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Arrange my books in order
make up some nice stories to
amuse you
make things look smart and easy
shape up the place
hungry for the meeting
the dinner we'll be eating
wine that we'll be drinking
and kinky thoughts I'm thinking
all because of you
- The Cardigans "Happy Meal II"
Rowen glanced over his
shoulder in suspicion. Just as he'd
thought, Kento was standing in the doorway, a
silly grin on his
face. "And just *what* are you up to?"
he asked, turning back to
his typing. The letters quickly spilled
across the monitor with the
keyboard under his skilled fingers.
"Nothin'," Kento replied.
Yep, he was up to something. That
single word proved it beyond all doubt.
"Spill it." His fingers never paused.
"I'm not doing nothin'!" Kento protested.
"That was a double negative,
Ken, so you *are* doing
something. What do you plan on doing to
me?" Rowen smiled a
little when he heard his friend huff in disappointment.
None of
them had been able to take him by surprise yet.
It was while he
was listening to Kento's mumbling about this
very thing that he
*was* nabbed. "Hey!"
Sage had one arm and
Ryo the other. Between them, they
hauled him out of the chair and dragged him from
the room. They
pulled him up short and the last thing he saw
was Cye's smiling
face as he tied a heavy blindfold over his eyes.
"Shit, guys...what
the hell are you doing to me?"
"Just be quiet, Rowen,"
Cye whispered in his ear, pausing to
softly kiss his earlobe before stepping out of
the way. Sage and
Ryo moved forward again and he stumbled as they
moved faster
then he did. He wasn't sure where they
were taking him, getting all
turned around in his confusion, but he knew it
when they dragged
him into one of the bedrooms.
He felt the warmth of
sunlight across his skin and figured that it
was Sage's room...none of the others let in this
much light. Ryo let
go of his right arm and moved away while Sage
moved to stand
behind him. Sage's arms were around his
waist, pulling him tight
against the blond's body. He could feel
soft lips nuzzling at his
neck and he bit his lip to hold back the gentle
moan that threatened
to escape. He trembled when a tongue drew
a soft line up the back
of his neck and then Sage's hands moved steadily,
unerringly,
under his t-shirt, over his chest...and then
lower...
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
"ROWEN!!! Wake
up!" Kento slammed the pillow down over
his friend's head. He'd been trying to
wake him for the past fifteen
minutes. How could someone sleep through
the ruckus he'd been
making? No matter how many times he saw
it, it always amazed
him.
He watched as the dark
blue eyes slowly blinked open, bleary
with the remnants of the previous night's overindulgence.
Rowen
grunted something unintelligible and started
to close his eyes
again. Kento grinned and lifted the pillow
again. This was going
to be fun.
*BOOSH!*
"I said, wake up," he
told Rowen, who now lay staring at him
uncomprehendingly.
"Uzza t'me?"
"Almost noon."
"Nnnnnnn. T'early.
Go 'way." Kento dodged Rowen's sudden
wild flailing of arms. When the flurry
was over, they plopped back
down on the rumpled bed and the archer was still
again, eyes
blissfully closed.
*BOOSH!*
"Wake up."
"Nuh."
*BOOSH!*
"Wake up."
"NOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!" A pillow flew back at him.
"Fine. We'll do
it the hard way." Kento threw back the
blankets and scooped Rowen up in his arms then
carried him into
the bathroom. He dumped his friend, who
was now struggling
feebly to get away, unceremoniously into the
tub and, switching it
to the showerhead, cranked up the cold water
and pulled the curtain
shut.
"YAAAHHHHH!!!"
There was a long bit of sputtering and
cursing before water was turned off and the curtain
yanked back
open. Rowen, soaked t-shirt and boxers
clinging dangerously close
to his shivering body, glared at Kento with enough
heat to melt the
entire Antarctic polar cap. His blue hair
straggled into his eyes and
he scowled darkly. He snatched the thick
green towel Kento
offered to him and stomped back into his room,
slamming the door
behind him.
Feeling smug and satisfied,
Kento tromped back downstairs into
the kitchen. Cye handed him a plate and
pointed him to the table.
Kento looked down and was happy to find his favorite
lunch just
waiting for him.
"I take it from all the
yelling and naughty language that you
woke him?" Cye asked from his spot back at the
counter.
"Yup."
Cye stepped up behind
him and said, "Good," before leaning
forward and grabbing him in a tight embrace,
putting a quick kiss
at the corner of his lips. The blue-green
eyes sparkled as the
slender young man slowly pulled away and moved
to take his own
seat. A quick, soft smile was shared betweem
them before Kento
scarfed down a large portion of his meal.
They both looked up
when Sage slipped in and took a seat of his own.
The blond eyed them,
then said, "You two have been kissing
again, haven't you?" The sly grin that
graced his beautiful face
made Cye blush and hide his cheeks beneath his
hands. Sage was
the only one in the house that knew that he and
Kento were a
"thing" so far - although Cye was certain that
Mia had her
suspicions. Beside him, Kento coughed his
embarrassment,
throwing a red-faced smirk at Sage. The
blond always asked that
question just for the reaction that never failed
to make him laugh.
They were only mildly
startled when Ryo burst in through the
back door, smiling wide and mischievous, White
Blaze romping in
after him. "Watch out!" he cried, "Mia's
right behind us!"
Bewildered, the trio
watched as Ryo zipped through the kitchen
and then through the house...leaving the front
door wide open as he
hurried. They swung back around to the
sliding glass back door
when they heard harsh, heavy breathing.
Standing there, drenched
head to toe from the hose in her new sundress
and sandals, stood a
seriously pissed Mia.
"Where is he?" she growled.
Smart enough to not laugh
in the face of a their present danger,
together all three of them pointed out Ryo's
way of escape...in three
separate directions.
"Oooooo! You're
no help. Why did I even bother asking you
three?" Before any of them could give her
a smart-assed reply, she
swept past them and out of the kitchen.
"I see someone got you,
too," they heard her comment saucily. An
incoherent grumble
answered her.
Then Rowen stumbled into
the kitchen, still damp and shivering
from his unexpected shower but now wrapped comfortably
in a
big, body-engulfing robe of intense red.
Obviously, he'd snitched
Ryo's when he couldn't find his own. He
plopped into a chair at
the table and glared down at the wood, looking
like he was still
more than half asleep and oblivious to the world
at large.
"Would you like something
to eat, Rowen?" Cye asked him.
"Maybe lunch? Or *breakfast*?" he joked,
knowing that Rowen
was never up in time to eat a regular morning
meal.
"Uzzat?"
"Excuse me?"
"Wuz br'kf'st?"
He scratched fiercely at his head, ruffling the
blue hair into even wilder disarray. Slumping
low in the chair,
Rowen finally looked around the table, studiously
avoiding Kento.
When his tired, hazy eyes lighted on Sage, bits
of the dream the
"evil one" had pillow-bashed him out of filtered
into his mind. He
smiled a little and sighed, then flushed and
turned away when Sage
grinned at him. Then it occurred to him
just *what* he'd been
dreaming about and he shuddered. What was
he thinking???
About being stripped naked and having Sage's
hands and mouth all
over him, that's what. He winced in private
embarrassment and
tried not to acknowledge the thought. Like
Sage would *ever*
even *consider* doing something like that to
him...with him.
"So, what's your goal for the day, Rowen?" Sage asked him.
Tossing a quick, unreadable
glance at the blond that was stuck
in his brain, he easily replied without any time
wasted on thought,
"World domination." There, that should
clear my mind, he told
himself.
"Really? And how do plan on doing this?"
"Using my TI89, Mia's
laptop, and the internet. I'll take over
the entire world's finances in minutes and everyone
will HAVE to
do what I say. You'll all be calling me Emperor
Touma by dinner."
"Emperor Touma?" Sage
asked in surprise, smiling at his
friend's brain-dead attempt at humor. Rowen
hardly ever used his
Japanese name anymore.
"Yeah, sounds better
that way." He gave a quick laugh then
heaved a tired sigh, letting his shoulders slump
low. His head
drooped and he stared numbly at the plate Cye
set before him.
Several minutes passed as he just sat there,
eyeing the breakfast
food - eggs, toast, and bacon - purely Western
fare. Just the sight
of it was making him nauseous. He promised
himself that he
wasn't *ever* going to binge like that again...
Yeah, right, he
thought in response to that. It was all...
Damn! He couldn't even
remember who he'd been out with last night.
Well, whoever it had
been, it was all *his* fault.
"You gonna eat that, Ro?" asked Kento, his voice hopeful.
Rowen carefully shook
his head. As the plate moved out of the
way, he let himself slowly fall forward, his
forehead soon coming
into contact with the cool wood of the table.
He felt his eyes
slipping closed...
"Rowen?"
"Nuh?" He couldn't
quite puzzle out who the speaker was.
Strong hands slipped gently onto his shoulders
and began to rub,
digging deep into the tenseness that had shown
up in his muscles
because he'd slept weird. Oh, that felt
good. Rowen let out a
small, pleasured sigh.
"Are you all right?" Who was talking to him?
"Nuh-uh."
"What can I do to make
you feel better?" Sage! It was Sage
that was talking to him. He felt much better
having figured out the
enigma. It shouldn't have thrilled him
that much but he was feeling
ill enough at that given moment that it made
him the happiest
person in the world.
Kiss me, he wanted to
answer for some reason - he refused to
consider it. He blinked the urge away and
instead said, "Let me go
back to bed."
"Sorry, I can't.
We've got an appointment to keep with my
mother. Remember?" Sage asked, his voice
ringing with
amusement at Rowen's expense.
"Oh crap! I forgot.
I wouldn't have gone out last night if I
*had* remembered." He paused sheepishly,
"By the way, does
anyone know who I was out with?"
"Don't you know?" Cye sounded incredulous.
"No. I was *really* plastered last night."
"It was Kimi," Sage informed
him, hands still working
diligently on his shoulders.
"Kimi? I let *her*
get me drunk? I thought I was out with one
of the guys!"
"Apparently you did -
and she isn't too far off of being one of
the guys, if you think about it," Sage said with
a smirk.
"Shit. What did
she do to me?" Rowen complained, coming a
bit more awake. That redheaded chick was
always threatening to
get him tattooed or pierced if she was ever around
him while he
drank. He sat up and dropped the top of
the robe off his shoulders,
letting it pool around his middle, when he suddenly
noticed an odd
sensation centered around his stomach.
Sparkling brightly back at
him from his navel was a deep blue bead on a
on a silver hoop. His
eyes popped open wide and Sage leaned over his
shoulder to look,
murmuring in appreciation. Rowen was more
involved in trying to
figure out how he hadn't noticed it earlier.
"Oh, how cute!" Cye blurted
before he could stop himself, a
faint blush then covering his cheeks along with
a wide smile.
Rowen glared at him.
"How do you take it out?"
the archer muttered, poking at it with
an idle finger. "I'm so numb to everything
right now that I didn't
even feel it before. Do you see anything
else?"
Sage's fingers drifted
down his back then stabbed hard at a spot
in the middle of his lower back, sending shockwaves
of stinging
hurt through his body, making him yelp.
"You've got something
here."
"What is it?!" he yowled.
"Looks like a tattoo
of your kanji," the blond said, tracing it
lightly with a fingertip so Rowen could feel
it without too much
more pain. Rowen hissed and moved away
from the soft touch,
afraid that Sage would once again feel the urge
to be vicious. He
knew from experience that it was not an unfounded
fear.
"Dammit. She got me with both of them."
"What are you talking
about?" Sage asked, still fingering the
dark blue marking on the archer's pale skin as
he examined the
work.
"Kimi. She's been
threatening to have her way with me for the
past two years. Seems she got it last night."
"Have her way with you?"
Cye balked. "I thought she was a
lesbian!"
"She is. She's
also been telling me that she would find a way to
get me either pierced or tattooed," Rowen clarified,
"Thus she has
now had her way with me TWICE." He looked
closer at the ring in
his navel and growled, "How do you get this thing
OUT?"
"Leave it. I think it looks good."
Rowen turned swiftly
to stare at Sage. There was a flash of
something he couldn't place in the silvery eyes
before the blond
turned away and left the kitchen. Puzzled,
Rowen grabbed up the
robe around his waist and pulled it back on,
snugging the belt
carefully above his belly. What was up
with Sage? Could he be
hinting that...? Nah.
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
Wearing nothing but the
bright blue and green, starburst pattern,
tie-died boxers that made Sage cringe every time
he saw them,
Rowen shook out his hair, flinging water everywhere,
and dug
through his dresser. Jeans, old and faded
black, landed on his
bed in a heap. An overlarge, dark blue
t-shirt - covered with a
starry scene of planets and other celestial events
- quickly
followed.
Stopping for a moment
to look at his preferred casual style of
clothing, Rowen wondered if maybe he shouldn't
dress a bit nicer
for the lunch date he and Sage had with Olivia
(note: had to. I love
this name), Sage's mother. She always insisted
on taking them
somewhere fancy...and maybe it might impress
Sage. Make the
blond take a bit of notice.
He paused to stare at
himself in the large, full-length mirror on
the wall and snarled. How could anyone
(especially Sage!) find a
tall, skinny bit of nothing like him remotely
attractive? Even his
hair was freakish. Who'd ever heard of
hair being *naturally*
blue?! Rowen sighed and poked at the glinting
silver ring at his
navel again. Sage liked it but was that
enough to make him leave it
in?
Disgustingly, it was.
Rowen then turned to
survey the dark ink that marred the
otherwise perfectly white skin of his back.
He couldn't quite see it
this way, so he wandered across the hall into
the bathroom to snag
Mia's hand mirror. Back in his room, he
twisted and turned until
he could see the figure. It was a deep,
dark blue and finely done.
A smile tugged at his
lips as he considered what Kimi *could*
have done to him. She'd always threatened
him that one day he
would wake up with a big, too-happy Disney character
permanently drawn on his ass. He wondered
what had made her
decide on this instead. There was no way
she could know his
connection to this particular kanji. He'd
have to ask her later.
"Nice, isn't it?" Sage
asked, leaning in the doorway watching
him. His arms were crossed over his chest
and his hair fell rakishly
over one of his gleaming, pale eyes, as per usual.
What made
Rowen's heart leap then skip a beat or two was
the deadly
half-smirk that he'd seen leveled many a time
on unsuspecting girls
over the years they'd known one another.
He lifted his eyes from
the spot on the carpet they were
suddenly inspecting closely to check if he'd
been seeing things. It
wasn't there, this time.
"Uh, y-yeah. I-I
guess," he stuttered. The archer quickly looked
away from the other again. He was only
just coming to the
conclusion that maybe...just maybe...finding
another guy incredibly
attractive - mentally, socially, aesthetically,
and (oh gods yes, he
could admit it) sexually - wasn't necessarily
a bad thing. In fact, he
was sure it could actually be a good thing.
He turned back around
to see that the blond warrior had
vanished from his door. His heart resumed
beating and, with a
heavy, heartfelt sigh, he reached for his clothes.
Did Sage understand or
even realize what he was doing to
him?
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
END PART ONE
