A Twisted Triangle

Soubi had gotten what he wanted.

That was a first.

So why did he still feel so… barren?

Despite the friendly smiles he put on in social events, the front he put up at school, Soubi was not a very happy person on the whole. Ever since he could remember, he had been forced to keep every emotion he ever felt for real a secret, like it was something he was supposed to be ashamed of.

He had made sure of that.

The thought made him scowl and he dropped his head against the back of the bathroom wall. The steam still circulating within the four walls caused breathing to become a tad bit more difficult, but he ignored it. Soubi closed his eyes and focused his frustration the way only one man could have ever taught him how.

He gritted his teeth and took it.

You expect too much out of things, don’t you? he questioned himself. What were you expecting? Did you think having Seimei lose his ears to you would make things better? Make things right? God, there’s something wrong with you, Soubi. Something pathologically, physically, horribly wrong with you…

Sullen orbs of blue dropped from view when Soubi willed his eyelids down over them.

It wasn’t trust he had an issue with. That chestnut was so old that it was just begging to be put out of its misery. He wasn’t sure what it was, exactly. All he knew was that something—someone—had done something to him that prevented him from ever attaining that complete closeness to a person that he craved so badly. No matter what he did, no matter how he tried, there was always an arm’s width of a gap between he and another human being; an invisible wall, an anti-Soubi barrier that he couldn’t penetrate. And it was killing him.

Seimei was everything, everything in the world to Soubi. And not an hour ago, Seimei had at last taken him the way he had promised he would. That should have had some sort of effect on the blond’s inability to acquire some sort of intimacy with another human being. Right?

Wrong.

The idea of such a thing having little to no affect on his wretched ‘curse’ made Soubi sick to his stomach. So many years, so many wasted years, he had unconsciously prevented himself from being with a person. Not even his beloved Aoyagi Seimei had broken through that barrier—the barrier of which was sure to be gathering dust by now, what with never being touched and all.

Soubi heaved a heavy sigh and opened his eyes again to the faint fog of steam. He readjusted his waist towel, brushed a hand through his hair, then stepped out of the bathroom and into the adjacent bedroom where his beloved lay.

Soubi smiled as he saw him lying there. He hadn’t honestly thought Seimei would stay for very long afterward. Proven wrong again, he supposed. But he was glad to be wrong this time around. Seimei’s attractive ears and tail hadn’t fallen off yet, but they would by the time morning rolled around.

Ensuring his hair was at least somewhat dry before he crawled into bed again, Soubi removed the towel around his waist, tossed it aside to the laundry basket in the corner. The cold air against his bare skin resulted in a mild shudder. Quietly, he crept back underneath his black and white striped coverlets, and the creature lying atop his mattress shifted.

Once on his side facing away from the blond, Seimei turned and, in his sleep, pulled Soubi against him again. Soubi, more than willing to oblige, rested his head against the hollow of Seimei’s neck, breathing in his scent. Beyond the smell of Soubi’s own fresh rain scented shampoo, he could smell the barely-there remnants of Seimei’s cologne; sharp, and at the same time, fiery and musky.

That scent suited Seimei to a T and Seimei himself probably knew it.

*

“Soubi.”

“Hm?”

Seimei playfully tugged at a strand of long, blond hair, forcing Soubi to open his eyes to the harsh morning sun shining in his bedroom window.

“If you’re expecting Kio home anytime soon, we should probably get up.”

“Should,” Soubi mumbled as he attempted to duck his head underneath the covers.

“Soubi,” Seimei chided with a smirk on his face, and Soubi promptly glared at him.

“Just because you’re a morning person-”

A pair of dry, but obscenely soft lips covered Soubi’s own then, shushing him, and all of Soubi’s protests fell out the second story window. Just as Seimei had intended, no doubt. With that expert feather of a touch that Soubi had come to love and hate, Seimei brushed his fingertips to Soubi’s neck, eliciting a faint shudder from him.

Moments later, Seimei drew back, briefly slipping the tips of his fingers through Soubi’s long hair.

“Ready to get up yet?”

Soubi chuckled. “Yeah.”

Sitting up slowly and ruing the sunlight, Soubi knuckled the sleep from his eyes. The same hand used to rub free the imaginary sand then covered his mouth as he heaved a yawn. It was only once he looked back down to the black-haired male at his side that he noticed it.

His ears had finally disappeared.

A small smile crawled onto Soubi’s thin lips. He reached over, tentatively drawing his fingers through those wavy black strands, and for once, his hand wasn’t met with those adorable little cat ears.

“It’s odd,” Soubi murmured. Seimei glanced to him questioningly. “Seeing you without ears.”

“Oh, that,” Seimei chuckled. “I wrapped them up in tissue paper so I can have some replacements made.”

Soubi nodded. It wouldn’t take any of the shops very long to finish up a pair of ears, it was just the tail that was going to be a hassle.

Seimei smirked then. He pulled himself up and trapped Soubi in yet another of his fiery kisses, lips parted and his tongue flickering in a venomous, teasing manner along Soubi’s mouth.

Oh, it was going to take a lot of willpower not to beg Seimei to take him again…

But that was where Soubi’s iron-clad will came in handy.

Seimei pulled away, licking at his lips like the cat who ate the canary.

Soubi only smiled.

“Do you want some coffee or something?” asked the blond to the now-earless Seimei.

“That would be nice. I think I’ll take a shower first, though.”

Soubi nodded.

“Towels are in the shelf by the sink.”

Soubi should have figured that Seimei would want to bathe. He did every morning—and every evening—without fail. Just part of mysophobia, Soubi figured.

While Seimei went about his morning ritual, Soubi had a silent battle with his legs. Soubi possessed a will of iron, of course, but so did his legs, both of them seeming to have minds of their own. Nevertheless, the Iron Will won in a matter of moments. Soubi fished his jeans off of the floor and pulled them on, sated to leave his bedroom without a shirt.

With the coffee pot drip, drip, dripping away, Soubi kept himself occupied with an idle stare out the kitchen window.

He had convinced himself, just that morning, that he wasn’t going to take his ‘curse’ to heart right now. Whether he was truly happy about things or not at the moment, he was content with them for now, and that was enough. He and Seimei had a complicated relationship, but that relationship had just taken a step up, hadn’t it? Of course it had.

Still, Soubi sometimes wished that his ears had been Seimei’s to take. That might have made this whole transition easier.

Soubi shut his eyes.

He wasn’t going down that avenue right now. He had just decided not to.

Stop it. You’re dwelling on the past when the past doesn’t matter anymore. Just get over it. Think about now, think about last night. That’s what you were waiting for, wasn’t it? You got your closure, you’re just being too much of a drama king to admit it. Knock it the Hell off Soubi, you’re starting to irritate yourself.

Oh, joy. Now his subconscious was coaching him.

Soubi probably would have asked himself, ‘what next?’ Only, he knew that if he did, something completely strange and outlandish would have happened within the next few minutes. Quite frankly, he wasn’t up to completely strange and outlandish. Normal and comfortable, that was where he was at, and that was where he was staying, thank you very much.

A strange little buzzing noise got Soubi’s attention.

The sound, of course, was his cell phone—currently set to vibrate—going off on the counter, his brain was just running a little slow.

Plucking it up from the tile granite, Soubi didn’t bother with checking the caller ID. He simply flipped it open, then placed it to his ear.

“Hello?”

“Soubi! It’s Kio. Look, are you done with whatever you were doing last night, or what? I’m dyin’ over here.”

Soubi rolled his cerulean eyes. “You can last a while longer.”

“What in the Hell are you doing, anyway? I know you don’t have a school project; I go to the same school as you, so don’t give me that!”

“Is a hotel really so horrible when you’re not even paying for it?” Soubi couldn’t even remember what excuse he had given Kio the day before. “Just relax. Another hour.”

“Didn’t you say that you had your cousin coming over or something?”

I don‘t even have a cousin. “… Yeah, that’s it.”

“You didn’t tell me anything, Soubi! What are you hiding?”

Soubi sighed and slumped against the kitchen counter. To keep himself entertained, he attempted to comb his hair with his left hand. Damn Kio, anyhow. Always figuring out he had something to hide. Then again, not everybody shoved their roommate to a three star hotel for a whole night for no apparent reason, so…

“Look, I promise I’ll tell you when you get back. But not right now.”

Tucking his phone between his ear and his shoulder, Soubi went about pouring himself a cup of coffee.

Kio huffed from his end of the line. “You better. I’m putting room service on your bill, I hope you know that.”

Just as Soubi had placed the coffee pot back down, he heard the bathroom water being shut off. On instinct, he glanced down the hall. Seimei would be finished up soon.

“Go ahead. I don’t mind. Two more hours.”

“You said one more hour.”

“I lied.”

Soubi snapped the phone shut and shook his head. Kio was as old as Soubi, as educated as Soubi, and as capable as Soubi in their career of choice. Problem with Kio was that he just didn’t know when to keep his mouth shut.

Annoying as he was, he made life interesting. Enough said.

After Soubi stirred in his customary packet of sugar and the slightest amount of creamer, he prepared Seimei’s. Two packets of sweetener, no creamer. Soubi set it on the counter and went about sipping at his own.

It was only nine in the morning and already, Soubi wanted nothing more than to curl up with his beloved and go to sleep. That wasn’t going to happen, he knew. Oh, well.

Thank God it’s Saturday.