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Xeno doesn’t look even slightly worried as they board him on the ship, utterly confident that they won’t do anything to harm him. He’s right. But contrary to what he obviously believes, Senkuu doesn’t think softness has anything to do with it.
It’s exhilarating, to see him in the flesh. His pale skin, the impressive markings adorning his face, conveniently forming the mysterious ‘X’ that he always ended his emails with. A former NASA scientist, one that had taken ten years old Senkuu seriously when no one else would. Their relationship had been purely professional – as professional as Xeno could get with a child, which was, surprisingly, a lot.
There are so many things Senkuu wants to talk about with him. Xeno was his respected mentor for years and is now his enemy.
Senkuu doesn’t need to convince anyone to let him have a few moments alone with Xeno; everyone understands that mentor and protégé have things to talk about in private, and though Chrome looks positively starry-eyed (he’s definitely going to eavesdrop on them sooner or later) the others know they wouldn’t get much of Senkuu and Xeno’s conversation.
On top of science though, there is another matter Senkuu wants to breach. One that has his heart beating strangely fast. For once, he’s not sure of the conclusion he’s going to reach – or rather, he’s not sure the conclusion he will undoubtedly reach is the one that anyone would hope to uncover. But he is a scientist, and he plans on doing his job thoroughly.
It’s only once they are alone in the room, and a hand-tied Xeno sits on the couch before him, that Senkuu allows a giddy smile to grace his features. Whatever comes of this, it’s bound to be interesting. In the grand scheme of things and in spite of anything Xeno can profess, Senkuu knows that they have a lot in common. Xeno cannot remain tongue tied forever, not when there’s another brilliant scientist with whom he can share all his knowledge and hypotheses.
Xeno’s shoulders relax after a few seconds. From where he stands, Senkuu cannot see the scientist’s hands but he’s not worried about Xeno trying anything for now. He’s weighted his options – should he go for a casual approach, sit down next to Xeno and try buttering him up, for the sake of the good ol’ time they spent as mentor and mentee? He’d discarded this idea with a snicker as soon as it had crossed his mind. Xeno wouldn’t fall for that and it’s not Senkuu’s style.
Moreover, there is something Senkuu wants to confirm.
Something that’s infinitely easier to see if he’s facing Xeno right on.
Xeno falls right into Senkuu’s open trap. His dark eyes peer over the young man’s body, from head to toe. If he didn’t know better, Senkuu would say he’s committing the sight to memory.
(Wouldn’t that thought be tempting? He’s seen Xeno’s face as he saw him just a moment ago, their first proper meeting in a few millennia. The marvel in his eyes was not faked. It still remains even now, subdued and confusing.)
“I should probably thank you for all you taught me back then,” Senkuu starts off, casually breaking the silence.
“Should you?” Xeno counters easily. “Don’t flatter me too much. We both know that I would have never bothered answering you in the first place if you’d had no potential. You had the drive and the intelligence. I merely gave you a few shortcuts.”
“My very own cheat code,” Senkuu grins. Xeno simply smiles in answer. If he’s still cautious enough around Senkuu to purposefully make the younger man lead the conversation, then it’s time for Senkuu to try something else.
It’s not exactly his regular style either but he knows that being bold is sometimes the best way to go. He stretches casually, tilting his head back as he cracks his necks so that Xeno can get a good glimpse of his neck and collarbone – and sure enough, the man’s eyes are fixated on him.
“Have I changed so much that you can’t keep your eyes off of me?” Senku teases as his heart starts beating a little faster. Will Xeno take such obvious bait?
To anyone else, this comment would have come off as flirty banter. Xeno’s face shows neither surprise nor interest.
“You haven’t changed,” Xeno answers dryly. “You’ve aged.”
Oh.
It’s a more forward answer than Senkuu ever hoped Xeno would offer him.
One that tells him all he needs to know. One that urges him on. His curiosity is piqued and Xeno is not averse to satisfying it.
Senkuu would hate to waste this unique opportunity. Now that he’s gotten the confirmation that his theory is right, he can’t possibly stop without testing it out.
“Ow,” Senku puts a hand over his heart. “Way to wound me. I’m only 19. Well, 19 and 3722 years old if we want to be exact.”
Xeno doesn’t share his amusement. His face is a careful mask, but Senkuu is determined to chip at it. Something tells him Xeno wouldn’t mind letting loose a bit.
“If the world as we both knew it still existed, you would by all means be considered an adult. But I guess you are too young for me to let you try one of Stanley’s cigarettes, if that’s what bothers you so much.”
“I’d finally be finished with high school. I could be an intern at NASA. I’m sure you can imagine it.”
Xeno closes his eyes. “I can,” he sighs, voice surprisingly soft. When he opens them again, there’s no fondness left on his features.
“But now is not the time to lose ourselves in conjectures. Who is to say that we would have stayed in contact? You were getting busy by the time mankind was petrified. Maybe you would have gotten tired of me.”
“Do you really think that of the two of us, I would have been the one to stop keeping in touch?” Senkuu scoffs.
They’re getting close to the heart of the matter and it’s as terrifying as it is exhilarating.
“Oh my,” Xeno smiles, “what a hurtful accusation. And why, pray tell, would I have done that?”
He knows Senkuu has him figured out but he wants to hear it from the boy himself. What kind of sick pleasure does he derive from the fact that he’s forcing his protégé to look back on all their interactions and search for deeper, taboo meaning within them?
Maybe the worst is that Senkuu genuinely doesn’t mind this terrible, disgusting game. He’s at least as eager as Xeno – hell, he instigated the whole thing because he wanted to know if his hunch was more than that (and to be honest, he’d been sure. Ten billions percent sure.)
“I wonder,” Senkuu smirks. “Adults are less malleable than children. Our convictions would have gotten in the way.”
He looks right into Xeno’s eyes.
“You said so yourself. I’ve aged.”
Xeno narrows his eyes.
“That would have changed nothing,” Xeno hisses. “I would have been happy to stay your mentor. Science is elegant, Senkuu. And your mind is very elegant too. We could have—“
“—I don’t think even ten years old me would have fallen for whatever world domination argument you might have had at the time, Dr. Xeno,” Senkuu cuts him off.
He doesn’t miss the way Xeno’s pupils dilate slightly at the mention of his ten years old self. Bingo.
“It was never question of that,” Xeno answers. “I never thought you so weak-willed as to fall for my arguments in the first place. It’s a shame, yes, but I never sought to… corrupt you.”
The syllables fall off his lips in a perfect drawl. Corrupt you. Such an apt way of phrasing it. Senkuu almost wants to ask if there’s not another verb for it, what is it again? Ah, yes, grooming. Is that it, Dr. X? Isn’t that what you dreamed of doing with little Senkuu?
Senkuu takes a step forward. Improvising has never tasted so good. He wants to tease Xeno more, wants to see how far he can push him. How much more can he make him admit?
“What a gentleman. I was right to trust you enough with my rocket education,” Senkuu teases.
Xeno elects to ignore the slight mockery thrown in his protégé’s words.
“I was always grateful of your trust in me. You are- were a bright child. I am not so foolish as to not realize how important a child’s trust is.”
“Oh yes,” Senkuu snickers. “You of all people definitely needed a child’s trust for what you had in mind.”
Xeno glares at him.
“I fail to see why this amuses you so much. What are you hiding, dearest Senkuu? Disgust? Or interest? Your questions would point to you cultivating the latter.”
Senkuu ponders his answer. Could he play the part of the betrayed protégé, the one who would have never dared to believe such awful things about his mentor but who has to recognize the pathetic, disgusting truth?
“Am I wrong, Senkuu?”
This is a dangerous game that they’re playing. Does Senkuu really need the answers to his questions? This should be proof enough. He doesn’t need to go as far as he’d planned. (But therein lies the problem, doesn’t it? Senkuu had planned this. He cannot fathom why exactly, but he wants to go through with this, wants to see Xeno lose his careful composure.)
“Don’t talk like you wouldn’t do the same,” Senkuu shrugs easily. “You know what they say about scientific curiosity…”
“Of course, how daft of me. This is all purely scientific,” Xeno replies, drawing out every syllable of that last word.
Senkuu decides it’s time to throw him a bone.
“As scientific as your interest in the photos I sent you was,” he nods.
Xeno stills.
“Your first attempts at building a rocket were charming. Charming failures, the lot of them.”
“And you complained so much that the pics I sent were blurry. You couldn’t figure out what was wrong with the rockets unless I was personally holding them up for the camera. Thank goodness Taiju was patient."
“Don’t they say a picture is worth a thousand words?”
Senkuu takes a step forward, leaning down a bit so that their faces are at the same level.
“Yes, surely that’s why I took the time to take some of those pictures so… personally.”
Xeno audibly gulps.
“Care to refresh my memory with an example?” He whispers seductively.
“I don’t know. I probably could have found some other way of showing you that one engine… But hey, who can blame a ten years old for unprofessionalism. It was a good fit between my thighs… and this pic certainly wasn’t blurry, was it?”
Xeno exhales sharply, eyelashes fluttering. Senkuu can almost feel the gears of his mind turning, rewinding him back to the moment he got that photograph. A careful man like him surely waited to be home alone to open it. Senkuu can picture the scene; Xeno, eager to exchange more with his little prodigy of a protégé, smiling upon seeing the attached pic and oh so innocently clicking on it – only to be graced with boyish thighs around a phallic object.
“That one was perfect,” Xeno admits. “You certainly knew what you were doing.”
“I wonder,” Senkuu says. “It’s hard sometimes to remember how aware of it I was back then.”
He drags his eyes down in a slow, controlled movement, letting his lips stretch into a victorious smile as he finally addresses the elephant in the room. Xeno’s pants look awfully tight, what with the tent in them.
Senkuu meets Xeno’s gaze. The man looks perfectly calm, but they both know better.
“Did I turn you on back then too?” Senkuu asks despite himself.
Xeno snorts. “Did it? What an inane question, Senkuu.” (Why does his name sound so good in Xeno’s mouth?)
“And how presumptuous of you to think that you excite me.”
Senkuu laughs. He can’t resist the urge, not when the situation is so absurd – so exhilarating.
“I wouldn’t dare presume about that, Dr. X.,” He says as he throws an arm around Xeno’s shoulder and plants his legs on either side of the man’s thighs, straddling him. “I never implied I excite you.”
Xeno doesn’t flinch at the sudden contact but he lets his back hit the couch, his tied hands uncomfortably trapped between his backside and the couch.
“But something did. Unless you want to confess that you pop random boners,” Senkuu says crudely. “No judgment here,” he adds with a smirk. “But shouldn’t we test the most plausible hypothesis first? Because I have an idea of what turns you on, Dr.”
Black eyes peer into Senkuu’s own.
“Really? Do tell, then,” Xeno answers, breath hitching slightly.
“You long for who I was back then. For the tiny, brilliant child I was.” Senkuu pauses. His own heart wants to burst out of his chest, beating faster by the second. “And the memory of it is enough to turn you on to this very day,” he finally confesses.
He half expects Xeno to push him off – he would never deny the truth, but maybe Senkuu crossed a boundary by almost sitting in his lap. The man doesn’t look put out though. On the contrary, his eyes shine with excitement and pride.
“If you were ten,” he hums contentedly, “I would have no qualms about kissing you right now.”
Wow, Senkuu wasn’t actually excepting that. It must be written on his face, because Xeno smirks. “Ah, was that going too far? How careless of me. How about this, then? Ten billions points to you, Senkuu-kun.”
That last sentence is said in Japanese, and Senkuu suddenly feels a little hot under the collar himself.
He got Xeno to admit it.
He was right – of course he was! But it is one thing to suspect it and another to have it confirmed, especially when he only has to shift a little to feel the very proof of it against his ass.
“Are you going to unhand me now?” Xeno amusedly remarks. “Perhaps you would rather throw me to the ocean. Has your little team implemented jails again already?”
Senkuu blinks. Why is Xeno so chatty now?
“What are you doing?”
Xeno licks his lips.
“Making sure you know exactly how I feel about this. You may be open-minded but you have morals, Senkuu. You’re proved it to me, again and again. I understand how this revelation would change your opinion of me, or at least how you behave yourself around me.”
In lieu of answering, Senkuu sits down properly on Xeno’s lap. The baffled look the other sends him has the merit of being funny.
“My legs were getting tired,” Senkuu shrugs. Xeno doesn’t call him out on his obvious lie.
“What are you playing at?
Senkuu doesn’t know how to answer that. Or rather, he doesn’t know how he should answer that. He respects Xeno, he always has. And he needs the scientist’s help. This has nothing to do with it, though. He’s just… curious.
“It can’t be a revelation if I’d already guessed it from the start,” he settles on. “So what, you wanted to fuck me when I was a kid. Big deal.”
Xeno twitches under him as the crude English word leaves Senkuu’s lips.
“Are you surprised I’m not worried? Oh, Dr. X.,” Senkuu grins, “I’m not a kid anymore. And you made it clear just how little I interest you now. Really, I’m almost wounded; you could have minded your words.”
“You’re…”
“A smart-ass? I’ve been told, yeah.”
“That’s not what I was going to say, dear Senkuu, but suits yourself,” Xeno retorts. “At least, let me explain something, in clearer terms this time.”
Senkuu nods, serious again.
“Do not delude yourself into thinking I’ve ever felt remorse for my… unusual tastes.”
Unusual tastes. It sounds so polite, said like this, so utterly harmless. Senkuu ignores the chills that run through him at the words.
“I am not a good man, and neither is Stanley,” Xeno says. “And that never prevented us from sleeping soundly at night.”
“Understood,” Senkuu sighs. “I won’t.”
“Now that we’ve made our case, would you mind getting off me?”
“Sorry I’m not a lightweight kid anymore,” Senkuu jokes.
“Are you going to joke around with this now?” Xeno asks harshly, quirking a brow. “If you plan on telling your friends about me, there are more elegant ways of doing it.”
“I won’t tell them. This is between us,” Senkuu shakes his head. He means it; he’ll keep an eye on Xeno and he knows the others aren’t going to let their guard down around him either. That’s enough. No one needs to know this side of him.
“I don’t understand you,” Xeno admits in a confused exhale.
“Maybe I just don’t want everyone to know I was perved on when I was a kid.”
Senkuu rolls his hips forward tentatively. He’s not aroused, though Xeno is still half-hard against him.
“What are you doing?” Xeno asks between gritted teeth.
Senkuu lets one of his hands trail along Xeno’s chest to palm him through his pants.
“Don’t.”
Xeno looks more flustered than he ever has since the beginning of their private conversation.
“It will go down on its own. That’s rather inelegant of you, Senkuu, not to mention unwanted.”
There it is again; the direct admission that Xeno doesn’t want him. Senkuu shouldn’t care. He isn’t interested in Xeno either, not in this way. But there’s something thrilling about this. Senkuu being privy to Xeno’s secret means he’s the only one who can help him with that.
“How about we experiment a little?”
Xeno looks at him warily.
“I’ve grown up,” Senkuu says, “but it’s still me. If you close your eyes, would you be able to pretend a few years haven’t passed? Give or take a few millennia,” he adds with a chuckle.
“The millennia don’t matter.”
It’s all Xeno says before he relents and closes his eyes.
“How many years matter then? Counting them from the moment we met.”
Senkuu’s hand lays flat against Xeno’s crotch for now.
“Ah- Two… maybe three. Were you a late bloomer? I could have gone up to four, maybe.”
“Not particularly,” Senkuu shrugs, not that Xeno can see it. “I was a scrawny kid though, so I probably looked small compared to my classmates.”
Despite his initial reluctance, Xeno seems to be getting into this. Senkuu’s hunch was right once again. They’re both scientists, and their curiosity knows no bound. Give them enough to set the décor, and their imagination will do the rest.
“Fourteen then…,” Senkuu ponders. “How about younger? What age would you have liked meeting me at?
“You don’t –ah- you don’t want me to answer that,” Xeno hisses.
Okay then, he won’t pry too much.
Senkuu rubs against Xeno’s cock, feels it twitch under his palm. Now that the man’s eyes are closed he can admire the black X in its full glory. It suits him.
“Sometimes, I…” Senkuu’s voice trails off immediately. He can’t believe he’s going to admit it, to Xeno of all people. But isn’t Xeno vulnerable right now too? Hands tied up and letting a man who should be his enemy touch him so intimately. Maybe this is a confession Senkuu can make now more than ever.
“Sometimes I wonder what I would have done if the ray had hit the Earth a few years earlier. I was smart, sure, but I’m not sure…”
I’m not sure that would have been enough to break out on my own. It had been challenging enough at fifteen. Senkuu can’t admit it to the others, not when they rely on him so much, but that useless what-if scenario plagues his mind from time to time. He’s barely an adult, and meeting with Xeno reminded him of just how much of the world he carries on his shoulders.
Xeno hums, unbothered by the fact that Senkuu left the end of his sentence go unsaid.
“If the petrification ray had hit us a few years earlier, I would have come for you.”
Senkuu closes his eyes. It sounds absurd. Does Xeno even hear himself? His hand shakes as he fumbles with his mentor’s pants.
“You doubt me,” Xeno sighs. “I would have, though. I would have woken up, I would have found Stanley, and I would have crossed the ocean to come find you.”
The certainty with which he speaks sends shivers down Senkuu’s spine. He’s finally managed to open Xeno’s pants, and his hand closes around something hot and pulsing.
Senkuu leans forward until his forehead bumps against Xeno’s. He doesn’t open his eyes. He’s sure Xeno has kept his closed, and will do so until they’re done.
“Have you ever been to Japan before?” Senkuu asks in a voice that means “Would I be worth the trouble?”
“No,” Xeno concedes. “It doesn’t matter though. I knew where you lived and I’m nothing if not stubborn.”
“What would you have gained, from reviving me? I wouldn’t have agreed with your ideals, not even then.”
Xeno chuckles. Senkuu grips his cock harder, tearing a hiss from his lips instead.
“I know. I would have never counted on that.”
They both know what Senkuu is after. He should be appalled. He should call out Xeno on his disgusting feelings, his rotten depravation that he doesn’t even feel sorry for.
He thumbs the head of his mentor’s cock instead, paying as little attention as he can to the fact that this is his first time doing this to someone. Would Xeno care, if he knew? Hell, that might turn him on. Senkuu might have grown up, but Xeno still gets to be his first.
Their faces are still touching. There are only a few centimeters to cross for one of them to kiss the other.
“I would have tried my hardest to thwart your evil plans of taking over the world,” Senkuu finally answers, adding to their fantasy.
“I would never expect any less from you. My dear student, so eager to learn… you would have tried hard, but not so hard that I wouldn’t teach you anymore.” Xeno sounds awfully fond. He was proud of Senkuu, back then. Senkuu could always tell from Dr. X.’s polite mails when he’d done a good job in the scientist’s eyes.
“What would you have taught me?”
“Oh, Senkuu. I would have taught you everything,” Xeno replies, so close that Senkuu can feel the warmth of his breath against him.
Senkuu’s hand builds up a rhythm. The movements themselves are not that different from masturbation, but he can’t know exactly how he makes Xeno feel and that is slowly driving him insane. If he’s being too rough, Xeno doesn’t complain.
“Even how to do this?”
Xeno pants against him. “Yes, especially this.”
He thrusts his hips forward and Senkuu’s grip around his dick almost falters. Xeno is really getting into this. He probably doesn’t need any more help, but Senkuu can’t resist riling him up a bit more.
“What would you have told me? That it’s how boys learn?”
“Come on, we both know you’re smarter than that. You would have soon learnt that you could leverage this against more knowledge. I would have been happy to indulge you, Senkuu. Satisfy your curiosity-“
“-And your own desires along the way, of course. What kinds of things did you imagine, during all these years? Have you ever thought of me in this position? I could be wearing those shorts you loved so much. Did you know you always answered faster if I was wearing them in the pics I sent you? I bet you didn’t even notice. Did it make you cum faster?”
“Senkuu,” Xeno groans.
“Imagine I’m ten,” Senkuu says, voice mimicking as well as he can his boyish tone from before his voice broke. “I’m ten and you only have to ask nicely and I’ll suck your cock.”
Xeno keens as something hot and sticky splatters all over Senkuu’s hand. His eyes shoot open and he takes in a sharp breath, removing his hand from his mentor’s dick like the contact is burning him.
Xeno throws his head back, lips parted in ecstasy.
“I would have begged you for less.”
Senkuu gulps, using his clean hand to brace himself up and stand. Xeno’s submissive side isn’t something he had predicted.
He looks around the room awkwardly, looking for something to wipe his hand with.
Xeno must sense his struggle because as soon as he opens his eyes, the man lets an amused smile stretch his lips.
“Let me.”
Senkuu looks at him confusedly – Xeno only opens his mouth.
Oh.
OK. For the first time since they got here, Senkuu feels his cheek redden. He holds his hand out and Xeno licks it clean without any hesitation. Does he still see Senkuu’s child self with his half-closed eyes?
Once he’s done, his lips hover over Senkuu’s hand, like he’s going to kiss it. In the end, he just lets out a weary sigh, and leans back with a whisper.
“If only your hand was smaller.”
Senkuu pretends he hasn’t heard that. He wipes his hand on his tunic for good measure and goes to the other side of the room to grab the globe they’ll need for their upcoming conversation.
The mood he’d carefully crafted is gone as suddenly as it came. He glances towards the door; maybe it’s only right. Chrome will try to eavesdrop sooner rather than later, and even if his friend doesn’t understand English it’s best for the conversation to reach safer waters when he does listen in on them.
Senkuu sets down the globe on the table. Xeno is watching him with a satisfied smile, sensing that they’re about to discuss another subject entirely.
“Get up,” Senkuu simply says as he grabs more items from the room.
He pointedly ignores Xeno’s cock still hanging out from his pants when he swiftly unties him.
“Make yourself decent,” he taunts. “I think we’ll get a visitor soon.”
He looks away as Xeno fixes his pants, eyes focused on the globe. It was so easy to joke about this a few minutes ago. Hell, he sat in Xeno’s lap and jerked him off.
He shakes his head and grabs the Senkuu Phone. He should start off with telling Xeno about what happened to one of his coworkers, Byakuya Ishigami.
Xeno is sitting down again when he sets the phone and the record on the table, legs crossed this time.
“I see we’re back on track,” his mentor hums contentedly.
“Yeah,” Senkuu nods. He needs to let go of what just happened. He’ll process it later – it doesn’t matter. It’s all in the past anyway. He’s just proved Xeno doesn’t see him like that anymore.
“That first mentor-mentee chat was a warm-up. Now let’s exchange everything we know so far.”
Xeno has the audacity to look pleased with this development.
“Very well,” he says smugly. “Science is elegant."