Posted originally on the Archive_of_Our_Own at https://archiveofourown.org/
works/8128873.
  Rating:
      Explicit
  Archive Warning:
      Underage
  Category:
      M/M
  Fandom:
      Ensemble_Stars!_(Video_Game)
  Relationship:
      Sakuma_Rei/Itsuki_Shu
  Character:
      Sakuma_Rei, Itsuki_Shu, Sakuma_Ritsu
  Additional Tags:
      Alternate_Universe_-_Canon_Divergence, Mental_Health_Issues
  Stats:
      Published: 2016-09-24 Updated: 2017-01-10 Chapters: 4/? Words: 32752
****** Serenata Pasticcio ******
by daphnerunning, Galiko
Summary
     Before anyone else has a chance, Sakuma Rei approaches the fancy
     little first-year with a homemade sign at the yearly unit fair, not
     expecting much from "Valkyrie," but intrigued nonetheless.
     An AU where Rei joins Valkyrie in his second year.
Notes
     Serenata Pasticcio - A musical greeting performed for a lover, with
     multiple authors.
      
     A couple of notes:
     1. It's mentioned in canon that Ritsu was much sweeter before Rei
     went to England. Since this is set prior to that, he is much
     friendlier with his brother, still calling him "Onii-chan" rather
     than "gross bug."
     2. This was, ah, written before Magicians Assemble, so please forgive
     things now made non-canon, such as Eichi being student council
     president in his first year. It's an AU, it's fine!!
     3. This was written because aesthetic tbh
See the end of the work for more notes
***** Chapter 1 *****
Itsuki Shu has been informed about the beginning-of-year Unit Faire. Each idol
unit at Yumenosaki sets up stands on the first day of school, and students mill
about, looking at the outfits, watching videos of performances, talking to the
current members and looking for a place to belong for the next three years. Shu
has done his research, because he isn’t a fool, and knows exactly what groups
are legendary at Yumenosaki, and which ones are merely a flash in the pan.
Knights has a line in front of it, holding impromptu auditions with the leader
watching and judging. A few others have clusters, and a couple of others--
AMPHI, base, 白蛇, and Nativity--have one person each looking nervous behind the
little white school-issued tables, some doodling, some looking around anxiously
and calling out to every passerby.
Shu looks around, nods to himself, and unfolds a little white table he’d
purchased from a craft store, setting up to the side of some odd tapdance-
themed group (Shirohebi), draping a black-red-gold cloth over it, and sets out
a sign of his own.
 VALKYRIE
Then he stands behind it, folds his hands, and waits, the lone first year not
milling around someone else’s table.
Yumenosaki has options, and Sakuma Rei’s gentle attempts to steer his little
brother away from the groups that advertise exactly how easy it is to be a
member is pretty difficult.
Knights is one of them. Sure, they’re popular, they stand out as a unit for
working models, and they cheerfully claim to be very easy to schedule around,
but all of those things sound bad to Rei, and that’s not even going into how
bad the actual unit sounds. Ritsu digging his heels in there just frustrates
him, and Rei grumpily leaves him be, ignoring the calls of “Sakuma-saaan!
Sakuma-san, please, this year, it’ll be different!”, because like hell he’s
going to end up joining a unit at this waste-of-time school.
More entertaining than listening to Ritsu enthusiastically be on board with
doing next to nothing because I’m good-looking is standing to the side and
watching, unfolding his parasol to hide underneath it. Literally one real
musician at this school would be nice his mind sadly reminds him, and when that
doesn’t seem to supply results, watching some weird little first year start to
set up a table is…huh.
Mystifying.
Well. That’s gotta be a first. He’s never seen a first year try to start their
own unit like this, though he’s heard warnings from a friend of his that
someone might be trying to do as much later. He’s pretty sure this is against
the rules, actually—not that he cares, but…someone’s got to tell him before he
gets snapped at.
Heaving a sigh, Rei strides his way over. “If no one’s yelled at you yet,
they’re gonna,” he simply says, drumming painted nails against the handle of
his parasol. “First years can’t start units without prior student council
approval.”
 
“...You must be Tenshouin Eichi.” Shu adjusts his jabot, a self-satisfied
little smile on his face. He leans down, pulling a few crisp papers out of his
messenger bag and handing them over. “Copies of the papers I submitted for your
approval, printed, with the date of their submission, just in case the ones I
sent off got lost.”
The face Rei makes is nothing shy of entirely grossed out. “Ugh, no, I’m
not that little creep,” he mutters, pushing the papers back. “I’m trying to
keep your scrawny first year ass from getting kicked by him, actually. If he
hasn’t approved your stuff, he’s going to come and eat you alive.”
Shu’s eyes narrow, and he tucks the papers back into his messenger bag. “Thank
you for your concern, but I’ve submitted all necessary paperwork. As long as I
can recruit a member or two, everything will be in order. I just need to find
one or two talented individuals that aren’t satisfied with the paltry offerings
of the pathetic masses here.”
“Big talk for a shitty first year.” Rei’s gaze flickers away, checking to make
sure that Ritsu is still…well. Preoccupied. He is, unfortunately, and he sighs,
spinning his parasol slowly. At least Ritsu hasn’t passed out on the ground.
“You’re wasting your time at this school, but go ahead. You’ve got a spiel
ready, I can just feel it—“ He pauses, glancing down at the sign on the table,
and adds in virtually unaccented English, “Valkyrie.”
Shu’s ears perk up at the flawless pronunciation, but he struggles to push down
the excitement, the idea that he’s finally met someone cultured at this hellish
place. “You sound like someone who’s let himself be defeated before he begins.
Not everyone is willing to give up on their...” He looks the man up and down
critically, taking in the callouses, the high cheekbones, the rather elegant
way he stands, drastically at odds with his rough speech. “...violin
composition.”
“Accusing someone of being defeated isn’t a great way to recruit unit members,”
Rei deadpans, not giving Shu an inch of clarification as to whether or not he’s
right. “Especially if you’re a first year no one’s heard of.” There are first
years that everyone has heard of, and dreads. This kid isn’t one of them. “How
long have you been planning this, huh?”
“Eight months.” Shu straightens the sign on his table, then pulls a sheaf of
papers out of his bag, smoothing and protecting them against any stray breeze.
“Original compositions, stage blueprints, costume designs...more costume
designs...orchestrations, choreography, a--no, that’s in the wrong place,
that’s a costuming sketch--”
“…Are you sure you came to the right school?” This is the kind of kid he’d
expect to see at the fancy, frumpy music schools his parents keep begging him
to go to instead, not at Yumenosaki. Another breeze swoops by, trying to pick
up half a dozen papers and send them scattering, and Rei steps forward, closing
his parasol and smacking it down across them before they can all go flying off.
“You’re gonna get eaten here. The student council’s cracking down on people
that give a shit.”
Shu breathes a sigh of relief at the quick save, and carefully gathers his
papers, tucking them securely into a clear file and then back into his
messenger bag. “None of the other schools that interviewed me were willing to
agree to give me the creative freedom I require. It....it means nothing, if
it’s someone else’s idea. I don’t care if it’s difficult to make my own way,
it’s my only option.”
The sun is far too bright for him to exist, and Rei hastens to huddle back
underneath his parasol, his expression proving exactly how displeased and
gloomy he is about being out in the daylight. “Ahhh, so the truth comes out.
You’re looking to drag a couple of unsuspecting idiots into your unit so they
can do nothing but your bidding.”
“Hmm? Oh, yes.” Shu turns to the side, watching a particularly lovely little
first-year walk by, shoulders tensing when he walks over to base instead. “If
they aren’t doing as I say, they’ll be in the way. Underlings should move like
puppets on strings.”
Ah. Gross. Rei rolls his eyes and takes a step back. “Yeah, good luck with
that. Reconsider joining the new student council president’s unit, sounds like
you two might jive real well.”
“I don’t join things.” Shu’s jaw tenses, the skin around his eyes tightening,
hands clenched on the edge of his little white table. “I don’t expect people to
understand me, and I couldn’t care less what you think. If you’re only here to
try and push me around, it won’t work. If you’re here to warn me, I don’t need
your help.” He leans down, pulling a small doll out of his bag, just the size
of his hand, wearing a Valkyrie outfit prototype, and sets her carefully on the
table.
You’re wasting your time here~ a voice in his head sing-songs, and Rei
begrudgingly agrees. The problem, of course, is that there aren’t a lot of
people at this stupid school that have a brain, have a vision, have any idea
what they want to do except be part of a pop group and get a modeling contract
because being pretty is easy at the end of the day…
“Calm down, I’m not trying to fuck with you.” Rei heaves a sigh, briefly
shutting his eyes. “I am here to warn you, and that’s because you actually seem
like you’ve got a few good ideas. Don’t fuck yourself by going head to head
with the student council right off the bat, you’re gonna regret it.” He reaches
across the table, mussing Shu’s hair. “You’ve got a good design thing going
on,” he adds. “But no one’s gonna join you just for that.”
Shu flinches from the touch before he can stop himself, certain that the other
boy is going to hit him. When all that happens is an oddly intimate touch to
his hair, he draws back, patting it firmly into place, huffing a little. “Once
they see what I can do, they’ll be begging to join me. I only...” He grimaces.
“I only need one or two people to join at first, even as a temporary unit. Then
I’ll be able to show off my skills. There’s one person who would join if I
asked him, but...aesthetically, he’s not quite...”
“Beggers can’t be choosers,” Rei hums as he withdraws his hand. Good god, what
a priss. “You’re gonna need to rethink some things.”
“Ehhh, this is the unit I was supposed to approve?”
Rei always expects Tenshouin Eichi’s voice to be more…grating. He’s only heard
it a handful of times in his lifetime, and only over the phone, when Hasumi
Keito called him up in the hallway between classes at middle school. Seeing the
demon in person matches up with all the lore, down to the perfectly bleached
and primed blonde hair, the glittering contacts, the brilliant smile, and that
obnoxiously low, smooth voice. “Hmm. I’m not sure if I can really call it a
‘unit’ if it’s just one person—ah, Sakuma Rei, don’t tell me, this is
your joint venture?”
“What great timing, you get to meet our new president,” Rei flatly says to Shu
instead of answering. “It’s a mystery how he got elected as a first year, but
here we are.”
Shu straightens his back and neck into a stiff, shallow bow, head barely
tilted. “President. I assume you received my paperwork, and obviously
everything is in order. I wouldn’t have it otherwise.”
“Technically everything is in order,” Eichi hedges, stepping closer to reach
out and bemusedly touch the doll on the table, plucking at a bit of the velvet
there. “But a ‘unit’ means that there’s more than one of you. In light of that,
it’s unfortunate, but I don’t think I can approve your propos--”
“It’s not just him,” Rei interrupts, his parasol slowly spinning in irritation.
Well, this is a choice he’s making, but it’s the principle of the thing, and
god, Tenshouin Eichi rubs him the wrong way. “I’m joining.”
Eichi’s eyebrows immediately shoot up. “Really. You--Sakuma Rei--”
Oooh, boy, he’s gonna regret this, he can already tell. “So you can stop
harassing him, President. He’s got his paperwork in order.”
Shu’s heart thuds in his chest, a prickling anticipation that he tries to fight
down. This is so much so fast--this man, this Sakuma Rei, is clearly saying
this to piss off the student council president, and there’s definitely
something about him that rubs Shu the wrong way...
But he wants to join Valkyrie. And just from the way he speaks, he’s obviously
a musician at least, and not afraid of the student council president...
“You’re too tall,” he says finally, in disapproval before his tone turns to
grudging acceptance. “But...I suppose you have an extremely beautiful face.
Very well, I approve your membership on the strength of your beauty alone.”
Eichi, at that, is obnoxious enough to start giggling. “Your unit sure is going
to be interesting, huh?” he laughs, folding his arms across his chest. “Keito
has told me a lot about you, Sakuma-san.”
Delightful. Rei nearly whirls on Shu to remind him that he’s helping his stupid
little group not get crushed before it even gets out the door so he better be
nice, but that wouldn’t be cute in front of Tenshouin Eichi, who desperately
wants to watch everyone around him fail. That’s what Keito has inferred to him,
several times over in the past. “I’m sure it’s only been great things, like how
I can play every instrument and am the best composer you’ll find in this
fucking school,” he grinds out with a sideways scowl to Shu. ‘Approve your
membership on beauty alone’, fuck off. “So, y’know. I’ve got all that going for
me, thanks.”
“Itsuki-kun, was it?” Eichi cheerfully interjects, giving Shu another brilliant
smile. “I hope you have a great time here at Yumenosaki. I can’t wait to see
you on stage.”
“Then book us for the first S1 of the year,” Shu says, hearing his own mouth
running away with him and not stopping it. “I’ll craft for you a performance of
such magnificence you’ll never recover.” He hesitates, then adds, “Along with
Sakuma Rei. As a unit, the likes of which will strike fear into the hearts of
the unworthy. Come, stand on this side of the table with me.” He can find some
lifts to wear in his shoes for when they’re standing next to each other.
“You can pick up the appropriate paperwork at the student council room--talk to
Keito, he knows how that works,” Eichi says breezily, fluttering a hand as he
turns away. “Good luck with your new, uh, ‘unit’, ahaha!”
“Die,” Rei sourly mutters at his back, slinking down further underneath his
parasol with an unhappy huff. He makes sure Eichi is completely gone before
turning back to Shu with a scowl. “We’re gonna have an extensive conversation,
and it’s not gonna be in the sunlight when I’m already exhausted enough to
agree to do something this stupid just to spite someone.”
Shu stares at Rei, trying to reconcile his elation with having his unit
accepted with his dismay at it being accepted because of this tall, handsome,
dark, cool person. There’s an impulse even now to look around for Kiryuu,
certain that at any second Rei will start bossing him around and trying to hit
him. But no, he’s bigger than that now, doesn’t need to be afraid, and he’s at
idol school besides. How terrifying can these people be?
He clears his throat, drawing himself up to his full (new) height, feeling the
growing pains creak in his joints even now. “Very well,” he manages. “I’ll...I
need to remake all of our sketches, obviously the costumes won’t work in this
theme if it’s going to be for you. And I’ll need to rework the orchestrations--
I assume you’ll complain and suffer if you aren’t playing the violin, which
requires some planning on my part.”
Shu pulls out a business card, and hands it stiffly over. “My address is on
here. If you must come in darkness, come in the morning. I’m always awake by
four.”
“You have business cards,” Rei mutters to himself, sort of amazed that there’s
actually another person trying this hard at this damned school that isn’t just
throwing money around like a lunatic. He flips the card over before stuffing it
into his sweater pocket with a sigh. “I’m not coming at four in the morning,
that’s when I like to go to sleep. I’ll swing by tonight. Also,” he moodily
adds, “I don’t just play violin, give me a little bit of credit. And you’re not
reworking anything until I get to sit down with it. You might have a good
design concept, but I’m not ready to trust you with a score yet.”
Shu nods, softened a tiny bit by the praise to his most important achievement.
“I’ll have the base for the costumes ready. Also, there’s a piano at my house,
so feel free to use that for whatever you like. I’ll take your measurements at
that time...what are you, a hundred seventy-nine centimeters? Size twenty-six
shoe? Head circumference...about forty-six?” The man is gorgeous, if nothing
else, and Shu taps his chin, walking slowly around, looking him up and down
from every angle.
“That’s kinda creepy that you can do that,” Rei cheerfully informs him. “But
kinda cool, too, I guess.” If he has a piano, he can’t be too terrible, but
he’ll make that judgement once he sees how it has been maintained. “Anyway, if
you’re gonna stick around out here and try to recruit more people, you’re
running it by me first. I’m not working with idiots.”
“Don’t be absurd. Idiots are the easiest to work with, as long as they’re
lovely.” Shu brushes his hair back from his face, scanning over the crowd. “No
more eccentric geniuses, we have far too many between the two of us.”
“If you let someone join just because they’re pretty, I’m quitting on the
spot.”
“But I let you join.”
“See, but I’m ignoring that, and assuming you could sense my immense talent.”
“I--well, yes,” Shu admits. “And I like that you’re willing to fight the
student council president. And you move well.” He tilts his head a little,
making little tutting noises under his breath. “And I can tell from your
speaking voice that you’re at least a decent singer, certainly with perfect
pitch, which is going to make my life much easier. There, enjoy your praise,
but don’t expect more if you don’t continue to be excellent.”
Rei shuts his parasol and lightly bonks Shu over the head with it. “I’m always
excellent.” He leans down, holding Shu’s stare with his swirling red gaze. “And
I don’t need your praise. Don’t order me around, ask nicely, and maybe we’ll
get somewhere as Valkyrie, yeah?”
“We’ll get a lot farther if you aren’t trying to throw your weight around,” Shu
says irritably. “I have a plan for this unit--which you only joined at the last
minute because you dislike the student council president.” He takes a deep
breath, feeling the weight of every gaze in the courtyard on him, feeling the
weight of Rei’s stare, and has to steady himself on the table, fingers white-
knuckled. No, no, this is a bad time to faint--had he eaten in the morning?
Mornings are so hard to keep track of...
“How about youdon’t throw your weight around?” Rei grouses. “I joined because
he was going to fuck up your unit before it even began, and you’ve clearly got
some talent. I can’t stand guys like him, I--” He pauses as he takes a breath,
and frowns, reaching out to steady Shu with a hand on his shoulder. “Oi. You’re
as white as a sheet.” He knows that look well, and it makes him abruptly haul
Shu around back to his chair. The way Shu’s blood thumps in his veins is
strange, irregular, and distracting. “Did you eat breakfast? If you can’t even
take care of yourself, how are you gonna run a unit at a place like this?”
Shu’s blood pounds in his veins. He blinks, and suddenly opens his eyes again
to find that he’s sitting down, the sick throbbing in his chest telling him
he’d blacked out, hopefully not for too long. He stares up, a little foggy as
he waves a hand weakly. “It’s fine. I just forgot. I--food doesn’t sit right
with me, and when so many people are staring, I...I’m fine.”
No one’s staring, calm down is on the tip of Rei’s tongue, but okay, sure, he’s
totally signed up to be in a unit with an agoraphobe, that’s gonna work out so
well. He bites his tongue, and flips open his own bag, shoving a rice cake into
Shu’s hands. “Eat it. And once you eat it, I’m going to walk you to the
infirmary so you can lie down. Better for you to be there than sitting out here
and seeing who else you can rope in, anyway.”
Shu shakes his head, but takes the rice cake, obediently nibbling on a corner.
The sickly fuzzy feeling still throbs in his head, but his stomach churns at
the thought of food. “I’ll get some cold water,” he promises. “You can go, I
already know where the infirmary is. Aren’t you...affected, by the sunlight?”
If Shu already knows where the infirmary is, that’s probably a questionable
sign about his ability to exist in this world, let alone run a unit. But...hmm.
At least he’s not an idiot, because he’s caught onto something that usually
people never do. “I want to die every day,” Rei bluntly says, opening his
parasol again for the meager amount of shade it provides. “Tenshouin’s going to
be in the infirmary all the time, too, so if you can’t stand that, find the
Light Music Club room. I’m the president, and there are blackout curtains.”
Shakily, Shu nods, then hauls himself up to standing, grabbing his bag, folding
his table. “I appreciate it. Don’t worry about me, it was just a spell. It
won’t happen again. I’ve had enough of that. Ah, shit--stand in front of me,
would you? There’s someone here I don’t want to see me looking pale, he’ll try
to carry me home.”
What have I signed up for?Rei wearily asks himself, even though he does as he’s
asked, deliberately tilting his parasol to make sure Shu is completely
shielded. “So you don’t like crowds, huh.”
“Does anyone?” Shu peeks out, then ducks behind the parasol again at the sight
of Kiryuu’s trademark red hair. “Childhood friends are such a bother. He--ooh,
what do you think of that boy, with the black hair, standing by that Knights
booth? He’s got an incredibly lovely face, doesn’t he? And nice legs...”
Rei’s smile twitches. “Uh huh. That’s my little brother.”
“Oh.” Shu purses his lips. “That’s a no, then. Keep your family bickering away
from Valkyrie.”
“How dare you assume we bicker. Ritsu is everything lovely and perfect and good
in this world--watch. Ritsu!” Rei calls, waving eagerly. “Ritsu, you’re being
adorable!”
“Oh, you know Sakuma-san?”
Ritsu flicks a gaze towards Rei, sighing. “Never met him before in my life.”
“Ehh? Isn’t your last name Sakuma?”
Ritsu laughs, then waves at his brother, sparkling a little even as he hides in
the shade. “Onii-chan, give me your parasol, the sun hurts!”
Too cute! “Why didn’t you bring the one I bought you?” Rei laments, even as he
immediately darts over, holding the parasol over Ritsu in short order. Shu
needs to stop trying to pass out when he’s trying to look at how cute his
brother is. “It was such a cute pattern, too...”
“It was there when I went to sleep,” Ritsu says with a sigh, drifting over
towards where his brother is standing, butting his head against his chest.
“Gone when I woke up. Maybe there’s a rogue parasol thief on the loose, waiting
to use them in a violent crime.”
Shu, sick of avoiding Kiryuu, stuffs the rest of the rice cake in his mouth,
forcing his stomach to calm the hell down and not reject the food. At least if
anyone looks over, they’ll see him chewing, though the thought that everyone
will watch him eat almost sends him to the ground again. Damn, he’d thought
he’d left this behavior back in middle school, how foolish to forget breakfast
today (and dinner last night, and lunch the day previous, his mind reminds
him).
Cute, cute, cute. Rei immediately pets Ritsu’s hair, smoothing and tucking it
around his face as he makes sure the parasol is 99.9% over Ritsu. “Ahh, that
won’t do--I have a few spares in the music club room. You have to drop by,
anyway.” He falls just short of beggingRitsu to at least join his club, even if
he won’t form a unit with him. “Please tell me you didn’t join Knights.” Shu’s
blood keeps doing weird things, which is so distracting, especially when now
that he’s eating, he starts to smell less unstable, and far more good. Ugh.
“Oh, I totally did. They don’t care if you come to practice at all,” Ritsu says
dreamily. Then his eyes snap into abrupt focus, and he scans the courtyard,
looking around until he spots Shu. “Onii-chan,” he breathes, suddenly intent.
“I’m...mmm, I need to eat something. But if you feed me a gross rice cake I’ll
die.”
Shu heaves himself to his feet, then shoulders his bag and table, giving Rei a
nod. “Come by any time. You have my address.”
“Yeah, I do.” Rei puts a gentle, restraining hand on Ritsu’s arm. “See you
later.”
Shu walking away is a relief, and Rei exhales a long, measured breath. “First
things first,” he murmurs, giving Ritsu’s arm a squeeze. “Don’t touch that one,
he’s already figured it out.”
Ritsu makes a face, letting his hand curl around the wooden handle of the
parasol. “Don’t drop so many hints, Onii-chan. Mm, he’s kinda cute, though.
Also, you have kind of a reputation at this school already...I dunno if you
know...” He yawns hugely, sagging a little where he stands.
“I barely said anything. I just complained about the sun, honestly,” Rei
grouses, gently petting Ritsu’s hair. “I know I have a reputation, that’s good.
But you’re going to ruin it, being in Knights--Ritsu, you’re so talented, we
should start a unit...” Maybe if Ritsu agrees, he can get out of this debatably
terrible arrangement he’s made.
“....Nah.”
Ritsu grabs the parasol, then yawns again, drifting back towards the Knights
table. “You’d make me work too hard, Onii-chan. Hmm, where’s Maa~kun...”
“Ritsu...” It’s a lost cause, Rei knows, but, well...at least Knights is
incredibly popular, and Ritsu being accepted immediately out of the throngs of
fools at this school does make him proud...
Which is a delightful thing to keep on his mind rather than focus on how he’s
apparently dropping by a weird little first year’s house after he pries himself
away from practicing after school.
 
 
Itsuki Shu’s house is...about what Rei expected: somewhat dilapidated, with
white lace curtains visible from the outside, and a crumbling stone walkway up
to the front door. Rei shrugs his violin case up onto his shoulder, closes his
second parasol of the day, and cocks his head as he debates whether or not this
is a good idea, or if he should just walk while he still can.
 Whatever, if it pisses Tenshouin off...
He sighs, and knocks, really interested in ruining Tenshouin Eichi’s plans.
About ten seconds later, the door opens, and Itsuki Shu stands to the side.
He’s in after-school clothes, with soft loose pants and a short-sleeved cotton
top, all handmade, all perfectly crafted for letting him kneel for hours at a
time on the floor of his sewing room without restricting him. The smell of
baking bread and meat wafts out from behind him, and he opens the door, a
little smile on his face. “You came, and earlier than I thought. Good, good!
I’ve had so many ideas--come in, shoes by the door, grab a sausage roll if
you’re hungry, there are paper wrappers so it doesn’t get your hands greasy.”
Domestic isn’t something that Rei pegged Shu for, but here he is, and it’s kind
of weird. Rei’s eyebrows lift, and he doesn’t comment as he toes off his shoes.
“Did you think I wasn’t going to show?” he wryly asks, glancing around as he
steps inside at the decidedly antique furnishings. That’s as expected,
definitely. “You have a cool house.” Above the smell of food cooking, the scent
of Shu’s blood is distractingly strong, and ah, that’s going to make for a fun
evening.
“It’s full of my grandmother’s nonsense,” Shu calls over his shoulder, shutting
the door behind Rei before heading through the kitchen and upstairs. “Grab what
you need, we’ll be upstairs for a while. That’s where the sewing room and piano
both are.”
To temper the fact that Shu smells like he’s a banquet-in-waiting, Rei does
grab a  sausage roll, and takes a bite as he trails at Shu’s heels. “You don’t
mess around, do you.” It’s a welcome change compared to all the slackers at
Yumenosaki. “I’m kind of amazed we haven’t run into each other before, but I’m
guessing you don’t play anything.”
“Enough piano to know what I’m doing, also enough to know that music isn’t my
true passion,” Shu clarifies, heading quickly up the stairs. The earlier
weariness had faded completely with the consumption of a sausage roll, and had
been banished forever by how excited he is to rework the costumes. “I believe
we have a mutual friend, however--I write scripts for Hibiki Wataru in between
his fits of Shakespeare.”
Rei nearly chokes. “You know Wataru? Never mind, of course you do,” he mutters,
finishing off his sausage roll in another bite. “I can’t believe you didn’t
snatch him up for your unit, he’s sexy--or is that the problem?”
“Too tall, too loud, and his voice is incredibly distinctive. But most
importantly, I can’t work with that hair. It clashes horrifically with the
color scheme I’ve planned for Valkyrie.” Shu sighs, fluttering a hand as he
starts laying out cloth. “Also, every time we get together we just wind up
crafting theater or visiting museums, I doubt we could ever do true idol
activities.”
“Ahh, so I fit in the color scheme, even if I’m the tallest of the bunch.” Rei
licks his fingers clean, peering around the sewing room with vague interest
until his eyes land on the piano--the very, very old piano that makes him
whimper at how clearly neglected it has been. “Why have you done this to her.”
He strides over, gingerly removing fabric that has been draped over the piano,
and strokes the top of it as carefully as he would his little brother’s hair.
“Poor thing, it’s all right...you’re a neglectful father,” he snaps at Shu as
he sets his violin case onto the floor and dusts off the bench to take a seat.
“How dare you.”
Shu blinks, nonplussed. “It’s my grandmother’s, I only moved in here last
month. I think she just had it to look cultured. She’s dead, if that helps you
feel better. Stand up straight, I need your inseam, it’s clearly ridiculous.”
“You can wait five minutes.” Playing a quick, simple chord progression doesn’t
make him want to die, fortunately, so that means it’s not as bad as he thought
at first glance. That doesn’t stop him from snatching up his tuning wrench and
flipping open the top of the piano to tune it up properly, however. “You’re
just lucky this is such a nice piano to begin with, or it would have really
suffered over all these years...”
Shu bites down a retort of it’s just a piano, idiot, and simply kneels behind
Rei, tape measure lashing out. “She didn’t take care of her dolls, either, just
collected them. To me, that’s simply an unacceptable level of mental illness.
Feet wider apart.”
Rei half-heartedly shuffles to obey, and rolls up his sleeves to stick his
hands down into the piano’s crevices. “Agreed. If you’re going to collect nice
things, you might as well take care of them.” He glances up briefly, blowing a
strand of hair out of his face as he glances around the room. “You really like
sewing, huh.”
“Yes. I’m nearly as good at sewing as I am at writing.” Shu takes the
measurements, apparently satisfied with what he finds, fingers skating over
Rei’s inner thighs. “Ninety exactly, what a beautiful length. You must look
incredible in boots.”
“Oi,” Rei flatly complains, even if he doesn’t look up from his work on tuning
the piano. “If you’re gonna be super touchy, warn a guy first.”
“I’m measuring you, learn to endure. I’ll only need to do this once, unless you
grow.”
Shu makes a show of moving the measuring tape, explaining overly patiently,
“I’ll be measuring your hips now, if you have no objections.”
“You know, I only said something because you felt my thighs up. Go on, tell me
how nice my hip to waist ratio is for a guy.”
“It’s magnificent. Honestly, I’m thrilled to work with such a delightful
palette.” Shu purses his lips, sitting back on his heels. “You know, I think
you’re probably very sexy.”
Rei snorts out a laugh, nearly banging his head against the piano. “You think?
Thanks, it’s my one marketable skill.” He tightens a last wire before closing
the lid. “I thought about starting a rock band unit or something, but see,
everyone sucks, and the one guitarist that came in this year is way too loud
for me to tolerate working with him...”
“A piano and violin virtuoso playing rock?” Shu sniffs, wrapping the tape
around Rei’s waist. “Marketability is overrated. Anything you do well enough
will be recognized eventually. I’ll force the vulgar masses to comprehend my
art if I must. It’s better than producing something I don’t care about for the
rest of my life. If I wanted to do that, I’d become an accountant.”
“You’re a cute idealist, aren’t you?” Rei teases, turning around in Shu’s grasp
to lightly lean back against the piano. “I like rock, I like classical...they
both sell okay, but you know what doesn’t at all? Jazz. I’m fucked, basically.”
Shu blinks, messing with the tape, trying to make it hang correctly when Rei’s
pelvis is so close to his face. “Who told you jazz doesn’t sell? Everything
sells if you’re good enough. I simply happen to believe in practice and
dedication. And my own overwhelming talent and skill, of course. I thought you
were the same.”
“You know,” Rei drawls, drumming his fingers slowly back against the piano’s
edge, “when you say things like that, it’s pretty insulting. I’m good, I do
nothing but practice, and I still have the sense to know when to quit something
that no one wants to fucking buy.”
Shu’s face twists in distaste. “Then sell out in your own time if you must, but
I don’t want to hear anything in Valkyrie except music of the highest, most
passionate quality. Anything else is a waste of my time and the audience’s
attention. I’d frankly rather starve to death than do music I didn’t care
about.”
“Big talk from someone who hasn’t even put music in front of me yet. How do you
know we’re going to like the same thing, huh?”
Shu’s brow furrows. He takes thigh measurements instead of looking Rei in the
eye, frustrated. “I’d rather do music I hate that someone cares about than
something calculated to sell. Also, take that out of your pants, it’s throwing
off my measurements.”
Rei’s eyes roll so hard he swears they’ll fall out of his skull. “Damn, you’re
forward. At least kiss me first.”
Shu cocks his head to the side. “I meant the sock. All very well and good for
your aesthetic, it certainly works for you, but--”
“You know, I am 179 centimeters tall, so it shouldn’t be a shocker that I’m
proportionate.”
“...I’m 175. That is not proportionate.”
Rei shrugs. “Still shorter than me. Anyway, there’s no sock, you’re gonna have
to deal.”
“Seriously?” Shu blinks, and only barely refrains from touching to confirm. No,
bad, normal boys wouldn’t do that. “Hmph, fine. Do you prefer your clothing to
accent, or downplay?”
“It’s your unit, isn’t it?” Rei’s fingers itch to set to the piano behind him,
but it’s fine, he’ll be patient and humor Shu’s dressmaking needs for at least
a few more minutes...because this is starting to get amusing. “I will be your
sex appeal if that’s what you want. Just make sure you don’t start trying to
drool like that on stage.”
“Don’t be stupid. Your sex appeal won’t matter to me onstage. Nothing does.”
Shu’s longing for it shows in his voice, almost reverent, and he stands,
shaking out his sleeping limbs and measuring Rei’s arms. “Yes, yes, that’s all
I need, you can go back to your tuning. Perhaps the plunking will help me focus
on my sewing.”
“If you ever call it ‘plunking’ again, I...” Rei trails off, shaking his head
as he turns around, and plops down onto the piano bench while tying his hair
back with a scrunchie that was absolutely in his pocket. “Do you have anything
composed yet? Otherwise, you’re putting up with whatever I wanna play.”
“Mm, of course. I’ve been working on these for months. I have...six songs
completely finished. It’s as much as I felt comfortable with before knowing the
unit composition. One moment.”
Shu runs downstairs, then back up again with his laptop in tow, opening it to
start playing one that he’d recorded. “It’s all synth for now, obviously, but
Wataru is talking to the pit band of his new show for me about re cording the
background with a full orchestra.”
Rei isn’t sure what he expected, but it’s...yeah, this actually sounds about
right. Synth aside, mixing up a music box with a startling amount of old school
visual kei and string quartet elements is right up his alley, and that’s a
relief. “Nice,” Rei says after the first song finishes, and he turns back to
the piano, checking the key with a quick, open chord, and then shakes out his
hands. “Turn that off, I’m going to play through it. It’s good, just humor a
couple of changes for a moment--assume I’m a hell of a soloist if you’re
writing for me.”
Shu’s fingers tingle with the desire to compose right now, but he forces
himself to sit still and listen, making a few notes here and there on his
computer. The second Rei is finished, he exhales, sitting back on his heels and
closing his eyes. “All right,” he says finally. “This is...going to be a very
good unit.”
***** Chapter 2 *****
“Onii-chan,” Ritsu drawls, hopping up on Rei’s coffin, “that’s really homo.”
He kicks his feet back and forth, trying not to smirk too much. The Light Music
Club room is at least nice and dark, though he can still see Rei just fine.
That guy from his brother’s unit had showed up, dropped off a plastic bag full
of clothing, commanded Rei to put it on, and had to hurry off to take care of
something unexpected for a group project, promising to be back in a few minutes
with a massive huff of irritation. He’ll be back, apparently, but not soon
enough to stop Ritsu from looking his brother up and down, noting every slinky
stitch, every place the fabric hugs his body just so, flattering and
accentuating in all the places...well. All the places he would have done, if he
knew how to sew. “Shucchan wants you real bad.”
“Hush,” Rei sniffs, straightening his coat to better button it all into place.
“I told him I’d be his sex appeal, he’s just working with that.”
Admittedly, Shu definitely is ‘working with that’ to the nth degree. Rei
probably shouldn’t have told him that he was extremely tolerant of tight
things, but here he is. At least, he admits to himself, fixing his hair in the
tiny mirror stowed away in the corner of the room, it’s all to his taste, and
Shu is a phenomenal tailor. “If I wasn’t sure he’d start touching your legs
immediately, I’d say you should join us--ahh, I bet he’d put you in something
super cute...”
“You scared of him touching my legs? Heh, he’s done it before.” Ritsu stretches
out, yawning, and lays down on top of the coffin roof. “Shucchan talks about
you in class a lot. Mm, he wouldn’t let me sleep on his lap, though...rude...”
“Eh? He’s touched them before? Ritsu, you should’ve told me so I can scold
him,” Rei complains, turning around and kneeling down (carefully, he’s pretty
sure Shu will kill him if he fucks this up, and that’s fair) next to the
coffin. “Don’t sleep in his lap, that’ll just encourage him.” He pauses, and
then asks, unable to resist, “What does he say about me?”
“That your music inspires him, and that Onii-chan is the most beautiful in all
the world. Kinda embarrassing, really...no one really has the heart to tell him
to shut up. Except Ecchan and Keito-kun. Ecchan told him if he talks about you
again he’ll fill Shucchan’s doll room with cement.”
“You’re fucking with me,” Rei says with a laugh, reaching over to gently pinch
one of Ritsu’s thighs. “I mean, I’m sure Tenshouin-kun likes to talk about
messing with his dolls, but yeah. The rest of it, bullshit. Ritsuuu, you’re so
cute, but you should sleep in the coffin, not on the top...”
“Too tired to get in.” Ritsu blinks sleepily up at his brother, then yawns
again. “‘m not bullshit. Shucchan never shuts up about you. It’s seriously a
pain...just sleep with him already so we can all go back to hearing him yell
about staging...”
“You’re gonna go in,” Rei firmly says, hoisting Ritsu off of the top of his
coffin in the next motion to toss him over his shoulder like he’s a sack of
potatoes. He nudges open the heavy lid of the coffin with one foot, and drops
Ritsu down inside. “You’re cute, but you’re wrong. He doesn’t want to sleep
with me; most of the time, he’s insulting my taste. You’re so tired you’re
hallucinating.”
Ritsu curls up happily in the coffin, apparently at peace with being tossed
around. “If Maa~kun talked about me like Shucchan talked about you, you’d be
organizing an omiai...just let him touch it, Onii-chan, he built it a pocket.
Those pants are really indecent...”
“How much are you staring at it, huh?” Rei teases, leaning over the coffin with
his hands on his hips. “I’m already planning you an omiai, so try to behave
yourself until then. I mean, I think vampires make shitty wives, just look at
Mom, but, eh...”
“Just don’t start crying like her. No one wants to hear a hundred and eighty
centimeter guy cry like oioioioioioio.”
A brisk rap on the door sounds, and Ritsu pulls the lid shut with a soft,
snuffling snore. “Rei?” Shu’s voice filters in. “Do they fit? I mean, of course
they fit, but I require your input.”
Rei sighs, turning around from the coffin to face Shu and his critical stare,
and straightens to his full height, spreading his arms. Most beautiful in all
the world, huh? That’s cute, but some cute bullshit, at best. “I mean, I’m
comfortable, and I think it looks good. Feel free to nitpick all you want, I
can already tell you want to.”
Shu’s eyes light up at the sight, and he rubs his hands together to keep them
from immediately latching out onto Rei’s clothes. “Yes...ah, god, yes, mon
dieu, they look perfect, don’t they? Stand just a little--”
His hands do dart out then, positioning, displaying Rei, murmuring something
about tuning up, tugging gently on each hem. “Perfect, of course--but you’re a
perfect canvas, aren’t you? Ah, I knew you’d look gorgeous, but obviously I
outdid myself...can you move your hands forward?”
Itsuki Shu definitely has a particular kind of personality, and Rei supposes
that it’s a good thing he’s fairly unfazed by it--and vice versa. Maybe that’s
why this actually works as a partnership, sort of. “Mm, sure, sure.” Rei
stretches his arms forward, wiggling his fingers. “You look happy. I don’t
think I’ve seen you make that kinda face before, heh.”
“Mm, looking at you while you look like this...of course I’d be happy.” Shu’s
cheeks are flushed, his pupils huge in the dim light. He takes note of the
stretch in the seams, and nods to himself. “Give me the jacket, there’s
something I want to fix. Actually, give me everything, you don’t need to be
carrying it around, I’ll keep it safe with my own.”
“...You’re surprisingly honest,” Rei manages with a laugh, now wavering on the
edge as to whether or not Ritsu was telling the truth about the things Shu has
been saying. It’s kind of cute to imagine Shu acting like that, even if he’s
leaving himself wide open for Eichi to be a total asshole. He shrugs off the
jacket first, handing it over, and tugs off the shirt underneath as well to
pass it over before shaking out his hair. Pants next, which take some wiggling
to get out of, and he tosses those over the coffin, leaving him only in his
boxer briefs. “Are we practicing tonight?” he asks, bending to scoop up his
pants--which are definitely pajamas--to tug them back on. “Or is this a ‘gotta
sew’ night?”
“...hmm?” Shu shakes himself out of a Moment, face flushing even more, and
takes the clothes (still warm) from Rei. “Ah, we should practice. This won’t
take me long, and I don’t have much need for sleep anyway.”
“Same, same.” There’s no ignoring the way that Shu’s blood is thudding fast and
fragrant, which is distracting, and Rei ignores the way his stomach wants to
clench. Feed, dumbass! his mind screams, and ah, no, no, he’s not going to
think about that. His eyes might be trying to fixate on Shu’s neck too much,
though. Rei breaks his own stare by buttoning his uniform back up and huddling
up into his sweater once more. “Did you eat?” Because talking about other
people eating totally helps. “If not, I’m ordering pizza.”
“Of course I ate,” Shu lies automatically, after a lifetime of lying to his
parents, and more importantly, to Kiryuu’s mother. Ah, he should curl
Mademoiselle’s hair, it’s looking a little peaky. “You can order whatever you
like, though, you know the address. We’ll be practicing all night, so make sure
you keep your energy up. I’m going to work you hard, Rei!”
From inside the coffin, there’s a sleepy, “Toooold youuuu~”
Rei kicks the side of the coffin, and leaves it at that.
He does know Shu’s address by heart now, which means he orders pizza over the
phone on the way there. Plans to stuff pizza down Shu’s throat aside, he sneaks
into a bakery in the station before Shu really notices, and reemerges before
Valkyrie’s neurotic ‘leader’ has gotten another few paces through the crowds.
“Croissants on sale, it’s a miracle,” he hums, stuffing the bag into Shu’s hand
before grabbing him by the arm to drag him through the last of the station
crowds. “We both can have our indulgences tonight.”
Shu’s stomach rumbles loudly, and he almost groans, only holding back by sheer
force of will and knowing that such a thing is unbecoming in public. “I suppose
as long as you got a good deal and you aren’t going to eat them, I might
partake,” he manages, clinging to Rei’s arm looped through his, trying to focus
on Rei, Rei, Rei instead of the press of the throng.
Admittedly, he’s usually thinking of Rei, Rei, Rei these days.
Fortunately, it isn’t far to his house, and he sets on the bag like a man
possessed, savoring each flaky-light bite of the first croissant, whimpering a
little. “It’s...this bakery is so good,” he groans, slumping back against the
wall. “It’s very unfair, really. Mm, thank you for these.”
Rei suddenly regrets only getting two, but then again, Shu is fickle enough
about food that he probably wouldn’t eat more than that, anyway. “If you’re
gonna indulge, do it properly,” Rei says with a shrug, tossing his bag onto the
floor in front of the couch, and setting his violin down far more gently. Shu
needs to stop making noises like that when he’s just eating. He blames Ritsu
for this...but it isn’t as if Shu isn’t always pretty, and touchy, and...smells
delicious...
No, he’s just fucking hungry.
Rei drops down onto the couch with a sigh, shutting his eyes. “Pizza will be
here in a few minutes, and once I eat, I’m ready to go all night,” he says with
a flutter of one hand. “We’ve been so busy it’s hard to remember to eat, you
know?”
Shu sighs, polishing off the last of his delectable croissant, thinking about
his stomach and deciding to wait a few minutes before tucking into the second
one. “I know too well,” he admits. “I just, ah, I hate food, honestly.
Croissants are the only thing I take actual pleasure from eating.” He gives Rei
a critical look, then says carefully, “I imagine you must have some idea of
what it’s like to only be satisfied by a very particular foodstuff.”
“Yeah. Tomatoes, man. I’m fucking addicted to some red sauce.”
Shu snorts out a laugh, then sets down his bag. “I’m changing out of my school
clothes, be right back. Do you need to change? Or are your false uniform
pajamas good to go for the foreseeable future?”
“I dunno, is that a hint that I should be stripping down?” Rei teases, cracking
open an eye. “I like my pajamas, personally, but if you’ve got something else
for me to try on...”
“As if I’m going to run out of clothing I think you’d look good in?
Preposterous.”
A few minutes later, Shu emerges from his room in his practice clothes, tossing
a spare set to Rei. “Not quite as flattering as our new unit outfits,
but...hmm, I thought those might look nice.” They might be perfectly tailored
for Rei, just another pet project he’d gotten up in the middle of the night to
work on, a better version of his uniform.
“...You know, you’ve got a way with compliments,” Rei mutters, holding up the
clothes with a tilt of his head before the doorbell rings, and he’s on his feet
in an instant. Tomatoes should help, or at least, it’ll do something--maybe.
Maybe, if Shu doesn’t start smelling even better tonight.
Pizza acquired, Rei cradles the box like it’s something precious, and
immediately drops back down onto the couch to open it up. “You’re welcome to a
slice, if you want--ah, doorbells are a no-go, too, huh.”
Shu shakes his head firmly, wincing at the loud sound. “Hate that. Ugh, why do
people have to be so intrusive? No one wants to hear loud noises out of the
blue in a place they feel safe. Why the hell would delivery food be a good
thing?”
“Sit down and calm down,” Rei firmly says, grabbing Shu by the arm and dragging
him down onto the couch next to him while he eats. “Delivery food is great if
they’re bringing good Italian. Otherwise, I agree, I hate noisy things.”
Shu huffs, and somehow manages to relax against Rei’s side, a quivering ball of
nerves from the closeness. Quietly, he murmurs, “You’re colder to the touch
than I expected.”
“Sorry. Vampires and their cold, dry skin, it’s the worst.” Rei drapes an arm
around Shu’s waist, making sure he stays put while he destroys a slice of
pizza. “You’re way warmer than I thought you’d be. We should be better about
this, pretty sure you can’t be in a unit without skinship or whatever.”
“O....oh.” Shu swallows so hard it might as well be audible, but doesn’t make
to pull away. “I don’t hate it. Your temperature. Kiryuu--my other friend, he’s
always far too warm.”
Rei starts to make another comment--you shake like my mom’s chihuahua comes to
mind--but bites his tongue in favor of eating another piece of pizza. “Kiryuu--
right, that one,” he murmurs after chewing and swallowing. His fingers drum
against Shu’s side absently. “Keito mentioned something about trying to drag
him into a unit. I hope he survives, Keito can be vicious.”
“Keito? Vicious?” Shu scoffs, then promptly steals a slice of pizza, nibbling
on the end despite his better judgment. “He’s a sad little man, chasing
Tenshouin’s coattails. If Kiryuu has any sense, he won’t bother with someone
like that.”
He sighs, tongue flicking out to lick up a stray tomato. “But he’s always
been...drawn to those who need protection. For which I’ve previously been
grateful, I suppose.”
It’s like coaxing the most skittish animal in existence out of hiding, but so
long as Shu eats enough to actually practice all night without dying, Rei’s
fine with that. “There’s a reason why Keito and Tenshouin are best friends,” he
says with a little shrug, leaning forward to pluck up a third slice, and takes
his time with this one. “They’re both evil. Maybe your friend will beat mine
up, that would be nice, and then the student council will stop trying to target
us.”
“Kiryuu can beat anyone up,” Shu says with satisfaction. “He hates bullies. Ah,
and he used to be a delinquent...we disagree about that part of his life,
however. It was better in elementary school, when his mother...was alive.” His
heart twists, hands fidgeting, almost grasping for something out of his reach.
“Ahh, so you’ve got a type, got it.” That’s a better branch of conversation to
pursue, especially when Shu looks so stressed. “No wonder you didn’t hesitate
to let me join your grand project.”
Shu blinks, startled out of his reverie. “What? Type? No, you’re far more
beautiful than Kiryuu. He couldn’t compare.”
“Sure.” Shu really is cute when it comes to compliments, dammit. ‘Sexy’ or
‘cool’ or ‘talented’—those are things Rei has heard a million and one times,
but… “I was referring more to the delinquent part, but it’s cool, I’ll keep
hiding my bad rep from you.”
Much to his own surprise, Shu feels himself slowly flush pink. “I...hmm. You
don’t have to hide it. I don’t...mind it.” Good lord, Rei is going to be
disgusted with him for being so obvious. He turns to the side, grabbing a
nearby doll and straightening her skirts. “One is drawn to the things one does
not possess, is one not?”
Don’t say it, don’t make that joke, don’t—“Ahh, got it. So that’s why you keep
checking out my dick at every opportunity.”
Shu gets up from the sofa so fast his head spins, and his voice is high-pitched
and a little squeaky when he says, “Finish your pizza! I’m going upstairs! To
do real work!”
 
Rei chokes on a laugh, shaking his head as he finishes up a last piece of pizza
and hauls himself to his feet again. “Nope, nope, I’m coming, too~” he sing-
songs, grabbing Shu’s arm again. “Don’t you want me to change into the stuff
you made for me? Don’t you wanna seeee?”
“No! You’re horrible, you twist my words into something very perverted--” Shu
tries to tug his arm away with impressive failure.
“Uh huh.” Rei bats his eyelashes at him, completely undeterred. “Is that why
I’ve been hearing things from Ritsu about how you go on and on about how much
you like my music, how pretty you think I am—“
Dismay is written all over Shu’s face, and he huffs so hard it nearly makes him
faint again. “That--you know full well I think you’re lovely--but you’re awful,
I’m going to boil him in a pot--”
“Mm mm, nope, that’s my little brother, he’s off-limits.”
Shu’s blood is thundering, a thready pulse that makes Rei suck in a breath
shaper than intended, and suddenly smell even more of it. Red sauce is nice and
all, but it does little when there’s something delicious right in front of him,
and Shu, if nothing else, has always smelled incredibly appetizing.
It’s worse, when he’s riled up like this.
“I have to admit,” Rei breathes, letting Shu pull him forward when he tries to
tug away, and promptly uses that step to shove Shu against the nearest wall. “I
thought I’d end up doing this over some kinda ‘creative difference’, but you
and I just get on too well for that, don’t we.”
Shu looks up, heart thudding against his ribs. He opens his mouth to protest,
lifts his hands to shove Rei away...
And, inexplicably, yanks him closer. “I thought we would too,” he admits, and
closes his eyes, leaning forward in a blind grab of a kiss. It’s seemed mildly
inevitable since the day they met, but damn, he’s glad he hadn’t had to wait
too long.
Thank god Shu kisses him, thank fucking god, because two seconds later, and
Rei’s sure he would have bitten instead.
Shu’s that perfect height for sinking his fingers into his hair and tilting his
face up, and Rei does just that, dragging him up into kiss that has his full
enthusiasm behind it. The taste of Shu’s mouth makes Rei groan when his tongue
quickly shoves its way inside, and dragging a thigh up between Shu’s is easy
when he feels Shu almost immediately go all wobbly.
Rei’s thigh between his own makes Shu gasp, hands clutching at Rei’s back,
drawing him in closer, closer, though it feels like it can’t possibly be close
enough. Rei’s kiss is intense, distracting, taking him over and dragging little
noises out of his mouth, making him melt bonelessly against the wall. “Rei,” he
whispers, uncertain even in his desperation, unsure what he’s even asking for,
praying silently that Rei knows better and can help him.
“Yeah,” Rei mutters, grabbing Shu’s face up into his hands to kiss him harder
as he presses up against the wall with his body. “Yeah, s-same—shit, Shu,
you’re already so fucking hard,” he breathlessly laughs as he draws back,
licking his lips. His eyes flick down, his thigh deliberately rubbing forward
between Shu’s legs when he feels how hard Shu’s cock is against him. “You gonna
let me take care of you?” You’re grabbing at me and saying my name, but it’s
pretty obvious you don’t know what the fuck you’re doing.
“I can--”
Shu tries to figure things out, gripping and grabbing at every bit of Rei’s
clothing that he can reach, trying to tell himself that this is fine, he can do
this, he’s not going to be a disappointing embarrassment, Rei doesn’t mind. He
thrusts his own hand down, trying to remember how to move his hands when Rei is
pressing against him, and somehow manages to wrap his hand around Rei’s cock.
“It’s...it’s so big,” he whispers, mind stuck on that fact. “Since the first
day, I wanted...”
Rei wants to laugh and tease him about that, but his breath sort of stutters in
his throat, and all he can mutter is a vague “Fucking size queen” insult. Shu
has nice, pretty fingers, soft and delicate and careful, and Rei can’t help but
reach down to close his hand over the back of Shu’s, pressing his hand harder
against the line of his cock through his pants. “You wanted it?” he coaxes,
tilting his head to mouth a kiss against the side of Shu’s neck against all his
fucking better judgement. Mistake,what a fucking mistake, because he can
feel the pulse of Shu’s blood, and Rei shudders, nipping once, not drawing
blood, but god, if he could… “You want it in you?” he husks. “Even if it’s this
big?”
Shu’s knees buckle at the words, and only Rei’s hands on him manage to keep him
upright, pressed against his living room wall. Rei tastes like tomatoes, which
Shu usually detests, but god, he needs more. His hand curls hard around the
thick hot shaft rutting against his palm, and he feels his mouth start to water
as he nods. “Wanted to touch it,” he mutters, finishing his first thought. He
hesitates, but Rei is being good to him, touching hard and thorough, and he
admits in a whisper like none he’s ever said aloud, “Wanted you...to fuck me
with it.”
Never mind, maybe Shu does know what he’s fucking doing.
“Fuck, you know how to talk to a guy, don’t you, Shu?” Rei laughs helplessly,
his head thunking briefly against the wall when his cock throbs against Shu’s
fingers, and he can’t help but grind forward, rubbing against his hand. “All
right—yeah, I’ll fuck you, I’ve got you, I’ll make you feel good,” he breathes,
nuzzling against Shu’s neck again, biting at his earlobe and letting his fangs
catch against the skin, just a little. He can’t think straight when he’s this
hard, so fuck it. “Turn around, pretty boy,” he murmurs. “I’m gonna do you
right here.”
Shu’s mind spins with the suddenness of it, the sheer searing heat of what’s
between them, the bite to his ear and thick hot length against his hand. Even
with his mind spinning, he’s so hard it hurts, even hurts in his soft loose
practice pants, and he can only think that if he obeys, if he does as Rei is
asking, Rei will keep making him feel like this.
He turns, and because it makes sense, he shoves his pants down to pool around
his ankles, letting his legs spread as he rests his forehead and hands against
the cool wall. One hand brushes the edge of a stupid-looking old painting his
grandmother had loved, and Shu hopes her ghost is horrified at how he’s acting.
“Can you--you’re taller than me, is this...?”
“Mm, I’ve got you.” Rei can’t help but put his hands on the curve of Shu’s ass,
starting at his hips and then stroking down to squeeze, his fingers kneading in
when his hips rock forward. He thumbs down the hem of his own pants, letting
them pool to his ankles, and tugs down his underwear enough to free his cock
and let it rub forward, hard and hot and dripping as it grinds against the
cleft of Shu’s ass. “Not like it matters to me if you’ve gotta be on tiptoe,”
he breathes, mouthing a wet kiss to the back of Shu’s neck. “You just want it
in you, right?”
This is absurdly more than anything Shu has ever done. Hell, it’s dirtier than
the vast majority of his fantasies, with Rei grabbing at him, rubbing his cock
over his ass as if there’s no question it’s going to happen. It feels
impossibly large, and Shu’s hands knead against the wall as he murmurs, “It’s--
it’s too big, there’s no way it’s going to fit in me.”
“It’ll fit.” Rei forces one of his hands away to delve into his sweater pocket,
and—thankfully, he’s still neurotic enough to have a couple of packets of lube
in there. He tears open one of them and it spills all over his fingers, leaving
them slick, dripping when they drag up against Shu’s hole. “First things
first,” he sighs, nuzzling his face into the back of Shu’s hair. “Let’s get you
all ready for me.”
Shu is achingly tight, and sliding that first finger inside does take work.
Normal, sane people would probably think yeah, it’s gonna be too much work to
get my dick in there, too, but Rei isn’t normal, and he knows he isn’t sane.
“You’re so tight I’m gonna die,” he rasps, sucking on the side of Shu’s neck
when he wriggles that finger in to the second knuckle, curling, stroking. “Be a
good boy for me.”
“Don’t...d-don’t--”
Shu gasps for air, trembling and wriggling around just that one finger, trying
to master his body’s reactions, furious when it isn’t as easy as he thinks it
should be. It’s so good with just that much that he feels his eyes roll back
into his head, breath stuttering. “Don’t, don’t you dare die before you get it
in me, Sakuma Rei!”
“Then be good,” Rei teases, biting the lobe of Shu’s ear as he works a second
finger inside already, unable to help himself. Shu is fucking cute, and the way
he squirms makes it hard not to just try to shove it in already. His own cock
twitches and aches, rubbing against the back of Shu’s thigh as he presses his
fingers in deep, and he hooks his other arm around Shu’s waist, steadying him
in advance when he finds just where to stroke and press, and does so in a
thorough, intense rub. 
Shu’s body shudders hard, torn between wanting more and wanting to expel the
invader, and the warring sensation feels like it’s wrenching him apart, sending
him into frantic spasms as his cock spills against the wall, hands splayed
against the old paper as he rocks urgently back against Rei’s hand. “God...”
His words are slurred, half a whine, half a groan as he slumps forward.
“Just...Damn, damn, do that again, keep--keep doing it to me--” It’s going to
hurt so much later, and he wants it even more for all of that.
“Just that?” There’s one, Rei smugly thinks, indulgently pleased with himself
as he milks Shu’s orgasm as long as he can, stroking him inside, petting his
other hand down his back as he mouths kisses to his neck. “Good, isn’t it?” he
breathes, spreading those two fingers wider as he feels Shu relax, even though
it’s just a little. “Are you gonna keep coming just on my hand?”
“If...” Words are usually Shu’s domain, his favorite thing, but they’re eluding
him completely while Sakuma Rei’s hand is inside him, playing him like his own
perfect lovely puppet. The thought makes him shudder, another spurt trickling
out the end of his still-hard cock, and he twists back again, moaning as he
turns, trying for a sloppy, inaccurate kiss. “If you keep doing that, then yes!
I will keep coming!”
“Is that supposed to make me stop doing it?” Rei laughs, surging forward to
meet Shu for that kiss. It’s inaccurate on his end, too, and his fangs nick
into Shu’s lower lip, drawing the tiniest droplet of blood—and Rei shivers,
sucking in a ragged breath through his nose as the taste of just that much
makes his eyes glaze. “You taste so fucking good,” he mutters, getting a third
finger in there while he can, while Shu is still trembly-pliant-eager, and he
can feel how much of a stretch even that much is. “Fuck, you’re gonna feel good
on my dick.”
The stretch of the third finger sends a tremor of uncertainty through Shu, and
he reaches back, grabbing Rei’s other hand, squeezing as he looks back. “Will
it...hurt a lot? I want you to do it either way, I just want to be prepared.”
At this point, nothing is going to stop him from getting fucked against a wall
by the hottest man he’s ever met.
Good, he’s not paying attention to the fact I want to drink him dry. Rei
swallows hard, shaking himself out of that thought process as much as he can.
“I’m gonna be careful,” he promises, giving Shu’s hand a squeezes as he curls
those fingers in deep and slow, exhaling a measured breath of his own. “If you
want me in you, it’s gonna feel good. That’s all there is to it.”
“I want it. I--” Shu gulps at the air, then fumbles around behind him, reaching
for Rei’s cock and giving it a firm squeeze. It doesn’t feel so big, if he
doesn’t look at it, and Rei swears it’ll feel good.
He shifts, getting his feet farther apart, bending over to rest his hands on
the wall, hoping he doesn’t look quite as lewd as he fears. “Then it’ll feel
good, so...stop stopping yourself and do it.”
“Yeah—yeah, okay,” Rei gasps, his head knocking against the back of Shu’s
shoulder the second he grabs his cock. That’s just not fucking fair, and Shu
has to know that, especially when he bends over like that, begging, trembling,
begging…
Rei sucks in a ragged breath, withdrawing his hand carefully, and he fumbles
for the second packet of lube. It drips over his cock, his fingers working to
slick it down his cock, and just pressing the head of his cock against that
tight little hole nearly makes his own knees buckle. “I’m gonna make you feel
so good,” he breathlessly promises, mouthing kisses down Shu’s neck and
shoulders, rubbing his cock there, feeling the way Shu twitches, clenches, and
god, pushing inside…
It’s with a soft, ragged grunt of effort that he gets the head of his cock in,
and Rei’s fingers tremble as they close around Shu’s hips, steadying himself as
much as he steadies Shu. “There we go—that’s a good boy,” he pants out, his
eyes lidded as he rocks forward bit by bit.
The feeling of being split open, of having something so big inside him that it
steals his breath--it’s too big, too much, and Shu’s mind just gives up on
trying to properly process the feeling. It’s so thick and so hard, forcing
Rei’s cock deep inside, making him hiccup and writhe, his body sparking into
confused spasms. It’s so much it’s as if Shu forgets to be in pain, forgets
everything except how Rei feels so good in him, fucking in deep and hard and
making him scream. Tears streak down his cheeks, and god, he’s never felt so
human in his entire life.
Words won’t come, but he thumps the wall, reaching back to grab at Rei’s arm.
“You’re so good,” he forces out, hearing the words as if they’re coming from
someone else’s mouth. “So good--god, I want you so bad, fuck me, fuck me--”
Shu is gonna fucking kill him.
The noises he’s making, the way he’s squirming and reaching back and grabbing
at him--Rei feels his self-control quickly snap, and he grabs for Shu’s hand,
pins it over his head, and shoves forward those last few centimeters until he’s
buried in as far as he can go, as deep as he can go.
“Fuck,” Rei pants out, his fingers squeezing tight around Shu’s wrist as he
rolls his hips forward, savoring the way Shu clenches around him, too tight,
too much, but it’s hot and slick and shoving Shu into the wall with every
thrust, up onto his toes when he’s especially enthusiastic, feels fucking
perfect. “Shu...Shu, you feel so good,” he groans, planting a long, sucking
kiss to the side of Shu’s neck, and the aching, desperate urge to bite isn’t
long behind. His fangs nick at Shu’s skin, and his tongue flicks out, tasting
the tiniest bit of blood that wells up, the saltiness of sweat, and that alone
makes Rei fuck in harder, the rhythmic slap of skin making his cock throb.
The scrape of teeth over his neck hardly registers in Shu’s mind when every
other sensation is so overwhelming, so unbearable and pleasurable and
unbearably pleasurable that he feels like he’s on the verge of passing out
again, all from the way Rei’s thick cock drives into his body over and over,
filling him far past anything he could imagine. Mindlessly he claws at the
walls, half-trying to climb up them for some tiny respite from the brutal
claiming, but every time Rei holds him still and yanks him down, he’s grateful.
Somewhere deep in his mind, underneath the bright-hot sunbursts of sensation
that bloom in his mind with every aching thrust, there’s a shade of wonder that
Rei is here, that this is Rei, that this is Sakuma Rei, the most beautiful man
he’s ever seen, someone Shu would be lucky to touch on the best of days, and
that Rei is grabbing him, kissing him, wanting him.
His body gives up, sagging down into a cloud of endorphins, cock weakly
painting the walls again in fitful spurts as he lets out a breathy, broken
groan. “H...Harder,” he whispers, not knowing why he’s asking for something he
knows he can’t take. “Rei, please--”
That seems like a pretty dumb request, but who is Rei to judge right now?
He feels Shu’s knees buckle, his body sag, and all it takes is a strong (albeit
shaky) arm around his waist to keep him up, to hold him back against him when
he grinds in, fucking him hard. His own cock aches and throbs, and every thrust
hurts, still too tight, even if Shu is a trembly, pliant mess now, it doesn’t
matter, he’s still--
 So fucking perfect that I can’t stop, I can’t, I--
It’s the last thought Rei has before his teeth sink in deep, drawing the kind
of blood that he can really taste, and the sudden burst of flavor over his
tongue, the way Shu slowly writhes in his arms, that’s over and beyond too
much. Rei only manages a meager gulp of a taste before he rips himself away,
panting, gasping for a full breath of air as he comes, his own fingers digging
into the wall as pulse after pulse makes his own legs threaten to fall out from
underneath him, his cock buried in so deeply that there’s not even a chance for
anything to leak out when he comes.
“Fuck,” he dazedly breathes, butting his head into the back of Shu’s neck,
mindlessly nuzzling there, planting random kisses as he struggles to stay on
his feet. “Shu...Shu, you’re so good...”
Shu’s knees buckle the last little bit, until the only thing holding him up is
Rei’s arm around his waist. To be fair, this is about as good as he’s ever felt
on the verge of passing out, a thought that forces a tiny laugh out of him.
“Sorry, I’m just...going to be useless for a while,” he manages, without even
the strength to cling to Rei for support.
“No, that’s good, that’s good,” Rei sighs, mouthing another kiss to the side of
Shu’s neck...and getting another taste of the blood that stains his skin there
in the process. He shudders, shifting, and settles for licking straight over
that bite mark instead of biting down again. “Just tell me when you want me to
pull out,” he murmurs. “Otherwise, I’m still enjoying myself. Sorry about your
neck, you’re gonna want a high collar tomorrow.”
“I always wear high collars,” Shu sighs. When Rei shows no trouble with holding
him up, he gives in to the urge to sag down even farther, murmuring, “You could
carry me to a seat, Vampire. I’ll...” His cheeks are already so red, a little
more isn’t going to change anything. “I’ll let you keep it in as long as you
want if I can sit down.”
“Higher collars. You’re so cute, but we’re both gonna die at this rate,” Rei
mutters, his own legs threatening to wobble again as he turns his head to get a
good look at the distance between here and the couch...and boy, that seems like
a lot of coordination and skill right now. “Well, you’ve let me fuck you once,
you’ll let me do it again later,” he hums, carefully rocking back, wincing as
he pulls his cock out, hands steadying Shu to make sure he isn’t going to hit
the floor immediately. “You’re fine by the way--I was careful even when you
were begging for me to fuck you up,” he teases, hefting Shu up into his arms in
short order and depositing him on the couch. He just plain gives up, flopping
down onto the floor next to it, and sighs in relief at being able to just sit.
Shu can’t think of anything in the world that could make him get up right now,
so he lets every single muscle he has go slack and relaxed, for the first time
he can remember in...actually, for the first time he can remember. “I didn’t
know it was possible to feel as if one was hit by a train, but in a good way.”
“Yeah, that’s how you know it was good.” Rei wearily reaches for his pizza,
then thinks the better of it. He’d rather have the taste of Shu’s blood in his
mouth a little bit longer. “You taste so good it’s criminal.” He didn’t really
mean to say that out loud, but oh well.
“Eat your pizza.” Shu reaches up, fingering the lingering bite marks over his
neck. “You can have another taste later. I’ll just...add more ruffles. I like
making ruffles.”
“Don’t invite me or I won’t stop,” Rei quickly warns, and then hesitates,
tilting his head back to stare up at Shu. You’re human, you should probably be
less calm about this--that’s what he should say, but what he says instead is:
“I can always drink from your thigh instead.”
“That would be less visible. A good compromise, I think.” Shu’s hand flops down
to the ground, resting against the hard wood, then moves to pet Rei’s hair.
“You’re so beautiful. This doesn’t even seem real.”
Rei butts his head up against Shu’s hand, slinking himself slowly upward again
to   plop his chin on the couch cushion. “You’ve definitely got a way with
compliments,” he says, rather content with being petted. “You know you’re
like...that delicate kinda handsome-pretty that guys really wanna mess around
with, right? Half the reason I tried to save you on unit fair day was because
you looked cute.”
“Did I? That doesn’t make sense.” Shu moves just a bit, enough to nuzzle his
nose against Rei’s, still petting his hair. “I feel like I have so much more to
improve on myself. I just hit a rather distressing growth spurt.”
“Uh huh. I can tell. You’re like a fawn, trying to figure out how to walk,” Rei
teases, tilting his head to steal a quick kiss from Shu’s mouth. “It’s fucking
cute. The same thing happened to me, but in middle school when I was like,
eleven, so I feel your pain.”
“I can’t imagine someone like you ever being awkward.” Shu’s hands tangle in
Rei’s hair now, slowly stroking through, relishing the contact, leaning in for
another brush of soft lips. “Both you and your brother, you have that sort of
timeless beauty--I feel like you would have been a lovely child, too.”
“I’m literally awkward right now,” Rei dryly says, his eyes fluttering as his
hair is thoroughly petted, yes, good, that’s good. “Ritsu is far more lovely in
my opinion, he’s never had an ugly phase.” He lurches up to steal another kiss,
lazy and content. “And it’s a damn shame he’s in Knights.”
“Knights is the most pathetic waste of talent I’ve ever seen,” Shu says. If he
had a little more energy, he’d be huffing. As it is... “Ritsu’s better than
that, but we’ll have to crush him eventually.”
“Oh, I know. Then maybe he’ll want to give up Knights and join us...” Rei
dreamily says, idly petting a hand down Shu’s hip to rest on his thigh,
savoring the thud of his pulse underneath his fingertips. “You always smell so
good,” he murmurs, scooting up a bit more to shove his face back into Shu’s
neck.
“I’m a very clean person,” Shu gasps, head rolling back to let Rei have access.
“Maybe--is it my soap, or...something more, ah, intrinsic...?”
“Mmn, I wasn’t talking about that...though you do smell good in that way, too.”
Rei’s fingers squeeze against Shu’s thigh, gently kneading as he presses a kiss
to the arc of Shu’s throat. “You smell like a banquet,” he sighs. “Even Ritsu
noticed it, day one; I had to stop him from trying to feed on you.”
Shu’s fingers slide into Rei’s hair against his scalp, gently scraping. He
worries at his lip, contemplating how to say the next thing, and finally says,
“I can tell you’re...somewhat like me. You don’t...eat much. Doesn’t it make
you feel weak and ill?”
“...Yeah. Like I said earlier...I forget all the time, music’s more important.”
Rei draws back after another light nip, and plops his chin down into one hand,
watching Shu through lidded eyes. “I cheat. Tomato juice boxes. It works,
sorta, when I remember.”
“Like me with croissants.” Shu hesitates a second, then lets his thighs part,
resting one knee on Rei’s shoulder. “Will I...become one, if you do? The idea
doesn’t appeal to me, honestly.”
“Like you with croissants.” Rei hesitates in turn, and turns his head to kiss
the inside of Shu’s knee. “I already took a sip while we were doing it,” he
wryly points out. “You’re not gonna turn. If I keep at it, though, you’re gonna
have to start eating more, or you’ll start feeling really sick.”
Shu narrows his eyes, suspicious. “Is this a ploy to get me to take better care
of myself? I’ve had people do that before, and I don’t like it.”
“It’s pretty basic biology? You’ve already got low blood sugar, when it spikes
or gets too low, that’s why you pass out.” Rei leans forward, eyebrows raised.
“If I drink from you, it’s gonna be worse. I’m not letting you die on me. Just
let me shove a croissant at you before I wanna feed--or, don’t keep inviting me
when you smell so good.”
Shu snorts. “As if someone like you couldn’t resist me. Absurd.”
“I’ve been resisting since the day I met your prissy ass.”
That draws a slow blink of surprise, and Shu’s hand stills in Rei’s hair.
“Wait, really? But...but you’re so gorgeous, and cool, and beautiful, and
talented. I mean, I think I’m phenomenal, but it’s not usually an opinion
shared by others.”
“...And most people don’t think I’m cool or beautiful when they hear two words
out of my mouth,” Rei says with a laugh, nudging against Shu’s hand as he hauls
himself up onto the couch entirely, kneeling between Shu’s legs. “I’ll say it
again--you’re fucking cute. You’ve got the kinda face that guys wanna kiss.
You’re pretty, you’re smart and talented, and you’ve got great taste in clothes
and music.” He gives the inside of Shu’s thigh a little pinch. “I wanted to
taste you two minutes after being around you, give yourself some credit.”
After attempting to understand this for a good twenty seconds, Shu gives up,
flopping back down to the couch. “You can do whatever you want to me,” he says,
grabbing a throw pillow and dragging it over his blushing face. “Literally
anything.”
Rei snorts, hauling Shu’s leg over his shoulder more comfortably as he kisses
his way down from his knee, right up the inside of his thigh. “Literally
anything, huh?”
The skin on his thigh twitches and ripples in anticipation, and Shu’s mouth
goes dry as he nods. “Literally...anything,” he says, “but if you keep looking
down there when I know I’m dripping, I reserve the right to never make eye
contact with you again.”
“You’re barely dripping,” Rei teases, nipping the inside of Shu’s thigh.
“Because I was in you so deep when I came, and you’re really, really tight. But
you can keep being cute and embarrassed, I’m all right with it.”
Shu’s thigh jumps with the bite, but he doesn’t pull away, holding the pillow
more tightly over his face. “O-or maybe your sperm count is just low,” he
counters, trying to get a little of his own back. “That cool body temperature
not good for something?”
“Nah, that’s not it. I’m totally gonna knock you up some day,” Rei cheerfully
promises, sounding entirely too serious about it, and he sucks on the same spot
that he nipped, bringing all that delicious, fragrant blood up to the surface
in a quickly darkening bruise. “Mmn, but first things first...”
He bites--careful and slow this time, none of the frantic desperation of when
he’d just had to have his teeth in Shu’s neck. Down here, it’s a lot easier to
taste more of Shu, skin and sweat and come, and Rei shudders as he swallows,
savoring the sparse few mouthfuls he lets himself take. “Ahh, fuck, Shu,” he
sighs as he draws back, licking at his stained lips. “You taste way too
good...”
Shu had thought he was in the fizzling throes of euphoria before, but the
feelings sizzling through him now dwarf his post-orgasm bliss. He shivers, his
whole body starting to convulse starting at the thigh, and a trickle of drool
drips down his cheek. “That’s...”
He reaches a hand down, thoughtlessly rubbing his cock as it surges back to
life, suddenly flushed painfully hard again, rubbing up against his palm.
“Keep, keep going, it feels...oh, mon dieu...”
“I can’t keep going or you’ll die, that’s why I’m telling you to fucking eat
more,” Rei groans, swiping his tongue along the trickle of blood that tries to
escape down Shu’s thigh. He shivers hard, and scoots closer, batting Shu’s hand
away from his cock.  “I’m gonna take care of you either way,” he promises,
leaning down to press his mouth to the head of Shu’s cock, licking a hot, wet
stripe up it.
This feels like dying, or so Shu thinks wildly, half-screaming into the pillow
pulled over his face, feet kicking slowly in overstimulation. His body feels
sluggish, too sated already to move much, but that doesn’t stop him from trying
to thrust up into Rei’s mouth, hand fumbling to get into Rei’s hair. “You’re--
you’re killing me, I can’t possibly--that’s dirty, you shouldn’t--ah, god,
shit, yes--”
“You’re cute when you start cursing,” Rei laughs, hiking both of Shu’s legs up
and over his shoulders as he plants his hands into the couch and
unapologetically swallows him down. Shu’s cock drags over his tongue, bumping
at the back of his throat, and Rei groans at the musky taste, a sharp contrast
to the sharp, coppery taste of the blood still coating his tongue. He bobs down
further, until he nuzzles against Shu’s belly, against his perfectly trimmed
(perfectly dyed, heh) hair, and glances up through his lashes to make sure his
aim is right when he grabs for Shu’s other hand, making sure they’re both
wrapped up in his hair.
“Rei!”
Shu half-collapses, half trembles when Rei swallows his cock, grateful that Rei
is pinning his hips down, both hands coming up to fist in his hair. This is
like something he never could have imagined, and surely he can’t be
entirelyblamed for how his hands tangle, urgently yanking Rei’s mouth down.
This is something he’s thought of more times than he cares to admit, and each
time, he’s recoiled from the idea--it’s foul, it’s tongues meeting semen--but
in practice, the wet heat of Rei’s mouth is something he’d die to get more of
on his cock. “Please,” he gasps, legs tight and shivering, draped over Rei’s
back. “Oh god, oh god, please...”
Shu is so hard against his tongue that it makes Rei want to squirm. Feeling the
way he twists and trembles, his heels digging into his back--Rei has no choice
but to suck him off like he’s going to die without more of Shu’s dick in his
mouth.
Not like the hands in his hair give him much choice, but that makes it better.
His hands loosen against Shu’s hips, just a little, just enough to let him arch
up when Rei sucks him down, letting him sink deeper down his throat when he
swallows hard. The few times he draws back, it’s to drag his tongue over the
head of Shu’s cock, to get a better taste of him when he’s dripping and
desperate before Shu’s hands yank his head back down, and Rei’s muffled groan
makes his approval clear.
Shu opens his mouth to say something, but no words come to him. The pillow
falls from his face, and he makes the mistake of looking down at Rei--
Lips stretched wide and red and slick, pupils blown with pleasure, silken black
hair tumbling around his face, pale skin flushed with desire, a trail of
wetness leading down from his lips--Rei looks like a painting of debauched
beauty, so thoroughly used, so thoroughly his that Shu loses his mind, crying
out as his hips jerk up, burying himself deep in Rei’s throat when he comes
again, flooding over his tongue and ah, god, everywhere as he bucks and
writhes.“Rei, merde, fuck, you’re so--Rei--”
Shu’s hands are strong (because of course they are), and Rei has to work to
swallow, again and again until he feels Shu’s fingers tremble and relent. He
carefully pulls back, releasing Shu’s cock with a slick pop, and gingerly wipes
his mouth, stifling a cough behind it as he blinks away a few tears. Whoo.
Waterproof eyeliner is useful right about now. “So now I know what you really
like,” he breathlessly teases, swaying slightly as he rocks back. “A mouth on
your dick.”
“Please don’t repeat that,” Shu moans, throwing a hand over his face. “It
sounds so vulgar, even if you look like a debauched angel when you’re doing
it.”
“Heehh, a what now?” Rei laughs, launching forward and flopping down against
Shu unrepentantly. “I probably should’ve warned you how a proper bite makes
humans really...excited.”
“Oh...that’s right, you bit me.” Shu peers up, looks down, then says
hesitantly, “I don’t want to do that to you, most likely ever. But you can take
your pleasure some other way.”
“Oh, I don’t care,” Rei dismissively says, nuzzling his face into Shu’s neck.
“When a dick is the size of mine, it’s not like the offers to blow it come
pouring in in the first place,” he wryly points out. “Plus, I just don’t care.
Mm, does that mean no kissing after I put your dick in my mouth, though?”
Shu makes a face. “I’d prefer not to. It just...doesn’t seem sanitary. Mosts
tastes disagree with me, also.”
“I’ll keep mints on me or something, because I kinda want your dick in my mouth
a lot, and I also want to kiss you a lot, so this could be an issue.”
Even the tips of Shu’s ears turn pink at that, and he plants a foot on the side
of Rei’s face, shoving at him. “You are demonstrably the worst.”
Unfazed, Rei grabs Shu’s ankle, and turns his head to kiss the bottom of his
foot. “Yeah? You’re the one stepping on me. You got a thing for that, too, or--
”
Shu squeaks, yanking his foot back, toes wiggling. “Pervert! Is it because
you’re a vampire, or because you’re just the worst?”
“I think I’m just terrible,” Rei cheerfully says. “Runs in the family. You’re
the one that was begging me to keep going, to bite you again--”
“I don’t want to know about this kind of stuff happening in your family!” Shu
kicks at Rei again, more gentle this time, landing a soft strike to his
shoulder. “And wanting to have sex isn’t the same as liking feet. I thought you
weren’t Japanese like that, honestly!”
Rei doesn’t even sway. “I like everything,” he honestly says, catching Shu’s
foot again and running his thumb down the bottom of it. “And you’re cute, so
you literally could ask and I’d be game. Just keep that in mind.”
“That tickles--” Shu thrashes, slightly panicky even as he twists, huffing when
Rei stops poking at him. “Why should I have to ask? You should just...do
something to me. Ugh, that sounds lewd but that’s how I meant it, so...”
“You don’t have to ask, I’m just saying, if you ever had something in mind,”
Rei teases, releasing Shu’s foot with a last little pat. “But yeah, you’re
right. I should just do something to you. Whenever I want. Seems like you’re
the real pervert with a suggestion like that.”
Shu throws the pillow at him, forcing it to earn its name. “Forget it, keep
your erection, I hope it lasts for hours and you have to go to the hospital!”
Rei catches the pillow and hands it back with a smile. “Vampires get hard
whenever they bite,” he says with a glint of teeth. “So that’s a silly thing
for me to be worried about. Mmm, but that just means anytime you let me bite
you, you might have to let me fuck you into a wall again...”
“I’m not standing up. You can do me lying down or on the floor or in a bed or
over the damned piano for all I care, but I’m not standing up again.”
Rei’s face lights up. “You’d let me do you over a piano? Oh, that’s happening
in my club room, definitely.”
“Idiot! I have a piano! Why would you want to do one in public?”
“Because Beatrice has been through enough.”
“Who in the heavens is Beatrice? Who--oh, god, you named my piano, didn’t you?”
“I can’t believe you never named her before. You’re too cruel.”
“I told you, she wasn’t mine, she was my grandmother’s. And you’re more
protective of a collection of strings and keys than you are of most humans.”
Shu sits up, straightening his hair. “Which I respect.”
“That’s because most humans are garbage, and there’s no such thing as a garbage
instrument.” Rei surges forward to steal a kiss before Shu can squeal and
protest about it. “Let me run you a bath or something, I can tell you’re losing
your mind.”
Shu looks down, uncertain. “You can just...leave it like that? It isn’t hurting
you?”
“...That addicted to it already?” He can’t not tease Shu, damn it. “Seriously,
it’s fine--it’s literally gonna do this every time I drink,” Rei reassures him,
reaching over to fix Shu’s hair a bit more. “Vampires aren’t that well-evolved,
as you can see.”
“But...” Shu butts against that hand, reaching out a hand to rest on Rei’s
chest. “If someone’s offering to take care of it, isn’t that better? You were
so good to me, I’d feel awful to be in your debt over something like this.”
“It’s not...you’re not in my debt,” Rei answers with a startled laugh, grabbing
up Shu’s hand and pressing a kiss to his palm. “If you want to touch it, that’s
fine, but you’re not...you’re never obligated to. That’d be fucking creepy of
me.”
Shu blinks, tension starting to build in his neck and shoulders again. “I
don’t...know how this works. And I’d rather not be in your debt for any reason,
or be sort of...helplessly dependent, just because this is all new to me. So
coach me if you have to, but don’t let me thoughtlessly take advantage.”
“...You wanna know something?” Rei rests his hands on Shu’s shoulders, gently
squeezing and massaging. “I have no idea how this really works, either. I’ve
never been in a...well, that’s not quite true,” he hedges. “Middle school, I
had a boyfriend, sort of. But that’s middle school. Anyway,” he says
dismissively. “You’re not going to be in my debt. I swear I don’t care if, for
example, I blow you and then you don’t wanna return the favor. You’re not
taking advantage of me in any way. We’re having fun. Got it?”
Hesitantly, Shu nods, some of the tension dissipating. Not all, but he’s rarely
free of tension completely. “I think it’s unfair to hint that you’re anywhere
near my level of inexperience, though. I believe we’ve conclusively put an end
to that idea, after this.”
Rei blinks at him, his head tilting. “I dunno what you’re talking about. I
think you’re a great lay.”
“You do? I mean, of course I am! I always knew I would be.” Take that, hateful
graffiti in the middle school bathrooms!
There’s a pause, and realization slowly dawns on Rei. “Wait. Wait. Holy shit.
Did I just...were you a virgin?”
Shu’s head turns, and he fully stares at Rei, hand coming up to trace over the
bites on his neck. “Was it really not obvious? That’s good, right? It isn’t as
if I go around letting people do that to me.”
“Y-yeah, uh, holy shit? I had no idea, like not even in the slightest? Hah.
Fuck.” Rei scoots back, slides off the couch, and slowly slinks down to the
floor in seiza, and then down into particularly elegant dogeza from there. “If
I had known, I would have been so,so much more careful, I am so fucking sorry--
”
Shu’s head cocks, quizzical in his confusion. “Eh? Why are you down there? My
god, is this some kind of odd vampire ritual where you have to ask for my
official blessing before taking my virginity or something? Honestly, if I
didn’t want it, I wouldn’t have spread my legs for you.”
“I wouldn’t have fucked you against a wall for your first time!” Rei protests,
lifting his head, but only marginally. “I know you wanted it, but I still
could’ve been a lot nicer about it and taken care of you a lot more. You’re way
too good at it for it to be your first time, god--”
“Am I? I don’t really know what there is to be good at on this end,” Shu says
frankly. “All I did was let you put your cock in me and try not to kick too
much.” He stands, stretching out his limbs, face going pale at a few new
sensations. “Ah. I don’t see what difference it really makes, in the end. You
didn’t drop me.”
“No, I didn’t, and I’m going to pamper you now,” Rei firmly says, hauling
himself to his feet and snatching up his pants (pajamas) to haul them back on
before reaching for Shu’s hand. “I’m going to draw you a hot bath. Let me carry
you.”
“I can walk myself, honestly!” Shu squeezes Rei’s hand, but lets go, stalking
towards the bathroom. “It’s about nine steps, Rei. Don’t treat me like a child
or an invalid.”
“You should let me spoil you!” Rei whines, trotting after him. “Shuuuu, Ritsu
doesn’t let me spoil him anymore, I’ve been in withdrawal. If this is going to
be a regular thing, you have to let me!”
Shu stops in the doorway of the bathroom, toeing on his bathroom slippers
before entering. “Surely that must mean I get to spoil you as well.”
“Don’t you already?” Rei presses, leaning against the doorframe of the
bathroom. “You’re the one making me clothes behind my back.”
“That’s different. That’s spoiling myself. I get to look at you wearing them,
after all.” Shu starts the bath, cranking the water up as hot as it’ll go,
hoping that’ll force some heat through the creaky old pipes.
“...Uh huh. But you’re still making things for me.” Rei’s head tilts. “I mean,
by all means, spoil me in other ways, but I really have to spoil you.”
Shu strips off the remains of his shirt, folding it neatly. “Think of some way
to spoil me besides carrying me around like a limp sack of rice. Kiryuu already
does that plenty, and I assure you, I don’t find it charming.”
“Cool, got it. I’ll just give you blowjobs during school hours.”
“...Do you not enjoy that?”
“No, I love it. But the way you acted makes it pretty clear you love it even
more,and practice rooms are soundproof.”
Shu snorts. “Honestly, you’re incorrigible. Your mother should be ashamed for
bringing you into this world, if that is indeed how vampires are created.”
He dips a finger in the water and finds it satisfactory, taking off his
slippers and easing himself down into the water with a long sigh. “Join me,
that’s all the spoiling I need right now.”
“My mom is ashamed of me on a daily basis~” Rei cheerfully agrees, obediently
stripping out of his clothes. “‘Why can’t you go to a real music school?’ ‘Why
not cello, you’re so tall?’ ‘Stop failing P.E., it’s a total joke.’” He pokes
the water, just to make sure, and then taps Shu’s shoulder. “Scoot forward,
it’s spooning time.”
Shu scoots forward. “Let it be known that I’m only letting you spoon me because
I assume you know how to clean up what you messed up down there. Also, why are
you failing P.E.? Why not just ask to be excused from contact sports and
supplement your grade with additional dance training?”
“...Because I’d rather take a nap?” Rei sheepishly admits, sliding down into
the tub and then tugging Shu back between his legs with a content sigh. “I
already tested out of all the dance classes at Yumenosaki in my first year.
There’s nothing else to fill that credit with. Sooo, I just take a nap in the
shade.”
“How embarrassing. No wonder you’re in 2B when you’re by far smart enough to be
in 2A.” Shu relaxes back against Rei’s chest, and lets his hand idly rest on
one toned thigh, kneading into the flesh. “Your brother is awful in class.”
Rei snuggles up behind him, winding his arms around Shu’s waist. “Mmnn, but
anything outside of the idol course is boring and annoying. I’m failing almost
everything just because I refuse to do homework...aaand I have terrible
daylight vision, fuck teachers that use boards.” He turns his head, burying his
face into Shu’s neck. “Ritsu’s probably just like me in class--asleep.”
Shu gives his head a pat, a little indulgently. “When he’s awake, he’s teasing
me about you. That’s what’s awful about him.”
“He told me stories about how you apparently sing my praises at every
opportunity.”
“Rubbish. Only when the subject comes up. Or the subject of musical geniuses,
or very beautiful people, which is the same thing.”
“Uh huh.” Rei stifles a yawn against the side of his neck. “You’re this cute,
and you wondered why I’d be interested in putting my hands all over you?”
“Well, I’ve always been this way, and no one has ever wanted to do that before
you, so...”
“Maybe they were intimidated by you. I just think it’s hot when you strut
around like you own the place.”
“But I do own the place. I’m in charge. My ideas are the ones that matter.”
“Hi, remember me? This is the voice of your partner in crime, the immense
musical talent you need in Valkyrie or you’ll crash and burn, the one who can
learn your dances in about five minutes, the one who has to edit your
manuscripts because you keep forgetting to write in your key changes, which is
less cute--”
Shu flops back, effectively crushing Rei in the middle of his monologue. “I
suppose you’re a valuable tool,” he says with a sigh. “And you did recently
educate me in certain matters. Perhaps I’ll allow you to remain by my side.”
Rei settles back with a grunt. “I also look good in all of your designs. I’m
pretty great.”
“...Fair enough.” Shu turns his head, butting up against Rei’s for a soft kiss.
“Maybe there are more than two reasons for me to put up with you.”
***** Chapter 3 *****
Rei wakes up to a throbbing, pounding headache, and he nearly doesn’t bother
with the concept of today.
That’s been his mindset for the past week, however, so he doesn’t have a
choice. Slowly, painstakingly, he drags himself out of his coffin, shivering
and huddling underneath both a sweater and flannel and an enormous, fluffy
blanket as he drags himself to the kitchen.
It’s late in the afternoon, but the house is completely dark, courtesy of
black-out curtains on every single window. Only the dim lights of the microwave
and oven flash in the kitchen, but it doesn’t make a difference to Rei and his
night vision. Darkness is a relief—a desperately painful relief, because the
idea of sunlight makes him want to curl up in a pathetic little ball.
It’s Tenshouin’s fault. It’s completely Tenshouin’s fault, forcing Valkyrie out
into Lives during the day when before, his own solo concerts had been only at
night. He hadn’t felt it at first, but over the past couple of months, being
out in the day, using that much energy, performing nonstop, practicing at
night…
With a shaky, pale hand, Rei reaches into the fridge, grabs a veritable jug of
blood, sticks a straw into it, and collapses down at the kitchen table, huddled
up around it.
“Onii-chan is having a moment, huh?”
Ritsu drags himself into the kitchen out of the front room, socks on, wearing
yesterday’s clothes, rumpled and wrinkled. His hair is mussed in his face, and
he slinks forward, plopping down at the table with a huge yawn. “You missed my
Live last night. I thought you were gonna come.”
“Sorry,” Rei murmurs, slumping over the table to get to his straw, and takes a
long sip. He grimaces, pulling back to wipe his mouth, and pushes the jug
towards Ritsu unhappily. Chilled old blood is just not the same. “I lost track
of time. It’s been…since last week that I went to school? I think?” He rubs a
hand across the back of his eyes, heaving a sigh. “I hope it went well.”
“I dunno. It was okay. We did some songs and stuff.” Ritsu looks down at the
jar, then slides it back. “Maa~kun let me have a drink last night, so I’m
good.”
“Ah. Lucky.” Rei stares at the blood for a long moment, then sighs, resigned,
and takes another, careful sip.
It’s the wrong choice.
The violence with which his attempted dinner comes up surprises even him, and
Rei bolts for the kitchen sink, trailing blankets as he chokes and gags. “Fuck
this,” he wheezes, slumping forward and turning the water on to wash the mess
down the drain. “Fuck Tenshouin, fuck everything.”
Ritsu frowns, standing and moving to rub his brother’s back. “What’s--what’s
wrong? Onii-chan, are you sick? Are you--what can I do?” His voice spikes high
and concerned, and his back-patting gets more and more frantic.
Rei holds up a hand, fighting down a last wave of heaves that threaten to send
his dinner from last week up, too, at this rate. “It’s fine,” he manages after
a moment, slithering down and clutching at the edge of the sink. “I…I’ve just
been using a lot of energy, going out in the sun. Tenshouin’s fucking fault,
but what the hell else am I supposed to do?”
“Ecchan is doing it?” Ritsu’s voice is worried, anxious, and he pats at his
brother’s head, not sure what else to do with his hands. “You’re looking so
weak...want me to put some tomatoes in the oven? You wanna drink from me? It’s
not human, but it’s hot and I just had Maa~kun...”
“No, no, god, I can’t, I won’t want to stop.” Rei lets his head thunk against
the cabinets as he folds up on the floor, shivering and grabbing for his
blanket to huddle back up into it. “Tenshouin keeps booking all the night
venues,” he mutters. “So we’ve been performing during the day. I thought I’d be
fine, but…”
Ritsu kneels in front of him, rolling up his sleeve and thrusting his wrist
into Rei’s face. “Drink,” he orders. “Do it. Or I’ll just slit my wrist and
spill it onto the ground and it’ll go to waste.”
Rei stares at him, glassy-eyed and uncomprehending for a moment before he
lunges, grabbing Ritsu’s arm and biting hard.
It’s with none of the grace or gentleness that he usually tries to have when
drinking, but he can’t help it. Ritsu’s blood is warm and sweet and Rei
struggles to just keep it to a few, long, deep swallows, fails after the
fourth, the fifth, and finally wrenches back with a desperate, panting groan.
“S-sorry…sorry, I’m sorry,” he rasps, licking at the blood that trickles from
the corner of his mouth. “I’m gonna want to keep going if you don’t give me a
second.”
Ritsu pulls his arm back, rubbing over the puncture marks. “It’s fine, Onii-
chan. You always think I can’t handle as much as I can.” He’s a little chilly
now, and his cock is hard, but that’s nothing he isn’t used to, and he stands
smoothly, pulling his sleeve down. “Why is Ecchan going after you?”
“Because he’s a talentless hack that knows he can’t win Lives against us if he
doesn’t,” Rei dully says, flopping back against the cabinets again and pulling
his blanket mostly over his face. His head still pounds, but he isn’t shaking
as much now, at least. “If I fuck up and drop out or don’t show, Shu’s fair
game…and Tenshouin knows it.” Rei shivers again, drawing his knees up to his
chest. “If it’s been a week…fuck. Shu’s going to be so pissed at me.” Even if
he says that, he can’t bring himself to summon enough energy to get up and get
his phone—which just sounds stressful, assuming there is text after text from
his angry unit partner.
“I thought he knew you were a vampire. So he should know that you can’t do that
stuff during the day, right? Maa~kun doesn’t bother me too much about it
anymore...I think that’s one of the benefits to dating...”
“He knows I’m a vampire, but…” Rei sighs, shrugging. “I’ve still been doing the
lives during the day, and it’s not like I complained before,” he admits. “I
made it work for awhile, it just started making me more and more tired, until I
barely managed to get home last week…and I’ve been passed out since.” He wipes
a hand down his face. “This isn’t an issue about dating.”
“But you’re dating Shucchan.” Something occurs to Ritsu, and his brow furrows
in sudden suspicion. “You...you are dating him, right? I guess you’ve never
called him your boyfriend.”
“I really don’t see why that makes a difference,” Rei grumbles, huddling up
further underneath his blanket.
“But...” Ritsu scratches his head. “That means you don’t have a boyfriend. That
means you suck. I mean, it’s just a side point, but you definitely suck if you
can’t even get Shucchan to go out with you.”
“Why are you being so mean to me?” Rei whines. “Just because I haven’t
officially asked him out doesn’t mean we aren’t a thing, and—and besides,
what’s that matter, huh? Ritsuuu, be nice to me, I don’t feel good and everyone
sucks.”
Ritsu sits at the table, dipping a finger in Rei’s glass of blood and licking
it off. “Yuck. Type O negative, not the good stuff at all. Onii-chan, if you
don’t have someone to back you up, you’re gonna fall down. Valkyrie’s only got
two people.”
“That’s the only stuff that was in the fridge, Mom sucks,” Rei moodily replies,
plopping his chin down onto his knees. “Shu deserves someone that isn’t just a
mess of bullshit,” he says, hearing himself be unnecessarily negative, not
caring, not willing to edit. “I’m a good lay, not a good boyfriend.”
“Shucchan brings a pitch pipe to class every day and lays it on his desk
because Ecchan told him he was flat in class one time three months ago. He’s
kind of a mess, Onii-chan.”
“That’s not a mess, that’s adorable, and pretty fair. I’d flip out if Tenshouin
told me I was flat.”
Ritsu frowns, then delves into his pocket, pulling out a crumpled piece of
paper. “He gave me written permission to praise him whenever I want, and told
Secchan that he should always hold still because then he looks like a pretty
doll.”
“…Yeah, that’s weirder. I’m not saying he doesn’t have his weird parts, I’m
just saying I suck, and he’s cute, and he deserves someone way less sucky and
way more cute.”
Ritsu narrows his eyes. Maybe most people would see Rei being sweet,
complimenting the person he likes, and maybe being adorably shy.
Ritsu sees his most important person in life throwing away his one chance at
happiness.
He yawns, winding a strand of hair around his finger. “Maybe you’re right. Heh,
he is pretty cute, right? I mean, just that bone structure...and his hands are
really nice when he touches my legs. I bet they’d feel good just about
anywhere.”
Rei frowns at him, and slinks down a few more centimeters. “Don’t be gross
about it,” he mutters. “He isn’t touching you like he wants to fuck you, I
know.”
Ritsu shrugs. “Not yet. But I bet if I wore shorts tomorrow, he would. He’s got
a thing for cute boys in shorts, right? And I’ve got this written permission to
praise him whenever I want, I’ll just tell him he has a nice ass.”
“Can you not?” Rei pulls his blanket directly over his head. “Ritsu, I know
what you’re trying to do, please stop.”
“But you make him sound really cool...and it sounds like he’ll let me top every
time, and that sounds good. And you can’t stop me, because he’s not your
boyfriend. Right?”
“I’m going to ask him out at some point!” Rei snaps, though a lot of the force
behind it is lost when he’s muffled underneath a blanket, and bone-tired,
besides. “Just—just not in the middle of this.” A wet, muffled sniff follows.
“Not if he hates me after I fucked off for a week.”
“Sweet. If he hates you, he’ll be really easy to ask out. I’m gonna wear the
red shorts, that should get his attention. Onii-chan, I have nice legs, right?”
“Just do it,” comes the defeated response in return as Rei slumps to the side,
starting to go horizontal on the floor. “You have the best legs and deserve the
best. I’ll just starve and die right here.”
Ritsu looks down at him without pity, nudging him with one foot. “Yeah. You’re
right. Sounds good. Actually, I’m not gonna wait for tomorrow.” He pulls out
his phone, then dials Shu’s number.
Rei huffs, rolling partially away from Ritsu’s foot. “Good,” he glumly says.
“Just get it over with. Get a harem, just like Mom wants—then you can keep
being the favorite, living by her shitty example.”
“Wow, you’re pathetic,” Ritsu says without sympathy. “It’ll serve you right
when I steal Shucchan and leave you to die on the floor.”
“Hello? Who is this and how did you get this number?”
“Shucchan, be nice to me. It’s Ritsu. You like me enough to be nice to me,
riiiiight?”
“Don’t be mean to him,” Rei pleads, even though he doesn’t lift his head from
his blanket prison. “He’s a delicate soul.”
Ritsu shifts enough that he can rest one foot on Rei’s chest, pressing down.
“Shucchan, we should go out this weekend. Take me out and treat me to
stuff...at night.”
“Take you out? For what reason?”
“Like a da~ate. You’re attractive. I’ll wear shorts.”
“Y-you--”
“Ritsu, quit it,” Rei begs, shoving himself up onto his elbows—or at least, he
tries to, but what would normally be so easy just makes his arms wobble until
they give out, and he flops back down with a huff. “Ritsu, seriously, leave him
alone. I’m going to call him later, it’s fine.”
Ritsu covers the phone and mouths, “Later isn’t good enough.” Then he walks in
the other direction out of Rei’s reach, and adds, “Shucchan, you were real cute
in class today. The clothes you make are always real sexy...makes me wanna take
‘em off you.”
“R-Ritsu! Does your brother know you’re calling?”
“My brother? Yeah, he doesn’t care. He told me to go ahead and ask you out if I
want to.”
“I didn’t say that!” Rei quickly calls after him, hoping Shu will at least hear
him over the line and realize that Ritsu is being ridiculous. He rolls,
flopping onto his stomach, and wobbles his way up to his feet again after some
considerable effort. “Ritsu, you’re really not playing fair,” he weakly
protests, huddling up in his blanket as he trails after Ritsu’s heels, reaching
for the phone. “Give me the phone.”
“No. Well, Shucchan? Wanna?”
Ritsu listens to the response, then turns it onto speaker phone. “Sorry, you
were breaking up. Say it again?”
“I said,” the voice comes irritably over the line, “that I’m not going to go
out on a date with you, because I’m dating your brother.”
“Wh—“ Rei stands still, wobbling for a moment, and then yanks his blanket back
over his face, dropping right back down to the floor. “See? See? I’m the worst
boyfriend, I didn’t even know, I’m the worst, just fucking put me out of my
misery and kill me right here—“
“What?” The voice comes over the line in confusion. “What do you mean you
didn’t know? What does--what does that mean?”
Ritsu stares at the phone, unsure what to do, then just hangs up. “You’re
definitely the worst, Onii-chan, if Shucchan is braver than you. He hides under
the desk when we watch PG-13 movies in class.”
“I’m definitely the worst,” Rei dejectedly agrees. He sits there for a moment,
biting his lip, unsure of what to do, and finally sticks his hand out from
underneath his blanket prison. “Let me borrow your phone, mine’s dead.”
Ritsu hands it over immediately. “If you break up with him, I’ll break your
toes,” he threatens lazily.
“No, I need those.” Rei pulls the phone underneath the blanket with him.
 
 To: Shucchan
 Subject: It’s Rei
 Please don’t freak out my brother is being pushy and bad and I’ve been sick
all week. I’m really sorry.
 If he were any better at this, he’d apologize—I didn’t know, that doesn’t mean
I don’t want to—but typing that out, opening that can of worms…
 
 To: Sakuma Ritsu
 Subject: Ah
 Are you coming to practice? Not that I need you here. I don’t need you for
anything except the music. And some of the dancing. And singing. And sex
appeal.
 
 To: Sakuma Ritsu
 Subject:
 and I miss you.
 
“Why aren’t you just calling him? Isn’t it faster?”
“Because I’m not, that’s why! Leave me alone!”
 
 To: Shucchan
 Subject:
 i
 To: Shucchan
 Subject: sorry
 My nails are too fucking long and it amkes texting hard. Im still sick. I’m
really really sorry.
 
 To: Sakuma Ritsu
 Subject: >(
 Get it together. Come to practice. Come and sleep there if you have to but
it’s important that I see you.
 
 To: Shucchan
 Subject:
 i literally can’t leave the house don’t tel lme what to do
 
“I can’t do this,” Rei mutters, shoving the phone back out from underneath his
blanket hive and slowly crawls his way over to the kitchen table to use it to
get back up to his feet. “I’m going back to bed.”
Ritsu grabs the phone, looks at the previous messages, and almost throws it at
his brother’s head. “You suck and I don’t know you. I literally don’t know you,
I’m going to tell everyone that you’re a stranger to me. Why can’t you even
keep a guy who wants you? If you fuck it up, you can’t have Maa~kun. He’s
mine.”
“I don’t want Isara, don’t be a fucking idiot,” Rei snaps, yanking his blanket
tighter around himself as he summons the last bit of his strength to stalk back
towards his bedroom. “He’s got enough to fucking deal with without me. I’m
going back to bed and maybe by the time I starve, he’ll have beat Tenshouin
Eichi on his fucking own, because he’s good enough and I’m like this!”
The door to his bedroom slams shut behind him, and Rei throws himself down into
his coffin with a wet, resounding sniff.
A few hours later, there’s a knock on his door, one far too brisk and
businesslike to be Ritsu. Then, through the door comes a muffled, “Hold on, he
locked it, I have picks.”
A minute later, the door opens, and Itsuki Shu walks in, blinking in the
darkness. “I don’t know how I’m supposed to see anything like this. If I crash
into anything, it’s your fault if it breaks.”
Rei, sleeping a fitful, unhappy sleep with his coffin’s lid still mostly open,
thrashes to the side at the first, deep inhale of air that has a human’s scent
within it.
Not just a human’s—Itsuki Shu’s, and fuck, fuck, he has fucked up so much.
“Don’t—don’t turn on a light, hold on,” Rei croaks, forcing himself to slowly
sit up, somehow more bedraggled and grey than when he emerged earlier, and he
fumbles outside of his coffin to slap one of the dim blacklights stuck there.
It’s not much, but it’s something, and he stares up at Shu with bleary eyes.
“You smell good.” Yeah, that’s totally the cool thing to say to your boyfriend-
apparent after disappearing off the face of the earth for a week, and being
this fucking lame.
“You’re probably smelling this.” Shu holds up a big container of several foil
packages. “Grilled spring onions, umeboshi, gingko nuts, honeyed daikon, lotus
broth, hot onion water, and sesame ginger oil. You’re going to go through them
until you find one that makes you feel powerful.”
“Not that kind of sick.” Rei slumps over the side of his coffin. “Vampire sick.
Definitely smelling you.”
“Did your mother ever try any of these?” Shu demands. “My stupid great-aunt
Oriha swears by these for all ailments. Certainly at least one will work, even
on a vampire.”
“Shu. Can you please just come over here.”
Shu hesitates for a moment, then approaches, setting down the container before
he reaches the coffin. “This...is a bit overdone, isn’t it? The actual coffin?”
Rei shakes his head, hair lankly falling around his face as he reaches up,
grabbing Shu’s wrist. His breath hitches as he feels the thud of Shu’s pulse
underneath his fingertips, and his grasp tightens, fingers trembling. “Can I?
Shu, I’m so hungry.”
Shu glances back to the door, then shakes his head, pulling his hand back. “The
school outfits, they’d show that too easily. Here.” He rolls up his pants,
tugging them up all the way to the top until his thigh is exposed and bare,
then hiking it up to rest on the edge of the coffin. “Do what you must.”
It occurs to Rei that he should be offering at least a few more explanations,
something along the lines of why I haven’t shown up for a weekor why the fuck
I’m literally dying in front of you. That’s going to have to wait until he has
a proper taste, however, because Shu is offering, and Rei can’t think straight.
Hungry isn’t the right word. Ravenous, more like, which is why even after
having a taste of Ritsu’s blood to tide him over, it’s still not enough. Rei
lunges with none of the kissing and teasing that normally follow his requests
to feed, and his fangs sink in deep, immediately piercing.
That particular artery always pumps out blood so fast and so fresh, and Rei
gulps it down like he really is starving. He knows he goes too far, too long,
but at least he stops himself before it’s too much, and he drags his mouth
back, panting and with at least a fraction of his hunger sated. “Sorry…sorry,
lie down, I know…I know I took a lot, I…” His hands fumble and shake when he
tries to pull Shu into the coffin with him, but hey, at least he’s trying.
This is nothing like the lightheadedness that Shu usually feels whenever he
forgets to eat. This is a whole other level, and he sags to the side, flopping
onto Rei as he fades.
A few moments later, he blinks in the low light, fingers clutching at Rei’s
clothes. “Is it...enough?” He whispers, vision foggy. “Are you all right, or
more all right?”
“Getting there.” It’s all Rei manages to say for a long moment, his face
pressed into the crook of Shu’s neck. Curling up around him with all four limbs
feels like an indulgence, because Shu is warm and his heart beat is still
steady, even after he drank that much. “Sorry,” he murmurs, though for what
specific thing he is apologizing for is anyone’s guess. He doesn’t even know.
“Meant to call you.”
“As what?”
Shu’s voice is quiet, muffled against Rei’s chest. “As your unit leader, that
you abandoned? Or--Ritsu didn’t seem to think we were a couple, I don’t know
what you say about me at home--if this is all in my head--”
“Shhh. Shh. Shu, don’t do that right now.” Rei’s head starts to pound again,
and he considers just biting and taking another drink, but that’s getting close
to an unspoken limit, he knows. “I didn’t mean to abandon you, first of all.
I’ve been passed out for a solid week, trying to die.”
“Ritsu wouldn’t tell me.” Shu starts to slowly relax, eased by the venom
coursing through his system, though the vague sense of unease, of unhappiness,
of thinking that something once solid is now on shaky ground, doesn’t
dissipate. “We have a Live in two days, if you’re sick you have to tell me so
we can reschedule.” Easier to think about Valkyrie than to think about them,
whatever they apparently are.
“I literally don’t remember the past week. Don’t you think I would’ve called
you if I had?” Rei bites his lower lip, his fingers curling against Shu’s back.
“If it’s during the day, I...I can’t do it.”
“Fine.” Shu sits up a little, brushing Rei’s hair back from his face. He’s
paler than usual, looks like a ragged shadow of himself, and Shu tries not to
look too concerned. “Then we’ll do one at night again, like we used to.”
“Tenshouin won’t let it happen.” Rei hates how defeated he sounds, but when it
feels like he’s the disappointing their unit by being like this, it’s
impossible not to. “He keeps booking all the live halls even if he isn’t using
them. I thought...I thought I was strong enough to keep doing it during the
day, and it wouldn’t matter.” He swallows, and turns to plop his face down into
a stack of pillows. “Sorry. I know I let you down.”
“The only thing that’s letting me down is this horrific defeatist attitude.”
Shu grabs Rei by the shoulders, wrenching him upright, face firm and
uncompromising. “It’s...it’s no shame to be let down by your own body. But for
god’s sake, try to be clever to make up for it. Let’s plan a Live at an
unconventional venue, then you can get Hasumi to push your paperwork through.
That should work, shouldn’t it? If we can’t take advantage of Tenshouin being
ill all the time, what’s the use in him being delicate, anyway?”
Rei blinks back at him, which quickly turns more rapid in an attempt not to
start crying on the spot. It doesn’t entirely work, and he sniffs, shoving his
sleeve up to his face to stop the waterworks at least somewhat. “E-even Keito
wants to fuck him, s-so he probably won’t help us. It’s...it’s a good idea in
theory, but...”
“But you haven’t tried it,” Shu insists. “By all means, if we fail, tell me I’m
a fool and an idealist, but don’t tell me that before we’ve lost this battle.
We’re destined for greatness, you and I. Rei--we’re the ones he should fear.
I’ll book us a TV spot if I have to, and those vulgar masses I hate will be
clamoring to see us live!”
Well, it was nice having a cool image and not being a fucking loser crybaby in
front of Itsuki Shu while it lasted.
The first sob chokes in his throat, and the dam breaks. “S-sorry, sorry, I’ll
get it together in a minute,” Rei manages, grabbing for the box of tissues he
deliberately keeps in his coffin for this express purpose and basically shoves
a handful of them into his face. “Y-you’re way too good, you know?” No one’s
ever said something like that to me before sounds way too pathetic to actually
vocalize, but it’s true, and even just thinking it makes Rei burst into another
wave of tears. “Fuck, why do I suck so much,” he exasperatedly groans through a
hiccuping sob. “T-that’s why--that’s why I didn’t want to s-say we were
actually dating, you need someone a million times cooler--”
“Rei...”
Shu’s natural arrogance wars with his deep-seated insecurity, and he manages a
shaky, uncertain smile. “If it helps, I keep expecting you to leave Valkyrie
and go solo,” he admits finally, looking down at his folded legs. “You’re so
musically talented, and you have so much appeal you could use in any direction
you choose. I’m...so narrow, in my focus, I know that, it’s why I never hoped I
could ever have a...partner.”
Rei chokes on a wet, ragged laugh. “I’ve been solo, and that’s why Tenshouin’s
being like this now,” he sniffs, blowing his nose loudly. “He fucking hates me,
and now he hates you, because you’re talented. God, I hate this.”
“Rei, I adore you. I think you’re the most talented, the most beautiful, the
smartest man I’ve ever met.”
Shu leans in, taking Rei’s face in both his hands, looking at him seriously.
“But if you don’t toughen up a bit, I’m going to remove your spine and replace
it with something sturdier. Yumenosaki is an elite academy for idols, isn’t it?
You think we won’t have challenges worse than Tenshouin when we enter the world
of actual competitive paid work?”
Rei sniffs again, staring at Shu with tears and five-day old eyeliner dripping
down his face. “I can do competition,” he says after a moment. “I can be tough.
But I hate him, and he’s...he’s not playing fair, Shu, and I know no one ever
seems to in entertainment, but he’s worse, somehow.” He draws back, shoving
tissues against his nose again. “I’m probably just fucking exhausted still.
I’ll...I’ll get over it, so I can rub his face in the dirt.”
“We’ll defeat him together.” Shu dumps a few tissues on Rei’s head, then adds,
“The Kings of Heaven and Hell. God, I wish I’d known our makeup before I’d
named the team, I could have been even more referential. It probably would
still have been a Wagner reference, of course.”
“You and your Wagner,” Rei mumbles, plucking the tissues out of his hair and
using them immediately. “Ugh. I’m still really sorry. I got home after our last
live, and passed out, and it’s been like this ever since...this is why I keep
failing P.E., I warned you.”
“If you can’t learn to use a real phone, use a cup with a string tied to it,”
Shu mutters, reaching down to rub over the stinging puncture marks on his
thigh. “Now, enough wallowing. Get up and take me out to get something to eat
so I can be strong enough for you to feed on again until you build up your
strength. I won’t have you rivaling me for passing out in strange locations.”
“There’s a bakery in the station that’s really good.” Slowly, painstakingly,
Rei heaves himself out of his coffin, wobbling for a second as he scrubs his
face dry with a last sniffle. “Sorry about Ritsu, by the way,” he adds darkly.
“He was trying to help, but he gets really carried away...”
“Ah, is that what he was trying to do?” Shu rubs the bridge of his nose, ears
coloring a tinge. “It certainly made me re-examine many of my past
conversations with him in a new light, that’s for certain.”
“He’s the worst brat in the world, and also, the cutest.” Tentatively, Rei tugs
on the cord to a lamp, casting vague, yellow light over the room at last. It
doesn’t sting as much as he thought it would, which makes him relax with a long
sigh. “This is my room, by the way,” he says, peering in a wall mirror and
gingerly wiping off the last trails of old eyeliner from his face. “That’s
Adelaide, my piano. I do also have a number of original Wagner orchestrations,
if you ever want to touch the same manuscript he might have possibly touched.”
Shu’s eyes light up, and he makes his way briskly to the piano, fingers
wriggling in anticipation. “Ah...one shouldn’t touch such things, not even me,
but just knowing that I’m in the same room with them...” He sighs, smoothing
his clothing down, trying to force his excitement down with his hands alone.
“Knowing that is enough for me. Ah, you’ve given me a great gift.”
He pauses for a moment, then says carefully, “I should introduce you to some of
my favorite dolls, if you like. Later.” The sentence costs him something, a
willingness to open himself up to the kind of bullying that had led to his
current personality, but Rei...it’s possible that he deserves this.
“Um, yeah, you really should. I’m insulted you haven’t already, to be honest.
Your dolls are cute.” Rei tries to finger-comb his hair, gives up, and settles
for tying it back with a sigh. “I’ve got a lot of old stuff like that, it’s my
mom’s way of attempting to show interest in my ‘hobbies.’”
Shu tries to find the insult in that remark, and fails. Unbidden, hot tears
prickle at his eyes, and he blinks rapidly, striding over to grab Rei’s hand
and squeeze it, tugging him towards the door. “W-we’re going to the station,”
he says firmly, “and I’m going to eat a croissant, and you’re going to stop
being stupid and feed on me until you’re not hungry! And then I’m going to
introduce you to my dolls, and then we’re going to crush Tenshouin Eichi into
the dust!”
Rei blinks, letting himself be dragged along to the point he barely remembers
his shoes. “Ah--y-yeah, got it, I got it,” he quickly agrees, his lips
twitching into a faint smile. “You’ve gotta eat more than just one croissant if
you’re gonna satisfy me, though.”
“Are you saying I don’t satisfy you regularly?”
“I’m saying I’m gonna eat you alive, so you better be in the best condition of
your life.”
“I--oh.” Shu clears his throat, then yanks on Rei’s hand, walking briskly
through the odd, overblown, black-draped house. “Then prepare to be properly
satisfied by your meal, I suppose!”
***** Chapter 4 *****
Chapter by Galiko
Ultimately, Rei has a lot less patience--and a lot more suspicion--when it
comes to Shu even missing a day of class. 

Essentially ruling Yumenosaki for an entire year is fun and all, but it hasn’t
made them the favorites of Tenshouin Eichi by far. That’s why, when Eichi is
smiling and content and Shu doesn’t come to practice or class or answer texts
for a day, Rei shows up at his doorstep after school. 

 It’s probably nothing, it’s probably fine, humans get sick, humans take days
off, this isn’t like what I did.

At least, it’s not going to get to that point, because this is Day One, ground
zero, and Rei is already in Shu’s house, toeing off his shoes and unfolding his
parasol. “Shu?” he calls, leaving his violin at the door. “Shuuu, you’re not
allowed to skip out, that kinda comes with the territory of me letting you be
called the ‘leader’, you know? Also, I’m hungry.” Between those two excuses,
that should hopefully make him come out of hiding if Eichi didn’t murder him. 

Very slowly, the door to the sewing room opens. “Up here,” Shu says quietly, in
a voice not entirely like his own.

Then he retreats, as he’s done for the past two days, surrounded by fabric and
porcelain, repainting the faces of all the older dolls, dipping tiny brushes in
pots of paint he’d mixed himself. The fabric is in nothing like disarray,
carefully sorted into piles according to age and origin, all of his favorite
dolls lined up from oldest to youngest, all of their eyes turned to the door.
Three of them are in Valkyrie outfits, two others in exercise clothes. The rest
are in some combination of summer wear and ballgowns, painstakingly recreated
on a miniature scale. At the moment, he’s holding one of his favorites in his
arms, a lovely little blonde girl he hasn’t named yet, running a tiny horsehair
brush carefully through one ringlet at a time.

Well, at least he’s not dead. 

Rei quickly makes his way to the room, poking his head inside, and his eyebrows
climb. “Taking a day off to sort out your children?” he asks, plopping down
onto a chair that isn’t covered in a fabric pile. “I get that, but warn me next
time. Tenshouin was smiling too much today, and I don’t like that.” 

“Tenshouin-kun is not a nice boy.” The voice quavers, on the verge of sing-
song, until Shu shivers and clears his throat. When he speaks again, it’s
deeper, more normal. “Our Live on Saturday is canceled.”

“Mm. Really. Did he cancel it, or did you?” Rei slides to the floor, pushing
aside a stack of fabric to sit cross-legged next to Shu instead. “If he tried
to move it to a different time, I can make a daytime Live work.” 

“He...” Shu smoothes the doll’s hair down, in time with the tinkling notes of a
music box spiraling in his mind. “You should form another unit, Rei. I can’t, I
can’t come with you.”

“Oi. What’s going on?” Rei scoots closer, tilting his head to catch Shu’s gaze.
“You know if he fucked with you, I’ll make his life hell,” he lowly promises.
“He’s not allowed to bother you, that’s why I joined up with you in the first
place.” 

“He didn’t...do anything to me.” Shu avoids Rei’s gaze, a mix of burning
humiliation, shame, and frustration heating his gaze. “He recruited Wataru,
that traitor. Maybe you should just go with them. He’s stealing everyone I
love.”

A sense of dread starts pooling in Rei’s stomach. Wataru? Really? But he has no
reason to join Tenshouin. It’s pointless to ask questions about that, though,
when that’s clearly not why Shu is so stressed. It sucks, but that’s still not
the reason, or he wouldn’t be so forthcoming with it. “I’d literally rather die
than be in a unit with Tenshouin Eichi,” Rei bluntly says, and grabs Shu’s face
in his hands, forcing him to look at him.  “What did he say to you?” 

Shu tries to look away, but Rei’s hands are strong, cold and hard and
implacable, until he whispers, “He instituted a new rule. Warned me about it.
The, the stress of idol work is too much for some of us, he said. So they’re
instituting mandatory mental health testing at the beginning of each semester.
And I...” He can’t say it. His hands tremble on the doll brush, even as he
tries hard not to wrinkle her skirts. “He looked at my last results. He knew
them.”

Rei blinks. He’s not sure what he expected, but it certainly wasn’t that--
though it makes sense, disgustingly enough, that Eichi would go for that low of
a blow. “It’s not going to be an issue,” he firmly says, gently giving Shu’s
face a squeeze. “And if you think it’s going to be, you’re going to go ahead
and tell me why.” 

Shu tries to pull away. He tries to avoid it, tries to try and keep this one
good thing in his life, even though he’s always known, logically, that it could
never last. “It’s better for you just to go. I’m--I’m fine, I can function just
fine, but the kinds of testing they do--I don’t do well on them. Can’t we leave
it at that?”

“Shu. We’re both nuts, what’s the point in not telling me about it so I can
cover for you?”

Rei releases Shu’s face with a sigh, and rocks back onto his hands as he
watches him. “Do they like to bring up the fact you live here all alone? That
your parents suck and are neglectful? Does it bug you that they ask you about
your dolls, or why you hate crowded places? Or is it the eating thing? I can
teach you how to lie to them and get away with it, so long as you’re okay
talking to someone else--me--about it.” 

Carefully, Shu sets his doll on the ground, making sure she’s sitting modestly.
Then he raises a hand and slowly counts on his fingers. “The doctors say...my
family doesn’t listen to them, but they have opinions. Obsessive. Hysterical
anxiety. Sociopathic or narcissistic, they differ on that one, my father kept
taking me to different doctors that would give me a clean diagnosis. Acrophobia
with panic disorder. Adjustment disorder and transference--that’s a new one
since last year, that’s...probably the one they’d use to keep me out of
Lives.” 

His voice drops, and he curls up, knees to his chest. “I can’t even say they’d
be wrong.”

Rei leans forward again, planting his hands gently atop Shu’s knees. “But you
still perform at least once weekly, even with all that,” he quietly points out.
“The kinds of people that these ‘mental checks’ are going to keep out are
people that haven’t learned how to cope, and you’ve done that already. Hell,
it’s more likely for Tenshouin to get me kicked out than it is you.” His
fingers squeeze slowly. “What happened last year for you to be so scared of
them flagging you as a risk?” 

No, he can’t be without his doll now, not when she’s so comfortingly familiar.
Shu picks her up, smoothing her skirts again, running the brush through her
curls gently. “It doesn’t matter. She’s--it doesn’t matter, it’s nothing that
can be fixed.”

“Even if it’s something that can’t be fixed, you can feel better about it if
you complain about it. Here, come here.” Rei grabs Shu by the arm, pulling him
forward and into his lap, careful not to jostle him in a way that’s going to
disturb his doll as well. “I’m not gonna laugh at you. You know that, right?
Besides, you’re way cooler about just about everything than I’ll ever be.
You’ve seen me be a gross snotty mess and you still like me well enough.” 

Shu lets out a breath, not quite a laugh, warmer than a huff, and curls up,
hands stroking over the doll’s hair. She has such charming eyes, blushing
little cheeks, the most perfect bone structure he’s been able to paint onto a
face, after months of redoing the contouring over and over again. “I...there
was a woman I loved, once,” he says, focusing on the doll, almost able to see
her blink and smile. “She’s no longer in this world.”

Considering Shu’s basically the most homosexual guy Rei has met (other than
himself), that has to mean some kind of a mom-type, or sister-type, if he’s
really reaching. “And that happened last year? I’m sorry.” Rei plops his chin
down atop Shu’s head gently. “Is your doll named after her?” 

“No. I couldn’t bring myself to...but I think, sometimes, when I look at her,
that that woman is still here. And I, I hear her talk to me.” Shu’s lip
quivers, and he cuddles back onto Rei harder. “She--was the most important
person in the world to me, and...heh, you’re the first person to ask me about
her, ever. It’s as if...she never existed.”

“None of your other friends knew she died?” Rei loops his arms around Shu
firmly, giving him a squeeze. “And don’t say ‘I don’t have any other friends’,
because that’s not true. What about Kuro?” 

“I can’t speak to him about her. Not ever.” Shu’s voice is flat and absolute,
his shoulders gone rigid. “He doesn’t deserve to speak her name.”

“...And yet you’re still friends with him,” Rei coaxes, rubbing a hand against
Shu’s back. “So what happened there?” 

Shu sucks in a deep breath. This isn’t anything he wants to talk about, not
ever, but...

But doesn’t ignoring her life make it worse that she died?

She deserves to be remembered. By him, more than anyone, because he is the one
who’d loved her most of all. His hands move to brush the doll’s hair again,
reverently. “Ryuu-kun’s mother,” he says at last, the words aching on the way
up, as if he’s held them down for years. “She was his mother. And she taught
me...everything. How to mend, how to measure, how to create. How to keep nice
things nice, and make them better. Before, I...I always loved antiques and
lovely things, but I never knew that...human hands, that my hands, could do
anything except make beautiful things worse, dirty, torn.”

Ahhhh.

Suddenly, everything comes into clear focus, and Rei nods, stroking a hand
slowly down Shu’s back. If he keeps petting him, maybe that’ll do the trick and
keep him talking. “She sounds like a lovely woman,” he says quietly. “I was
wondering how you learned to sew; she must’ve been a hell of a teacher. No
wonder you can see her in that doll, she’s very beautiful.”

That brings tears to Shu’s eyes, and he turns his head, unable to look down at
the lovely lady in his lap when he’s being so embarrassing. “Tenshouin...I
don’t know how he found out about it, but after, after she passed...I was in a
hospital, briefly. And if they ask about her--I can’t fake it, I can’t pretend,
I justcan’t--”

“You don’t have to pretend.” Rei gives him another gentle squeeze, dragging him
closer to his chest. “Shu, you know that it’s normal to be upset about someone
special to you dying, right?” he presses. “It would be weird for you to clam up
and not want to talk about her. Bursting into tears if they asked you about
her, being upset about her passing--that’s normal and fine. No one’s going to
tell you that you can’t perform because of that.” 

“But Tenshouin said--”

“He can suck a dick. He’s just trying to fuck with you, that’s what he does
when he’s threatened. Because he is,” Rei firmly says. “He’s intimidated by
you.” 

“Well, obviously. But that doesn’t mean...there are questions they ask, Rei.
Have you ever been mentally evaluated? It’s not a delight.”

“Shu, I’ve been ignoring every music and dance teacher I’ve had since the age
of five telling me I’m depressed and should be in some kind of therapy. And
this is Japan, they don’t say that kind of shit unless they’re convinced
someone’s going to die.” 

Shu’s head thunks against Rei’s chest, desperately seeking the kind of comfort
he’d thought no one could give him anymore. “Have you ever...heard voices?” he
asks, voice small. “Talking to you? Telling you whether you’re doing the right
thing, talking...for you, sometimes?”

Rei thinks, stroking a hand back up into Shu’s hair. “I don’t know if it’s
quite the same thing,” he carefully begins, “but I’ve not remembered saying a
lot of things, sometimes for days on end, when it gets really bad. It feels
like someone that isn’t me has the reins for awhile, which is...not fun.” 

Shu looks up. That’s more understanding than he’d expected, and far less
condemnation. “I’ve had the same thing happen,” he whispers. “Sometimes I’ll
wake up and have finished a new dress, and I’ll have a pounding headache. I
always...sort of thought it was her ghost, making the things she can’t any
longer. It feels wrong, to want her gone.”

“Ahhh...yeah...yeah, I’ve had that happen before, with music, all the time.
It’s unnerving, right?” Rei’s smile is wry, and he musses Shu’s hair gently.
“Instead of thinking you want her gone, maybe just accept it’s some of your
genius overflowing when it doesn’t know what else to do with itself. Being this
good means you have to be at least a little crazy, that’s the rule. You’re just
lucky you had her to temper you into something really special while she was
alive.” 

The tears start at that in earnest, until Shu is huddled in Rei’s arms,
silently weeping like he hasn’t allowed himself to do until now. “I loved her
so much. I...never met another person who understood me like she did, she was
just--perfect warmth, a port in a storm, and she made me everything I am today.
How do you...repay someone like that, even after they’re gone?”
 
“You’re already repaying her.”
 
Rei pulls out a packet of tissues, rumpled and stuffed messily into the pocket
of his sweater, and unfolds them enough to offer them to Shu. “You’re the best
designer and writer Yumenosaki has ever seen, and will ever see,” he softly
says. “And showed up on the first day of school, ready to fight the student
council with your own vision whether they liked it or not. Shu, she’d be so
proud of you. My guess is she was already pretty proud of you, but now, even
more so.”
 
Shu takes a tissue and simply covers his face with it rather than wiping or
blowing, unable to meet Rei’s eyes. “She was always...eager for me to learn
about sewing, but also other things. I can’t help but feel like I let her down-
-she’d kick me out of the house, telling me to run outside and play like a
normal boy.” He laughs, mirthless. “As if I’ve ever been one of those.”
 
“Ahh, so that’s why you’re so in shape,” Rei gently teases, cuddling Shu back
to his chest. “I bet you don’t fail P.E. every single time. What’s letting her
down about that, huh?”
 
Shu spreads his hands, helpless. “What about me is normal, Rei? She’d be
disappointed. In her son first of all, but what’s more important is that she’d
be disappointed in me.”
 
“Do you really think she wanted you to be normal?” Rei tugs the tissue off of
Shu’s face, and plants a kiss directly onto his mouth. “No one that’s talented
and great is normal. She wouldn’t be disappointed in Kuro, either. You’re both
doing as good as you can, and it’s pretty impressive, if you ask me. So calm
down, okay?”
 
“You’re wrong about him. He’s...he’d deserve it.” For the first time, there’s a
chilly hard edge to Shu’s voice when speaking about his childhood friend. “He
was a delinquent in middle school, you know.”
 
“Uh huh. And so was I. Shit happens.”
 
Shu turns, looking up at Rei with red-rimmed eyes. “You wouldn’t miss your own
mother’s death because you were out running with a gang. She...I was all she
had, and his little sister, but she--she kept asking for him. To the end.”
 
“You can’t blame him for that, Shu. Period, the end.” Rei heaves a sigh, and
gives Shu a light shake. “Know why? Because I’m sure he’s already kicking
himself for it every single day. You know he didn’t deliberately skip out. And
even if he did…well, maybe he just couldn’t cope right then. This is one you’re
gonna have to let go.”
 
That’s nothing Shu wants to hear, and he struggles to get out of Rei’s hold. “I
won’t have it--you can’t talk about her that way, like she’s an inconvenience,
like she was just a person to be abandoned--she was everything to me--”
 
“I’m not talking about her like she was an inconvenience, I’m saying people
make mistakes, and I’m sure Kuro thinks of that every damned day of his life!”
 
Shu’s struggling is annoying, but Rei locks his arms around him, used to a
little brother that’s way stronger than a gangly, breakable human, besides. “Do
you think she wants you to remember her on her dying day more than anything
else?” he demands. “Stop thinking about the shitty way it ended, and think
about all the things she taught you and how happy she made you instead. If you
keep being pissed at Kuro and keep being sad, then yeah, you’re gonna fail any
psych exam Tenshouin runs you through, and you’d deserve to.”
 
 Because it’s so easy?
 
Shu wants to demand the words, to throw it in Rei’s face, to ask him if it’s
easy to forget how she sounded choking on her own breath, how she looked pale
and still lovely, twin spots of fever in her cheeks, how her eyes went white
all the way around as she searched in vain for her son, babbling at thin air,
pleading with him to promise, promise to look after the family, to look after
Shu--
 
Maybe that is easy, for a normal person. Maybe it’s only the fact that his mind
is broken that makes it impossible for Shu.
 
Unbidden, he giggles, high-pitched and coy, before shaking his head, grabbing
the doll and winding a ringlet around his finger. “She’s perfect, isn’t she?”
he asks dreamily, the thudding pressure of his pulse starting to fade, subsumed
in the slowly cycling music box in his mind.
 
Rei’s eyes narrow, and he climbs abruptly to his feet, hauling Shu up with him.
He doesn’t ask permission to remove the doll from his hand and set it onto one
of the various chairs made for the many pieces of Shu’s collection about the
room, and before Shu can go berserk about it, Rei simply tosses him over his
shoulder, marches out of the room, and kicks the door shut behind him. “Dolls
don’t belong in a practice session. Are you going to eat before we brainstorm
our new set together so I can, too, for the first time in a week, or is it just
going to be me doing everything on an empty stomach?” I hope I’m not fucking up
everything a million times worse, I really hope I’m not, but this is the only
way I know how to help if you won’t listen to me.
 
“No--Rei, you can’t, I need her, she’s--” Shu chokes back a shriek, clapping a
hand over his own mouth, feeling himself start to shake, his vision going gray
at the edges. “It’s--it’s happening again, I don’t--God, I don’t want to go
back to the hospital--”
 
“I’m not taking you back to the hospital.”
 
Rei dumps him unceremoniously onto the couch, and promptly stands in front of
him, ready to stop him from bolting if Shu decides to…whatever. “Your doll is
in your sewing room if you want to see her, no one is going to take her,” he
firmly says. “When you calm down, you can go get her, if you want. But first
you’re going to calm down, because you’re fine, and I’m here, and we need to
get shit done or Valkyrie’s going to suck and I’m not having that.”
 
Shu’s limbs flail for a moment, then still at the sound of Rei’s firm,
implacable voice. It isn’t full of pity, which is the only reason he isn’t
turning and walking out of the room immediately. That was what those bastards
at the hospital had done, stuffed him full of pills and pity until he’d sworn
to do and fake whatever he needed to in order to never, never go back there and
forget that it had ever happened. Slowly, he shudders, then breathes out. “I
still think you should join another unit,” he says, voice flat and lifeless.
“But...if you still want me here...”
 
“I’m not joining another unit, dumbass.” Rei drops down to crouch in front of
him, planting his hands atop Shu’s knees. “I wouldn’t have joined this one at
all if I didn’t want to work with you, and I didn’t hate Tenshouin Eichi. I’m
not going to let him fuck up what we have, and I’m not letting you go back to
the hospital. I promise.”
 
Shu’s hands tremble, and he presses them together, trying to force them still.
He looks down at them, trying to remember that they’re strong, they’re swift,
they can do anything he asks of them, he can always rely on them. “If you
could...forget I ever told you about that place,” he says softly, “I would be
very grateful. As far as I’m concerned, that never happened. I don’t know--
I don’t know how Tenshouin found out, I went to Yumenosaki because they don’t
do those fucking screenings like every other school I...that didn’t want me.”
 
Rei exhales a long breath as he nods, giving Shu’s knees a squeeze. “Yeah.
Yeah, consider it forgotten.” Something vague and put out crosses over his
face, but it’s obviously not directed at Shu, and he reaches up to wrap his
hands around Shu’s instead. “Tenshouin’s a bag of dicks,” he bluntly says. “I’m
not surprised he pulled this kind of shit. Let’s just forget about it, though,
and know that it’s not going to be an issue. I’m not gonna let it be. You don’t
even have to think about it.”
 
“Rei--if they screen me, if they look at my history and they deem me fucking
unfit to perform, you’ll be compromised too.”
 
“Do you think you’re the only one at this school with a fucking history? I said
I’ll deal with it. Or do you not think I can handle Tenshouin and his bullshit
policies?”
 
Shu drags his hands down his face, trying to shake his head and banish the
clamoring coming from inside it. It’s muffled now, quieter than before, but not
gone. It rarely goes away when he isn’t sewing. “He bothers you, too. His--his
thing about switching Lives to daytimes, you couldn’t handle that without me.”
 
“You’re right. He tried to fuck me over, too, but we fixed it between the two
of us.” Rei grabs his hands again, squeezing them tightly. “So let me return
the favor. This is the kind of thing I’m good at handling. We can’t both be
great at everything all the time, or we wouldn’t be partners.”
 
For some reason, Rei’s cold, dry hands squeezing his make Shu’s trembling stop
completely, something he’s never been able to manage by himself. He sucks in a
breath, then nods once, confirmation. “Fine. I--am not good at accepting help,”
he warns, “but I will try. For Valkyrie. For...you, partner.”
 
Rei exhales a laugh, giving Shu’s hands another firm squeeze. “I’m not good at
accepting help either,” he quietly reminds Shu. “I get it. I really do. But
I’ve got you in this, I promise.” He pats the back of Shu’s hands, releasing
them as he straightens to his feet. “Now eat a fucking croissant and relax, or
I’m going to get cranky.”
 
~
 
Skipping class to make time for the first year’s lunch in his own schedule is
what Sakuma Rei is all about, even if it means listening to Shu talk about a
number of ridiculous things.
 
Today’s debate in the courtyard next to the fountain as he lounges underneath a
parasol, Shinkai Kanata splashes in a fountain, and Wataru bedazzles another
mask? Whether or not Nito Nazuna is suitable for Valkyrie.
 
“No,” Rei says around his tomato juice box sippy straw. “Definitely not.”
 
“But Rei, he’s gorgeous. He has a lovely face, tiny perfect legs, rosy cheeks
that seem to blush even in the gloom, the cutest little singing voice...” Shu’s
voice is dreamy and a little nervous, fingers plucking at a nearby flower, as
if too nervous to play he loves me, he loves me notwith its petals. “And he’d
look so good between us, with the difference in our heights.”
 
Rei sucks the remaining life out of his juice box. “He can’t sing, he was
barely a choir boy, and his voice hasn’t broken yet.”
 
“I’m sure we could work around that! A little vocal training, that’s all he
needs--and Rei, he wants to be better than he is, Wataru told me all about it.”
 
“Did I say something so carelessly helpful?” Wataru asks, laying down
rhinestones, interspersed with small pebbles. “What I said is that he seems
drastically unsatisfied in his current unit.”
 
Rei rolls his eyes, spinning his parasol slowly. “He can’t dance, either.
Demonstrably. He’s bad at it.”
 
“He could get better. Are you saying you can’t train someone--”
 
“I’ll do it!” Wataru volunteers, for no reason. “I love hopeless cases!”
 
“Be quiet, Wataru,” Rei wearily says. “Shu, why do you want to waste your time
with someone that you’d have to train from the ground up when you already have
me?”
 
Kanata emerges from the water with a shake of his hair, splattering the three
of them thoroughly. “Nito-kun…seems like a good boy,” he says slowly. “But
very………..”
 
Rei stares at him.
 
“Rough around the edges.”
 
“See? Kanata agrees with me.”
 
“I didn’t hear any agreement there,” Shu snaps. “Don’t look to them for
consensus, we said we weren’t going to hold any votes until we’re all here.
Otherwise we always wind up in a tie.”
 
“That’s because I always vote yes to whatever mad scheme there is,” Wataru says
merrily, “and someone is always voting no. We’re a contrary breed, aren’t we?”
 
“It’s not up to the rest of everyone.” Rei leans forward, exasperated. “They
aren’t Valkyrie. We’re Valkyrie. And the agreement was if you and I can’t come
to a proper agreement, nothing changes. Remember?”
 
Shu lets out a frustrated huff, but refrains (barely) from stamping his foot.
Then, because it might make his point better, he stomps his foot, but on
purpose. “I just think a little extra addition might make this unit stand out--
you know I’ll do whatever I have to in order to defeat Tenshouin and Hasumi and
their stupid plans. If that means recruiting a little adorable cuteness, that
could be worse, couldn’t it?”
 
“Our unit is fantastic without a cute blob to drag us down.” Rei rummages into
his bag with a sigh, seeking out another box of tomato juice in lieu of
chomping down on Shu publicly. “If you want another member in Valkyrie and
can’t stop yourself from looking at blondes, you should think about that kid in
your class—Hakaze is his name, I think? He actually moves nicely, and he’s
tall, so we’d all be about the same height—“
 
“He likes the sea,” Kanata languidly pipes in. “He’s good.”
 
“See? Kanata still agrees with me.”
 
Shu frowns, tapping his foot a little, and folds his arms. “But I think we need
cuteness. You’re sexy and I’m terrifying. Neither of us are cute. Hakaze is
also oddly heterosexual, so that would be weird.”
 
Kanata bursts out laughing at that for some reason before diving back into the
cold fountain water. Rei shrugs. “I think he’s cute enough. He’s cute in the
approachable, sexy kind of way. Nito is cute in the ‘holy shit, I can’t believe
he’s out of elementary school’ kind of way, which…is less.”
 
Shu’s frown turns into more of a scowl. “Fine,” he snaps, sitting on the
fountain so it doesn’t look so much like he’s trying to have a height
advantage. “If that’s what you want, I won’t stop you from inviting someone
into our private unit just so you can enjoy your attractive blond....”
 
He trails off, listening to himself, twin spots of color appearing in his
cheeks. “Oh. Fine. I see what you did there.”
 
Rei smiles brilliantly at him, leaning in close. “Kinda makes you think about
what our unit needs and what it doesn’t,” he hums, hooking a finger into the
neckline of Shu’s many, many ruffles. “Maybe you should realize that you can
admire all you want, but in reality, you don’t need that floofy little mess of
a rabbit that can’t keep up with either of us.”
 
Slightly mollified, Shu relaxes into the tug, letting Rei pull him close with a
little half-smile. “I suppose you four are the only ones who’ve ever been able
to keep up with me,” he allows, arching a delicate, but strong eyebrow.
“Ruining that streak would seem to be...less than judicious.”
 
“Never fear, mon aimes,” Wataru exclaims, hoisting himself onto the edge of the
fountain, eyes magnificently bedecked in his new mask. “Shu clearly became
jealous of the rest of us, with our shepherded budding talent. It is so
enriching to be able to contribute to the formation of tiny minds, is it not?”
 
“You’re too noisy,” Rei complains, releasing Shu to turn away with a grimace,
only to end up soaking wet when Kanata bursts from the fountain again like some
kind of breaching whale.
 
“Bubble, bubble~!” Kanata cheerfully agrees, all smiles through his dripping
hair even though he clearly has no idea what’s going on.
 
“Why can’t you two let me enjoy lunch in peace,” Rei bemoans, huddling back
underneath his parasol. “It’s not like I can even have a sip of my bentou in
public, the least I can do is be able to bask peacefully in the smell of him—“
 
Except there’s no peace at Yumenosaki, not this year, not when Rei catches
sight of Hasumi Keito out of the corner of his eye. Nice timing.“Oooi, Hasumi-
kun,” he calls out, leaning back onto one hand. “Come eat lunch with us.”
 
Not a few eyebrows suddenly raise, both among the so-called Oddballs and the
general student populace, when Student Council Vice-President, first-year
Hasumi Keito, turns at the call.
 
“He’s going to give them detention,” one boy whispers, sounding dead certain.
 
“No way, Valkyrie is going to throw them a challenge!” another hisses back.
 
“Don’t be stupid, it’s a trap, they’re all going to drown him in the fountain!”
 
Seemingly oblivious, or at least unconcerned with the prattle, Keito walks over
to the eclectic group by the fountain, bag over one shoulder. “What is it,
Sakuma-san?” he asks, voice oddly clipped and formal.
 
Rei smiles indulgently up at him, his parasol still slowly spinning in his
grasp. “I’ve been meaning to talk to you about our president’s newest policies,
so I thought inviting you to lunch might be a good way to go about it.” In the
fountain, Kanata shifts uneasily, splashing quietly as he slinks beneath the
water except for his eyes poking out.
 
“Inviting me to lunch,” Keito repeats slowly, looking around at the other
Oddballs--Kanata splashing, Wataru reclining and watching him with wary cat’s
eyes, Shu looking as if he’s about to start releasing pressurized steam from
his ears. “Perhaps you should ask your companions first.”
 
Shu stands abruptly. “I won’t eat lunch with him. I’ll see you after school.”
 
“No, you sit and eat.” Rei pulls himself to his feet with a stretch and calmly
plants a hand on Shu’s shoulder to ease him right back down. “I’m gonna be
hungry later. Hasumi-kun and I will just go for a quick walk instead. He
probably wants to give me detention for skipping again, anyway.”
 
“I usually want to give you detention,” Keito says with a sigh, leaving a
grumpy Itsuki Shu behind as he walks off, trusting that Rei will follow faster
than he could ever leave.
 
Once they’re out of earshot, he says quietly, “There are easier ways to have a
private word with me. Now everyone is going to wonder how we know each other.”
 
“Like I’ve ever been good at sneaking around,” Rei sighs, slurping out another
mouthful of tomato juice from the box he finally manages to find in his bag.
“Might as well be obnoxious to you, then people will just assume it’s my bad
personality and that we dislike each other. Besides,” he adds sourly, “I never
know when you’re going to be in Tenshouin Eichi’s lap these days.”
 
Keito gives him a little enigmatic smile, ducking his head slightly. “We
aren’t...it isn’t like that. Not...” He clears his throat, looking away. “That
isn’t why you called me over, Mr. Obnoxious.”
 
Rei tries not to let his eyes roll out of his skull, but it’s pretty difficult.
“Yeah, yeah, more for you or something like that,” he says, sounding far more
weary than bitter or jealous. “But no, that isn’t why I called you over…though
it does concern your princess. He’s got some interesting new policies going
into effect next semester, huh.”
 
“...So I’ve heard.” There’s disapproval in Keito’s voice that should make his
position clear, even if his words don’t. “If that’s what the student council
president wishes, we have no choice.”
 
“He’s deliberately targeting Valkyrie.” Rei’s eyebrows raise. “He’s done it
before. Now he’s aiming for Shu, and I’m not letting that happen.”
 
Keito lets out a weary sighs, rubbing at his temples. “You literally formed the
unit to spit in his face. It’s a little late to pretend like you’re surprised
and hurt that he’s coming after you.”
 
“Do I sound surprised and hurt?” Rei finishes his juice box with another slurp,
and stuffs it into his bag, because Yumenosaki, like the rest of Japan, can’t
figure out that trash cans are fucking helpful. “I can see it clear as day,
Keito. I’m not surprised. I’m just warning you—I’m not letting it happen to
Shu.”
 
“What do you want me to do, Rei?” To anyone else, that might sounds defeated,
powerless. Hopefully, Rei knows him better than that. “You know I won’t be able
to directly go against his orders.”
 
“I’m not asking you to. I’m telling you that I’m going to, or I’m going to kick
his ass, basically.” Rei shrugs, fiddling with the wrapped end of his parasol.
“I’m not letting Shu get fucked over by him. And if you get in my way and try
to play as unfairly as he does, I’m pulling all of your unit’s music and you’re
on your own.”
 
Keito sucks in a breath, but doesn’t flinch. “You...have an idea?” he asks,
trying not to sound a little nervous at the idea of having his brand new unit
taken from him, suddenly without traditional Japanese-style folk-rock ballads
composed by Sakuma Rei. “I can’t directly move against him, but if you make
some kind of sideways move...”
 
Rei thinks for a moment, and then, very casually, he says, “Fair enough. I’ll
kill two birds with one stone, then. I’ll just keep challenging you to Lives.”
 
Keito’s eyes flick to the side, and he says mildly, “I thought you’d never ask.
He can’t ban me from accepting your Lives, after all. And...I just happen to
have booked a few. At night. Coming up. Which I already had booked for my
unit.”
 
“Then we’re all set, aren’t we?” Rei smiles brightly, and sidles closer to give
Keito’s thigh a swift pinch. “We’ll have a grand ol’ time, fair and square, and
there’s nothing he can do about you being too busy to back up his own
ridiculous requests.”
 
“It wouldn’t work anyway, if he weren’t currently hospitalized,” Keito says
bluntly. “I don’t want to say it’s luck, but I’d prefer if you didn’t call it
karma. That isn’t how karma works.”
 
“I remember all my Buddhism lessons, don’t worry.” Rei stifles a yawn. “I also
remember teaching you every damned dance move you know, so this should be a
party.”
 
Keito reaches over, touching the edge of Rei’s parasol before he stops himself,
fingers curling back in on themselves to make a fist. “Yes,” he manages. “A
party.” He pauses, then adds, more quietly, “Dad asked about you the other day.
Hopes you’re doing well.”
 
“Your Dad’s too nice.” Rei’s expression shifts wry, and he shrugs a little.
“I’m hanging in there. I’d be better if your bastard of an Emperor wasn’t
trying to destroy the few things that make me happy, but whatever, I guess.”
 
“Yeah, I just told him that you’re focusing on music,” Keito says, equally wry.
“The less he hears about Yumenosaki drama, the better. And he isn’t my bastard,
Rei. Not yet.”
 
“Geez. At least fuck him if you’re going to let him torment you and walk all
over you.”
 
Keito pushes up his glasses. “Working on it. What about you? And your...bento?”
 
“Hehh, Keito likes to eavesdrop,” Rei teases, bumping his shoulder up against
Keito’s. “Cute, isn’t he? That’s why Tenshouin needs to step off, he’s mine.”
 
“I don’t think Eichi has any interest in Itsuki like that, if that’s what
you’re insinuating.” He’d better not. Then again, Eichi has been known to
have...somewhat eclectic tastes. God, what a disaster. Keito nudges Rei back,
looking around. “Don’t let people see you getting too friendly with me. They’ll
think you’ve lost your edge.”
 
“I’ll just shove you into a locker and they’ll be none the wiser,” Rei
dismisses with a wave of his hand. “Tenshouin might not have a direct interest
in him, but he likes watching Shu squirm, for some fucking reason.” His voice
drops, low and irritated. “He looked up his old medical records. That’s not
cute, Keito. That’s nightmare fuel.”
 
Keito spreads his hands. “You think I had something to do with it? I didn’t
know that was going on until he said something about mental health--for god’s
sake, I thought he was going after you, even though I warned him...well. It
doesn’t matter.”
 
“Warned him? About what? That he’d come up empty if he tried, I hope.”
 
“Yes,” Keito says simply. “Because we made sure of it. Not that he needs to
know about that part. But I checked with all of the middle schools--I’m good at
pretending to be an adult--and they don’t have any record of your withdrawal
for anything other than the study abroad.”
 
Rei knows his mother had made sure of that before he’d even officially stepped
foot onto Yumenosaki grounds, but he says nothing. When drowning himself in a
Buddhist pond, cutting off his hair, and dropping out of middle school hadn’t
done shit to make himself feel better (or less paranoid), his mother tossing
him across the ocean to a music school in England for the last half of the
semester was about as good as he was ever going to get. “Lucky me,” is all he
offers up, his parasol spinning slowly in his grasp. “The point is, just
because I’m not that easy of a target on paper doesn’t mean Shu should be
considered one. I’m not letting him be one. Understand?”
 
Keito nods stiffly. “But again, I don’t know how much control you think the
student council vice-president has. And on a personal note, I’ll try to
distract him onto other targets, out of respect and affection for you, but
he’s...more like a force of nature, than like someone you can bargain with. I
just want you to be prepared for my possible, even probable failure.”
 
“Keito.” Rei stops, pausing as he tries to think of a better way to phrase
something, and then abruptly gives up. “I’m going to need you to shove him down
on your dick so that he’s way more into that than tormenting everyone else
around him.”
 
Keito gives him an exasperated look. “Not everyone appreciates that, Rei. I
know, it’s surprising, but...” He folds his arms. “That’s also not something
you get to dictate, honestly. Things between us are...delicate.”
 
“When did you turn into such a pussy?” Rei complains. “Tenshouin looks like
he’d be into some kinky stuff, just go for it, then maybe he’ll leave my unit
alone.”
 
With anyone else, Keito would shove them away...but this is Rei. So he raises
an eyebrow, and carefully asks, “If I do, what do I get?”
 
It’s not the response Rei was expecting, and a startled laugh escapes him
because of it. “What do you mean, what do you get? Ah…I mean, what do you
want?”
 
“I mean...make it worth my while.” Rei has always made him reckless, and he
leans in, eyes glittering behind glass. “You’re trying to get me to essentially
ruin the relationship I’d sacrifice my whole life for. You could at least offer
me something in return.”
 
“…Come up with something you want, then, and it’s yours.” Rei doesn’t lean
away, and instead, leans forward, poking one long, slender finger into Keito’s
chest. “Do you wanna be my snack again?” he lowly teases. “You look like you
could use a cheap thrill.”
 
Keito sighs, clicking his tongue a few times without leaning away. “And here I
thought you’d leap at the chance to be creative and lure me into doing
something terribly naughty. Perhaps having someone do all of your designing for
you has changed you.”
 
“Wow, rude. I was totally gonna let you show off your leveled up kinbaku skills
and bend me over your lap, but sure, insult my new favorite meal instead.”
 
“As if you’d step out on him. If I asked for that, you’d leer and tease but run
home with your tail between your legs.” Keito quirks an eyebrow. “I’ve heard
you’re ever so devoted to him. Are those rumors lies?”
 
“I’m going to bite you just to see how salty you taste these days,” Rei sniffs.
“I don’t know who’s been saying that to you, but they can stop running their
mouth anytime now.”
 
“Rei, I’m going to ask you kindly to remember that I’m in a class with both
Itsuki and Ritsu, and give me the slightest benefit of the doubt.”

“...Ah. I mean. Yeah. That’s fair. Still, fuck you, don’t pick on me when you
can’t just shove Tenshouin into a wall and...I don’t know, I guess you want to
kiss him or something.” 

Keito gives him a sour look. “You know how I told you I wanted to date and you
said yes? I told Eichi, and he laughed.”

“Knowing you, that probably made your dick hard.”

“.......It might have.”

“God. You’ve got it so bad. Just fuck him already.”

“You’re acting like there’s some course of action I can take to this conclusion
that doesn’t involve a consenting Tenshouin Eichi, which is incidentally the
party I’m lacking at current.”

“Keito, he probably wants you to shove him into a wall and take what you want.
Look me in the eye and tell me he’s not the kind of guy to have some weird,
fucked up fantasies. I bet he regularly throws his inhaler out the window when
he’s jerking off.” 

Keito stares at Rei for a long, long moment, trying to convince himself that
the words don’t make sense when all of his instincts are pinging at him that
maybe....

“I’ve always known your advice would get me arrested,” he says with a sigh.
“Fine. I’ll try it. You start thinking on some way to repay me--or I’ll collect
on your earlier jibe about enjoying being taken over my lap in kinbaku again.”

Rei flutters a hand, trying to be cool when he’s actually pretty flustered by
the idea, fuck you Hasumi Keito. “We’ll come to some kind of an agreement. Just
get Tenshouin out of my hair--and more specifically,Shu’s hair--or I’m gonna
stop being nice about it.” 

This is definitely going to give Keito a migraine before the day is out.
Meditation first, he thinks--and then perhaps, he can tackle the problem of
Tenshouin Eichi.

More important than dealing with Hasumi Keito’s love life right now, however,
is a proper lunch that isn’t just a couple of cartons of tomato juice sucked
down in-between stressful interruptions.

When everyone else is packing up to start heading back to class, Rei is turning
around to stride back across the courtyard to the fountain, where Kanata still
floats, Wataru still...Watarus, and Shu still sits sulkily. “Yo,” Rei says,
grabbing Shu up by the wrist to tug him up and then along behind him as he
marches off. “You ate, right?” 

Shu falls into stride, still sulking, but he’s learned his lesson about trying
to break Sakuma Rei’s grip when he’s intent. “Yes, yes, your bento has been
prepared--but honestly, after ditching me to hang out with Hasumi, I’m not sure
you deserve--”

Rei yanks Shu around the back of one of the school buildings and neatly shoves
him up against the wall, pinning that one wrist over his head. “I wasn’t
ditching you,” he simply says, dropping his parasol to tug down the ruffles
around Shu’s neck and prime the skin there with a hot, wet suck. “I was...mm. I
was dealing with the student council.” 

Shu’s breath catches in his throat, and he automatically shifts, nearly a year
of practice helping him to understand exactly where to put his feet, just how
he can stabilize himself so he won’t fall down during this part. “Dealing with,
hmm? Anything I should know about?” He can feel his own blood starting to thrum
fast, as if he’s been prepared, as if just Rei’s saliva has a physiological
effect on him by this point.

“Nothing bad. I’ll tell you later.” That’s about all Rei has the patience to
say right now when Shu’s blood practically jumps to the surface, and he bites
down, savoring the way his fangs sink into soft, soft skin and immediately draw
blood.

The way Shu tastes on his tongue always makes Rei want more, but even if he can
drink more than he used to be able to, it’s still never enough. Just a couple
of long, even swallows makes Rei shiver and flush, and he forces himself to
pull back, his tongue dragging over the twin trails of blood that drip down
from the bite mark on Shu’s neck. “You always taste so fucking good,” he sighs,
eyes lidded as he nuzzles up behind Shu’s ear. 

Shu’s vision clouds for a moment, everything blurring into sensation, before it
rights itself, colors brighter than before, breath coming quick and shallow,
delicious pleasure tingling through his veins, and he tilts his neck again,
looking up at Rei. “I had a big lunch,” he murmurs, fingers digging into the
stone building behind him for support. “You...should do the same.”

“Two croissants isn’t big,” Rei warns, his teeth gently nipping into the lobe
of Shu’s ear. Even though he says that, his fingers might already be unbuckling
Shu’s belt, and flipping open the button to his fly...because he has no self-
control, and even if he did, Shu offering himself up like that is too much of a
temptation for anyone. “If I drink again and you pass out, no one’s going to be
happy.” 

Shu’s hips jut forward, mouth falling open as he presses against Rei’s hand,
hungry and a little desperate, turning to seize his lips in a hard kiss. “Taste
that? Seaweed salad, and rice, Kanata made extra. Full of, mmh, iron and
protein, I ate so you could really feast...I hate it, so don’t put it to
waste.”

Rei exhales a low, rumbling sound of approval, his teeth gently scoring against
Shu’s lower lip as he draws back. “You’re such a good boy,” he breathes,
stealing another quick kiss before he drops to his knees, and yanks Shu’s
trousers down with him. 

Shu’s thighs are creamy-white and nothing but soft skin over the steel of a
dancer’s muscles, and Rei splays his fingers over one of them as he mouths
kisses all the way up from one of Shu’s knees to where that artery pumps strong
and hot, just underneath the surface. He can’t not feast now, not when Shu has
gone through the trouble of being so good, and so it’s with great delight that
Rei is able to sink his fangs in again, shuddering at the taste of Shu’s blood
when it spills over his tongue, bright and fragrant and rich. 

This--not just Rei on his knees, but Rei on his knees worshipful, Rei on his
knees supplicant, is what Shu lives for, these days. His lips part, the
thundering pulse of blood loud in his own ears, drowning out distant shouts of
students playing, birds chirping, cars passing the school, all below the soft,
urgent sounds of Rei slurping.

It doesn’t hurt like he’d thought it would. It never really does, just makes
him feel over-sensitive in a good way (usually he’s over-sensitive in such an
awful way, his whole damn life feels like it), drags him into shivering arousal
with every pump of venom through his veins. He’s certain he should be terrified
of being caught, just behind a school building with his trousers around his
ankles, ruffled shirt bobbing with every sharp intake of breath, but just can’t
summon the will to care about it when he feels so good. 

Maybe having some seaweed stuck in his teeth is worth it, even if it makes him
gag. 

“Take as much as you need,” he breathes, oddly proud of himself for being able
to say it, hand stroking through Rei’s hair. “A-ahh, just like that...”

Fortunately, as much as he needs isn’t too close to Shu’s limit today. Rei can
taste the energy and vitality in Shu’s blood, and it makes him shiver when he
finally draws back, licking up any little drops that try to escape, not wanting
to waste the tiniest bit of it when Shu tastes so good. He butts his head up
into Shu’s hands like an intensely pleased, overstimulated cat, and he licks
his lips, face flushed and eyes lidded as he peers up at Shu. “You,” Rei sighs,
fingers hooking into the waistband of Shu’s underwear, “are perfect. Nn, let
me...” 

“Better than usual, hmm?” Shu’s eyes are bright, his fingers curling in Rei’s
hair against his scalp as he shifts his feet farther apart. “Go on--this is all
your fault, you can at least take responsibility.”

“You alwaystaste good, but...” Rei mouths a line of kisses along the hard line
of Shu’s cock through fabric before he yanks his underwear down, letting it
drop to Shu’s ankles along with his pants. “There’s a biiig difference,” he
murmurs, curling his fingers around Shu’s cock to bring it to his mouth, his
tongue sneaking out to swipe over the head of it. “You, mmn...you taste good
everywhere, that’s not my fault...” 

Shu should probably feel bad for the way he grabs at Rei’s head, shoving him
down, hands immediately jerking off to press against the wall again. “Sorry,
sorry,” he whispers, letting his head roll back, resting against the rough cool
stone. Rei never seems to care if he’s rough, but Shu cares--that kind of thing
reflects on him, and he’s not that kind of person. “Just--your mouth, your
mouth is so--”

A choked, breathless noise that might be the muffled remains of a laugh escapes
from Rei’s throat, and he reaches up, grabbing for Shu’s hand again to firmly
set it back into his hair...just as he swallows down the rest of his cock like
he’s starving for that, too. 

Shu might be overeager and overstimulated, but--there’s nothing wrong with
that, in Rei’s book. If anything, it just makes him hungrier to have Shu’s cock
in his mouth, to make him feel good, and Rei sucks and licks at him eagerly,
splaying his hands around Shu’s hips to drag him off the wall and further down
his throat. 

Sometimes, after one of Rei’s ‘feedings,’ sex almost feels painful to Shu. His
body is ready, certainly, but in a forced, unnatural way, like the physiology
is present without his mind being in the mood.

This time is different. 

It’s always different when he’s had something hearty to eat before, as if he’d
been arousing himself with each bite, thinking about the way it’s going to
drive Rei mad with lust to be able to truly drink. Somewhere along the lines,
his life has gone truly mad, Shu thinks in mild amusement colored with dismay.
Still, it’s hard to complain when someone as gorgeous as Sakuma Rei is sucking
hungrily at his cock, laving him with soft wet licks of that sinful tongue. His
hands are gentle nonetheless in Rei’s hair, even if that gentleness isn’t
welcomed, because god, there’s nothing he treasures like the man on his knees
before him. 

“Just a little more,” he whispers, eyes sliding closed, the pleasure coursing
through him more with every beat of his heart. “Just--harder, can you use
teeth, but not fangs--”

Shu likes a lot more than he lets on sometimes, Rei thinks in amusement, and he
  runs his tongue along the underside of Shu’s cock before letting his teeth
gently scrape in turn as he draws back. “Someone’s in a mood today,” he lowly
teases, releasing Shu’s cock from his lips and flicking his tongue out to snap
the little gossamer strand of saliva connecting them. “You gonna be real nice
to me and feed me again, Shu?” Rei doesn’t wait for a proper answer before he
swallows Shu down again, just the slightest bit sloppy with his teeth, enough
that Rei shivers when Shu’s cock throbs in his mouth, bumping against the back
of his throat. 

That light scrape of teeth is exactly what he’d needed, and Shu slaps a hand
over his own mouth, stifling a cry when he spills suddenly, spurting hot pulses
over Rei’s tongue and down his throat, body jerking until his back slams into
the wall, momentarily stunning him in the throes of his orgasm.

Then slowly, he comes back to earth, only to find the ground fast approaching.
“Shit,” he whispers, pitching forward as his knees give out completely.

Rei, still in the process of making sure not to make a mess (god forbid, Shu’s
already loony enough about kissing after blowjobs), chokes down as much as he
can before he’s busy holding Shu up firmly by the hips, shoving him against the
wall to steady him. “You’re the worst,” he wheezes, trying not to cough and
choke grossly even when he’s already pulling a hand away to wipe his lips and
chin. “D-don’t fall over when your dick’s still in my mouth, I can’t multi-task
to that degree--”

Shu opens his mouth to apologize, but what comes out is, “It’s obviously your
fault, you should have been more judicious, honestly, holding me up is the
least you can do!”

Rei’s eyes narrow, and he yanks Shu down to the ground with him before he
promptly grabs his face in his hands and kisses him, shoving his tongue into
his mouth. 

Shu shrieks against Rei’s mouth, hands flailing to come up and shove him away,
feet tangled in his own shoved-down pants and underpants keeping him locked in
place. “You’re the worst,” he half-shouts, voice high and imperious. “Release
me, foul creature! The worst!”

“Nope, come back here!” Rei cheerfully wheedles, lunging after him to shove him
against the wall and kiss him again, tongue making a point of swiping against
Shu’s thoroughly. “Mmnn, seeee, that’s how good you taste,” he happily says.
“And it’s aaall my fault that you came that much, huh?” 

Shu gags a little, though his body doesn’t oblige him by vomiting on the stupid
vampire, unfortunately. “You’re utterly disgusting. I shouldn’t even give you
the satisfaction of letting you put your mouth on me again.”

“Uh huh. But if it’s my teeth, that’s different,” Rei teases, pinching the
inside of Shu’s thigh as he draws back, admiring the flushed, flustered pile of
limbs and clothes that Itsuki Shu has become. “You might wanna get dressed, I
think I’ve made you late for class.” 

“Your fault,” Shu mumbles, laying still for a moment, letting his chest heave
before he finally heaves himself to standing, yanking up his pants. “I look a
frightful mess, I blame you for all of this. You should be ashamed of
yourself.”

“I’m not,” Rei says without a second of hesitation, grabbing for his parasol as
he hauls himself upright as well. “You’re my bento, aren’t you? This is just
how it is.” He reaches over, straightening some of Shu’s ruffles. “You could
skip class and become a real delinquent with me.” 

Shu huffs at him, re-straightening the ruffles Rei touches, then straightening
Rei’s blazer for good measure. “I won’t, and you shouldn’t skip, either. I’ll
tell the teachers about your secret hiding places if you do. Valkyrie will not
have poor grades--God knows the student council doesn’t need another weapon to
use against us.”

Rei stares over at him, his eyes half-lidded and unconcerned. “You know I’m
already failing basically every non-idol course class, right?” 

“Please don’t remind me of that, I think I’m doing an admirable job in ignoring
all of your failings.”

“It’s not a failing if I don’t care. What good is Japanese history going to do
me when I’m a famous idol?” Rei snidely retorts, reaching over to deliberately
drag a thumb over the twin marks on Shu’s neck. “Oh, yeah, you should know. I
challenged Hasumi Keito to a Live.”

Shu’s eyes narrow. “They’re going to pull some kind of dirty trick on us,” he
warns. “Everyone knows that Hasumi is nothing more than Tenshouin’s little
lapdog.”

 “Nope, he won’t.” Rei pats Shu’s head. “Hasumi-kun’s a lot of things, but a
bullshit backstabber he is not. He’s a real gentleman in warfare.”

Shu looks up sharply at that, compulsively reaching up to straighten his hair.
“He’s not in your club or your class. How do you know?”

“We went to middle school together.” Rei shrugs, withdrawing his hand. “And he
was in my music club back then, and I taught him how to play the shamisen.” 

“I’m going to hold you partially responsible for him, then,” Shu says with a
sniff. “At least have the good taste not to associate with him publicly. If
rumors start that you’re friendly with the student council, we’ll be in even
more hot water.” He hesitates, then adds, less firmly, “Not that I mind who
you’re friends with, or anything. I suppose it’s fine to keep old friendships
alive, even if they’re currently traitors.”

“It’s really not important,” Rei sighs, spinning his parasol idly. Even Shu
doesn’t need to know that’s my ex-boyfriend, after all. “Just trust me when I
say that he’s not going to maliciously hunt us down or anything. He’s just a
big fucking nerd. And I told him I’d pull the plug on writing music for his
unit if he didn’t behave, so.”

Shu gives him a little smile, reaching over and tucking a strand of hair behind
Rei’s ear fondly. “And we can still defeat him utterly, even with you working
against your own unit. That’s the kind of confidence I love in you, Rei.” 

Then his face flushes dark pink, and he pulls away, grabbing his bag hastily.
“Goodbye! I’m leaving goodbye!”

Rei blinks a few times, then grins, lurching after him, grabbing at the back of
Shu’s blazer. “Nope, you were sweet~” he sing-songs, hooking his chin over
Shu’s shoulder from behind. “There’s a tax for that!” 

“You don’t get any taxes! You get left behind while I go to class, you horrible
beast! I didn’t say anything, anyway!”

 
“You complimented me so sweetly and touched my hair, that’s a double tax,” Rei
says with a laugh, planting a kiss to the side of Shu’s neck, and then spinning
him around to steal another kiss from his mouth. “All right, now you can go.
Mmn, unless you have anything else nice to say--”

“No! Never!”
End Notes
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