by SA Payne
father and she rarely asked anyone to fill the spot. He felt it was to high of an honor to refuse,
even if he didn't like the field of study. I guess he figured if I wanted to toy with it that was fine, I could pick up another graduate degree later. He accepted on my behalf and she became my
advisor."
"Without consulting you? He agreed without speaking to you?"
"Why should he?" Ichi asked. "He knew my wishes and as my father the final choice was his.
Acceptance had to be made the year before I was to go and I wasn't yet of legal age to make the
choice."
Which hit Rye like a fist. It was just another reminder of how smart Ichi was and how Rye still
had to move his lips to read. The man had already earned several degrees from top schools
before he was of age. It made Rye feel dull and dim witted.
"I'd read all of her papers but it was my first time off world. My parents tried to warn me that PDF Created with deskPDF PDF Writer - Trial :: http://www.docudesk.com
outsiders were different." The memories made him smile softly, the very small up turning of his mouth would have made his mother frown at him in warning. "Dr. Foorsberg is an outrageous
woman, full of mirth and life. It was difficult to align the serious, solid research in her papers with what appeared to be such an empty headed frivolous woman. I learned a lot about the outside
world at university. My father would be appalled if he could see how much I've changed. Yet, by Avalon standards?" Ichi shook his head.
Across from him, Rye was studying the photos a little too intently and Ichi reached over and
brushed hair back from the man's face. When those grey eyes glance up Ichi drew a carefully
breath and held that gaze. "I do, I am, it's just not easy for me to say. I'm no good at this sort of thing." He felt his face grow hot embarrassed by honesty and his own emotions. "I'm sorry, I...
excuse me." Ichi hurriedly stood up and scrambled to escape but the only place to go was the
small bathroom. He ducked inside and shut and locked the door behind him.
Rye sat stunned, staring off in the direction Ichi had scurried away to. It wasn't until Will sighed, kneeling on the seat one row in front of theirs, turned to face him that Rye pulled his sluggish
and uncertain thoughts in line.
"He just told you he loved you, you dolt. Go after him."
"But..."
"The actual words don't matter. Trust me, I seem to have a built in Ichi to Human translator.
That's about as close as you're going to get for a while. Now, don't let him run away. Press the
advantage, be bold!" Will grinned and tossed his hands up in mock outrage. "Geesh, kids these days, they no nothing of love." He was still muttering when he wandered back up the aisle to sit next to his wife, sparing a final toss of his head toward where Ichi was still hiding in the
bathroom.
It took a few heartbeats for Will's words to sink in. Ichi had just looked him right in the eye and told him that he loved him. The truth of his words, the uneasy vulnerability he'd shown, made
Rye's heart thud painfully in his chest. Something so simple, so human, made him feel like he
could do anything, take on anything. He shook his head and stood up to hover outside of the
locked bathroom and wait for Ichi to emerge.
Chapter Twenty Five:
There was no running water in the small bathroom, most vessels didn't have such luxuries, and
vibe cleaning his hands just didn't have the same impact as being able to splash cold water on
his face. The bathroom was small and the lighting had several intensity levels, most of all, it was private. Privacy and dim lighting worked almost as well as cold water and Ichi struggled to get a
hold on his uneasy emotions.
When we was fairly sure he could hold onto his control and the blush on his face had backed
down a bit, he slid off the lock and opened the door. One step outside the small room and he'd
nearly stepped on Rye's feet. "Rye?"
Rye shook his head and caught Ichi's arm, pushing the man bodily back inside the small
bathroom. He reached behind him and shut and locked the door, trapping them both in the tiny
room. It was just enough space for two to turn around in but little more and oddly, Rye found it
comforting.
"What're you doing?" Ichi frowned but Rye was between him and the door and unless he was
willing to knock the other man down and crawl over him, he was effectively trapped.
"I'm not from Kakurega." Rye announced.
Which left Ichi wondering if Rye was saying Ichi's sad tiny attempts at intimacy weren't enough.
"I know you're not."
"I've heard your say now hush and listen to mine."
The intense focused look on Rye's face gentled Ichi's own worry. He nodded. "Very well."
"All I remember of my life is about a year long and what little bit I'm getting now about the time before this was done to me, well, I don't think I was a very nice person." Rye started but saw how Ichi dropped his eyes, the dark haired man was even uncomfortable with other people's
expressions of emotions and Rye let him hide just a little bit. "I'm not sure I can explain what it was like, to not know, to wonder if maybe this is all I ever was. Conti broke me, Ichi, because this is all I had to fight him with. It hurt too much to fight him when there was no ending to it."
"Rye, it's okay..."
"No, it's not." He broke in. "Just, hear me out."
Ichi nodded and held his tongue.
"He made sure I knew he was throwing me away and why. He could have given me to one of his
friends but he didn't, there wasn't enough of me left for that, I was nothing when he finished with
me. He tossed me out like trash or... or the broken toy I was and I knew that where ever I went it would be just as bad, or worse, forever. I actually hoped that being put into storage would kill
me." His hands had balled up at his side but it was in anger at his own past weakness, even if he could understand why, he was still resentful that he'd allowed anyone to take him so far down.
"You were the next thing I saw and God, Ichi, you stopped my heart. When you took me home
that first night, I figured it wouldn't be so bad being owned by someone like you. Someone so
reserved, so handsome, so..." words didn't seem to fit how deeply Rye had been attracted to
Ichi. He shook his head and didn't try. "That night, when you gave me a blanket and pillow?" Rye shook his head and blinked quickly to clear his eyes of unshed tears.
"It was nothing. You were cold."
"It wasn't nothing to me! That was the first time in my memory that anyone had done anything
kind for me. And you asked for nothing in return, even the next morning? Conti would have
beaten me for not being naked and waiting for him the moment he woke up. I overslept and you
didn't hurt me for it. When I offered myself to you, you wanted me. I could feel it and yet you
didn't touch me. You have no idea what kind of man you really are, how amazing you are."
Ichi shook his head. "You've said yourself you don't remember very much. It's only natural that you'd bond to someone that treated you kindly."
"I may not have active memories but I suspect that I know more of human nature and people
than you do." Rye grinned and knew he was right. "I don't love you because you're kind to me, or because you gave me back myself. I love you because you're a stunning, handsome, smart,
stubborn, frustrating, annoying, hard headed, closed off, wonderful, talented, amazing man. I will
do anything, anything, to protect you and that includes being careful with your emotions. I know
you love me, you don't need to say it. Just as I know there is no reason for you to feel
anything
for me. I know you do. I would spend a thousand years with Conti to have known one moment of
what it's like to be loved by you."
The words, spoken so boldly with an almost painfully obvious honesty, made Ichi blush again.
Such things were never said about him, such emotion wasn't supposed to be inspired by him. He
was ordinary, focused on his work and the goals of research, not the center of such romantic
ideals. It made him want to escape the small intimate room and the too raw emotions he didn't
know how to process.
"I should..." he drew a slow breath. "I should go, see if Will and Amanda need help with anything."
When Ichi tried to slip around beside him, Rye caught his shoulders. "No."
"No?"
"No, I'm not letting you run away this time."
"I'm not running away." But he was and he knew it.
"Bullshit." Rye cursed and caught Ichi again as he tried to press by him, only this time he found himself pressing Ichi back against the wall, pinning him in place.
"Let me go!" The words snapped out, angry now and near panicked at not being allowed to flee.
It was a sick feeling in the bottom of his stomach but he was embarrassed to admit, even to
himself, that having Rye force him to confront the feelings between them was highly erotic.
Rye shook his head. "No."
Erotic or not, Ichi wasn't going to stand for it. He pushed back against the hands holding him and
felt for the first time how much stronger Rye really was. He may as well have been a child
pushing at a grown man and the sheer power in his lover's strength made his cock twitch and his
knees wobble. He pushed again and was easily pinned to the wall and found both of their breaths
were a little ragged.
Rye slid a leg between Ichi's, pressing his body closer to the one he'd trapped against the wall.
He hadn't meant for things to turn sexual but the small power struggle had mixed with the raw
vulnerability of such emotional confessions and changed things. There was a heated, fiery look
in Ichi's eyes, they sparked, but it wasn't really in anger. It was that look that nearly turned Rye into a moaning puddle of lust. The hand that was holding so tightly to Ichi's arm slid upwards and
fingers ghosted across the silky dark hair.
The gentle touch turned rougher as he fisted the hand into the hair and Ichi's breath turned
shuddering and needy. Rye watched as the lips so close to his own parted and the tip of a pink
tongue slid out to moisten flesh that wasn't dry. Those eyes, hazel and so often closed off,
shuttered half way as Ichi tilted his head back in partial surrender. It was that needy look between anger, fear and lust that made Rye take that final step forward.
Ichi's body didn't instantly yield when Rye pressed close to him. The man really did want to run
away from all the soft confessions and emotion that he'd rather avoid then accept. From head to
foot he was tense, angry muscle, and not even the press of hidden arousal to hidden arousal
weakened his resolve. Rye leaned forward and brushed his lips to the parted pair, teasing, not
fully kissing and quickly pulled away. The contact simply made Ichi's body tense further against
his own but the breathing hitched and grew more frantic.
Even the hand fisted in his hair didn't stop Ichi from throwing his head forward, his lips chasing
the teasing pair that had barely tickled across his own. His mouth nearly smashed into Rye's and
there was no teasing now. The kiss was ravaging, bruising, consuming and Ichi gave as full as
he received. The hands at his side uncurled from angry fists and slid up Rye's body, both trying
to pull him closer and push him away at the same time. The hand Rye had gripping his arm slid
down his back to settle on the curve of Ichi's ass. With a grasp that was close to painful, that
hand tightened and pulled their hips even tighter together.
"Stop." Ichi hissed out when his mouth was again free, his hands came up and he pushed at Rye.
"Let me go."
That was cold water tossed over Rye. How many times had he begged inside his head for other
people to stop or release him? The hungry, lustful violence was appealing, but only if it was
mutual and the idea that he'd pushed when Ichi hadn't wanted him to made him feel a little ill. He
dropped his hands from the lithe body and stepped back, horrified at his own loss of control.
Only there was no matching shock or pain on Ichi's face. He pushed away from the wall and
caught the hem of his shirt. In a smooth motion, careful of elbows in the small space, he tugged
it up over his head and discarded it. The quick, short breaths made his chest rise and fall and his nipples stood out, begging to be touched.
"What are you doing?" Rye asked, trembling with the need to slam the other man back against the wall and lick the exposed skin.
Ichi toed off his shoes and started working at the front of his pants. "I want you to take me, hard."
He asked, eyes downcast but while he was flushed from lust and desire it wasn't from
embarrassment or shame.
The sight of Ichi stripping, those dark, clinging words, nearly swept Rye away and he was so hard
he thought he might die. "What?" He gasped out, convinced he had to have been hearing things.
Ichi paused, his pants open and half slid down his hips. It exposed his stomach and hip bones
but hid everything else and he saw Rye's eyes trail down to the cut of the open fabric. "Make me tell you, don't let me come until I have." Then the fabric was pushed down and Ichi stepped out of it to stand naked and aroused, still tense and intense, displayed in the harsh bathroom light for Rye to see.
"Ichi..." Rye worried he may faint, so much of his blood had pooled in his groin.
"Make me tell you." Ichi repeated, eyes locked to Rye's grey in challenge.
It was one Rye knew he could meet. He patted a hand over his pockets but he knew the answer
already. "No lube." Lately, he'd been very careful by always having one or two of the small ampoules on his person, knowing that it didn't take much to talk Ichi into a little physical one on one time but he hadn't thought about needing any on the shuttle trip. He glanced around but the
waterless bathroom offered no solutions.
One, two and then three fingers slid into Ichi's mouth, his eyes never leaving Rye's. They
emerged slick and moist and Ichi backed away and faced the small countertop that had the tiny
vibe hand sink built in. He glanced up, watching Rye in the mirror above the counter and those
slick fingers were quickly forced into his body.
The mirror allowed Rye to watch the pained, hungry look that crunched Ichi's eyes shut as the
poor substitute for real lube did little to help such a rough invasion. Nothing had hinted that Ichi had even the slightest bit of a masochist streak but neither was the man weak or unwilling to
achieve what he wanted. And no matter how erotic it was to watch Ichi prepare himself, to watch
the saliva slick fingers forcefully disappear into that tight body with a moan to accompany each
thrust, Rye's deep fear of Ichi being hurt over rode any lust.
He caught Ichi's wrist and pulled those plundering fingers away. "Stop."
Ichi writhed, his hips arched out. He gasped for breath and moaned. "Please, make me, please."
He begged.
"I can do that." Rye heard himself whispering, running his free hand over the round, exposed ass,
loving the contrast between his paler skin and Ichi's golden. "But I won't watch you hurt yourself."
The words and the gentle touch made Ichi moan. He
needed to be taken hard, needed it rough
and didn't know how to ask a second time. The teasing hand slid from his ass and Ichi dropped
his head, letting it hang loose over the counter.
"Shhhh, it's okay, turn and watch." Rye whispered as he released Ichi's wrist and quickly opened his own pants. He held Ichi's hips in place, ass still toward him but encouraged Ichi to twist at the waist to see behind him. The hazel eyes widened slightly as Rye began to stroke himself and
when Rye slid those long, bare legs further apart Ichi moaned.
"Watch!" Rye gasped out again, burning under the feel of those eyes. He'd learned of Ichi's little kink easily, the man liked to feel his partner come. On him, in him, against him, clothed or bare
skin to skin, it was dirty and kinky and got Ichi horribly turned on. Given how fastidious he
normally was in his day to day life, it was amusing how much he got off at the feel of come on
his skin. "That's it, watch me." Rye whispered as Ichi moaned and let his legs slide even further apart.
It didn't take much for Rye to come, with the stunning body displayed out before him and those
eyes eating him alive. His released splashed out, white pearls on Ichi's skin of gold and the sight kept him hard and aching. Ichi moaned and his ass arched out toward Rye. He shivered and his
eyes fluttered shut, close to coming himself from something too erotic for even his deepest mind
to imagine.
"Shhh." Rye soothed, his hands sliding along the trembling body in front of him, comforting. "I got
you, it's okay." He whispered and stepped forward.
Ichi's entire body arched, twitching, as Rye stepped closer. The feel of that hard length gliding
against his ass, sliding sticky sweet come across Ichi's skin, teasing with what he really wanted,
made Ichi lose his mind. It was those whispered words, the voice he'd grown to love so dearly
lowered to dusky bedroom tones, telling him he was safe, telling him it was okay to let go, that
kept Ichi together. He writhed under the teasing hands and managed to glide the hungry length
hard along the cleft of his ass. That made both of them moan.
