Walk forward, into the world

Title: Walk forward, into the world
Author: Ainzfern
Genre: Ai no Kusabi – Post OVA
Code: Iason/Riki
Rating: NC-17
Parts: WIP – 9/?


In a non-descript little room of a black market safe-house situated on the border between Midas and Ceres, the soft golden light from a cheap lamp gently illuminated a small bed and the two sweat dewed figures that moved within it.

“Oh God,” A soft but impassioned murmur; perhaps a curse, perhaps an expression of gratitude, perhaps even a prayer, broke the warm silence, “Oh God, Iason…”

On his back on the bed where he had lain, so cold and alone for so many nights, Riki drew in a shuddering breath, arching into the warm hands that soothed and stroked his body as Iason patiently relearned him from head to toe. His own hands lifted, almost involuntarily, as he touched in return, smoothing across a powerful shoulder, trailing touches along the curve of a strong bicep, the angle of an elegant jaw; grabbing great handfuls of satin-soft hair to sift through his trembling fingers.

This was the first time, his dazed mind acknowledged, that he had ever allowed himself to touch Iason as he would a lover. With affection, with enjoyment.

The difference was profound.

He felt Iason’s warm lips moving against his shoulder, his neck, the side of his jaw, and slid he one hand around the back the Blondie’s neck tugging gently, but insistently, at the thick hair until Iason lifted his face and met Riki’s hot and heavy lidded gaze. They stared at each other for a moment, their mouths parted over their rapid breathing, the warmth of their breath brushing each other’s faces. Then, with a slight smile, Riki urged Iason closer, lifting his chin slightly in a silent signal that caused the tiniest flicker of surprise to enter those pale blue eyes.

Riki couldn’t help but feel there was something kind of sad about that startled look, even as Iason leant down and kissed him, closing the distance between them in response to Riki’s silent request. Sad in the way that, even though Iason was here, naked and warm in Riki’s arms, there was obviously a part of him that still doubted his welcome.

Perhaps, Riki thought as the soft warm muscle of Iason’s tongue dipped delicately past his teeth to taste and tease him, there might still be certain wisdom in that. Even as he lay so trustingly here with the Elite, his body achy and hard and hungry for the man’s touch, he knew that there was still so much to be settled between them. Questions would need to be asked. The right answers would have to be given. Riki knew that he loved him.

He just had to hope that it would be enough...

But these thoughts were for later, Riki gasped as Iason gently broke their kiss and moved down his body slightly, that soft tongue tickling into the hollow at the base of his throat, tasting the salt of his sweat. Right now, there was too much need between them. His blood raced and pulsed through his veins, centering in his cock, wiping out all other considerations save this one. The desire, the wanting, the desperate urge to ease the fire of sexual tension building in his flesh with the pure searing sweetness of climax.

He groaned, a pained and needy sound, when he felt one of Iason’s hands ease down between his thighs, urging his coltish legs to part. One hand clenched into Iason’s hair as the Blondie’s long fingers, slicked with plain lotion from Riki’s meager stash of toiletries, slipped up between the firm cheeks of his ass, stroking and probing and breaching his most intimate opening. Iason’s touch was exquisitely gentle as he worked the tight muscles, and Riki closed his eyes and arched his back a little, opening himself to Iason’s ministrations.

He felt the bed shift a little as Iason moved again, scooting down in one smooth motion to take the leaking head of Riki’s cock into his mouth, suckling slowly at the glans, stroking the sensitive slit with the tip of his tongue, while Riki’s gasped and writhed and a harsh low moan of delight echoed through the room. He felt the pleasure building, flowing into his thighs and belly, pooling like molten liquid in his groin. His entire body jolted, and his moans became full throated yells when Iason’s clever fingers twisted and reached, pressing against his prostate with short, fast strokes. Iason kept at it for an endless moment, until Riki felt that he must be going half out of his mind, one hand clutching at the sheets beneath him, the other tangled in Iason’s now-unruly mane of hair.

Iason pulled back again, releasing Riki’s erection and easing his fingers free of his body. While Riki watched him through slitted eyes, the Blondie reared up over him, bracing himself on one arm as he positioned himself between Riki’s legs, gripping his own solid cock and pressing the head against Riki’s loosened hole. He paused then, before entering, lifting his burning eyes to meet Riki’s gaze in an almost questioning manner.

Riki stared up at him again, noting his arousal, the flush that darkened the skin of his cheeks, his elevated breathing. Although Riki had learned that Iason was not at all vocal during sex, he could appreciate that what Iason lacked in volume he more than made up for with appearance, with the exquisite expressions that crossed his face, with the heightened emotion that filled his pale eyes.

Just looking at him now, Riki couldn’t help but smile with amusement and, oddly, a surge of protectiveness, filling his chest. His Blondie was so damned turned on Riki was almost certain that if he didn’t get to fuck right now, he would probably spontaneously combust.

Reaching up, Riki pushed the heavy veil of hair out of Iason’s eyes and nodded, just once.

With a deep breath Iason pushed in, slow but steady, filling Riki’s flesh in one deep stroke. The cry that left Riki’s throat was tinged with hurt as his internal muscles, so long unused to this treatment, protested the invasion. Even though Iason had taken his time preparing him, Riki still felt a deep sullen pain in his flesh and he tensed, wincing, his hands clutching at Iason’s upper arms, and his cock softening slightly.

Leaning down, propped over him on strong forearms, Iason nuzzled the side of Riki’s sweat dampened face. “Shhh,” he kissed Riki’s ear, his cheek, the bridge of his nose, “It will pass Riki. Just breathe. It will pass.”

And it did. A few moments more and Riki felt it happen, felt the burning become warmth, felt the wrenching pressure become a sweet fullness. He released his white knuckled grip on Iason’s arms and relaxed, lifting his pelvis slightly and signaling his readiness.

Iason began to move. Slow, deep, hard… thrusting powerfully into Riki’s body with driving motions that jolted the slighter man down into the mattress. He leaned down once more, capturing Riki’s mouth with his soft lips in a searing claiming kiss. And Riki moved in return, lifting into each perfect punishing stroke, his legs twining around Iason’s surging back, one arm curling around Iason’s shoulders and hanging on for dear life as the other slipped down between their heaving bodies to grip his own renewed erection.

He stroked as Iason did, feeling the pressure build again in his loins. Too soon, he felt it coming, as inexorable as the turning of the seasons, he felt his climax rise up to claim him and there was nothing, nothing he could do to stop it. His body tensed, the muscles of his flat stomach quivering. He gasped deeply into his chest as his cock began to pulse, his semen spurting out in a series of deep thrilling spasms.

Iason’s lips covered Riki’s as he came, catching the sounds of his orgasm. Even as he felt the Blondie’s own cock quiver deep within him, filling his flesh with the hot erotic gush of his own release, Riki cried out into that kiss. Cried out his joy and hurt and relief, feeling the last vestiges of the heartbreak that he had carried with him all these months, so familiar to him that he’d almost worn it like a second skin, simply breaking away.

In the shattered aftermath, as breathing slowed once more and hot skin cooled, Iason’s gentle fingers touched him here and there, as if verifying that he actually was whole and alive and here. Opening his eyes Riki gazed up at Iason and grew still, caught by the look on that beautiful face.

He felt a kind of internal sundering, a deep tearing within his soul, the agonizing sensation of something breaking apart and bleeding out and healing all at once. And even further down, beyond all of that, there was a disconnected part of him; the echo of the Riki that once had been, warning him with snarls and curses. Telling him to fight back with fire and spirit, to flee this place, this moment, before it owned him utterly.

But Iason was so very warm, and his touch was so soft, so cautious, his long fingers drifting across Riki’s sweat dampened skin, ghosting along the side of his jaw, the curve of his ear. Soothing across his kiss bruised lips and tracing delicately down the arch of his nose and, all the while, those pale eyes just gazed at him with something very close to adoration, drinking him in.

Too late. Too late to fight back now.

It gentled Riki, left him dazed and helpless, drowning out that old and insistent voice with its sweet silence until all he could do was lie there and accept it, need it, while his throat ached and his eyes filled and he cursed the Gods for his fate and cursed his own foolish heart for believing in this and just knew, as sure as there was life in his veins, that he could never bear to be without Iason now.


******


When Iason began to wake some time close to dawn, the first thing that registered upon him was the fact that Riki was no longer curled up in the circle of his arms. For an instant, he panicked, his eyes snapping open, but he relaxed just as quickly when he saw Riki’s moonlit outline, seated on the edge of the bed and gazing out of the window at the deserted square beyond the safe- house’s walls.

Sitting slowly, he reached out and ran one hand down the length of Riki’s smooth back. “Riki?”

“Mmm?”

Iason frowned, noting Riki’s distraction, the odd tone of his voice. “Something troubles you?”

Still focused intently on the night beyond the window, Riki shook his head. “Nah. Not really.” He glanced back at Iason, a small but sad smile on his face. “I was just watching this guy.” He jerked his head towards the window.

Scooting closer, Iason looked over Riki’s shoulder out into the darkness. His sharp eyes narrowed as he quickly picked out the furtive figure making his way along the shadows at the far side of the square. For a moment, just a moment, the figure stepped into a pool of light from a street lamp, before darting out of sight down an adjacent street.

Iason felt a strange shock of recognition. The features of the young man, the shape of his body, the unnatural perfection of his features…

“Was that an actual Pet I just saw?” he asked softly, still staring at the seemingly empty street the man had disappeared into.

“Ex-Pet,” Riki corrected him in a low tight voice, looking away once more. “He’s done the smart thing making his move in the dark. Less risk. Less slum rats around to run into.”

“What is he doing here?”

Sighing, Riki let his shoulders slump forward. “Trying to escape the whore-pits. Running from some degenerate citizen master. Trying to get away before hustling on the low streets of Midas kills him… take your pick.”

“You’ve seen this before, I take it?” Iason found that he felt strangely guilty about that fact that Riki had witnessed such things.

Peculiar… and not so long ago he probably wouldn’t have cared one way or the other.

“Yeah,” Riki was saying, “It happens a lot. This one might make it. I don’t know. Dawn’s not far away and, unless he’s real good at hiding in a hurry, the slum gang’s will probably kill him.” He shrugged almost dismissively, but his voice carried a profound note of hurt. “They generally do.”

“Might make it to where?”

Riki shrugged. “There’s always a chance that he’ll get beyond the central slums, make it into the right part of Ceres for someone to take him in… give him a home.”

Even in the dark Iason stared at Riki in mild disbelief. “Riki… most of the residents of Ceres that I have known of wouldn’t hesitate to kill their own friends if the mood were to take them. How can you even begin to hope that…”

“There are decent people in the slums, Iason,” Riki cut him off, his tone soft but insistent, his eyes still staring out the window. “You just need to know where to look for them.”

Slowly, Iason moved in behind him, sliding one arm around his chest and resting his chin on a warm shoulder, joining him in his night-gazing. “Tell me more.”

He smiled gently as Riki leaned back into him, enjoying the warmth of that smooth skin pressing against his chest.

“Out on the edges of Ceres,” Riki sighed again, “As far from Midas and the Inner Slums as you can get, there are actually places, y’know? Where partners and singles have kind of banded together to form real communities rather than gangs. Where you respect and look out for each other and a guy is safe to walk the streets by himself.”

“And you never thought about going there yourself?” Iason tightened his hold slightly, rubbing his cheek gently against Riki’s.

“No,” Riki’s voice dropped to a mere whisper. “There was nothing there for me. Besides… gangs weren’t welcome.”

“Riki…” Iason breathed, pressing a kiss to the side of the mongrel’s face. He was oddly startled to realize that his heart actually hurt for Riki’s remembered pain. “You never have to feel unwelcome again.”

Riki turned in the circle of his arms, looking somberly at him in the waning moonlight. “I know.”

“Besides,” Iason shrugged one shoulder and arched a whimsical brow. “As you say, the Ex-Pet you were watching might make it.”

“Yeah,” Riki nodded, resting his head for a moment against Iason’s chest. “I hope so.”

“Lie down,” Iason lay back and pulled Riki down with him, arranging the slighter man so that he could curl his body around him. “Don’t be sad. Not tonight.”

He felt Riki release another slow sigh as he settled down and relaxed into Iason’s embrace. “I’ll try.”

“Good.” Iason closed his eyes. “Sleep, Riki. Sleep.”

A few moments later, Riki’s deep and regular breathing told Iason that he had done just that.


TBC...