The Winter Quarters

by Anna Veriani

  Princessledging: it’s the actor Tetsuji Tamayama

  Crazyglitch: No!!! It’s the bodybuilder Alex Oda.

  Dufferbuffer: IT’S RYOHEI OTANI.

  purequeer: omg you guys he literally isn’t any of them.

  theobliviousone: Looks like he’s just some nobody. Asada Hiro. He runs the hotel. His pic is on this site here.

  kaisgirl5: Damn he’s too hot not to be famous! IKEMEN!!

  purequeer: They’re fucking. You can tell. Look how close the nobody is holding Kai.

  “Leave me alone,” he whispered, sinking to his knees. He didn’t have the energy to pack anymore. How dare they call Hiro a nobody. How dare they talk about Hiro.

  “Kai?” Hiro knelt down beside him and gently took his phone. “Aw, Kai, man. Never read the comments. You know better.” But Hiro read them, too, as Kai stood up. He didn’t want Hiro’s comfort right now, not when he was a burden on the inn.

  “They think I look like Ryohei Otani?” Hiro said. “Rude. He’s like ten years older than me.”

  No. Hiro could not act like this was nothing, just another thing he could laugh off.

  “They’re talking about you like you’re meat.” Kai turned away and stomped toward the dressing room.

  He was used to people talking about him that way, taking pictures when he was trying to dine unbothered at restaurants, writing graphic fan fiction about him and James Duffy, the cameras of Kimi and Kai zooming in on his shirtless chest at the beach. But that was his job. It wasn’t Hiro’s job.

  He hated this. He hated his worlds colliding, and he felt dirty, like he’d brought this on the Asadas intentionally even though he knew he hadn’t.

  “Aw, Kai, come on,” Hiro said, following. “I think it’s funny. I really don’t care.”

  “It’s not funny!” Kai hated that he couldn’t get his voice under control. “You’re not—I’m not—not meat, Hiro. I’m not.”

  He needed a shower. He yanked off his sweater, struggled out of his jeans, not caring if Hiro saw him naked. He rushed to the showers and ran the water hot, his back to Hiro as he sat down.

  IT broke something inside Hiro to see Kai like this. He hadn’t liked it when Kai insulted himself or allowed James Duffy to curse at him, but this was about a hundred times worse. Hiro didn’t like the feeling of being dressed while Kai was so bare and vulnerable, so he stripped out of his clothes and went into the showers.

  He crouched down beside Kai, tracing his fingers over Kai’s shoulder. Kai stiffened at the touch at first, then tucked his head farther down, like he was giving Hiro full access to his back.

  “You know you’re not a… piece of meat to me,” Hiro said. “Not to me, not to Obaachan, not to Shinsuke or my parents or Risa or any of us. We love you. All of us. I love you. The people leaving comments are just random strangers.”

  “They’re outside your inn.” Kai breathed in a choked inhalation, and Hiro knew he was trying hard not to cry. He said, “I can’t look at you. I’m sorry.” It came out a weak whisper.

  “You don’t have to look at me,” Hiro said. “Just please promise me you won’t leave tonight. Because I can’t take off work to follow you, but I’m going to lose my mind if you go somewhere else.”

  Kai shook his head. “I’m sorry, Hiro. I just don’t know what to do.”

  He turned around. The water was steaming around them, and Kai’s eyes were bloodshot, his wet hair plastered to his skin. Even when he was upset, he was so beautiful that Hiro couldn’t keep his mind off how attracted he was to Kai. Without a shred of clothing between them, it was impossible for Hiro to hide his arousal.

  “You know you’re safe here,” Hiro said. “I’d bet you anything that everyone outside is just a Kaga kid who would be equally excited if any famous person stayed at an inn near them. And they’re not getting inside. No one is going to hurt you, Kai. And what do you think happens if someone even tries?” Hiro formed a fist and motioned swinging at someone’s eye. “A shiner, that’s what.”

  Kai chuckled. “Don’t punch my fans.”

  “Anyone who scares you isn’t a fan,” Hiro said. “Just a point-blank asshole. And no one—no one—is allowed to make you feel unsafe. Or less than. Or objectified.”

  “That’s what I am, though,” Kai said. “I’m… professional wank material.” He closed his eyes, looking miserable. “It’s my job to be pretty, handsome, attractive. Single or taken, whatever my PR manager and production team thinks makes me most desirable. Long-haired or short-haired. Slim or muscular. They dress me, they cut my hair, they tell me what to eat, they tell me where to be. And I must always, always look good. Because I’m meat.”

  Hiro reached out and cupped Kai’s cheek.

  “Stop saying that,” he said. “Do you have any idea—any fucking idea, Kai Ledging—how goddamn precious you are? And it doesn’t have a single fucking thing to do with the way you look.”

  “I am only my looks, at least to them—”

  “Then who gives a fuck about them?” Hiro said. “You’re my best friend. You’re my favorite person on this planet. I would burn down all of New York City for you, Kai. I would burn down my entire inn if it meant—”

  I got to be with you.

  “If it meant what?” Kai said urgently.

  Hiro shook his head. “Just kiss me. I need to kiss you.”

  They united with twinned urgency, mouths parted in identical hunger. This wasn’t at all like the way they kissed last time, a sweet exploration: this was an assurance, a comfort, and lust all combined, Hiro determined to make Kai realize how valued he was. Because you couldn’t kiss a man the way Hiro was kissing Kai unless you truly loved him, unconditionally, with every last fucking thing you had in you.

  Hiro yanked Kai off the shower stool and onto his lap as the water ran down between them. Kai wrapped his legs around Hiro. Their mouths crashed together again, Hiro leaning down to make up for their height difference, Kai’s cock pressing against Hiro’s stomach. Hiro reached for it, thinking of its tantalizing pink tip peeking out from Kai’s pajamas pants, how that image was seared into his memory. He traced the head of Kai’s cock with his thumb, and Kai gasped, shivering hard at the abrupt intimacy. Hiro pulled away briefly so he could kiss Kai’s neck, running his hands through his hair. Kai relaxed into his embrace.

  “You’re not allowed to insult yourself,” Hiro said. “You can’t, Kai. You’re too important to me.”

  Kai murmured something and kissed him again, reaching out to run his hands down Hiro’s arms.

  “No,” Hiro said softly. He picked up Kai easily and pressed him against the wall. “Your pleasure, not mine.”

  “I want to touch you,” Kai breathed. His cock bobbed, hard and glistening, against his stomach.

  And wouldn’t Hiro like that? So much, to be touched and adored by Kai. But he had stopped himself from finishing his sentence earlier because he knew he couldn’t actually burn down Asada Inn for Kai. Not because he cared about the inn more than Kai—he cared about nothing as much as he cared about Kai. But the inn wasn’t only his, and he couldn’t do that to his family.

  If Kai wasn’t going to be his, then Hiro couldn’t bear to be touched by him. It would become a sad memory before it was even really over.

  No. This was about Kai only. He was doing this because Kai needed it, because no one had ever touched him and cared solely about his pleasure, his sense of well-being and safety, in…

  Maybe ever. Was that possible? Kai had been famous for as long as he’d been having sex, because he started modeling before he even hit puberty. How many men had fucked him just to say they’d gotten with Kai Ledging?

  “Your pleasure,” Hiro said again, voice rough from lust. He ran his hands over Kai, finding his most sensitive spots, the skin on the back of his neck, his stomach, making him shiver and keen. Hiro mouthed at his neck, tongued hard at Kai’s sensitive nipples, reveling in the exploration. He never imagined he’d actually get to touch Kai like this one day, or that when
he did, Kai would need it quite so badly.

  “Please, Hiro,” Kai said. “Please, everywhere….” His grasp was gentle and loose, and he tried to guide Hiro’s hand toward his cock.

  “Tell me something first,” Hiro said. “Do you know why I’m touching you?”

  Kai tilted his head, confusion clear in his eyes.

  “I love you,” Hiro said. “I love you. Can you say that?”

  “I love you,” Kai said immediately, leaning forward for a kiss.

  Hiro kissed him but pulled back after a moment, shaking his head. “No, baby. Tell me you know that I love you.”

  Kai gaped at him. “You….” He reached out, holding on to Hiro like he was afraid he might fall otherwise. “You love me.”

  Hiro nodded. “You’re my treasure, Kai.”

  “Your treasure,” Kai repeated breathlessly, and the words brought a fresh flush of color to his cheeks. “I’m yours, Hiro. Hiro’s treasure.”

  Damn if that didn’t do it for him. His lips found Kai’s parted mouth as his hands found Kai’s cock. Kai keened, wriggling against Hiro’s lap, sending a flash of electric pleasure up Hiro’s whole body as Kai’s ass rubbed against his cock. Hiro growled, exploring Kai’s length, his perfectly symmetrical balls.

  He stroked Kai, satisfaction spreading through him as he saw how easy it was to bring him pleasure. He’d had so many fantasies, and now Kai was unraveling before him.

  HIRO’S hands were magic, like flesh-and-bone sex toys, and maybe it was messed-up that Kai associated sex more with silicone and batteries than with people, but that just showed him how badly he needed this. It felt amazing to have Hiro, of all people, looking at him like he was… precious.

  “Can I put myself inside you?” Hiro whispered.

  Kai’s eyes widened, and he nodded eagerly. Hiro’s length was thick and hard against him, and his hole was clenching like it was beckoning Hiro inside. Kai shifted, half-mindless, wanting to ride Hiro immediately, but Hiro shook his head and pressed him back against the wall.

  “Just my fingers,” Hiro said. He spread Kai’s legs farther open, positioning him so that his hole was exposed, every intimate inch of him accessible to Hiro like a buffet. Hiro spat into his own hand, and there was something so doggish and rough about it that Kai keened.

  “God, I fucking need you,” Kai gasped. “God damn, Hiro.”

  Hiro made one of his low, throaty noises, and then he pressed his spit-wet fingertips against Kai’s hole.

  He stroked Kai’s cock as he entered him, and it didn’t hurt at all. Hiro’s fingers were thicker and rougher than Kai’s, and so Kai’s body knew this was Hiro inside him. His toes curled; his spine arched. He panted as Hiro pushed deeper inside.

  “Do you need proper lube?” Hiro whispered.

  Kai shook his head. “It feels good.” The pleasure spread through him, the decadent, intimate goodness that only came from this kind of stimulation.

  “I knew it’d be easy to enter you.” He was staring at Kai wolfishly, like a starving man, and already it wasn’t enough. Just Hiro’s fingers? No. Kai needed all of him.

  “I need more,” Kai whispered.

  Hiro groaned and leaned forward, tongue-fucking his mouth. Kai dissolved, moaning helplessly, all pride abandoned. When they broke apart, Hiro’s eyes glimmered triumphantly.

  “I knew you’d be greedy,” Hiro said. “We’ve never even had sex, and I already know what you’re like, Kai. About how you like it.”

  “How?” Kai gasped. He rocked against Hiro’s fingers, and they entered a rhythm together. Kai’s hole still ached like it needed to be filled farther, even as all four of Hiro’s fingers stuffed him full. Kai’s legs were wantonly spread, feet in the pooled water on the shower tiles.

  “I used to hear you get yourself off,” Hiro murmured. He leaned forward so his voice was hot in Kai’s ear as Kai let out little gasps each time Hiro thrust into him. “Your big blue dildo, all your butt plugs. None of your favorite toys were as big as me.”

  Kai gasped. Those must have been his toys from when they dormed together in college. “I thought I was good about hiding my, ahh, ooh, fuck.” He squeezed his eyes shut, breathless. “My… ahh… collection.”

  “Not even fucking close, baby.” Hiro snorted. “I remember when you thought I was asleep. How you would finger yourself open on your bed, not even four feet away from me. I remember the way you’d press your dildo inside you, the lube squelching as it filled you up….”

  Hiro scissored his fingers inside Kai, and bright, white-hot pleasure shot through him. He clung to Hiro, crying out. “God, fuck, Hiro. God, please me. Please fill me. God, fuck me, please.”

  Hiro chuckled. “Yes, that’s what you used to whisper,” he said. “I knew all your fantasies. You thought I was sleeping as you begged the men in your head to fill you up. I wanted that, Kai. I wanted to fill you up so badly.”

  “Please do,” Kai panted urgently. “Please, Hiro. Please.”

  Hiro shook his head, his thumb circling the precome-soaked tip of Kai’s cock. “I always wondered,” he said, “if you ever thought about me. You must have glimpsed me getting changed at least once. You must have known I was bigger than your toys. Did you ever imagine it was me fucking you? Were you ever secretly begging for me to pound you?”

  Kai moaned, leaning forward and biting into Hiro’s shoulder as Hiro’s hands completely controlled his pleasure.

  “Did you ever want me, Kai?”

  “God, yes,” Kai panted. There was no pride, no secrets, no shame. Nothing to hide. “I thought about you constantly, Hiro. Yes, God, it was you I was begging. Aahh… oh, God. Will you fuck me, please?”

  Hiro chuckled again, and Kai shook his head helplessly.

  “Please, Hiro,” he said. “Please, I’ll do anything—ah—anything for you to fill me up, please.”

  “You’ll already do anything, baby,” Hiro said. “You’re mine.”

  “Yours.” Kai bit his lip. “I used to beg for you, Hiro. In college. I was too—ahh… please. I was too scared to say your name.” He would mouth it silently in the dark, Hiro, Hiro, Hiro, wondering whether Hiro was truly asleep beside him, whether there would ever be a day when Hiro would get into Kai’s bed, chuck the dildo away, and bend Kai over.

  “Why didn’t you ever tell me?” Hiro whispered.

  “I didn’t know. I thought you were—fuck—straight. Why didn’t you ever—ahh, ooh, God, Hiro—fuck, please fuck me. I’m serious. Please. Please!”

  “You’re serious?” Hiro laughed, all dominance. “And here I thought you were joking.”

  He pulled his fingers carefully out of Kai’s hole, then picked up Kai easily and set him on the shower tiles. Kai panicked, thinking he’d ruined it with his begging, that it was all over now, but Hiro ordered, “Get on your hands and knees. Arch your ass,” and Kai scrambled to obey.

  He reached back to spread his cheeks open, not wanting himself to be inaccessible to Hiro for a single second. He was quickly rewarded. Hiro leaned forward and, taking advantage of the fact that Kai’s hole was still loosened from his finger-fucking, plunged his tongue inside him.

  It burned, heavenly and right. Kai shivered, stroking himself as Hiro thrust his tongue inside him again and again. Kai had never been gladder that Hiro didn’t keep himself clean-shaven. His scruff rubbed against Kai’s sensitive skin, prickling every nerve ending and sending his whole body into overdrive.

  “I’m close,” Kai confessed. “You’re going… gonna make me come….”

  Hiro groaned in acknowledgment and reached around, playing with Kai’s balls and then shoving Kai’s hands away so he had access to his cock. Kai cried out with every stroke, teasing at his own nipples.

  His orgasm rushed through him, powerful and irresistible. He shook and quaked as Hiro continued to rim him. His come splattered all over Hiro’s hands, and he squeezed his eyes shut, stars bursting behind his eyelids. His blood sang, his cock throbbed hard in Hiro’s fist, and he let out a las
t, needy gasp as Hiro milked the final drop of come from him.

  He would have collapsed against the hard stone floor if Hiro hadn’t caught him.

  “Shh, I’ve got you,” Hiro whispered. Every muscle in Kai’s body was completely loose. He had the random passing thought that he’d never been further from a migraine in his life. He sank against Hiro, trying to speak, but only a wordless murmur emerged. The sound contained everything: gratitude, love, pure worship for Hiro.

  It was like Hiro understood perfectly.

  “That’s right, baby.” He stroked the wet hair out of Kai’s eyes. “Let’s get you cleaned up. Then we’ll take a nap. Shhh, don’t move. I’ve got you.”

  “God,” Kai breathed, not quite chuckling. “I couldn’t move if I wanted to. What did you do to me?”

  He was floating, weightless. Hiro was his cloud.

  “I just took care of you, baby.” Hiro kissed his forehead and reached out for a soap bar. Kai closed his eyes, and without quite meaning to, he fell asleep.

  Chapter Fourteen

  THIS was obviously a family meeting. Kai wasn’t supposed to be here. When he entered the room, though, everyone looked at him expectantly, so he took his seat on the floor.

  Mr. Asada’s office, which would soon belong to Hiro, was in the northwest corner of the inn, as far from the lobby as possible. It was a tatami room with a low-legged table for business meetings, around which sat Mr. Asada in its center, next to his wife. Hiro sat across from his father, and Obaachan across from his mother; Kai secured the seat beside Hiro, unsure of why they’d been woken early and invited here.

  Soft sunlight pressed through the shoji doors. Behind Mr. Asada was a Buddhist altar, and spare hanging scrolls decorated the room’s alcoves.

  “Good morning,” Hiro’s father began. “We’re here to discuss two points today. The first concerns Kai’s security.”

  Kai squirmed. Could Hiro’s father somehow tell what Hiro had done to Kai last night? He could still feel the pressure of Hiro’s fingers inside him; he’d woken this morning snuggled against Hiro’s chest, having used him as a personal heater during the night.