2011 Ficlet Post
The past year was…yes, well…but summing it up in all the random stuff I never bothered posting here makes it all better ;)
Title: The Balcony Scene
Pairing: Ahim de Famille/Luka Milfy
Summary: Princess Ahim is awakened in her bedchamber by a suitor most bold. Or possibly a thief. It’s easy to confuse the two.
Bang!
Ahim awoke suddenly, sitting up and peering into the darkness trying to see what had made the noise. The room was awash with shadows and all the light from the candles had long been extinguished by the servants, leaving only the moon to flood in through the windows. The curtains fluttered in the breeze and Ahim could just make out the way the balcony was shining in the moonlight.
But surely the doors shouldn’t be open at this sort of time. Hadn’t her maids closed them as soon as the night’s chill drew in?
“Is someone there?”
No answer. Ahim had almost dismissed it as her imagination, making a note to close the balcony doors more firmly in future, when there came a rustle- a barely discernable sound of fabric brushing together as someone shifted their weight- and it came from out on the balcony.
“Hello?”
Ahim knew all the stories of course, her sisters talked of little beyond romance and her studies were filled with ballads of dashing young suitors who braved guards and gravity to climb onto a princesses’ balcony. What happened after that, once the floral poetry and comparing of body parts to inanimate objects was done, the ballads remained remarkably mute on, but Ahim had been to the royal farm enough to know there was more to husbandry than a man and a woman standing before a priest. The horses had been eye-opening, even if she’d had to follow her sisters back to the palace when they fell to an attack of the vapours at the sight.
Ahim also knew the stories that the servants told; the ones that no princess should hear, about kidnap and ransom and thieves who stole more than gold and jewels. She wasn’t sure which scenario was more likely, and decided a healthy mix of the two would probably prove correct.
“Art thou a rose come to steal my heart or my crown?” she asked eventually, when it became clear the figure would not be speaking. It was only good manners to ask a guest their intentions when they arrived unannounced, and although Ahim feared her floral poetry could use some work she hoped the figure would forgive her due to the lateness of the hour.
“Um,” said the figure, stepping further into the room but still covered in shadows. “A bit of both?”
Well that sounded promising. Ahim had never expected her first dashing suitor to be both a woman and somewhat of a thief, but it at least meant she wouldn’t be confined to sticking with the poetry her tutors favoured.
“Do you need some help finding the jewels?” Ahim offered. “I’m afraid I only know where my second best tiara is, the best was taken off for polishing. And, of course, it is my eldest sister who has the crown.”
The thief- her thief, Ahim decided, liking the possessive thrill it gave her- finally came into view. She slinked through the room like a cat, ending her prowl at the edge of the bed’s canopy, within both reach and sight of Ahim.
She was clad in scandalously minimalist clothing, not a ruffle or a lace hem in sight; although Ahim had to admire the way her leather jacket fitted her shoulders so well.
Her hair was loose and framed her face nicely, emphasising her cocky smirk and kind eyes, possibly the only example of femininity about her for her legs were clad in breeches. Ahim tried to drag her eyes away, knowing the sight should scandalise her as was befitting a princess, but found her gaze drawn back to the long, slim legs so perfectly showcased in their skin-tight material. Ahim wasn’t sure if she was feeling faint at the shameless display, but that thick warm feeling inside had to have something to do with the figure- definitely as dashing as she could have imagined a suitor to be- close enough to reach out and touch.
Ahim decided it would be best if she got out of bed for the rest of encounter. Peering up into someone’s eyes was all well and good but she’d get a crick in her before too long.
“The tiara is in the jewellery cabinet over there,” Ahim pointed, “Did you intend to woo me before or after taking it?”
“You shouldn’t be telling me this!” her thief protested. “I’m here to rob you!”
“You protest far too much,” Ahim told her. “Are you sure you’re a proper thief?”
“I could hurt you,” she said, gesturing towards her belt where both a musket of some sort and a sword hung.
Ahim tilted her head in consideration.
“Does the sword not get in the way when scaling up palace walls?”
“They’re for in case something goes wrong. Like a princess calling for the guards,” she said meaningfully.
“That sounds dreadfully inefficient, if you don’t mind my saying so. Why not choose a less guarded spot that holds more material wealth such as the antechamber off of the throne room where the crown jewels are kept between appearances? That way you wouldn’t need weapons at all but could dress for speed in making your escape.”
Ahim was proud of her reasoning there. It did make the most sense and could avoid any future situations where the guards might take her thief for a despicable scoundrel. They could be most unforgiving and Ahim didn’t wish to see her thief unduly harmed.
“Antechamber?” her thief asked. “Where is it?”
“In the central wing, just to the right of the throne room,” Ahim told her and immediately wished she hadn’t as her thief made for the door. “Wait!”
“Shh!”
Her thief rounded on her, glaring, and Ahim couldn’t help but smile. This warm feeling inside surely had to be the ‘love’ all the court musicians sang about, although it felt similar to the amusement she got from watching her sister’s kittens play.
She reached over and pressed the catch that released the hidden door next to her bed.
“You can take the servant’s way down to the central wing. There’s no-one in the corridors here in the residential wing until they come to light the hearths.”
Her thief looked incredulously at her. Ahim liked that expression on her face.
“Although I’m not sure one visit is really enough for you to steal my heart,” Ahim told her, “May I know you name regardless?”
Her thief looked her up and down for a long moment before striding back across the room and placing a kiss on Ahim’s lips.
It may have started chaste but soon their lips were sealed together in a heated, full-blown kiss. Ahim’s eyes fluttered closed. Her arms wound around her thief’s shoulders and wished they weren’t as entirely encased in leather as they were so she could press her hands against skin instead.
Her lips instinctively opening under the onslaught as she pressed closer and found that while she may not be able to find skin to caress, her thief had no such restrictions as she slid her hand up Ahim’s bare thigh, bunching up her nightdress as she went.
An unconscious groan came from the back of Ahim's throat as their tongues slid together. Her thief was sucking her lower lip, gently tugging it with her teeth before abandoning it to slide their tongues together and all the while her hand slid higher and higher. The myriad of sensations was almost becoming too much when her thief pulled away.
That Ahim did not approve of. Her thief leaned against her, panting slightly in her ear and Ahim nipped at her neck in reprimand. Her thief groaned.
She pulled away when her breathing was steady; something Ahim felt came far too quickly, immediately missing the heat pressed against her front, and watched in disapproving silence as her thief made for the servant’s entrance.
She turned back; catching the door before it could slide shut entirely and said, “My name is Luka.”
Ahim thought it the most promising start to a romance.
Title: What A Team Is Good For
Pairing: Marvelous/Joe/Luka/Ahim/Don
Spoilers: For Gai’s existence
Warnings: For Gai’s enthusiasm and the idea that gay rangers bonk
Summary: Gai sees no sign his sentai team is having sex with each other. This is a problem.
Gai doesn't get it.
They're a sentai team, his bunch of pirates, and an established one at that. It's not like they're a bunch of strangers brought together to serve as retainers for their lord, knowing nothing about each other and simply thrown together by a combination of fate and longstanding family tradition, although that did work out for the Shinkengers.
They live together, fight together, spend their free time together...so why hasn't he seen any sign they're having sex? Everyone knows sentai teams sleep together.
Gai remembers being a teenager and thinking that was the whole point of having a team, although that line of thought had tapered off as the years went by and Gai discovered masturbation, though enjoyable on occasion, was messy and sex by all accounts was even more so. He took it as a sign that he really was destined to be part of a sentai team and that he’d be more interested once his team showed up, so that in the mean time he could work hard to be a good friend who kept everyone’s spirits up and didn’t need to concern himself overly with dating, and threw himself into the role wholeheartedly.
So where’s the kissing? The necking? The orgies?
Saving the world is all well and good, but how are they meant to be an effective fighting force if they’re not at least swapping spit on a regular basis. It’s just not right.
Every time they meet past sentai members Gai worries they can see the lack of intimacy between them and tries to cover it up with as much enthusiasm as possible. He can’t expect aliens to know the most fundamental rule of sentai teams after all but he does wonder how they made it this far without discovering the team-building power of sex.
Obviously he’s going to have to talk them round to this slowly, start off just getting two of them together and work his way round to the rest. Don-san and Ahim-san would probably be the easiest to play matchmaker for as they occasionally listened to his suggestions, and it was all for a good cause…
Gai nodded to himself, briefly thinking about a ‘Eureka!’ pose before deciding it would look too similar to his GokaiSilver henshin pose and that was the more important one. He had a plan. He, Ikari Gai, would match-make his teammates together and turn them into a proper sentai team that people could be proud of!
+++
“Gai-san seems very enthusiastic,” Ahim said suddenly.
Marvelous groaned at the interruption of his afterglow and rolled off the bed to go get wet towels for cleanup. Joe got this look if Marvelous didn’t wipe up properly ever since he got dried come stuck in his hair. It’d been a long time ago but some things were too traumatic to forget. Marvelous hadn’t known people could withhold sex that long.
Luka stuck her head of out the bathroom and almost collided with Marvelous.
“He’s too enthusiastic, Ahim! Who cares about all those teams and names and things so long as we still get the Greatest Treasure?” Luka said. She wrapped a towel loosely round her wet hair- always the first in the shower, Marvelous privately thought she liked it quick and dirty just so she got all the hot water- and pushed past him heading back into the bedroom.
She sat at Ahim’s feet as she slowly uncurled from around Joe and tilted her head back.
“Help me dry my hair?” she asked.
Ahim smiled and nodded, taking hold of the towel and gently rubbing away the moisture.
“But Gai-san does seem to know an awful lot about the grand powers,” Doc said, pushing open the door with one foot and holding out trays of food with both hands. “Snacks?”
“Food!” Marvelous and Joe zeroed in and stole the platters off of Don before retreating with them to the bed.
“No crumbs in the sheets,” Ahim admonished, still massaging the water from Luka’s hair.
Marvelous rolled his eyes but moved to the chair, dragging Don onto his lap once he stepped within reach. Hand feeding his crew could be fun too; maybe his afterglow wasn’t completely ruined.
“What were you saying about Gai-san, Doc?” Luka asked, snuggling back against Ahim and smirking at Joe as she stole the plate. “He’s just an idiot; he doesn’t understand anything about pirates.”
“That seems to be true,” Don admitted, “But he is helpful when it comes to finding grand powers.”
“No-one understands Navi’s predictions like Gai-san,” Ahim nodded.
Luka snorted. “How’s that any help? We always worked them out before he came along.”
Ahim smiled at her, plucked the plate from her hands and handed it back to Joe. Luka huffed and stole Don from Marvelous instead.
“But with Gai here we do work things out a lot faster,” Don said.
“He’s a good fighter,” Joe grunted.
“You think so too?” Ahim cooed and clapped her hands. “Then it’s decided.”
“What?” Marvelous shook himself out of his post-snack laziness “No, it’s not. What were we deciding?”
“To include Gai-san more in the crew, of course,” Ahim said. The smile was heavenly and in it Marvelous could read his doom.
“We do include him! He’s crew!” Marvelous objected. He could feel a sinking sense of inevitability about where this was going.
Ahim primly sipped at the cup of tea that had materialised from nowhere. Oh, yeah. He was sure he wouldn’t like this.
Seeing the beginning of another argument between Marvelous and Ahim the others congregated back on the bed, settling in to watch.
“20 on Ahim,” Luka whispered.
“No bet,” Joe told her.
“Ahim always wins,” Don nodded.
“You never told him he was welcome in your cabin.”
“That doesn’t mean you lot can’t!”
“Marvelous, you know we wouldn’t approach him without your approval, and you haven’t even kissed the boy yet,” Luka called out.
“B-but he snores!” Marvelous shouted, finally cracking. “The sex would be fine, and he might finally shut up, but I’m not sleeping with that racket in the same bed as me after!”
Marvelous crossed his legs and glared at the bulkhead to avoid seeing at the reproachful looks he could feel from his crew. He gave up after a minute and sneaked a quick look.
It was worse than he feared. Ahim was frowning.
Marvelous could feel his resolve crumbling.
“Make more of an effort in future, Marvelous,” Ahim implored.
Don nodded and added, “We don’t want him to feel left out.”
The puppy eyes were overkill, Marvelous thought and tried to resist the urge to pet him.
“Well, we can’t all be perfect,” Luka told him, “But he deserves a chance to show us what he’s made of.”
“He’s crew,” was all Joe said but his eyes spoke volumes about promises, ties closer than family, and withholding sex if he fucked this up.
Sometimes a crew was nothing but bother.
+++
“You guys are having sex?!” Gai yelled, face a mess of emotions too deeply Gai to understand.
Don nodded shyly. “Do you mind?”
“Mind?” Gai repeated incredulously, volume increasing even more until he ended on a squeak and had to pause to breathe in again.
Luka glared and cocked her hip. ‘Do you have a problem with that?’ she went to say when she was interrupted by Gai’s whoop and fist pump.
“Thank goodness! I’m so glad!” Gai grinned, clapping her on the shoulder. He ruffled Don’s hair, said his congratulations to both Ahim and Joe, mad grin on his face the whole time.
Luka looked around wildly at the others, this wasn’t just her, this was weird right? They’d come across loads of different cultures on their travels, but people were never this relieved to hear five people were in a committed sexual relationship. Apart from some of the Zangyack officers with kinkier tastes, but those meetings usually involved chains and whips and ended in someone getting their head blown off, and therefore didn’t count. Marvelous got really angry whenever that happened.
Gai finally made his way round to the captain’s chair.
“Marvelous-san,” Gai said, leaning in close and looking more serious than Luka could remember seeing him outside of battle with Zangyack. “I’m so proud of you.”
“…Eh?”
+++
“You can join us in our cabin from now on,” Marvelous said, jerking a thumb towards the door. His tone was nonchalant but eagerness bled through in his posture and he tried not to shift in anticipation.
“Oh, Marvelous-san.”
Gai looked surprised. Did he not realise this was what today’s revelations had been aimed towards? Finally the crew all together where they belonged.
“Are you coming?” he managed to sound offhand even as his cock stirred at the thought of all his crew curled around him writhing and twisting in bliss.
“No tonight, Marvelous-san,” Gai told him. “I’ve got work to go through instead. But I’ll be sure to be in once I’ve finished up so we can all get a good night’s sleep together!”
Gai grinned happily at him and patted him on the arm like a maiden aunt. Marvelous wondered if it was too late to rescind Gai’s invitation to join the ship.
---
If there’s one thing AkaRed managed to pass on to him along with the ranger keys, Marvelous knows it is this: that a captain never sleeps with his crew.
AkaRed led by example in everything and Marvelous knew he’d never done more than look at him or Basco, much as either of them would’ve welcomed it.
Basco had told him exactly what he’d have welcomed from their captain once, gasping into his ear about the chair and the suit and the varied purposes ranger keys certainly weren’t intended for, as Marvelous pounded into him, pretending he wasn’t suddenly on the brink just from hearing AkaRed’s name.
Basco had grinned and pushed him down onto their bunk so he could ride him, saying, ‘Just think of me riding AkaRed like this in his chair, coming all over him. He’d pull me off his cock, force me to my knees and I’d be made to lick my come off of that bright- red -suit’ before Marvelous cut him off with a kiss. Basco teased him later that if he couldn’t handle the fantasies he shouldn’t have asked. Marvelous grins wide and never tells him it was to stop himself screaming ‘Captain’ as he climaxed. The walls weren’t that thick after all.
The point is he knows he can’t sleep with his crew once he’s captain. He doesn’t mind this restriction overly; he’ll never be captain while AkaRed is around, and if he does leave to become commander of his own ship one day his captain will suddenly become fair game.
He doesn’t mention this plan to Basco. Basco would cheat and seduce AkaRed first and while Marvelous loves him, he doesn’t love him that much.
Then the world explodes and he’s left with a ship, a bird, and emptiness inside.
He eventually learns to be a captain by himself- though not so much captain as survivor - and it all works out. He doesn’t have the inclination to think about sex at all and he thinks this must be how AkaRed felt all the time. It’s not so bad.
Then Joe comes along and Marvelous tries to remember the way a captain should behave and not push him up against a wall. Which would work out fine- he has some self-control no matter what Basco had taunted him about and he’s not thinking about that- only Joe doesn’t seem to understand and takes every opportunity to smoulder at him, touching him oh so innocently, getting close enough that Marvelous can feel Joe’s breath on his cheek and he has to go look for people to shoot until he calms down.
It’s not how a crew should be.
---
Sid/Joe
Sid was halfway up the ridge when he caught sight of the figure lying almost invisible on the ledge; a tiny speck of black on a cliff face overlooking a town surrounded by mountains, the perfect sniper’s nest. It was a spot impossible to notice unless you were looking for it and even then it took the kind of practise that only hours of hunting for such spots to use could provide.
Not that Sid needed any of those skills. He knew exactly where the sniper was. He’d left him there himself.
Sliding down path nearly vertical in places, Sid made the extra effort to be as silent as possible. It had been far too long since he’d had a chance to sneak up on his cute little student and it was, he reasoned, a good learning experience for Joe.
Sid got one foot down onto the ledge, barely skimming the ground before a gun was aimed at his head.
“You’re late,” said Joe, never looking away from his post.
“I’m sorry,” Sid told him stepping closer, “Did you miss me?”
Joe cocked the gun pointed at his head. His head never turned from the town down below; keeping his sights firmly on the city hall, the object of their target training within, as Sid was sure he’d been doing ever since he left.
Sid smiled fondly at him. They both hated sniper training and never missions that required the skills. They were melee fighters both of them- too good with the sword to leave that far behind the front lines and perfectly able to back it up with a gun.
“You’re late,” Joe said again and Sid finally noticed the strain in his voice.
“Did something happen?” he asked, pushing Joe’s gun away and kneeling to get a better look at the target. “Did the commander contact you?”
Joe finally looked away, technically abandoning his post and Sid couldn’t give a damn because some things were more important than yet another week of pointless training in the middle of nowhere, whether he was supposed to be the ranking officer there or not.
“You said you’d be gone for a short while,” Joe ground out, “And then I couldn’t see you in the target area, Sid-senpai.”
“This is all because you thought I’d gone missing?” Sid laughed. “Joe, it’s just another training mission. We’re not going to get caught in another ambush like Lavinia.”
Joe’s scowl couldn’t hide the worry in his eyes as he said, “You can’t know that,” and turned back to the rifle scope.
Sid sat down cross-legged on the ledge beside him, taking the opportunity to stretch out his legs after an entire day cooped up in a message centre trying to convince the commander what they needed was shore leave not more training after a failed mission, and trying to show Joe in every way he could that he was there in one piece and that piece didn’t have shrapnel sticking out of it. His shoulder ached from the memory despite days in the hospital.
“I can, Joe,” Sid reassured him. “We’re never going to have a mission go like that again, I promise. We’re too good to get caught by the same trick twice!”
He saw the tiny flash of a smile before Joe hid it and knew this would all work out. Maybe it wasn’t the leave he’d hoped for- up a mountain, ordered to aim at a target until such time as headquarters gave them a signal- but if Joe could smile then he knew they could get through this.
Sid nodded and brought his hand up to stroke his chin as he mused aloud, “We’re clearly the elite partnership that Zangyack has decided will lead them to victory. In fact, this ‘training mission’ is probably something they’ll use in history books to tell future generations of our skills in battle!”
Joe snorted and Sid smiled at him. This was how they should be, together and smiling and Sid would do everything to ensure they stayed that way.
“Do you want me to take watch?” Sid offered eventually. The light was fading again and even though he was tired from the journey he knew Joe had to be exhausted.
“I’m fine, Sid-senpai.”
“If you’re sure.”
Sid ran a hand along Joe’s back, tucking a stray piece of hair back behind Joe’s ear.
“It’s getting long,” Sid told him.
“I’ll get it cut, long hair is impractical for a soldier,” Joe said sternly but didn’t move his head when Sid started playing with the ends of his ponytail.
“It suits you,” Sid said and sat back to watch the faint blush travel up the back of Joe’s neck as the sun slowly set over the mountains.
Title: Let No Man Break Asunder
Pairing: Ankh/Shingo
Summary: Ankh breaks in and molests Shingo. Shingo doesn’t object as much as either of them expected
The door was locked and even though he knew where the spare key was- of course he did, it’d been his- Ankh still used the window. People never locked their window, he’d found, especially not on a floor as high as this. Not that it mattered now. Now he was whole and had his wings and wasn’t tied to that stupid human body.
None of which explained why he was here staring at the human he no longer shared an existence with.
Shingo stared back.
“I knew you’d come here,” Shingo said eventually, breaking the awkward silence.
“And I knew you’d be up giving yourself a hard time,” Ankh scowled. “Can’t let little Hina know we masturbate, have to wait until she’s asleep.”
“We?”
Ankh swiped at the bed with his claws, falling short of the sheets by mere inches. Shingo never flinched.
“A figure of speech,” Ankh told him. “Greeed don’t have desires.”
“Then why are you here?”
A growl and an inhuman body pinned Shingo’s to the bed as a clawed hand wrapped around his throat.
“Maybe I’m here to kill you,” Ankh said. “Did you ever think of that?”
A noise came from outside the room.
“Big brother? Are you alright?”
Hina.
Ankh’s hand clenched involuntarily and loosened again almost immediately at the look in Shingo’s eyes.
“…I’m alright,” Shingo called out to her, eyes glued firmly to Ankh’s. “Everything’s alright. Just go back to bed.”
“Okay. Good night.”
“Night.”
Ankh ripped away his hand but pulled Shingo closer.
“What did you do that for? I could’ve killed you and you wouldn’t even have cried out for help?” he hissed.
“Maybe I didn’t want her to get hurt.”
“Huh. So that’s why. Humans,” Ankh snorted derisively, pulling away.
“…And we can’t let Hina know we masturbate.”
Ankh froze.
His head whipped back to glare straight at Shingo, body language radiating shock that melted into calculation.
Ankh said, “As if you’d let me,” and ran his claws down the front of Shingo’s chest, tapping at the delicate flesh that served to emphasise his monstrous form all the more.
Shingo kept looking at him, his pulse beating away madly clearly discernable to Ankh’s eyes. Ankh wondered if he should’ve looked harder in the mirror before, if he’d know what else it was he saw in that face, if he’d ever experienced it himself. The thought tore at him.
A hand wrapped round his wrist and Ankh wondered if Shingo had finally learnt not to tease Greeed and given in to his body’s instinctive need to protect itself. The hand exerted pressure, not pushing away as he was expecting but pushing his own hand further down, past the flat stomach, ghosting over the soft skin underneath the bellybutton, further, further, until-
“Well now,” Ankh said. “Guess I arrived a little early. Didn’t have time to finish?”
Shingo blushed. “Hina stayed up late,” he muttered.
Ankh snorted and stuck his hand down Shingo’s pants.
He froze.
“Wait,” Shingo forced out, “Ankh, we can’t.”
He wondered if he was the way his hips bucked up into Ankh’s hand
“If you wanted me to stop we both know you could stop me,” Ankh smirked at him. “I remember everything you like-“
Ankh twisted his hand hard round Shingo’s cock, and Shingo was forced to concede that yes, Ankh certainly knew what he was doing.
“- so if you want me to stop you’ll have to make me.”
Shingo went to muffle himself; despite years of hiding his pleasure from Hina sometimes he just gets too carried away and loud enough to disturb even the neighbours and he usually dealt with it by sucking on his fingers. The quiet sucking noises would drive him higher as he imagined what else he could use to stifle his cries. Shingo tried to bring his hand up off the bed only to find Ankh’s hand reaching for his wrist and pinning it back down on the sheets. He tugged at the restraining hand, biting at his lip when Ankh trailed a finger down to caress far too lightly at his balls.
“I know you,” Ankh told him. “I know what you want your hand for.”
Shingo opened his mouth- to protest or agree, he wasn’t sure- when the next moan was wrangled from his body and Ankh’s eyes zeroed in on his lips.
He climbed further onto the bed straddling Shingo, all the while his hand moving up and down on Shingo’s dick in that perfect rhythm.
“I know you too,” Shingo gasped out. “I know you wouldn’t be here if you weren’t thinking of coming back-“
“Shut up,” Ankh ground out, and proceeded to ensure Shingo’s silence by kissing the breath out of him.
It was hot and wet and nowhere near clumsy enough to come purely from Shingo’s memories, even the memories he had of Hino and Ankh, and for a moment he wondered what else he didn’t know about Ankh before his lips were coaxed further apart and Ankh twined their tongues together.
Every stroke of Ankh’s tongue felt like a tease, enough to make him shiver but never enough, and Shingo wrapped his arm round the back of Ankh’s neck to draw him closer. He wanted to ravish Ankh’s mouth. Only when his arousal was reaching bursting point did Shingo think about pulling back. He sank his teeth lightly into Ankh’s lip and opened his eyes, looking straight into Ankh’s.
When he pulled back the dazed, sated look in Ankh’s eyes made Shingo’s heart twist painfully in his chest. Shingo wanted to keep that look on his face for the rest of his life.
“Ankh,” he whispered.
And reality intruded again as Ankh’s face went blank then morphed into a snarl and he started to jerk Shingo off furiously.
“Wait, Ankh!” Shingo said, pulling ineffectually at the hand working rhythmically up and down his length.
“What now,” Ankh growled.
A twist of his wrist and Shingo bucked, a cry bursting from his lips.
“B-but what about Hino?”
Ankh paused, hand coming to a halt, and Shingo whined.
“Eiji?”
Ankh sounded more lost than Shingo had ever heard him.
“Tch-“ Ankh’s hand sped up again “-He’s got you, hasn’t he?”
But Shingo didn’t have time to answer, distracted by the feeling of hands and fingers and orgasm- his first, his, for so long, no Eiji, no second hand sensation from his own body, his- and then Ankh was pulling back his hand, covered in semen, looking at it for a long moment before wiping his finger down Shingo’s face, making his eyes flutter closed at the sensation, the feeling of being marked indelibly by this creature.
All too soon the moment passed, lines once again being drawn, and Shingo could feel Ankh’s barriers going up as if they were his own as he pulled away.
“I-“
Ankh paused, half out of the window, but didn’t turn back.
“I don’t mind. I’m glad I could help.”
Shingo was left alone again, Ankh’s presence already fading as the window slammed shut.
“I don’t mind you using my body,” he finally whispered to the empty room.
“I know.”
---
“Ankh,” Eiji poked him. “Ankh!”
Ankh continued snoring.
“Ankh, wake up!”
Ankh remained resolutely dead to the world.
Eiji narrowed his eyes and flexed his fingers.
“I’m warning you, Ankh.”
The snort Ankh gave out at that was distinctly smugger than the previous sleepy snuffling noises. Under any other circumstances Eiji would’ve found the sight of Ankh curled up with a nest of blankets, cuddling up to his pillow and snoring softly, too funny to do much more than take a picture and blackmail him with it later, but those were his blankets and it was freezing without them!
“Last warning,” Eiji told him.
Still nothing.
Eiji leapt on top of Ankh and aimed straight for his sensitive ribs. If Ankh would insist on stealing the covers then Eiji would be forced to tickle him until he cried with laughter.
---
Shingo tries not to think about it. Ankh is Ankh, Shingo is Shingo and even if he remembers everything that happened while Ankh was in control of his body there’s no reason he should go hunting for the memories.
Not that he does.
It’s just…Eiji is always there. He’s there talking to him and smiling at him or reassuring Hina her friendly shove didn’t hurt that much even in he did end up in a wall, and all Shingo can think is ‘I had sex with him’.
Which is ridiculous.
He didn’t, of course. (It was just a blowjob.)
It wasn’t him. (Messy and frantic, up against a wall, any wall, adrenaline making their hands shake as he sank to his knees and-)
It was Ankh.
And it’s still all he can think about. It hurts somewhere deep inside that Shingo never knew existed before Greeed and possession and Ankh, Ankh, always Ankh. Feeling such a thing happen- to you, right before your eyes, it has to be you, doesn’t it- and then waking up to realise this love was never yours.
Shingo is sure of that at least, for him, and for Ankh. It was love, on both of their parts.
---
Gotou had dated Hino once, briefly, during one of his and Ankh's off periods; where Eiji would realise he was dating a psychopath and blow up at Ankh, and Ankh would run off to his brother's and make Shingo sleep on the sofa.
It hadn't lasted.
Hino Eiji was destined to spend his life stuck in one of those explosive, passionate relationships seen most often in romcoms (Satonaka watched them endlessly on her days off and got vicious if someone tried to take the remote off her) and Shakespeare plays. Gotou had no idea why, but it seemed that arguments with Ankh made him happier than a healthy functioning relationship with anyone else. He'd bowed out gracefully once Ankh stopped sulking, unwilling to put Hino through the trouble of choosing between them and knowing he'd lose if it came to that.
He'd never told Date-san that though. Gotou was pretty sure that his boyfriend- love at first sign of reliability on his part, steadfastly refusing to leave Date-san alone until they'd had sex and Gotou had met his mother for Date- wasn't the jealous type but he liked the group dynamic his little circle of friends had going now. Hino and Ankh still fought every other week and broke up once a month, Shingo had long perfected the art of playing negotiator and even if Ankh's friends were dirty enough to make him ache to be a detective again they had at least stopped showing up to pizza night high and flushed with suspicious amounts of cash after Date-san had put the fear of god into them. There really was nothing quite like a doctor telling horror stories about the effects of infected needles...
Still as uncomplicated and domestic as his relationship with Date-san was compared to the fireworks of True Love that Ankh shared with Hino, Gotou was happy that he didn't have a romance like theirs. Some people were destined to be Beatrice and Benedict, sniping and bickering their way to happiness, and the others could leave the Shakespeare to them. Gotou was more content with fresh coffee and slow kisses every morning from Date-san than all the dramatic fights turned to equally dramatic embraces Hino had with Ankh (and, on one memorable occasion at the Halloween party, Shingo).
'Although,' Gotou mused, pouring another cup of coffee and waiting for Date to get out of the shower, 'Hino was a better kisser than Date-san...'
Title: Always Someone’s Fault
Pairing: Utahoshi Kengo/Kisaragi Gentaro preslash
Summary: Utahoshi Kengo can’t stop thinking about Kisaragi Gentaro. Another thing to blame that idiot for.
There has been an exponential increase in Zodiarts attacks on the school since the Fourze Driver came into use.
For this Kengo blames Kisaragi Gentaro, as apparently even monsters aren’t above the need to prove themselves against an idiot in a costume. Whilst logic tells him the rate of attack is increasing because of The Hole activating, it’s easier to blame Kisaragi. If it weren’t for the fact that it should’ve been him, Kengo would almost be grateful at the rate Zodiarts are being beaten and their switches destroyed.
But the only way Kisaragi will earn gratitude from him is on bended knee, admitting that Kengo is so much better than him at everything, and therefore Kengo doesn’t have to worry about it ever happening.
If occasionally fantasising about that magical day when Kisaragi stops doing unnecessary things and kneels before him means he has to go off to Moonbase Rabbit Hutch to have a headache more often than usual, well, no-one else has to know.
Or at least no-one else would know if Kisaragi weren’t constantly there at the base.
Kengo still can’t believe an idiot like that can work as hard as him to master things, spending hours at a time learning to control the switches and training to make his use of the Fourze Driver as efficient as possible.
(Kengo’s sure that’s not how he would put it. Kisaragi would make a big speech about hard work being good for the soul and end it with ‘Friendship’! Kengo hates that the thought has even crossed his mind.)
Not that a decent work ethic changes his opinion of Kisaragi in any way, once an idiot, always an idiot, and the Kamen Rider Club is perfect proof of that.
After chasing off Kazashiro again so he can get some work done on the switches in peace, Kengo rounds on the one responsible for his quiet hideaway turning into a circus.
“You! Stop bringing people here!”
Kisaragi smiles at him like it’s all a joke and claps him on the shoulder, almost sending him flying out of the chair.
“Don’t worry about it so much! We’re all friends here, Kengo,” Kisaragi says and Kengo resists the urge to slam him against the wall even as a sense of familiarity washes over them.
It’s become something of a running argument, albeit one Kengo can’t indulge in when Yuki and lately Kazashiro-san are there to interrupt; Yuki just scolds and separates them as if they’re children, whereas Kazashiro would inevitably join in the fight, her sense of entitlement bringing out the worst in Yuki and it would spiral into another one of their glaring contests.
“Don’t say my name so casually,” Kengo tells him for the seventeenth time this week, and, “Who says we’re friends?”
“Such an obstinate guy,” Kisaragi sighs.
Kengo wants to lock him out the next time he goes out onto the moon for training so he doesn’t have to look at his face.
“But-“
Kisaragi interrupts his thought process with a smile and Kengo decides to hate that as much as he hates the rest of him.
“-but I like that about you.”
Kengo feels his heart beat faster and wonders if it’s a sign of an oncoming headache.
“What are you saying?” Kengo sneers, spinning his chair round to stare at his computer screen and will the heat from his cheeks. Was it hotter in here than normal? He’d run a diagnostic on the heating system.
“Shouldn’t you be out practising?” he asked when Kisaragi just stood there looking forlorn.
“Right!”
And just like that Kengo feels something in his chest relax. He watches the reflection on the display screen as Kisaragi transforms and the usual gnaw of jealousy doesn’t feel as strong.
“Keep the radar on,” Kengo says when he’s about to leave. “I’ve got some ideas for improving Limit Break’s accuracy.”
Somehow even through Fourze’s visage he can feel Kisaragi’s grin.
“Idiot,” he mutters and ignores the way his lips quirk up in response.