Kenren Taisho strode happily down the corridor that led to Tenpou Gensui’s office, swinging a jug of wine experimentally with one finger and considering his current position. It was okay being in Goujun’s command now, maybe even enjoyable. Much more different from what it had been when he had first been transferred. It had all been childish griping and taunts from the dicks with rank badges, which had nearly brought him to charges of “assault on an officer”, followed by “grievous bodily harm on an officer”.
Not being a man renowned for his patience, it had taken Kenren about five days after his arrival to finally hurl something at the wall and demand to have his transfer fully revoked. This had lead to a session of hearty morning drinking to summon up sufficient courage and then an anger-fuelled hunt for Lord Goujun, which had turned up nothing. However, upon his threatening of a dim-witted and wide-eyed Lieutenant he had discovered that the next best thing was currently in residence: the Tenkai Seihougun Gensui.
The office indicated by the Lieutenant had seemed familiar to him and he couldn’t think why; not remembering that he himself had helped tidy it only nearly a week ago. Still, everything looked the same in Tenkai and one corridor was identical to another. With this reasoning firmly in place, Kenren had banged on the door, not waited for a reply and had simply stormed into the office.
A familiar looking dark-haired man had been sat at the desk in a tidy-looking office, patiently writing on a piece of vellum with a fountain pen. He was in full uniform with his designated rank pinned securely to his breast and his hair was neatly groomed back into a small ponytail. He looked up and seemed to squint at Kenren.
“Ah? Good … morning?”
Kenren had then slammed his hands down on the desk and commenced with his well-rehearsed rant about the truly irritating nature of the Western Army. At the blank clueless glance, he had then reiterated his demand to be transferred back to the Eastern army without fail.
The nameless Gensui had then duly informed him in a calm voice that he had no idea what Kenren was going on about and said that he couldn’t transfer anyone he knew nothing about. Infuriated, Kenren had then demanded to know if the Gensui had a wife (hell, it got him kicked out of the Eastern army). At the lack of reply and slight grin of I-don’t-know-what-you-are-on-about, he went to leave, only to be halted by the fountain pen flying perfectly through the air and embedding itself in the door right by his head. The Gensui had then informed him politely that he wasn’t married and, in the hazy realms of shock, Kenren had replied with the first remark that had come into his head.
“Well then, I guess you’d better drop your pants Gensui.”
There had been a pause, as the dark-haired man reached into the pocket of his uniform coat and slid on a pair of glasses.
“Kenren Taisho?”
“Holy shit … Tenpou?!”
As it turned out, Tenpou had been Down Below for the past few days and had only just arrived back, hence the full uniform and also hence the reason why his room was still tidy.
“Did you want something, Kenren?” Tenpou had asked with a devious smirk.
This had led to a pleasant evening of re-acquaintance, much laughter and the airing of general dissatisfaction with the military in general. An instant rapport had sprung up between the two men and when the sunrise started to poke its way through the window, the two felt like they had known each other for years.
Then, as Kenren was leaving so that Tenpou could actually go and change into his regular ‘uniform’, Tenpou made him an offer. He had offered his office as a bolthole and himself as someone to harass when the other members of the top brass were pissing him off. Tenpou explained that he was usually alone and would probably appreciate the company.
Kenren had eagerly taken up this offer and so when the ranks of the Western Army pissed him off, or life in general wasn’t going his way, he went to Tenpou’s whenever he could. Generally it was for wine, idle chat, a whinge and usually a bit of tidying up — which was becoming more usual as Tenpou took on whirlwind properties when he came anywhere near his mountain of books. However Kenren had started to admit; he was becoming quite fond of the unconventional and attractive Gensui and was dropping by much more than he needed to, usually without a good reason.
However, this time he had a proper reason for going: it had been another Taisho who had well and truly pissed him off. The dumbass had passed idle comments about Kenren’s lack of respect and had not taken Kenren’s scantily veiled hints to stop. It was all the Taisho could do to refrain from laying the man out when the dumbass had started joking to others about it. Instead, he had sucked up the annoyance along with a large jug of wine and some random lost paperwork and gone straight to Tenpou’s to harass the Gensui instead.
He approached the door and knocked softly, merely to announce his presence and not let any other nosey bastards see exactly where he went. He then strode in.
“Mornin’ Tenpou!” he called out, cleverly avoiding a quivering stack of books as he looked out for the familiar mop of dark hair and the lab coat.
Instead, his gaze met a pair of disinterested violet eyes that glared back at him. Shining golden blond hair that was half pulled back in a tail, framed the pale-skinned face. Kenren didn’t recognise the man at all. He couldn’t be in the military; he wore no ranking, just a white tunic and trousers with ornate looking armbands and chokers. However, he was obviously not a servant because no servant would look so haughty, nor sit so straight in a chair that Kenren knew was comfortable.
The man was sat at Tenpou’s desk with an expression of utter boredom laced with a touch of irritation when he saw Kenren. Kenren merely stared at him in stunned silence. Blondie retorted by leaning back in the chair and fixed him with a bored glare.
“What do you want?” Came the voice, which also sounded utterly bored.
Kenren looked confused and started to look around him, completely thrown off guard by this strange man’s residence in Tenpou’s armchair.
“Where’s Ten-?” he paused as he saw a flash of white from the left side of the desk.
The lab coat was covering a pair of dark military-style trousers that fitted snugly over the muscular backside of one Tenpou Gensui. The Gensui himself appeared to be on all fours and the desk concealed his much of his upper body. His head was therefore in the region of the desk where Blondie was sitting and at a certain height to face a certain region. Kenren then heard an enthused grunt and put two and two together ... he came up with five.
“Oh shit.” He stuttered. “Er, sorry, Tenpou. I can come back later … Oh fuck.” He muttered not really wanting to interrupt what looked to be a very private moment, although true-be-known he was kind of disappointed that the Gensui had chosen that ice-cold blond over him.
“Hey, I’ve found it and it feels wonderful.” Came a familiar voice from underneath the desk. Kenren flushed a little and his eyes flew wide open. His usually-dependable natural sarcasm seemed to take its leave and disappear to places unknown. Blondie looked down.
“Well it took you long enough. I haven’t got all day you know.” He said irritably, ignoring Kenren who had been rendered temporarily incapable of movement.
“Er, Tenpou. I’m just gonna leave now.” Kenren finally said in an I-know-what-you-are- doing tone of voice, wishing he could shove wine corks in his ears or at least sink through the floor. One rebellious voice in his ear even suggested offering to join in. Now that was a good thought.
There was thumping beneath the desk.
“Kenren? … Is that you? Hang on a second let me just finish up here.” The thumping increased.
“I’m gonna go, Tenpou,” said Blondie raising himself out from the chair and much to Kenren’s rapidly increasing shock; righted his tunic, pulled on his sash and smoothed down his hair. “I have to get back to work. Thanks anyway.” He strode past Kenren with little more than an upward glance.
Tenpou’s head surfaced from the desk and he balanced his chin on the wood with a smile. He was breathing heavily; his hair was mussed up and his face was red.
“I’ll drop by later.” He said, giving Blondie a wave. Blondie gave a grunt and a nod then left the office.
Kenren’s jaw had hit the floor and he had now truly lost his speech. Tenpou had hitched himself back up onto his chair and was staring at him serenely, attempting to smooth down his hair.
“Catching flies are we, Kenren?” he asked and opened the drawer directly next to them. “Ah, you did bring the wine after all, is it better than the last batch?” After some rummaging he found two sake pots and sat them proudly on the desk in preparation for the wine that now dangled from Kenren’s wrist.
“Wha — Wha?” was Kenren’s reply.
“Yes, indeed, wha wha, do sit down.” Said Tenpou lightly, gesturing to the squashy chair that Kenren had appropriated as his own during his last few visits.
“Who was that? What were you....? I mean, um, who? What?” asked Kenren dumbly, still stunned over the revelation that Tenpou preferred blondes.
Tenpou smiled, as if trying to pacify a child.
“That was Konzen Douji, the nephew of Kanzeon Bosatsu and a good friend of mine from my childhood,” he said still smiling. “He came over for a special visit.”
“Is that what they’re calling it nowadays?” said Kenren, opening his wine and taking a large mouthful. Tenpou frowned and tapped a pen on his lip.
“What on earth are you talking about?” he eyed the Taisho worriedly. “Are you sick, Kenren? Your face is very red.”
Kenren sank down on the chair, eyes still wide.
“What were you doing? Desk ... Under... soft....Konzen ... noises ... drop by later?”
Tenpou frowned, why didn’t Kenren understand something simplistic? Was he not allowed to have any acquaintances outside the military?
“Konzen came over to borrow a book,” He said looking confused. “I was going to lend him a book of Gekai mythology.”
Kenren still looked a little dazed. Tenpou reasoned that Kenren was either drunk or tired or both so he decided to take his explanation down a level. He got up from his desk and showed his subordinate a dark blue covered book with a pleased expression.
“This was under the desk with some other books,” he said happily and ran the cover against his cheek with his eyes closed. “It’s covered in something called suede, so soft … it’s a fairytale book.” He smiled at Kenren who was half smiling in disbelief at this truly eccentric man who was still stroking his book. He reached for the wine again and took an even larger mouthful than before; he really needed to be drunk right now.
Tenpou then looked troubled.
“But I couldn’t find the mythology book. It’s somewhere around here. I’ll have to drop it by to Konzen when I find it, he didn’t seem to mind,” he gestured with the book. Kenren started laughing hysterically and Tenpou turned back to him. “Kenren? What in Tenkai is the matter with you?”
“You mean that was just for a book??” he said incredulously. “I thought. I thought ... well never mind that, but it looked like.” He took yet another large mouthful of the wine, glad his head was starting to feel a little muzzy.
Tenpou frowned and started to restack the books on his desk before freezing in realisation. “Oh my,” he said suddenly. “You must have thought .... Did you really think that I was ... To Konzen??” he put a hand over his mouth, torn between laughing, blushing and shouting.
Kenren felt like speaking up at Tenpou’s incredulous tones, no one laughed at him.
“Well yeah!” he exclaimed “I come in and Blondie’s sat at the desk and all can see is your, your, well, the bit that ain’t your head sticking out and noises under the desk.” He slugged down another mouthful of wine.
Tenpou started to laugh.
“It ain’t funny!” Kenren shouted. “I felt really bad! Interrupting and all and I didn’t think you were that way or anything, or that you preferred blondes and even if you didn’t, I kinda hoped ...” he clapped a hand over his mouth.
There was silence; Tenpou narrowed one eye, his expression utterly unreadable.
“Hoped what?” he asked, tapping the non-infamous fountain pen on his bottom lip, deep in thought. “Kenren Taisho, why would you hope anything about me doing something like that?” The question was smooth and succinct, inviting a quick answer.
Kenren raked his hands through his hair. This was getting insane. Not only had he just assumed his superior was performing sexual favours for the aristocracy, he had just dropped his own feelings for the oddball Gensui into it too. Nothing else to do but dig deeper.
“I kinda got jealous.” He spat out, scrabbling for the wine jug. Yes this was definitely digging at its very very best. He took another swallow.
“Jealous?” queried Tenpou leaning back on the desk, the air of an interrogator settling around his shoulders. Even in a lab coat and slippers he could look military. “Why?”
“I was jealous of Blondie,” retorted Kenren, dropping the jug of wine and not caring where it fell “I wanted it to be ... and I should really be leaving now.”
He hauled himself up from the chair and went to make a mad two-yard- dash for the door. He just reached the handle when his wrist was grabbed and he was spun around with unbelievable force. Two hands pinioned his body firmly against the door and a pair of warm lips met his own in a furious kiss. The shock was overridden and Kenren found himself responding with an equal, almost desperate passion.
The first thing Kenren noticed was that the Gensui could really dominate a kiss and found his entire body responding in more ways than one. The second thing he noticed was that it felt completely normal to be pinned against an office door with his tongue down Tenpou’s throat and fingers entwined in locks of thick dark hair. Indeed, it felt so natural that Kenren found himself giving an annoyed moan as Tenpou pulled away.
“You have nothing to be jealous of,” He murmured softly, his dark eyes aflame with laughter and desire. He smelled of old books, new ink and cherry blossoms. “And how may I prove this to you?”
Kenren refused to deign Tenpou with a verbal answer.
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
Kenren awoke to sunlight hitting him in the face and solar-powering a small hangover. He found it strange that he’d woken up to sunlight at all because he had purposely moved the bed in his quarters away from the window to stop this sort of thing happening. It only made him get up early and be on-time to things. He shielded his eyes from the sun and with a start, realised that he was not in his own room. More to the point he was stark-naked and even more to the point, he wasn’t alone. Kenren cast a glance to his left. An equally naked Tenpou Gensui lay next to him, dark hair fanning across the pillow and a satiated expression on his face.
Memories from the night before then started to trickle into his realisation. It started with the meeting of Konzen and of Tenpou pinning him to door. Memories of making it to the bedroom and falling on the bed. Of hot kisses and Tenpou’s slender body bending and writhing at his touch. Of his new superior’s legs thrown over his shoulders, his own cries at the sheer pleasure that had lanced through him and the realisation that Tenpou was a damn good fuck …
… and followed by the realisation that he had indeed just fucked his superior officer.
“Oh crap.” He said under his breath and started debating on the best way to make a silent escape. He’d always been so talented at stealthily sneaking out before his bed-buddy realised, or their husbands came home. This time he had stayed the night, in the bed of the Gensui of the Western Army no less and he didn’t really know what to do now.
As if hearing his mental wheels turning, the body next to him stirred.
“Oh crap indeed … Good morning, Kenren,” came the murmur from his pretty- faced bed-partner. Tenpou blinked open his eyes, yawned and stretched himself out like a cat, the sheets falling to his waist. “Sleep well?”
“What little I had was surprisingly good.” Kenren answered with a smirk and trying to keep his eyes off Tenpou’s muscle torso. He then rolled over onto his side to face the brunette directly. “Um ... Do you mind ... you know what happened last night?” he cursed inwardly, he had never been so tongue-tied with a bed-partner before. Then again, he may have bedded a lot of partners of both genders and races but never a superior officer.
Tenpou sprawled out on the bed, looking at the ceiling, before glancing back at Kenren with a serious look.
“Should I have?” he questioned “Look, you can leave now if you want. I can go to the bathroom, come out and you can go.” He said seriously but with one eyebrow slightly raised in challenge.
“Hell no.” Kenren smirked. “If you’re okay with it, I’d rather stay here,” He lay back and realised his much-missed sarcasm had come back off its vacation. “Besides, your bed’s more comfortable than mine at the barracks and I get lonely sometimes.”
Tenpou chuckled and reached over to the bedside table for a familiar white package, baring a lurid bite-mark on the pale skin of his shoulder. Kenren shivered at the remembered sensations. Tenpou grabbed the box, tapped twice and handed him one of the appearing cigarettes, and putting the other between his lips.
“Well, in that case you should come around more often.” He replied, indicating the cigarette. Kenren rolled over to get his lighter from the pocket of his coat that was hanging on one of the bedposts. The rest of his clothes were, along with Tenpou’s, scattered all over the bedroom. As he rolled, he suddenly jumped as something jabbed him in the upper back.
“Ow! Shit!” he reached down under the covers and pulled out a very warm, red leather-bound book. “What the hell?!”
Tenpou laughed and then his face lit up at the sight.
“Ah that’s book I’m lending to Konzen!” he exclaimed. “You should get things wrong more often.” He said taking the book and placing it on the table. He then relaxed back against the headboard with his unlit cigarette and gave a distinctly satisfied smile. “I shall pay a special visit later today.”
Kenren stared at him.
“So you really aren’t doing anything with Blondie?” he asked, taking in a long draught. He had to clarify this right now because he didn’t really didn’t want to get into a game of Fuck-the-Tenpou with the Goddess of Mercy’s ice-queen nephew, not unless a threesome was in order.
Tenpou gave a downright devious smirk.
“Not everyone prefers blonds, Kenren.”
