voice.
Nino dropped his head for a moment and looked at the bartender from under his lashes. "There's an incubus trying to hit on me, isn't there?" he asked.
The bartender nodded faintly; it was more noticeable by the sound of sloshing water than the movement of his head.
"I'd like to do more than hit on you," said Ohno.
"Yeah," Nino said brusquely. "Considering the fact that you're a sex demon I bet I can guess what you want to do to me. And it involves sucking me dry on two levels." A snort of laughter made Nino turn and look at the demon.
"Hi," drawled Ohno with a lazy sort of nod.
Shit, thought Nino. The demon was pretty. Pretty in the way that he liked it best: a cherub-round face, dark sleepy-dreamy eyes, hands with long, lovely fingers, and though he and Nino were roughly the same height, he was built a little stockier, someone whose weight he'd be able to feel on him without feeling like it'd crush him. Subtracting the 'sex demon that will kill you as he has his way with you' part, Nino wouldn't have minded letting the guy hit on him. But there was the whole 'kill you with sex' thing to consider. "Go away," he told him.
The bartender went to the other end of the bar.
Ohno smiled at him.
Damn it, thought Nino.
"I want to do things to you," Ohno whispered, edging in close. His breath was warm and sweet against the curve of Nino's ear. "I don't mind doing it in the toilets if you don't."
Nino wanted to close his eyes and say yes which told him that he'd already let the incubus too close, close enough where everything he was could-and usually would-affect his chosen, swaying them into doing whatever the demon wanted.
He was going to have to hope that Sho's blessing held long enough for him to care about escaping and then follow through. "I mind doing anything with you." If by 'mind' he meant 'am thinking about doing things that would make this bar live up to its name'.
Ohno didn't take Nino's words seriously. Not really. The air around them felt thick and heavy with the heady arousal that laced Nino's scent and the slightest hesitation in his words and the will-gathering of his silences. "You're thinking about it," he said, "but you don't want to be. That's different."
He edged closer, backing Nino against the bar.
Nino thumped him on the shoulder but seemed to forget lifting his hand away once the blow landed and Ohno decided he liked it when Nino touched him. "Listen, pal, I've got friends here. What sort of human walks into a place like this alone?"
Ohno pressed his lips to Nino's neck, pleased with the way Nino's head tipped back automatically to let him. He flicked out his tongue, ran it up Nino's neck in a slow, thoughtful line. He tasted grace and despair and smiles and sake on the surface. "Jun is taking care of them. He likes pretty things, exotic things."
He stood firm as Nino reacted, jolting forward. "You sent a succubus after them?"
"Sucubus, incubus, there isn't any difference. We can be either." He didn't have to look over his shoulder to see the current state that Jun was in. "And he's still a guy right now. Must be what they like."
"What the hell would either of you know about what they like?"
"Everything," Ohno said. He let himself fully feel Nino against him: his heartbeat, the breath in his lungs, the tremble in his muscles, the unnameable pulse of life that flooded the very air around him. He could feel his own body and the way it responded. He licked Nino's neck again and tasted the salty sweetness of sweat. There was an emerging flavor of spice, sex. "I know everything you want."
"Well I like girls, so go away," Nino told him.
Ohno puffed out a laugh. He liked Nino. He liked the human bravado and the contrary snaps that he took at him. "I can be a girl," he said and he felt the air before he began to change, watching Nino even as the world blurred briefly.
"You still look like a boy," Nino said after a moment.
Ohno smiled at him with sweet, pink lips that hadn't changed at all when his gender had shifted. "This is what you like," he said. His voice was more girlish than his breasts, Nino thought, trying hard to not look at the way Ohno's shirt was now curving away from his body. "It excites you."
"Right." Nino tried hard for a dry and sarcastic tone. He was sure he nailed it until he noticed the dark amusement lurking at the corners of Ohno's smile.
"Everything I am responds to all the things you want," he said.
Nino felt a warm hand land on his thigh and slide up a little. He ignored it. He had to ignore it because the other options were to make it stop or to ask for more. He wasn't going to get what he wanted from the bartender or the patrons. He had his friends to think about. And he really sort of didn't want to die no matter how good the going might get. "I want to get Sho away from your friend and leave, so respond to that," he snapped.
The hand on his thigh got a little higher, a little firmer. "I don't think Sho wants to get away from Jun," Ohno said with soft sincerity.
Nino, too, was pretty sure Sho didn't want to get away from the other sex demon. "That's the problem," Nino said. "He's a fallen angel and do you have any idea what that means for him?" It was the metaphorical dose of ice water that Nino needed. He did wish it wasn't so lukewarm, however. He pushed at Ohno's shoulders (without sliding his hands down to cover those small, firm looking breasts and he was proud of himself for that) and brushed past him.
He tried to brush past him, at any rate. He really meant to.
It wasn't his fault that Ohno did something tricky with his feet and his hips and Nino fell forward and Ohno fell with him and two seconds later they were plastered together on the dance floor, dancing. It might have been his fault that Ohno was a boy again. A boy with an erection. Nino sucked in a breath and prepared to tell Ohno off.
Ohno's hands tightened on his hips and Nino found himself straddling one of Ohno's thighs. There were more muscles there than he would have thought. He let out his breath in a shaky rush. Ohno smiled. "Every demon is descended from a fallen angel," he said. "I know about falling. About sin. Temptation."
"Yeah," Nino breathed. He just bet Ohno did. Ohno's words matched the slow throb of the music, the sway of their hips, the flex of Nino's fingers on his shoulders. "Yeah, I-" he caught his breath as they moved and realized that he sounded like an eager virgin about to give it up for the first time. A really, really eager virgin. With an incubus. "I just bet you do," he tried to sound angry. "You're a demon and Sho is still an angel, so-"
"Every demon might have been a fallen angel, but not every fallen angel becomes a demon," Ohno said. "Let Jun prove that to him. He's got that tanuki with him to keep him safe."
"Aiba," Nino said firmly, "is not an ideal chaperone. His hobbies are drinking and having sex with anything that will hold still long enough for him to shape-shift into something with the appropriate appendage."
"My hobby is fishing."
Ohno had gone from being sloe-eyed and sensual to spacey and quiet-seeming and the combination, the gap, was doing it for Nino, just really doing it for him. He snapped.
"Knock it off," Nino spat.
Ohno blinked. He'd been thinking about bonitos and GT and tuna. It was the sort of inattentiveness that Jun would have scolded him for, too. "Sorry?" he tried. Nino wasn't pushing at him so he felt free to keep his hands on Nino's hips, guiding him through steps. "I just really want to catch a bonito," he defended himself. "I've been trying for years."
"Screw your fish," Nino said and for a moment Ohno wondered how Nino knew about those mermaids (not even Jun knew about them and Ohno lived with him) but Nino continued before he could ask. "I'm not going to let you kill me no matter what act you pull so knock it off. Quit acting like this."
It took Ohno a minute to understand and then he couldn't help smiling. It was possible that Nino liked him, that Nino liked him. "I'm not acting," he murmured into Nino's ear, sliding his hands up under Nino's shirt, touching the silky warmth of his back. "This is who I am."
Nino shivered under his hands and Ohno liked that almost more than he liked the feel of the skin under his fingers. "I know about demons. I know all about your kind," Nino said breathlessly, "I know about the way you ensnare people, hypnotize them."
Ohno took a moment to guide them through the throng on the small dance-floor and then crowded Nino back into a shadowed alcove near the little stage. The floor was tacky beneath his shoes but Ohno didn't mind since a lot of it was probably his fault. It was a good place for a snack. He pressed Nino against the wall and kept his hips moving. "I don't care about what you know," he said, tracing Nino's ear with his tongue. "I'm not doing anything to you. I can't stop being what I am but I'm not trying to capture you. Your friend put a strong blessing on you anyhow. You can't be hypnotized even if I wanted to." He sucked on Nino's earlobe for a moment and released it. "I don't want to, Nino. I want you."
Nino fisted his hands in Ohno's shirt and firmly reminded himself that he had a policy against dry humping strange demons in the corners of sleazy bars. "Stop it," he said, twisting his hands tighter because he wanted to let go and touch Ohno's hair.
Ohno smiled down at his shirt, where he was busily opening the top buttons. Nino wondered when Ohno had let go of his hips. He tried not to wonder about why his hips were still moving without Ohno's direction.
"Not doing anything," said Ohno, sounding distracted. He spread his hand in the opening he'd made; it was hot against Nino's chest, his thumb resting in the hollow of his throat. Ohno was deeply tan and his hand stood in eye-catching contrast to Nino's pale skin. "Pretty."
"Do you really fish?" Nino heard himself ask.
"Mmhm," Ohno hummed and the sound vibrated against Nino's collarbone. "I put on sunscreen but I forget to reapply it and I get burnt. Jun yells at me a lot." His tongue traced wet, delicate spirals over Nino's skin that Nino ignored desperately until his breath washed cool over it, making him shudder hard. "I can always change it if somebody doesn't like it but you do. You like this, too." Ohno looked up, dark eyes glittering blue and black. "I like Nino."
"I-" breathed Nino. It was hard to breathe. "I am not doing this." He pushed back and bucked his hips forward. He might have gasped at the pressure, might have moaned as he slipped off of Ohno's thigh, but he was on his own two feet and not dry humping a demon he was getting to know in the corner of a sleazy bar. "Sho and Aiba are Hidden-World. They can survive your friend."
"Sure," Ohno agreed cheerfully. His eyes were still glittering and Nino shoved him back a step just to get a little more distance between himself and that dangerous, alluring gap. "He's starving," Ohno went on as though he hadn't noticed "and normally that'd leave one of them half dead but there's two. They'll probably even be able to leave under their own power."
Leave? Nino wondered. He couldn't see the main body of the club with Ohno in front of him and he didn't want to lean into his space again. "Leave where?" he demanded, pushing at Ohno again and wishing that he wanted to take his hands off of him.
"Jun took them home," Ohno said. Then he blinked. "Probably home," he amended. "That's where he keeps all his toys. He definitely wants to play with your Sho."
"I don't need to know that," Nino snapped. "My point is that they're safe and I'm gone." He finally tore his hands away and brushed past Ohno.
He tried to brush past him, at any rate. This time he really meant to.
Ohno stopped him, catching him by the wrist and holding firm when he tried to pull away.
"Let go!" Nino was tugging at his arm, trying to get away. "I'm gone. I'm going home. Alone."
"But-" Ohno looked befuddled, adorable. "But how are you going to get home without them?"
Nino was looking at him, honestly annoyed underneath the lust now, but at least he'd stopped struggling. Ohno felt horrible having to hold him. He didn't mind catching people, but he didn't want to catch Nino. He wanted Nino to be willing. There was a little voice in his head, a little clutch in his belly, which said Nino's acquiescence would be sweeter, taste better, be more filling than anything else he could have.
"I'm a big boy. I can get to the crossways on my own."
"There are vampires in this neighborhood," Ohno objected.
Rolling his eyes Nino shook his hand free and, reaching into his pocket, he pulled out a talisman string. It looked like an old shoelace but it was twisted so full of charms and touch-pieces and spells and amulets that it was impossible to be certain about that. Nino rattled it, making the closed spells swirl and the amulets clink. "I'm not exactly defenseless," he said, tucking it away again.
"You're human," Ohno said. Protection was only good if he had time to use it. Ohno knew this neighborhood. There were things in it that no human speed or agility or strength could counter. Anything could follow one small human out beyond the crossways. "I'll walk you home."
"Grandma, what big teeth you have!" Nino squeaked in falsetto, his eyes wide. Then his eyes narrowed and his eyebrows drew in expressively. Ohno wanted to touch them and he reached out to do so. Nino smacked his hand away. "You're not walking me home. If you do I'll have to invite you in for coffee just to be polite and then Sho and Aiba will come home to find my naked, dead, jizz covered body on the kitchen floor. Get out of my way; I'm leaving."
He liked the way Nino blushed, the way Nino wouldn't look him in the eye. He really liked the way Nino was biting at his lower lip, like he'd said too much. Ohno dodged Nino's swat and touched Nino's mouth, teasing his lip free with a gentle touch. "I can be careful," he said softly, easing close carefully, mindful to give Nino a little distance so that he wouldn't run away again. "I'll be very careful," he promised. "It can be just a little taste. That'd be okay, right?"
Nino shuddered and Ohno felt a fleeting touch at his hip before Nino turned his head away. "'Just a little taste', he says," Nino snorted. "Grandma, what big eyes you have. I'm leaving. Without you."
Ohno felt his lip stick out in a pout. Jun would have whacked him for it but the air between him and Nino seemed to pound like a heartbeat. "It's not safe."
"Taking you home to suck the life out of me isn't safe either," Nino retorted. "I'm out of here."
'You haven't left yet' Ohno wanted to point out. The tension was delicious. "I'll follow you home," he said, sliding into Nino's space once more.
"Follow-?" Nino said. Ohno thought it was cute the way he was trying to sound outraged.
"I'll only come as close as you let me. Even if you decide to invite me up for coffee."
He brushed past Nino and walked out the door.
Nino was jittery on the bus ride home from the crossways. He tried looking out his window but the night-lit glass only showed him the reflection of the incubus sitting in the seat across the aisle from him. Ohno was staring dreamily out his window, two seats and the aisle away from him. Nino could feel the heat of him still, could almost feel him sitting pressed close to him if he closed his eyes. He was being followed home by a hungry sex demon who had admitted to wanting a taste of him. He was an idiot for letting it happen, he thought. "You're trying to catch bonito?"
Ohno seemed to come out of his drowsy state and looked at him, blinking and blinking like he was far away. Then he smiled goofily and Nino wanted to sit beside him, hold his hand. "I almost caught one once." he said, "but I didn't get it out of the water. These mermaids came up instead and said it was their pet and asked me to let it go, so I did."
"Sweet," Nino groused, wishing he didn't mean it. "Did you sex them to death?"
Ohno's grin made his eyes close to slits and scrunched his nose. "That would have been impossible," he said happily. "There were a lot of mermaids. I don't think I was properly hungry again for months. Jun thought I was sick."
"You are sick," Nino muttered dryly. He curled in his seat, bracing his knees against the back of the seat in front of him as he turned look at the window again. He closed his eyes, knowing his stop by feel alone.
It was by feel, too, that he knew Ohno had followed him off the bus. He spoke, confirming it. "You live in this place?" he asked incredulously.
"Try not to eat any of the pimps, hookers, pushers, or winos on your way out, won't you?" Nino told him, stalking across the street to his building. He turned when he heard footfalls behind him and saw Ohno trotting across in his wake. "What the hell?" he asked when Ohno joined him at the door. "I don't need you to walk me to the door like some sort of demented prom date."
"You wouldn't let me walk you. I'm following you." Ohno smiled, blue-black eyes gleaming with something more than just laughter as Ohno opened the door and held it for him. "Go upstairs, Nino," he said, his words brushing the hair over Nino's ear.
For as long as Nino had lived in the building, the elevator had been out of order. Normally taking the stairs was no big deal. He glared at Ohno. "You are not going to stare at my butt the whole way up," he told him, pointing at the stairwell
Ohno's smile was dark and amused. "You can stare at mine," he said, his voice as soft as a purr.
Nino scowled and followed him up the steps. It was incredibly unsurprising how incredible Ohno's ass was. He was glad his apartment was at the end of the hall and that Ohno went in the direction he pointed without making Nino lead the way. He wasn't going to see that fabulous behind again and he was going to look at it while he could. Ohno leaned against his wall, waiting, and then stepped away when Nino unlocked the door. He'd stayed out of arm's reach the entire way home from the club. Nino gripped the doorknob tightly. "Well…" he said and wondered 'well what?'. Go home? Get lost? Have a nice life? Good night? What did one say to the sex demon one had repeatedly shut down?
"If you come back next week," Ohno said, "the werewolves will be back. They're always looking for work. They'll talk to you if you pay them."
"Back to the Filthy McNasty?" Nino asked. When Ohno nodded he tried to work up a snide remark. "You going to be there?" was all that he came up with.
"I'll be looking for you," Ohno said with a small smile, moving like he was going to step back again, turn and leave.
"Just a little taste," Nino said, one hand clenched on the knob and the other wrapped, white-knuckled, around the chain on his wallet. "A kiss's worth," he said. "One kiss's worth. A tiny one."
The blue of Ohno's eyes practically glowed as he came back, came close, his walk almost a swagger. One of his hands closed over Nino's on the knob, the other touched his hip, slipping around his body to rest just over the curve of his backside. "A tiny, little taste," Ohno agreed lowly, the words ghosting over Nino's mouth.
Ohno's lips were soft, his tongue even softer, and Nino was moaning before he could stop himself, hooking one hand around Ohno's neck to keep him there while he fumbled the door open with a violent twist of the knob. "I'm out of coffee," he said, tripping through it and not caring at all that he'd landed on his ass. He'd care later, if at all. "Sorry," he added as he managed to kick the door shut.
"That's all right," Ohno said leaning back against the door and looking down at him. His eyes were glowing and somehow still darker than all the shadows in Nino's apartment put together. They only got darker as he followed Nino to the floor, covering Nino's body with his own. Nino twisted, wrapping his legs around Ohno's waist, fisted his hands in his hair. Ohno smiled, even darker still. "That's all right," he repeated. "I don't want any coffee, Nino."
Oh, god, I am so sorry. I really am.
This totally isn't what happened next, okay?
Nino woke up with a vicious hang-over. It confused him because he knew he hadn't been drinking. He never drank anything once through the crossways, not if he could possibly help it. Yet his mouth tasted like sake and his head and stomach were both bitching at him.
Or, no, that was Sho.
Sho was sitting on his stomach, as light as only an angel could be, and holding a sake bottle. "A week," Sho said, slapping the bottle on Nino's nightstand. "You've been unconscious for a week. I suppose that's better than dead," he went on, picking up a bowl of miso soup with such force that it sloshed over the sides and on to Nino's sheets. Sho didn't seem to care, shoving the spoon at Nino's mouth. "Which is how we found you, I might add."
Very rarely was Sho ever truly, honestly angry. Nino was smart enough to shut up and open his mouth, taking his soup soundlessly. He pulled out his big, helpless, puppy-dog eyes, though, as his friend continued to cram spoonful after spoonful of soup into him.
Sho pinched him. "Dead and naked."
"And covered in-" Aiba said, bounding into view.
"That's another thing," Sho roared, turning on Aiba, brandishing the spoon. "We do not lick puddles of unidentifiable semen off of our dead friends. We do not molest our dead friends to see if maybe they're still alive. Especially not when they've obviously been with a sex demon, Masaki."
"God alone knows where they've been?" Nino muttered under his breath.
Sho whipped back to him. "Not even God!" he shrieked.
Aiba wrapped himself around Sho's back, pushing his wings down to smile at Nino. "I got white sake from some shoujou," he told him. "That's why you're not dead. Is it okay to molest you now? I had to go every day for the whole week, you know."
It finally registered. Nino pushed Sho and Aiba off of him and stood; the room whirled dizzily around him for a moment and then steadied. "I've got to get back to that bar," he muttered.
"Let it go, Nino," said Sho. "It's too dangerous to go there again. You nearly died." And Nino might have considered dropping it but for the way that Sho was blushing. Even taking into account Sho's heavenly complexion, it was a very, very dark blush.
"Not a chance," Nino said cheerfully. "Besides, what are the odds that you and Aiba are going to hook up with another incubus?"
"We can call him," Aiba said. "I got Matsujun's number!"
S-seriously. So sorry. I can't help it. I had to re-write this in just a few days. While working on other porn. I'm just glad my head didn't explode all over this.
At least THIS totally didn't come after THAT?
Nino gave the Kappa behind the bar a gloating look as the group of werewolves around him disbanded. He was poorer, but no poorer than he would have been a week ago, and he had a good, solid lead.
He also had a sleazy jerk breathing down his neck. "Get lost," he said, turning to give the guy a look. He stopped and took a good look. "Oh, the succubus," he said. "Bored already? You're totally not my type."
Jun gave him an elegant eye-roll. "As if I'd want to be," he said. "I came to tell you that Aiba is unconscious in the men's room and Sho needs help getting him to the crossways."
Nino scowled at him. "Thanks for ruining my night," he said. He did have to admit that he didn't mind the way Jun laughed at him as he slid off the barstool. He also didn't mind Jun's lips at his ear, telling him that Satoshi was waiting to follow him home.
But seriously, kids, the lesson here is 'don't date sex demons'.
Related Sho-Nino back-story.