Archive of Our Own ^beta

It’s cold in the library and Rei stokes the fire, nudging at the logs with the iron poker to get the airflow going; he hadn’t come back to the manor at all last year, much less last winter. He’d been out searching for a lead in Fire Territory back then, so he’d managed to avoid the worst of the wind, rain, and snow that came with the season.

He’s enjoying the peace and quiet. The hermit and the vermin are out somewhere in the mountains looking for an obscure root, the vice-captain, the priest and the Sun Lord are occupied with events in the capitol, and the Grand Sorcerer has run out with the e-droid to the little snake’s house to deal with fallen trees blown over by the last storm. Aster and Morvay are out following leads on their own today...which only leaves…

“Human Slave Number One! Finally, you can’t hide from the great—oh.”

Ah, the boy-wolf, wolf-boy. The blustery twin, from the sound of it.

Karu swaggers into the library, ears and tail out, soaked from head to toe with mud—or, from the clamor of dismay in the corridor from the maids mopping up his trail of muck, it was mud and then some—and a scattering of snowflakes yet to melt on his dark, matted hair. His stance startles, then wilts when he looks about the shelves only to see Rei; clearly, not his target of choice.

The boy opens his mouth to snap at him, but his gleaming eyes flicker over to where Father’s comfortably nested in Rei’s scarf, piled in a loop on the nearby table, and he changes his mind. Good choice.

With a low, dour expression through the grime on his face, Karu says, “Y-you, uh—”

“Rei,” Rei supplies, straightening up from his crouch by the fireplace. Karu steps back upon noticing how tall he is. Oh, shy? Rei hasn’t interacted much with this fresh young generation of the clan, save for Olivine and Yakumo. The gemstone situation with this one was rather unique; he’d been looking forward to having a moment alone with either one of the wolf brothers to better investigate what could have occurred previously for their gem to be split and separated from their body in such a way…

“—pale one!”

All right, fine. That’ll do.

Rei languidly cracks his neck. “If you’re looking for the Grand Sorcerer, he left for an emergency an hour ago. He took Blade and Yakumo with him. It’s already dark, so they won’t be back until tomorrow morning, at earliest.”

If anything, Karu wilts further. He’s holding something in his hands, dripping…

“Is that blood?” Rei steps forward, spurred on by his stab of worry. “Are you hurt?”

Eiden was particularly anxious over the well-being of the clan members younger than him; it wouldn’t do to let Karu bleed all over the manor while waiting for the Grand Sorcerer to return when Rei was already here to exchange some essence, if needed.

Karu steps back again, clutching his prize to his chest. “No,” he splutters. “This is for my slave!”

Rei pauses an arms-length away. He can see now that Karu’s holding what’s left of a very particular kind of bird—a decorative, ornamental, and highly invasive bird, one of many exotic novelties imported to the continent for the amusement of the wealthy and powerful. Perhaps a hundred years ago, catching and killing one would have brought on the punishment of a hefty fine, or a stint in prison...but in the decades since their introduction, so many birds had been released to the wild, or simply escaped, that a stable population had established itself to terrorize the local farmers and swoop upon unlucky children.

They were also deadly to the touch, which made them all the more difficult to eradicate. The beauty of their oil-slick shimmering plumage was due to the poisons embedded within.

If Karu knew this already, he probably wouldn’t be trying to gift it for the pretty feathers alone. Unless...Rei had understood Karu’s relationship with the Grand Sorcerer incorrectly, and this was a half-hearted attempt at assassination.

“You’re going to give your slave a mangled poisonous bird? What do you expect him to do with it, eat it raw and then die?”

Cute, how clearly Karu wears his heart on his sleeve. The poor thing goes so pale. “P-poisonous?”

“Nausea, headaches, vomiting, internal bleeding, more vomiting—”

Karu drops his prey with a disgusting splat onto the stone floor. He reaches up towards his mouth—lips shiny from where he’d probably lunged and snapped the bird out of the air—but drops his oil-smeared hands back down to his chest. “Uh—”

“You’ll be fine. The poison doesn’t have an effect on yokai.”

“Oh.” Karu’s breathing levels out, but his eyes are still dilated, unsure of what to do, ears swiveling every which way. Interesting, how much certain expressions made one twin indistinguishable from one another...did their parallel behavior have to do with emotions and thoughts universal to both? Hm. That merits further investigation.

However, with the fire burning high in the room, Karu’s matted fur is starting to dry off—the stench of a sodden, dirty pelt, together with the blood and the mud evaporating into the air, has soured Rei’s plans for a solitary, uninterrupted evening. Well, plans can change. Rei’s flexible.

He leans down and picks up the carcass by a talon, using a cleaning rag left behind on the fireplace mantel to prevent direct contact with his skin.

“The feathers can be plucked and preserved in alcohol, to preserve the colors and neutralize the poison. They’ll need to be kept in solution. If they’re exposed to air again, the poisons will evaporate and create a toxic gas in the vicinity...but if sealed immediately in clear resin, or behind glass, they won’t be of harm to anyone.”

Rei waves a maid over, and requests an inert glass container to contain the bird for the time being. While they wait for her to return, he gives Karu a once-over. Did Karu always get this filthy during a hunt? “I can help you prep the bird,” he says. “But first, let’s get you cleaned up. You got the poisonous oil all over yourself; it’s not safe to put that down the plumbing without a neutralizing treatment, so I’ll help you wash, too.”

Shifting from foot to foot, Karu squints at him in suspicion. “For free?”

“No,” Rei chuckles. “Not for free. In return…”

“In return?”

“I want to take a closer look at your gem. Your scars, too. We can do that in the bath.”

~~~

Karu is skittish all the way down the hall to the communal baths, trailing behind Rei by a fair distance. When they make a short stop by Rei’s rooms to pick up the neutralizing solvent, Karu pokes his head inside in open curiosity, but quickly moves away to leave space between them as soon as Rei heads back out. Father stays behind in the room; it’s not as if he can take a bath the same way they can.

“N-no funny business in the bath,” Karu demands on their resumed walk, a squeaky growl leaking into his voice. “I’ll, I’ll bite your dick off if you try!”

“Why in the world would I want my dick to end up in your unwashed, fanged mouth? You just killed something poisonous with those teeth.”

“Wh—! Well, uh, um…”

Too easy. “Don’t worry about it. You need an extra pair of hands to get clean; those hands happen to belong to me.” He waves Karu through the bath door first, and follows.

The communal baths of the manor are luxurious, but Rei hardly ever uses them while he’s in residence. The reason being is that they are so luxurious, built in the Fire Territory-style of traditional open-air tiled baths, that there’s always somebody getting sucked or fucked or railed or ruined to oblivion in here. Sometimes, deliciously heated floors are a siren song in and of themselves. The acoustics and soundproofing are great, too; it’s very easy to tell when Olivine is enjoying some company if the doors are propped open, but so long as the doors stay shut, not one blessed moan can get through.

Rei has long since learned to give the baths a wide berth whenever there’s at least two other clan members staying over. Even at fuck-all weird hours of the night, or even in broad daylight, he can’t indulge in a private soak without Edmond dragging in Yakumo, or once, memorably, Quincy, Blade, Olivine, and Eiden rolling in, all over each other. Talk about nonsense he didn’t sign up for. He’d rather fill up the simple tub in his ensuite himself.

The first area in the baths is the dry undressing chamber, where Rei strips out of his clothing and sets the fabric in his designated cubby—empty save for the supplied bath slippers and robe, as he was so rarely in here to stash any of his personal belongings for convenient use—while Karu heads straight over the corner reserved for shaking off the worst of his gunk, cordoned off from the rest of the room by a low wall a few hand-spans high. Ah, so he’s already done this more than once...

“Hold on,” Rei calls out, holding out the bottle of solvent. “Don’t shake the mud off yet. You need a sprinkle of this.”

Karu scowls, but waits patiently for Rei to carefully mix the solvent with warm water in a wooden bucket at a nearby tap. It was rather charming of him to avert his eyes from Rei’s nakedness; Rei was past the point of caring, really, what others thought of, or saw in him. He was made of meat, like most every other person out there. No big deal. When his time ran out, he’d rot like anybody else, too.

Once Rei gets the solvent to his desired dilution, he lifts the bucket and carefully pours it over Karu in stages, from limb-to-limb; the solution reacts to the oil with a bubbling hiss, producing simply water and air. Karu doesn’t seem to realize he’s making little yips and whines of interest, eyes wide and fascinated.

“It tickles,” he murmurs, ears wiggling and tail swaying. “It sounds like, hrrrmm, hah, cooking meat!”

He obligingly ducks his head when directed to do so, for Rei to pour the remainder of the solution over his head.

With the caustic properties of the poison counteracted, Rei extends his hand in query. “The solvent reacting with the oil? I suppose it does sound like sizzling. Do you mind if I touch you to get the rest of the dirt out of your hair?”

Karu hesitates, but only briefly. “Careful around my ears...I don’t like it when people touch me there.”

“Sure. How about I get the worst off only in your hair, and then you do your ears yourself?”

The tail-wagging only grows more vigorous, flicking bits of mud here and there. Really? The kid is that pleased from a simple heads-up?

Karu agreeably stands still for Rei to finger-comb chunks of dirt out of his hair, and pluck off crusted mud and leaves from the rest of his clothes. Rei mixes up another half-bucket of dilute solution to scrub at the grime built-up in the cracks of Karu’s rough, calloused hands. Damn, these were some solid mitts.

With that task completed, Rei uses the rest of the solution to gently splash over Karu’s face—with warning, of course—to clear the poison away from his mouth. “Swish and gargle with the last of it, here. Get it all off your tongue. Just because you aren’t affected by the poison doesn’t mean you ought to be eating it.”

Gargle, gurgle, ptooey. There, one slightly less disgusting young man.

Karu has perked up significantly since they’d stepped into the bath; it makes Rei concerned, despite his reservations. Rei doesn’t think that he presents a sufficiently benign and welcoming aura for prickly Karu, of all people, to warm up to him so quickly. Had Karu not had enough attention from the others lately that he’s getting attached to a stranger like Rei?

Ill-advised. Rei’s a tired old man who hurts all over, all the time. He doesn’t have anything left to give.

He does, though, prepare another fresh bucket of dilute solution for Karu to finish on his own.

“That’s better. Finish up your ears and tail, then leave your dirty clothes here. They’ll need to be decontaminated. I’ll be in the washing chamber when you’re done.”

Maybe he’s overthinking things. Maybe he just needs to sleep early tonight. Whatever. Rei steps away to give Karu space to undress, and heads over to the next room.

The second area in the baths is a series of taps and basins, with mirrors around the perimeter and low seats built of cedar, stone, and tile—imported, with colorful designs reminiscent of flowers. Bright lights, powered by the essence of the house, shine from lanterns hanging from the ceiling.

Most of the fornication Rei’s accidentally voyeured tends to happen here. It’s all the short walls and steps and things to brace against and be fucked against and propped up on, readily available soaps and lotions and oils, etc. etc. etc, excellent echoing, and all that. A total funhouse of positional potential, for those with perverted inclinations. And Blade.

Blade, Blade. It’s hit and miss with him; that artificial construct of a body can move in ways that no other living human being could manage without...dying catastrophically...and more than once, Rei’s made the mistake of voicing an unwise thinking-out-loud suggestion to Blade, promptly losing his erection when confronted with legs bending in ways that legs aren’t meant to bend.

It’s been too long since they had a bit of play, months since his last inspection of Blade’s parts. There’s never anything out of the ordinary every time Rei’s checked, but it can’t hurt to be sure.

Rei snags a fresh loofah scrubber and a bar of soap from the row of baskets by the chamber entrance, and takes a seat at his preferred bench spot, facing a mirror. He turns on the taps to fill his basin with warm water, and kneads the loofah in aromatic suds until it’s soft and not quite as abrasive in his hands. He’ll scrub himself here first, before helping Karu. Then, finally, they can get to the spa; ugh, Rei could use a stint in the hot sauna, and then a long, hot soak…

He pulls his hair ribbon loose and puts his head under the tap, wetting it briefly before lathering up and scratching away at his scalp. The tresses are a chore, sometimes...but he resembles his mother, this way. He has very few physical mementos to remind him of what she looked like, other than his own memory and the fine, pretty features she gave to him.

One of the few perks of his strange, unchanging longevity—he can catch the echoes of her face at his apparent age, for decades on end, whenever he catches his own reflection.

It would certainly be more convenient for his routine if he were completely shorn. But with these endless days, convenience matters little.

Rei rinses his hair and turns off the tap with a hand, just in time to hear Karu pad into the chamber and take a seat nearby.

“Grr...” Karu starts to say, “Uh, do you...”

“Do I…?” Rei doesn’t bother to look Karu’s way; he still needs to condition his hair, then soap up his own body. He pours some scented oil from a communal flask and works it into his wet locks, starting from the tips.

“C-can I wash your back?”

Oh? Rei pauses, turning slightly to better observe Karu’s expression. “I thought we were in here to get you clean, not me.”

Karu has given himself a cursory rinse in the mud stall, but he’s still plenty grubby; pink and warm in the face, ears alert. The only thing left on his body is that aggressively spiked, heavy metal collar. The shattered fragments of his gem twinkle in the insets. Huh, how about that. Just how far could the entire moonstone be separated from the bearer’s body before…? Was it safe for the brothers to even take that thing off their shared body?

“I know,” Karu blurts, thrusting out his chest—firm and thick for his small stature—to boost his posture. “But the great Karu holds no debts! You already helped me, so—”

Rei lifts a hand to interrupt him. “No.”

The bewildered look that Karu wears is so exaggerated it might as well be wearing him, instead. “No?”

“No.”

“But—”

“There’s no need for you to help me wash when I’m significantly less dirty than you are. Besides, there is no debt. I’ll take my price when I wash your back. You remember what I asked for?”

Karu chews on his lip. “You wanted...to look at my gem?”

“Yes. And your scars. That can wait, so wash what you can, first. Give me a minute.”

With his hair oiled, Rei twists it loosely into a topknot and sticks it in place with one of the many hairpins lying around on the chamber shelves. How nice, for Edmond to have been born in such luxury that he leaves little luxuries around for everyone else...on accident or on purpose, Rei doesn’t care. He’s seen Yakumo and Blade use the pins, too. Dante is fastidious enough to have his own supply, stocked separately from the rest.

He lathers up the loofah and finishes scrubbing and rinsing himself, to the sound of Karu doing the same beside him.

It’s interesting to see how Karu proceeds. Karu very meticulously starts from his scalp, using his claws to part his hair about his ears and check for dirt and detritus before reaching for, ah, the special soap formulated for fur.

The soap isn’t exactly special, per se. It just happens to be Kuya’s. Absolutely off-limits.

Rei suppresses a chuckle. The way Karu washes his hair, ears, and tail—in that order, before the rest of his body—is the exact way that he’s seen Kuya bathe. It seems as if someone has taken it upon himself to teach Karu and Garu the proper way for a canine yokai to care for themselves, in the absence of anybody else with that same ears-and-tail combination.

“You don’t look like you need my help,” Rei says. “Do you usually offer to wash Kuya’s back for him when you’re together?”

The boy goes terribly red. It seems he’s at that age to have terrible tastes in infatuations. “F-for Master Kuya?” His hands waver where he’s pulled his tail in his lap to finger-comb through the fur. “No, he always…” Frustration flickers across Karu’s face, and he slaps his tail aside to dangle, limp, off the back of the bench. “He always says no. But I want to…I want to help him...”

Sounds like Kuya, getting all cold and defensive and cruel about it. You’re only hurting yourself that way, fox.

Rei sighs. The things he’ll do to not end up like Kuya. An extra soaping couldn’t hurt. “You want to practice on me? That way, when he says yes, you can be confident in your prowess.”

“I can?”

There it is, there’s the wagging tail Rei wants to see.

“Sure. Come here, I’ll wash you first so I can show you what to do.”

Obediently, Karu shifts around to straddle the bench, facing away, and Rei slides forward to sit behind him. He’s farther away than he’d like, to reach comfortably; Karu’s tail is huge, and bushy, and it’s in the way.

After a long moment of waiting, Karu looks back over his shoulder in curiosity, only to yelp in dismay and tug his tail back around to the front. “Grrah! Ugh!” He’s still blushing. Was he embarrassed?

Rei slides closer to place his hands on Karu’s shoulders, laughing under his breath. “Don’t worry about it. You have a tail. Wag it. But thanks for making room for me.”

Karu squirms, and peeks back at him with a pouting scowl. “Hmph! The mighty and formidable Karu is capable of at least this much!” The scars that litter Karu’s body—so deep, and old, that the skin there is pale and indented, shiny and tight—are at great odds with the sweetness of his youthful face.

As he is now, the scars are much too large on him. These are no mere scratches—and at the time he must have received them, the wounds must have been truly grievous. He would have only been a child...a very small one. At nineteen, supposedly, Karu is already a vigorous young man; from the solidity of the muscle under Rei’s hands, he’s not yet done growing. How long would it take for these scars to fade away entirely, or shrink to scale on his mature form?

“Of course,” Rei replies. He reaches over towards the taps to lather up his loofah with fresh soap. “Can the mighty and formidable Karu wash his front at the same time?”

“D-don’t mock me! Of course I can!”

The bluster doesn’t last long; as soon as Rei strokes a soapy hand over Karu’s nape, that boasting mouth snaps shut, and flush across Karu’s skin deepens and spreads all the way down his back. Cute.

Rei scratches his nails absently against the hairline around the back of Karu’s head, admiring the thick, soft texture of the hair there. It wasn’t bristly and stiff, like he had expected from the appearance—no, Karu’s hair was better described as outrageously dense fur, coarse overcoat and silken undercoat, and everything. Perhaps that was due in part to Karu’s level of control over his human form; Kuya’s hair felt much like Rei’s own, comparatively smooth and fine.

The collar just below that soft, messy mop, as Rei observes closely, is forged with a heavy, silvery metal. The irregular facets of bluish-white moonstone shimmer, opalescent, in the lights of the chamber. The undamaged surfaces appear to be polished...perhaps, when Karu had first been born, before everything, the moonstone had been round.

But as it is now, Karu’s gemstone has been securely set into the collar in a way that protects the broken sides where possible—nearly all of the pieces have the original curved surface facing outwards, with no chance of them being easily pried out. For that matter, there didn’t seem to be a clear clasp or hinge to even risk taking this thing off without taking off Karu’s head, too.

Whoever had made this collar for him must have cared very deeply for Karu’s well-being...or rather, for Garu’s?

From what Rei understood during his preliminary reconnaissances of each of the clan members, Karu had appeared some time after Garu’s caretaker had passed. He’ll have to follow-up with Garu later on what he remembered of how this collar was made.

He splashes some warm water over Karu’s back and then begins scrub in small circles with the loofah, starting from the neck and shoulders, working under and around the collar as best he can. He prefaces each scrubbed area with a light, pressing touch, and finishes with long strokes down and out. If he needs Karu to lift an arm here, bend forward or back, Karu humors him with ease, entirely softened butter under Rei’s hands. It would make Rei worried, if he wasn’t already engaging in an up-close-and-personal-examination of Karu’s well-sculpted body. Karu would have no trouble ripping somebody from limb to limb, if he really wanted to. He might already have, from the look of things.

The scars, when Rei reaches them, are lightly skimmed over, by hand and by soap. From experience, long-healed skin like that is thin, the nerves irregular and close to the surface. Some are razor thin, in rows and hatches like an unfinished pattern; some are nearly the width of the widest part of his thumb, spanning the length of a hand span-and-a-half.

They’re everywhere, up and down Karu’s arms, crossing his ribs, one awful thing curving into the muscle of his ass and around his flank.

Halfway through, Karu starts growling, quiet and comfortable. He seems unaware that he’s leaning into Rei’s touch, pink all over, ears drooping in the steam. Rei sighs. He’s got his questions, of course...perhaps more than he did when before they’d started.

How exactly should he go about this? Earlier, he’d caught a glimpse of another deep, slashing scar, high up on the inside of Karu’s thigh. Between that one and the rest, Rei can’t be certain of the nature of their provenance.

What he does know, from the gossip ring, is that Garu, when asked, simply doesn’t know. But Karu?

“Hey, kid.”

Karu yips when he turns his head around to look at Rei, ears cocked. And who can forget, the scar cleaving that face in twain cheekbone-to-cheekbone? “Wh-uh. Huh?”

“Heh.” Rei pats Karu’s side, reassuringly. “Did you get sleepy?”

That glassy gaze flutters, then sharpens, in the breath of a heartbeat. “No! The all-powerful Karu never lets down his guard!”

Ah, Rei didn’t say that, but sure. “Yes, yes. I’ve finished your back now. Did you remember how that felt?”

“It was—it was fine, I guess.”

“You guess?”

All Rei gets is a scowl for his hard work, but that’s as good of an answer as any. “That’ll do,” he says. “All right, turn around.”

Karu gives him a puzzled look as Rei turns around first, but awareness dawns on his face and he too, swings his leg over the bench and presses up against Rei’s back, awfully close.

“You don’t need to wash my body with your body. Maybe another time.”

A short yelp later and cool air breezes between them. “You—! Hrrh, grrr….suggesting…!”

Rei smiles, sneaking a peek behind him. Karu’s blush hasn’t let up yet. “What did I suggest, exactly?”

That shuts him up. Karu huffs and puffs and snatches the loofah out of Rei’s hand; Rei braces himself for a painfully over-eager rubbing, which...doesn’t come?

A pleasant, surprised shiver curls down Rei’s spine as Karu attends to him with the same amount of care as Rei had. A more hands-on learner, then?

He looks down at his own hands, resting on the bench surface between his spread legs. They’ve served him well—perhaps nothing special to look at, long and bony and nicked and calloused, from the nature of his work—even if they get stiff and creaky in the cold.

Rei allows the minutes to stretch on, until Karu is occupied with the dip of his lower back. “Between you and your brother,” he asks, starting with a question he already knows, “Who keeps the memories of what happened to you?”

Karu freezes for a beat; the loofah quickly resumes its circular motions, a little rougher than before. “T-that fool, he doesn’t...I keep it away from him.”

“How come?”

The hands shake. “He’s too stupid, and soft. What is he going to do, cry and run away to that stupid human? That useless slave can’t do anything. He’d be no help, he’d only…”

Rei can feel Karu angrily tossing his head to and fro. “If anything happens to stupid Garu, it’s not like the human slave is coming to save him. No matter how many times the fool is willing to put himself in harm’s way, first.”

Interesting. Rei peers over his shoulder, prepared to turn away at a moment’s notice if Karu needs more privacy with his thoughts. “Why? It seems like the grand sorcerer cares very deeply about him, and about you, too.”

Oooh, ah, is that a look—Karu’s face twists in a way that brings out the full, dark animal of his features; his curled lips are dark, exposed teeth sharp and long and jutting, tightly slitted pupils in gleaming, moonshine eyes.

His voice, when he speaks again, is rattling.

“What can some weak human do, in the bad times, if we’re alone? Nobody will ever come. Nobody but me.”

Karu shudders. Suddenly, he shrinks back, from beast to boy. “If anything happens to me, then...that fool will find some stupid reason to get this body killed on his own. I don’t want it to be over that human...I don’t know what he’d do...if...”

He sullenly swipes the loofah over Rei’s hips. “It’s my body. I told him to leave me alone because I wanted to hunt, and then there was nobody around when we got back and he got bored, so he’s still sleeping…”

“I’m going to get it back one day,” Karu declares, some vigor restored with his affirmation. His tail thumps the bench behind him. “I’ll be so strong nobody can tell me anything or make me do anything I don’t want to do! And then I’ll leave this stupid human house and stupid human people and I’ll go live the yokai way with Master Kuya.”

Shit, Rei was following along with the daydream right up until the end, there. “Kuya? You’re sure about that?”

“Master Kuya doesn’t let any stupid humans have their way with him! He’s, he’s...he’s strong, strong enough to be all alone. And he’s smart, and beautiful, and, and strong...and nobody messes with him! Nobody dares mount him! Not even my human slave can defy him!”

Rei decides not to refute any of that, keeping to himself that 1) Kuya absolutely, pathetically licked Huey’s boots, and then some, to his own intense detriment; 2) the lonely strength of being at the top of the food chain had been actively driving Kuya deeper into neuroticism and ennui borne from boredom for the past several hundred years; 3) he has personally fucked Kuya in the mouth twice and once in the ass and pulled his tail for a sample of his fur during it and gave him a naked footsie one time and also licked his amethyst eyeball on another occasion when they were grinding on each other and they’ve mutually decided never to speak of any of it, at all, ever; and 4) where Quincy or Eiden were involved, Kuya was capable of being incredibly, impossibly stupid, a feat made ever the more frustrating by the fact that none of it ever showed up on his poisonous, pointy little face.

“Makes sense,” Rei gracefully lies. “Although, everyone? Aren’t you and Yakumo good friends? It also looks like you enjoy your reading and writing lessons with Olivine.”

He makes sure to wink, when Karu meets his eyes. “And me, stupid? Are you really insulting somebody who just showed you how to give a good backscrub? Good job, by the way. You’re a fast learner.”

The way that Karu squirms is too sweet. Caught. “Th-the snake yokai is…he’s really strong too!! Master Kuya says even he would have trouble if Yakumo ever...ugh! Nhhgh, grraahh, but…I like…his cooking, his singing…I’m, I’m mad that Garu always wants to be awake for dinner!” Karu stomps his foot on the tiles. “He keeps winning at rock-paper-scissors! I want to eat Yakumo’s dinner too!”

Kuya implied that Yakumo might surpass him, already? Well, well. Rei will have to follow up on that later. “Mmm. The maids gave me some of yesterday’s stew when I got in. It was good, right? With the venison?”

Karu drools, longingly. “I can taste what he’s eating but it’s not the same if I’m not in charge. I hope there are leftovers...stupid Garu...he won yesterday…”

“Hmm, there should be. Not everyone is at the manor right now.” Rei brings his leg over the bench to face the mirrors again, slowly pouring the remainder of the warm basin water over his body to rinse away the suds. He pats at the bun of his oiled hair; good, the pin is still in place. He’ll rinse it out after they’re done with the next room. “Olivine mentioned that you finished a new book, when I saw him last month. You want to tell me more about it while we’re soaking? Or did you finish another one already?”

“Soak?”

Rei tilts his head towards the third chamber, through an arched doorway at the end of the room. “I was thinking of sitting in the dry sauna first, but I’ll probably just sit in the hot baths instead. You can join me, or use the other rooms in any order. It’s not like they’re occupied right now, you know?”

Karu jumps up, tail lashing with the delight of imminent exploration. “That’s right!” he cries. “There’s nobody doing those...those nasty things…! I can use all the rooms!”

Oh, and—there he goes…

Well. As there’s no need to rush anything, Rei takes his time to thoroughly clean and rinse the rest of his body, now that he’s alone. His essence levels aren’t too low yet, but he’ll probably have to hook up with Eiden, Yakumo, or Blade soon after they return from their errand. It’s more efficient for him to absorb and retain essence if he’s on the receiving end of their fluids, and if they come back tomorrow…he might as well get ready for it now, just in case his partner ends up being Yakumo. That serpent dick really…is… something else. Talk about being a grower on top of already being a shower.

Rei shifts up so he’s kneeling, legs spread, on the bench; he leans against the mirror with one hand, and rubs soap at his rim with the other, dipping inside, and deeper, and wider, once he’s reacquainted himself with his own touch. Sensitivity is a curse, sometimes. When he’s satisfied with his cleanliness, he pulls out his fingers, gives himself another rinse, and strokes his half-hard cock once, twice, and sighs.

He’d been hoping for a good, deep, restorative fling yesterday, or today, actually; but the storm had delayed his arrival to this afternoon, and the maids hardly had time to open the doors for him when Eiden and the others had rushed out and away.
The little wolf’s company had distracted him for the time being, but the fatigue and all-over aching that’s been creeping up on him is a sign his essence needs to get topped up sooner rather than later. If his essence is too low, it can’t adequately counteract the failings of his fragile body, and Rei doesn’t care for feeling like a soggy ragdoll with rotted-out seams.

Rei massages some sweet oil to his skin, hoping that the aromatherapy can soothe some of the encroaching edges away. After the baths it’s straight to bed, his planned reading be damned.

He drags himself over to the spa area, and carefully sinks into the sunken, steaming pool at the center of the chamber, moaning in bliss as the water laps up his body to the neck. The spa tiles are darker here than they were in the washing room; all deep, glossy, jewel-tone blues and greens. The atmosphere of the room itself is sultrier as well, lit with low, golden lights inset into the walls down the length of the room, and at either side of each doorway leading to the secondary spa chambers.

Fuck, does the hot water do wonders. He really ought to come in here even if Olivine is slopping out of both ends and making enough of a racket for an entire flock of birds. Rei settles on the submerged bench that runs around the sides of the bath, and rests his cheek on the warm tile of the bath’s edge, above the water. He’s not certain what kind of essence mechanism keeps the heated baths running; only that the tiles activate when somebody enters the baths. The rest, he’s sure, is some kind of modification to the existing plumbing. Then again, Aster was the one who turned the estate from a shell of a storage space into the warm, welcoming place it had become...especially now, with Eiden in residence.

It wasn’t strange, exactly, how different it was with him here. Of course it would be different—Eiden reached for him with hands at the ready to simply hold him close, for no other purpose than to be present, together, the space between them sweeter than what he had ever expected at first.

And...there was the possibility Eiden would disappear the same way he had appeared. Overnight, with no rhyme or reason. What then, of those careful exchanges Rei had come to savor?

It’s going to give him a migraine if he keeps mulling over unknowns problems with unknown variables. Rei reaches out of the bath and into one of the nearby baskets arranged around the rim, picking out another bottle of aromatic oil to drip into the water; the scented steam rises up with the soft, enticing aroma of warm spice and dusky roses—tastefully on-theme for these Fire-styled chambers.

He takes small rolled towel out of another basket and places it at the edge of the bath, for a makeshift pillow. There. The pinnacle of self-indulgence.

Rei leans his head back on the towel and allows himself to doze off, lulled by the soft drip and lap of water against the tile, echoing through the chambers.

The serenity doesn’t last. If there’s anything Rei can rely on, it’s his abysmal luck; he’s not surprised when a howl and a splash and an enormous wave disturbs his nap, powerful enough to knock the hairpin loose and release his locks to fall in a heavy slop over his face.

Karu stands up in the bath, and tenses in a way that gives Rei maybe a second of warning before a full-body shake-off and tail wag sends half of the bathwater his way, again.

“Graaaaah! That felt good!” Karu announces, alarmingly red all over. “Hrrgh, hah, the hot sauna was good...but then it got too hot...so I jumped in the cold bath!”

This is clearly not the cold bath. Rei dunks his head under the surface, to rinse out the remainder of the conditioning oil from his hair—it’s been sitting long enough, anyway, and the oil he’d used had the same perfumed base as the other little vials stashed away everywhere—and says, “And then?”

“And then the cold bath got too cold!”

Of course.

“Haven’t you used these chambers before?” Rei asks, wringing out his hair again. He pats around the sunken bench for the fallen pin and sets it aside on the lip of the bath. The water that Karu had splashed out disappears into long, finely-slotted metal grates in the floor; a cascading, tiered fountain at the far end of the bath burbles to life with from an automatic essence-trigger mechanism, slowly filling the bath with fresh water up to the level it had been at before.

Karu tries to sit down on one of the benches at his end of the pool, but it’s too deep and he sinks entirely underwater, resurfacing with a splutter. “Ack, ugh...I have...but never by myself.” He paddles over to where Rei sits and settles down on a shallower seat there, an arms-length away. “Garu comes in with Yakumo to wash sometimes, but Yakumo can sit in the dry sauna forever…and Master Kuya, um…”

“What, does he get frisky with you in one of the lounging rooms? Puts some sort of awful leaf in the hookah that makes you see spiders everywhere?”

“No,” Karu growls, with an offended-on-Kuya’s-behalf glower. “We only wash here. Master Kuya doesn’t...I...” He averts his gaze to a spot on the far wall. “I go to his house…”

Rei finishes wringing out his towel, too, and resumes his pillowed position, eyes closed. “Hm. You like the privacy?”

He can hear Karu nodding, with the way the water moves around them. “T-that way, only Master Kuya can see me...that way...argh!” Ah, and an angry little wriggle. “But stupid Garu! He always…!”

“Always is awake for dinner?”

“Yes, but—! He keeps...that human slave keeps...he lets himself get mounted all the time! And he never asks me, and he, ugh, he…”

Is that a sniffle? Oh, no.

Rei’s eyes fly open. Karu is, indeed, red-eyed and stifling his upset whimpers into the water, face submerged to over his nose. “Garu never asks you when he initiates sex?”

“Or when the slave starts touching him! I’m not...Garu’s not awake right now...and when he’s in charge, I’m not awake all the time, either...”

“You mean to say that you...wake up in the middle? Or afterwards?”

Karu keeps splashing his face; the water trickling down from his flattened hair mingles with what may or may not be, tears. “I hate it,” he says. “I hate it, Garu doesn’t last and then I have to wake up and it’s like...they tricked me. I, I look out for that fool all the time and this is how he...and it doesn’t even hurt, it feels good, I just never—I never know when, or how, or sometimes even why—!”

“Stupid,” he cries again, and again. “Stupid, stupid..and Garu’s weak, because he never tries to mount the slave! The mighty Karu can never be bested by some mere human, so why…! Why is he making me...be mounted…I should be the one mounting the human, so why is it the other way around...”

Well. Being in a relationship with one half of a pair of twins is one thing—but when those twins share a body? And they aren’t clear with each other where their shared boundaries lie? What a mess.

“You’ve told them this?”

Karu wails in frustration. “Yes, but Garu doesn’t listen to me! And if Garu starts anything and I’m not awake, I can’t stop him! If he just...mounted the human instead, it would be fine! But no, he has to humiliate us both!”

Rei holds up a palm, to stop Karu from speaking further. “Hold on,” Rei says, rubbing at the bridge of his nose with his other hand. “So the fact that sex is happening without your knowledge isn’t as big of an issue to you…as what role Garu assumes when you find out about it?”

“W-well, um, this body gets...it has needs! And I want...too...but presenting for a human? He should be ashamed of making us look so pathetic.”

This was not a problem Rei had foreseen he’d have to deal with when they stepped into the bath together. “So, do you actually want to be on top? Besides asserting your dominance over the grand sorcerer? Do you even know how?”

Those great big expressive ears flatten against Karu’s skull. “N-no, but it...it can’t be that hard!” Karu clears his throat. “The slave has a useless weak body, and, and it can’t be that hard if he can do it! And…whenever that slave tells me it’s finally my turn, he ends up lying! I’ll show him! The powerful and handsome Karu won’t be fooled next time!”

Oh, damn. Rei already knows he’s going to regret this.

But he’s managed to get the recalcitrant twin to spill the beans on plenty of intriguing tidbits tonight, and he’s uncomfortably low on essence, and he’s got nothing else to do tonight but go to bed…

“All right. Listen.” Karu’s ears swivel towards him, puzzled. “How about I show you the ropes? You can really hurt someone if you do it wrong, so…how about we squeeze in some more practice.”

“Practice…mounting? On you?”

Karu is so visibly flabbergasted that Rei almost rescinds his offer; but then Karu surges forward, so, so close, the points of his collar nearly stabbing Rei in the throat. “Really?” he breathes, eyes glowing faintly in the dim of the room. “I can mount you? But you’re so tall!”

Tall? Sure, Rei’s of a height with a slouching Yakumo but it hadn’t occurred to him at all that there could have been some dominance aspect he missed about their relative statures.

“That won’t be a problem,” Rei replies. “Here.”

He slides over to the very shallowest part of the bath and kneels on one of the upper steps leading out, stretching forward in an easy arch to rest his chest and arms on the comfortably warm tile; this way, his thighs and ass are out of the water, and he can brace himself against the floor. “See? What problem?” He looks back over his shoulder, beckoning Karu forward with a crooked finger.

Rei can’t help but find Karu’s inexperienced gawking charming, in it’s own way. Karu himself can’t seem to decide where he wants to look—at Rei’s ass, with his slick, prepared hole at the center; or Rei’s soft sack and cock dangling below. As encouragement, Rei rocks his hips from side to side, enticingly; he can practically hear Karu gulp in time with his swaying.

“Come here. Try touching me.”

A rough palm pets his flank, the touch so tentative he hardly feels it.

“Go on. Harder.”

The following squeeze to his asscheek is much harder, so hard Rei yelps. Karu’s hand withdraws immediately.

“I—”

“I’m fine,” Rei says. “You surprised me.” He sighs, turning around on the steps so he can sit and look Karu eye-to-eye. “Let’s start over. How are you going to get me all hot and bothered?”

Karu’s gaze drops immediately to Rei’s dick, and Rei has to quickly swat his hand away before he gets manhandled. Change of plans. Karu seems to pick up from direct experience the fastest, so...

“Nope. What feels good to you, when Kuya gets you worked up? I don’t need to know about the bitey scratchy yokai bits or his kinky nonsense. The nice things. What are those ones? What does he do to you that you like?”

The dull blush that spreads across Karu’s face isn’t from the heat of the water. “I like it when...he...he kisses me…?”

“And?”

“He holds me...he pets my ears and tail…”

“Mm-hm?”

“I like his smell, I like when he smells me, I like it when he tells me I’m good...and asks me what I want…” Karu rubs at his throat, arms crossed at the wrist. His gaze is distant, and shy. “I like it best when he calls my name. I like that he chooses me and I can choose him.”

Rei hums in assent. “You like that your time together is deliberate, not a fluke, or an accident. That holds true for any good tryst. So if you’re here, with me, then…?”

“I should...be focusing on you. And...asking?”

“Good. So?”

Karu chews on his lip, his breathing uneven as he looks the long expanse of Rei’s body up and down, thinking hard about what he wants to say. “I, I want to lick,” he stutters. “Can I lick your chest? Will you like that? W-what don’t you like?”

Nipple play isn’t that high up on Rei’s list of preferences, but if the mean wolf is asking him with those cute gooey eyes, fine. Just this once.

“You can lick me, but only gently. My chest is sensitive.” Karu steps forward between Rei’s spread legs, and Rei tugs him in the rest of the way, laughing lightly at the tickle of Karu’s ears against his nose. “I don’t like pain,” he continues. “Not at all. So no teeth, no biting, no scratching. No blood. You got that?”

Karu eagerly nods against Rei’s pale skin, snuffling away already; his hands come to settle on either side of Rei’s waist, their hips not quite touching. With a sigh, Rei awkwardly leans back to lie half on the steps and half on the floor, while Karu mouths messily across his neck and shoulders. The expedition downward is punctuated by muted growls and cries, and despite Rei’s warning, the light press of teeth and mouthing lips. The impulse to gnaw and mark must be strong, but Karu restrains himself admirably; the only wounds he leaves in his wake are painless, purpling kisses. It’s not unlike being lightly mauled by an overeager-to-please puppy—an actual puppy, not one shaped like a boy.

Rei sighs in pleasure at the feeling of Karu’s broad, soft tongue on his chest. It’s floppy, and so, so wet. Very different from short, muscular human tongues. That curious mouth alternates between sucking deeply, and lapping at him, to ease the ache. Like this, Rei doesn’t mind so much; it’s a good, promising sort of sore, and Karu doesn’t resist when Rei gently tugs Karu’s head away when he’s had too much.

“What else,” Rei murmurs. He pets at Karu’s hair, between the ears. “Hm?”

Karu rubs his face into Rei’s chest, his hand carefully sliding up to squeeze a pectoral and rub at the mole there with a thumb. He doesn’t pinch, thankfully. “Your skin is so soft…can I lick lower?”

“Define lower.”

“Grrruhh, uh, ah...your belly.”

How tame. “Really? Only to my belly?” Rei draws his leg in, to stroke the ball of his foot up the back of Karu’s calf and thigh. Karu shudders. “That still seems rather high for what you’re going to do to me, isn’t it?”

The grip on Rei’s body tightens; Karu pulls him close by that last span, and their hips bump together with a jolt. “The great Karu won’t be rushed! And…” Karu looks down at their bodies to confirm the state of Rei’s erection—nonexistent—and growls. “You...I want you to like it…”

He drops his head to lap at Rei’s nipple, again, carefully testing how hard he can set his teeth and tug to the tune of a gasp here and a moan there. “Ith thif babth?” Karu switches around, leaving gnawing little bites to the meat of Rei’s chest, along the collarbone, straying as far as a nip to the bicep.

It doesn’t hurt. It is, though, decidedly unsexy to be mouthed like a teething baby.

“No, not bad,” Rei sighs. He takes Karu’s hand off of his chest and brings it lower, to his flaccid cock. “I’m starting to prune up, so how about we…”

Karu gets the hint, and slides them together in a shared hold under the water. With the friction of Karu’s hand against him and the throbbing heat of a heavy, thick shaft under his palm, it doesn’t take much for Rei to match Karu’s interest.

How could he not? The shift to a more upright position to frot together allows him to lean more of his weight on Karu—who shockingly, incredibly, can hold Rei’s hips up and together with his, with just one hand digging into Rei’s ass. Like this, with his free arm slung around that solid back, Rei can feel the proof of the muscle making that happen, feel every tense and flex accompanying Karu’s soft growls against his throat. The spa fills with the sound of their ragged inhale-exhale, the splash of water against the tiles, punctuated through with a moan here and there, the sweetness of their essence mingling with the aromatic steam.

He’s going to—ah, fuck, he likes it better when—

Rei pushes back against Karu’s shoulder, shaking his sodden hair out of his face in the space that opens up between them. Damn, his hand is trembling; the contrast between his own bone-white complexion and Karu’s glowing tan is striking, and alarming. Had he needed essence more than he’d thought? The steam is getting to his head.

He tries to smile through his heaving breaths. Karu’s breathing about as hard as he is, pupils dark, and Rei strokes down his chest to soothe him. “I prepared myself earlier, if—”

He’s not prepared for the clumsy collision of Karu’s mouth on his; his lip splits against a fang and Rei shakes from the brightness of the pain, his cry swallowed up by a rapacious tongue stroking his own, all the way to the back of his throat. The essence that surges between them is likewise uncoordinated, messy and irregular, sharp-edged. Karu ruts back against him, hard, his hand moving quickly over them both, oblivious to how Rei’s grasp has loosened. “Mmph, mmgghh…!”

Rei doesn’t like to retaliate, but once the initial shock passes he fights through the hazy reflex and reaches up to grab a furry ear and yank Karu’s head back.

Mm, ow! The claws are immediately out, pressing into the flesh of his backside; Karu curls his lip back in the beginning of a snarl but stops dead at the look on Rei’s face. What exactly is the boy seeing, hm?

Rei licks at his sore, bleeding lip. “I want to give you the benefit of the doubt,” he rasps. “I know you’re excited, but I asked you not to hurt me. I don’t like it.” He releases the ear to pry Karu’s stiff hands off of his hip with shaking fingers, and sinks through the water to rest back on the steps. “Not...not even on accident, but.”

The voice that answers him is very small. “...But?”

“This is practice, isn’t it?” Inhale. Exhale. All right. He swipes the hair out of his eyes, smiles. He’ll be all right. “Let’s try again. I’ll lead.”

Karu shivers when Rei gingerly cups his face, eyes fluttering shut, subconsciously rubbing his cheeks against Rei’s palms. Their tremors match. How cute. He pulls Karu closer, for the lightest touch of their lips together—Karu gasps and tries to withdraw when Rei licks at his mouth for entry, but Rei holds him firm, coaxing him in further, closer, wetter.

Slowly, Karu’s confidence returns, along with his arms around Rei’s back, rough-skinned palms exploring the knobs of his spine. One kiss stretches on into several; after each break apart to breathe, Rei divests more and more control over to Karu, until he’s laid out on the steps again, the edges digging into his shoulders and ribs. A suitable price to pay for superior kisses.

He wriggles to find a more comfortable position when Karu pulls back to look down at him; a thread of saliva stretching between their mouths that narrows until it snaps and lands across Rei’s face. Karu’s cock against Rei’s hip twitches at the sight. Heh.

“Better?” Karu asks, slowly rocking them together, the caress of the water around them as sweet as anything. “I, nngh, I…I want...”

Rei nods and gives Karu one last kiss on the cheek, for the trouble. He rearranges himself back around to lean forward on the steps again, thighs parted wide. Ah, mm. The warm tile feels nice on his chest…

A toiletries basket is just close enough that he can stretch and retrieve another vial of oil from it; this, he passes back to Karu. “I should be ready enough, but this is practice. You’ve done this for someone else before?”

Karu folds himself over Rei’s back, nuzzling wherever his face lands. “Grrm...grrr...Garu does this for himself, sometimes...so...I know the feeling. Hrmph! The indomitable Karu will treat you well!”

The proof of it is in how deliberately Karu’s oiled fingers slip down between the cleft of Rei’s cheeks to stroke and play over the furled entry; this time, Karu holds him in place with a thick arm about his waist as he squirms.

Ah, oh, fuck. Karu does know what he’s doing, when it comes to this; Rei allows himself to sag with anticipation and pleasure as he’s being stretched, resting his forehead at the crook of one elbow. He can tell that Karu is aware of his own prowess in this aspect, from the way that Rei’s getting cuddled and licked in self-satisfied little growls. Rei scratches back at Karu’s flank when he’s ready for two fingers—and again for three—and again still for four; the calloused knuckles grinding deliciously against his rim in preparation for a cock that, while not the longest, is plenty girthy. It’s proportionate to Karu himself. What more could Rei ask for?

“Warm,” Karu whines, muffled into Rei’s skin. “Soft, wet...mmm…I like it…”

Rei clenches down, rewarded by hot gasp and an even hotter cock bumping against the back of his thigh. “Mm, good boy. You’ll like it even better when you get in me, huh? I’ll make it good for you, if you make it good for me.”

Splash-splash-splash! Somebody’s happy to be praised, with the way that tail is wagging. “Hrrhgh, haah, hah, M-Master Rei…”

Oh, so he’s Master Rei now? “Karu,” he laughs, pleased at the unexpected bragging rights. “Am I soft enough for you? What do you think, am I ready to take you yet?”

Karu whines again, and withdraws his fingers most of the way to—oh, hold on!—spread Rei’s hole wide, and look at it. Who taught this puppy to be such a pervert? Rei can’t help himself; his pucker twitches under the curious scrutiny and he admires how Karu’s pupils dilate at the view, taking up nearly all the iris until all that’s left is a fine ring of gold, like a partial eclipse.

Damn, does Rei want to be fucked yesterday already. Being ogled by a handsome young man is only spurring his impatience, but he can’t be rushing Karu along too much. Rei turns away and stretches, resting his face on the tile again to calm his breathing. “Y-you like what you see?”

Karu’s tail thumps the water. “Pretty,” he whispers, as his fingers continue to play and spread Rei even further. “Pink…”

A hot, moist breath ghosts over Rei’s ass, and no, not tonight! He barely manages to twist back and slap a hand over Karu’s face—an affronted yelp and a wet tongue mash into his palm—before the all-over slobbering reaches into the crease of his cheeks.

“Hey, now. Did you forget something?”

Karu slurps at Rei’s fingers, his long velvety tongue dipping between and ugh, promising a good time. A real good time, regardless of the exasperated glare. “Hrrgh...can I lick your hole?” Karu sucks at the delicate membrane there; Rei shudders, a delicious tingling shivering its way up to his shoulder. “Please?”

“No,” Rei says, already cursing himself out. He needs direct essence more than he’d like to get eaten out. Fuck, shit, if that wouldn’t be nice, though. That tongue? On him, in him? “Another time, hm?”

“Because right now…” Rei’s hand drops away from Karu’s enticing mouth to spread himself wide. He strokes an enticing finger over his rim—puffed, hot, hungry—for good measure. “Karu. Come on, I can’t wait any more. Please. I need it inside.”

The splashing grows frantic; Karu rearranges himself behind Rei and responsibly pours the remainder of the oil vial over their bodies, thoroughly slicking up his cock and pushing the last of the oil inside of Rei’s entrance, before—

Ah. It was good that Rei had encouraged Karu to give him a second stretching.

He bucks forward onto the steps with a strangled cry at the wet, squelching thud of Karu’s pelvis against his, bottomed out in one hard thrust. Then out. And back in, and out again, and in—

“A-aah! Ah, ah, wait—“

The hand that Rei throws back is caught; his flailing grasp misunderstood, their fingers entwined. Karu keeps going, his snarling broken through with ragged yelps and whines and sobs.

“You’re tight,” Karu hisses, pressed tightly to Rei’s back. His free arm is looped again around Rei’s waist to pin him close through the inelegant, haphazard rutting. His palm is scorching, but nothing near to the heat where their bodies connect, over and over.

“Why are you so tight, grrahh, you were so...grr, aah! Soft around my fingers! Nngh, hot, so hot…M-Master Rei, you smell good, aaahh…!”

It’s not like he’s being savaged...he’s been stroked tender too thoroughly for that, but it does punch the breath out of him, and keep on punching. It’s all Rei can do to brace ineffectually against the steps with his one available arm and struggle for air in-between his writhing cries. Rei’s other hand, kept in Karu’s crushing grip, is pinned back to Karu’s chest where their clasped hands are clutched close against that compact, muscular chest—the powerful heart within pounding, pounding, so hard, so fast, that their entanglement there is the only thing keeping Rei upright.

The room echoes through with the obscene, reverberating sounds of their coupling, cries upon cries, splashing and squelching and sobbing. Fuck, that’s nasty. Fuck, that’s hot…

Sure, it’s clumsy, rough, and he’s going to feel like shit in the morning with all these bumps and bruises, but despite it all, well. Now he knows how Karu likes to give it.

Rei’s knees buckle, and he gives in Karu’s lead. Stifling his moans against the tile isn’t an option; with his jelly legs slipping wider, and wider, his trapped hand keeps his back tight and prevents him from sagging forward. He’s just high enough on the steps that the back-and-forth of the bathwater strokes the underside of his hanging cock on each thrust; tortuously, he can’t stroke himself off unless he wants to risk Karu accidentally driving his face into the floor of the bath and knocking his front teeth out.

Actually, Rei’s not certain how much more of this he can take; fighting to match his breathing with the erratic drive of Karu’s cock is starting to take a toll on his own pulse, and he’s been in the hot bath long enough now he’s starting to get lightheaded.

He tries to speak, but he can’t get out anything coherent through his gasps. Trembling, he pushes up and attempts to turn—Karu releases his hand only to readjust the grip to Rei’s elbow, lightning-deft, pulling Rei back in a sharper arch for a searing kiss that eats up his startled groan at the change in angle.

Karu’s expression is stormy, desperate, eyes wide and pleading and fluttering shut with the contact of their lips. Sweet thing. That good, huh?

Oh, perhaps...Rei licks inside of Karu’s mouth, reaching out with his essence in little swipes and coaxing strokes; with their essence so much more concentrated than that of an ordinary person, the flow of each clan member’s essence within and through their gemstone power had a distinct character, obvious when essence was transferred from one to another. Kissing Kuya felt like choking down a ticklish fog, sweet-burning or acerbic, depending on his mood; kissing Quincy felt like threading through the whorled knots of tree, from the dry cracked bark on the outside, to the vibrant, thrumming green of the heartwood at the center; kissing the grand sorcerer—Eiden—was sparkling, bright and ephemeral and wicked, sun on water, sparks from a crackling log, the glitter-glow of insects on a humid summer night…

Kissing Karu with essence flowing between them felt like the wind rushing through cool, heathered moors; rain and tears and the rush of an animal hunt, wild and blooded. The answering push of Karu’s essence through his mouth, through his cock, rings through Rei’s body like a peal of thunder, a crash and then a rolling, ebbing echo.

It’s strong, it’s—it’s too much, bouncing around his guts and rattling his bones and coming right around and back into Karu, who releases an earsplitting howl through the chamber, and—and—what—

Wait, wait, there’s a pressure building uncomfortably at their joining—it feels like Karu’s getting thicker at the root, the muscle of Rei’s body giving away with suctioning pops and stretches, increasingly tight, increasingly laborious.

“No,” Rei chokes out, into Karu’s mouth. “W-wait, ungh, what, what’s..?!”

Karu throws his head back and howls again, deeper, lower, from somewhere further than his belly; his eyes, opened, flit from gold to black to gold, entirely animal. “Ah, nnghn, grrraaah! I, I don’t...I don’t know—!”

The last thrust is vicious, that strange bulbous girth breaching Rei in one go like the heavy, final clunk of a lock, a sharp agony that rips a scream from them both; white-hot, ecstatic, wretched, thrashing.

Rei can’t, he can’t...if he could barely breathe before, he sure as fuck can’t now. They collapse together onto the steps, trembling and boneless from the intensity, from the—!

Is it…? No, but...it might be...it has to be. Is this, seriously, what he thinks it is?

What else could it be? Karu sobs, exhausted, into his back, and his cock jumps inside of Rei; the motion grinds up against the core of him, and involuntarily, Rei clenches—a pulse of heat floods him deep, and then again, swelling further, with another squeeze. Oh, damn.

“Tight,” Karu whimpers, barely audible. His nails scratch along Rei’s sides, in little involuntary spasms that warn of his growing panic. “Too tight, it hurts, I don’t—”

It’s all the warning Rei gets before Karu attempts to withdraw; Rei is tugged back with him and slips under the water, his gasp engulfed. The sensation of it...of Karu trapped inside, tugging against his rim...it hurts, it hurts…

The pain steals the strength away from his body, and despite the racing of his pulse, the pounding of his head, the realization that if he’s not able to brace against anything that he’s going to breathe in more and more water, he goes limp.

He can feel Karu struggling behind him. Hands on his hips pull him this way, and that, off and back on, to no avail. Dizzying, aching pain—fuck, this is a lot of it—spreads through his chest as his lungs fill up with the taste of their sex, roses, blood…

Distantly, a horrified cry—and unngh!

With an unpleasant thrust, Rei finds himself hoisted out of the water up against the shallow side of the bath, the edge of the tile rammed up under the bottom row of his ribs—and in one awful heave retches out what feels like a cauldron’s worth of bathwater, right into the drains.

He’s definitely going to feel this tomorrow. Talk about a net-zero essence bit of fun.

“M-master Rei...Master Rei!”

Rei manages to flap a hand, weakly. Just...hold on a second. Don’t move. He heaves a few more times, until there’s nothing left.

In the blissed reprieve from movement, Rei then takes the opportunity to slump down and moans weakly, half into the water and half out. He’s halfway to fever himself, from the throbbing, glowing burn...from the slick, wet fullness spreading through his core. The hot bath and warm tiles offer no relief; fuck, what Rei would do for some ice…

Meanwhile, Karu patiently, obediently, shivers still against him. His ineffectual patting and apologetic licking doesn’t do much in the way of soothing Rei, not with the points of Karu’s collar stabbing into him—the other thing notwithstanding—but it’s the effort that counts. It’s not likely that the knot will deflate any time soon...the rigid shaft was holding Rei upright more that Karu’s arms are.

Good. Rei can barely move his legs.

Rei carefully dips a cupped hand below the surface of the bath, to splash the bile off of his face. He twists a bit to do so—not much, because anything lower than the waist would set off the pain again, and he’d fold like crumpled tissue and probably drown in the bath, for real this time—and offers to Karu what he hopes is a reassuring smile.

From Karu’s face, maybe it’s more of a grimace. “You’ll have to try harder than that to kill me,” Rei eventually wheezes, “I’m guessing you didn’t know that would happen?”

Karu, silent, vigorously shakes his head in a no. His eyes flicker up briefly, but he then ducks his head down and hides his face against Rei’s back. One arm is firm around Rei’s waist; the other is wrapped around Rei’s chest, the palm resting over the staccato, recovering heart.

Rei reaches behind himself and over his shoulder to tousle Karu’s hair out of sight, accidentally flicking the tip of a canine ear. The ear twitches; so does the knot. Ah, so no heedless touches...he can’t be breaking out into the helpless laugh that nearly escapes him. They’d feel it.

Right now, he wants to feel less of it. No more giggles.

He hums instead. “I can’t say I’ve ever been mounted by a wolf yokai to experience this. Or by a canine, period. And if you’ve never mounted anyone, how could you have known your human-shape body would react this way?”

“A-are you...angry? You...I can smell...you’re bleeding...”

Is he? Rei feels like he’s going to pass out at any moment; he feels thoroughly impaled, in the least erotic sense possible. He’s been focusing on the echo of their whispers through the chamber, the quiet sloshing of water, Karu’s heartbeat, pounding both behind and below—anything to distract from their connection—to consider that he’s been torn. The flow of essence, overflowing with vitality, isn’t something that he’s had to adjust and absorb in this exact manner before, and his intake must surely be inefficient and their efforts to exchange essence wasted in significant part. Hm.

“No, I’m not mad. I’m...if we had predicted this possibility, then I would have suggested that we practice in bed, and not in the bath. I can’t say it would be easy to drown me outside of a bath, you’d agree?”

“Oh…”

Rei scratches between Karu’s ears, concentrating on the texture of that thick pelt. “What about you, puppydog? Was it good, up until the knot hit?”

Whatever Karu says is muffled into Rei’s ribs. He seems to realize this, though, and after a moment turns his head to the side and whispers, “Yeah.”

“Yeah?”

“Yeah, you feel...really good.” Karu whines; his tail must be lashing under the water, because Rei can feel the warm sway and caress of the bath around his hips and waist. “You still...it still feels good. It feels really, really good, inside, and all around.”

His raspy voice cuts off with a groan, through another hot jump and pulse of the knot that pulls a matching moan out of Rei, too.

Rei gives in to the impulse to chuckle; he’s sore enough it seeps away into the rush of heat accompanying the tightening of his abdomen. “Hah, could be worse. You could feel like shit until it goes down.”

Karu doesn’t reply, and Rei doesn’t press him for a response. Not now, when they just have to wait it out.

In the long minutes, Karu cuddles him close and Rei modulates his breathing to follow; it’s easier than he expected for the slow pulse of their breathing to align—easier still to realize that the steady throb of essence filling him has drawn their heartbeats together, in tandem. Rei traces the grid of mortar grout between the tiles with a finger; follows the intricate patterns of the carved stone ceilings with his eyes; listens to the occasional snuffle and whimper behind him. He murmurs, good boy, stroking his hand back along Karu’s hip, pressed tight against his. Good boy, good boy. It must be an exquisite torture to hold still, without rocking or grinding.

Eventually, the intervals between each wave of seed and essence grow longer, and longer, until Rei can count to a hundred, then two hundred, then three. That unbearable pressure, too, ebbs off until Rei no longer feels as if a thrust would fill him to choking.

“Karu,” Rei says, clasping the hand over his chest. “You think it’s shrunk enough?”

“Let me try…”

An experimental roll of Karu’s hips brings with it a jelly-leg jolt of white fire from Rei’s core to his extremities—but the give of his body around Karu’s cock isn’t the struggle that it was when the knot had first begun to swell.

Through a silent, mutual understanding, they float and hobble as best they can back over to the steps, where Rei gingerly kneels as high up as he can out of the water, and Karu braces himself with one hand on Rei’s hip and another flat on the backside of Rei’s ass.

And, with a slow, mutual hiss, they disengage.

Normally, Rei might feel a bit self-conscious at the way hot fluid immediately dribbles out of him in a flood—not unlike the unpleasant sensation a half-hour after eating something that disagreed with him most fervently—but he’s worried more about the miserable gasp he hears.

He ducks his head down between his arms to look down his body at the state of himself. Ah, and there it is...a thin rivulet of pink slipping down the inside of his thigh, mixed in with everything else.

Not bad. He’s had it worse before, under different circumstances. He can’t look that wrecked back there, but—

A loud, wailing sob breaks the quiet of the bath, and Rei’s seized about his waist, pulled upright and falling back against—! Alarmed, he turns his head around to see blue, instead of the gold he was expecting.

“G-Garu?”

Garu is...incredibly upset. His sweet face is red and wrinkled, a fountain of tears and snot, somehow nothing like how it had been just seconds before despite the shared features. The words rush out of him in a babbling blur. “I’m sorry, Master Rei, we’re sorry! Karu feels—! He got too excited because it felt too good—and I felt it too, I woke up in the middle, so it was so good—and we, we hurt you, we’re so sorry, really really really sorry—”

Garu’s more than strong enough to pick up Rei, but Rei’s over a head taller than him, and the length of his limbs—boneless, exhausted, dead fish—flounder in his disorientation; their bodies are slippery from the aromatic oils they’d added to the water, and from the buoyancy of still being in the water...

It’s not a surprise when Garu loses his grip on Rei, and it’s not a surprise when Rei’s legs buckle as he’s dropped and he slips forward, away from Garu and the deeper end of the bath.

In the time between Garu’s fumbled yelp, the starburst collision between Rei’s temple and the corner edge of the bath, and the darkness that swallows up his consciousness, the only thought that manages to occur to him is that, maybe, just maybe, it was hasty of him to pursue his questions today, and not tomorrow.

But patience isn’t his strongest suit. As for his luck? This outcome was to be expected...

~~~

Rei comes to, in a hazy, comfortable drowse. He’s loath to open his eyes, but a coo, and the brush of feathers against his cheek, rouse him further to the surface.

He’s in his own bed, in his own room, tucked up to the chin under a mass of blankets that he doesn’t recall bringing in here. Father is nestled into the pillow beside his face; that dry, dusty scent, the familiar humming warmth of his small body, help to smooth away the initial disorientation of waking. Rei’s fine. He’s safe. He’ll be all right.

“Ah, Mister Rei, you’re awake. How are you feeling?”

Blearily, he lolls his head over on the pillow to see Olivine placing a bookmark between the pages of a travelogue before rising from a chair next to the bed. It takes Rei a few tries to speak—assisted by Olivine offering a sip of warm herbal tea from a mug—but he manages to croak out, “Not drowned.”

“Mm. Not drowned is certainly leagues better than drowned.’”

“W-what about…”

“Garu? He’s well, but terribly worried about you. He was hovering the whole time I settled you into bed; I’d only just returned to the manor when Garu burst into the main hall, crying for someone to come help.”

That explains why, miraculously, Rei hadn’t awoken with the pounding headache he’d been expecting. No true miracles, just the resident Holy Father. He wouldn’t put it past the most fervent of Olivine’s devotees to claim that it was all one and the same; privately, of course. The church had a tendency to pursue blasphemers into silence whether or not Olivine was involved.

Rei drags up a hand to rub at where the bump would have been, anyway. “Didn’t even put on pants, did he.”

“As bare as could be.” Olivine’s smile is serene. “He slipped twice and got covered in dust and dirt from the hallway...when I reached the baths I attended to your injuries first, and after he’d given himself another rinse he was very helpful in helping me clean you up.”

Ugh...so Olivine had seen everything, huh?

“Of course.” Rei covers his eyes, groaning softly. “Thank you, Olivine. I...we ran into some unforeseen complications. I’d appreciate if you kept this to yourself.”

“Certainly. I understand that...discretion can be hard to come by in the manor...but please let me know if you have any residual aches or pains. I believe I managed to cover everything, but if I’ve missed a spot…?”

Rei pulls up the sheets a little and does a quick survey of himself under the covers. Pressing down with his other hand on where he’d recalled bruises offered no such dull soreness; clenching, likewise, was pleasantly painless.

“No, you were thorough.”

Olivine smiles, more deeply. His beauty is dazzling, in the low, warm lamplight from Rei’s nightstand. It’s impossibly easy to keep looking at a face so sincere; to spare himself from the luxury, Rei covers his eyes again, not having to feign exhaustion.

“I’m always happy to help where I can. The tea should help you rest, too; it’s one of Yakumo’s soothing blends that he’s stocked in the kitchen. Is there anything else you think you need from me?”

“All I need now is sleep. You can be on your way now. Thank you, again.”

With a murmured goodnight, Olivine turns the lamplight down to a dim, orange glimmer and departs from Rei’s room, quietly shutting the door behind him.

Finally. Peace.

He sighs at the warm press of Father pressing in closer, against his forehead; beak and talons utilized to gently preen through Rei’s hair. “Coo.”

“Hm? Olivine dried and brushed my hair for me?”

“Coo, coo.”

“Hah...I see, that makes sense. And no, I don’t need you to terrorize the wolfboy. He didn’t mean me harm, and I think I scared him enough already.” Rei combs his fingers through the feathers on Father’s back, in return.

Father hoots reproachfully but he doesn’t try to suggest intimidation again.

After all, Father’s voice was loud enough to be picked up by the keen ears listening in from the other side of the closed door. Rei’s been keeping an eye on the shadows peeking through the bottom gap by the floor.

“Are you coming in or what?” Rei calls out. The shadows jump, surprised; the door tentatively swings open, and Garu quickly steps inside before closing it again.

His big eyes, with their long, dark lashes, are red all around, like he’d been crying the whole time Rei was unconscious.

“We’re sorry…”

Rei waves him closer, and Father hops over on the pillow to safely alight without hitting Rei in the face with his wings; he settles on his designated perch on the nightstand, and with a glower, pins Garu in place by the far wall.

“Father, it’s fine. I’m fine.” Rei beckons to Garu again, tapping at his head where a swollen lump isn’t. “Garu, Olivine patched me up. There’s nothing left to apologize for. I’m not hurt. Karu and I didn’t know that was going to happen. See?”

Garu sniffles, rubbing at the welling tears with his palms. “I can...if it helps, I can…,” he begins to say, but instead of finishing his sentence, Garu pulls off his nightgown and climbs up on the bed.

“Wait—”

The hands that land on either side of Rei’s head begin to crackle and pop; frozen in place, there’s nothing for Rei to do but stare in nauseated wonder at the grotesque way Garu’s face—Garu’s entire body—warps and elongates, the twisting of the veins and spasming of muscles quickly obscured by the midnight-dark fur spreading out from the line of his spine to the rest of his skin.

Garu’s nose stretches down and out, and in a matter of seconds, bumps Rei’s own, cold and wet. The black lips pull back from teeth like pearls, like knives, some the length of a thumb or longer.

The jaws open, and...

In a sweet, boyish voice that entirely belies his formidable appearance, the incredible bulk and power of his animal body straddling over Rei’s own pathetic wormish frame, with a pelt so thick and full that the collar can hardly even be seen through it and a flash of nightshine reflected in his eyes, the wolf shyly says, “Y-you can touch my ears...you were looking at them. And Karu says he wouldn’t mind, if you were careful, like you were...earlier…with us.”

Garu peeks over at Father for approval—begrudgingly granted—before slowly settling his weight off to Rei’s side on top of the blankets, as to not crush or smother him. “You’ll get better faster if you’re warm, right? Karu also told me you were building up the fire in the library when he saw you…and I’m very warm! I can sleep outside in the snow all winter no problem! So you don’t have to worry about being cold or wet if you’re with me!” His eager, hopeful tail thumps against Rei’s calves, definitely bigger and bushier than it had been when it had been attached to the backside of what otherwise appeared to be a normal boy.

“That’s true,” Rei says. He reaches over to bury his hand in the fur of Garu’s shoulder; Garu slides his entire foreleg over to hold Rei close and reduce the distance between them. “I do like being warm and dry. I’ll take you up on it.”

With a giggle, Garu licks at the corner of Rei’s mouth, and pokes his snout under Rei’s chin to nuzzle at the pulse there. Rei migrates his hand up to lightly scratch at the base of one enormous ear, earning himself a happy wriggle and another flurry of appeasing licks. “Heehee!”

“Say, is your brother still listening?”

“Hrrm, yes!”

“Before we sleep, I want to ask him something.”

“Oh, then…” Garu’s eyes flutter shut—and then reopen, piercing.

Karu huffs, and licks Rei’s cheek. That aloof façade doesn’t hold with how the wagging speeds up. “What is it?”

Hmm, how should he phrase this? Rei takes a moment to deliberate, stroking Karu in long sweeps from head to back. All right.

“We’ve only met in passing, before. Exchanged a word, here and there. Strangers.”

“Hrrmph! So?”

Rei smiles, crookedly. “You strike me as someone all too ready to bite first. You have your very real reasons to do so, which I understand. So you understand that I can’t help but wonder why you put so much trust in me, so quickly.”

“Me, trust you?” An affronted snort blows humid air down Rei’s neck. “T-this isn’t trust, I just…we agreed to...I. I’m paying you back.”

Karu rolls away to show his belly, paws curled, terribly cute even with the challenging glare. Even with the fangs, exposed by the curled lips. “You trusted me first. You got hurt because of me. The mighty Karu...lost control...and...succumbed to weakness! Shameful! I, I owe you a debt, human…”

Well, if he’s offering. Rei agreeably stretches out a hand to sink into the temptation of touching the soft, vulnerable belly fur of a great and powerful creature. Ooh. That is nice. With much growling and snapping of his jaws, Karu squirms around until Rei’s hand is petting him where he wants it.

“Oh? Human? I thought I was Master Rei.”

“M-master Owl, more like it!” Karu splutters.

Ah. Rei pauses at the admission; noticing Rei’s change in demeanor, Karu does as well. He wilts a little under Father’s gaze, anxiously looking back and forth between them.

“Do you...not…?”

Rei withdraws his hand. “I have my own secrets,” he says, and offers nothing else. “We ought to sleep. It’s late, and I’m worn out.”

He makes to turn away to his side, but Karu reaches a paw over to turn him back around and pulls him close, into his barrel chest. “Wait, I, I let you…”

This close, Rei can feel the way Karu’s heart pounds—the muscle must be bigger, in this form—but waits for Karu to finish saying his piece.

“You’re right. You were a stranger to me. But when I entered the library, I was surprised to see you because I didn’t smell you at all,” Karu continues, the rhythm in his chest slowly winding down as he speaks. “My wolf nose is sharp, so I never miss a scent! Even through other scents and stuff like, dirt, or prey, that’s easy to sift through. It doesn’t matter.

But I didn’t smell that you were there. I was...playing around. I didn't actually expect to see anybody. My slave’s scent, Yakumo’s scent, they were faint, so I already knew they’d left earlier. If they were in the library, I would have known from way down the hall.”

Is that so? That still doesn’t tell Rei much. “So I surprised you. Does my body odor blend into the library?”

Karu’s ears flop and swivel, then settle, having decided on what to say. “You have your own scent, but...”

Rei’s pulled even closer, the long claws of Karu’s paw pressing against him, even through the layers and layers of blankets separating them; the fragrance of the bath soaps and oils fills his nose, mixed with a clean, hot animal musk. It’s not an unpleasant aroma. On the contrary, it’s nice, but it makes him feel—

In a low, shivering voice, Karu rumbles, “You smelled just like my prey. Like the taste of that poisonbird in my mouth, when I crushed it between my teeth and claws, when I felt it scream and die. I only realized it when we were in the bath and I rinsed all the blood away but I could still smell it through the soap. And when we...your sweat, and your blood, even your saliva, i-it was the same.” The end of Karu’s snout nuzzles against the top of Rei’s head, inhaling deeply; nuzzling hard enough that Rei can feel the teeth against his scalp. “It was the same.”

Karu licks his forehead; involuntarily, Rei shudders. Not in a bad way, but he’s painfully aware that Karu could easily fit Rei’s entire head in his mouth, and with one bite, could...

“Coo.”

Karu licks Rei again, over his mouth, and pulls back, ears flat and submissive. “I’m not going to eat him! I never thought about eating him! But he smells like prey and he’s weak and I’m stronger and even if I don’t like strangers I couldn’t be afraid of—”

“Coo, coo, co-coo, coo, co-co-coo!” Wow, a whole diatribe. Father glides over and lands on Karu’s head, right between the ears—and slaps the wolf in the face with a wing. Yelping, Karu hides behind his paws and curls into a tight ball.

Rei swiftly blocks the next hit with his hand; Father freezes before the feathers even skim his skin. “Father, let me hear him out. I’m not in danger.”

He’s going to get a lecture later. Father silently flies back to his perch, and then simply turns around to not look at them. A long lecture it is.

Karu reemerges with some reassurances, apologetically droopy, to cuddle up to Rei again. “I mean it,” he whimpers. “I didn’t think about eating you at all, but your scent made me feel like...I could. I could kill you, if I wanted. And it would be as easy as killing that bird. Maybe easier. It’s not like you can fly.”

Is that flattering? Should Rei be afraid? That would probably be a healthier reaction than what he’s actually feeling, which is morbid fascination. “Do you? Want to?”

“N-no.”

“So if you don’t want to kill me,” Rei says, “Then what’s left?”

“I’m not afraid of you. You made me feel good. And even when I hurt you, like that, you still…” Karu pushes his head further under Rei’s hands, so that Rei’s petting at that great fluffy cheek, right below a wet, golden-moon eye. “You haven’t hurt me back. You haven’t tried. And I don’t smell that you hate me, or fear me, or want to hurt me. You haven’t lied to me...about anything that’s important between us. Yet.”

That is trust, then. Or what counts as trust, between beasts.

Rei leans in and kisses him on the snout above the nose. “Good boy. You didn’t have to tell me any of that, but you still did. The fearsome and all-powerful Karu is most brave and impressive. Thank you.”

Karu blinks. Rei can’t tell if he’s blushing under all that fur, but the tail is so convenient of a metric Rei doesn’t need to know whether or not a blush is there.

Karu blinks again, more slowly, and—ah, hello.

Garu yawns, enormously. His head lolls heavily against Rei’s shoulder, his entire body still tucked close with a fore and back leg slung over the blankets.“Master Rei, you’re so patient with us...and oh, I...now that I know you’re all right, I...aaahh…”

And there they both go, into dreamland.

It doesn’t take long for Rei to follow. With the wolf yokai snoring beside him and Father watching from overhead, there’s nowhere safer in the mansion than where he is, right here, in his own bed.

~~~

Between the winter storm and various emergency excursions, the entire clan doesn’t manage to reunite for a shared meal until a few days later, for breakfast.

Rei’s reviewing his journal notes from the experiment in the baths—he’d jotted down everything he could the day after—as he swipes through the last of his runny egg with a bit of sausage. Hm. It had been such a shock that he hadn’t been able to look at the knot to confirm the geometry, and his physical recollection from the sensations only went so far; he could probably get Blade to tie up Momo and extrude the monster-dog’s penis to make a guesstimate comparison, but that would probably arouse more questions amongst the staff and observers than he’d want to bother with answering.

Aster would be upset with him, for one. And trying to keep Blade discreet on the matter is a lost cause.

When he’d awoken that morning after, Garu had already disappeared from the rooms. When Rei had asked around as to what had become of his canine companion, the maids and butlers had told him Garu had run off on another hunt of some sort; but the poisonbird’s carcass was safe and intact under a preservative glass cloche, for whenever he wanted to make use of it.

Wherever Garu had gone, he’d returned yesterday, bearing today’s breakfast. Yakumo has turned the stock scraps of a brace of pheasant into a delicious gravy, silken with butter, and served with rich biscuits alongside the rest of the usual spread. The remainder of the meat is apparently going into today’s lunch and dinner.

Rei’s no big gourmet, but he can’t deny that he’d probably fight his bodysharing personality over meal rights, if he had one.

“Master Rei!”

There he is. Without thinking, Rei reaches out with an easy familiarity, and Garu scurries in face-first to rub his cheek against Rei’s palm. Fluffy boy. Even while seated, Rei’s easily at eye-level with Garu standing.

“Good morning. I haven’t seen you for a while. Yakumo said you caught the game for this meal?”

“Yes,” Garu giggles, raising his chin for Rei to scratch below his jaw. “Karu was saying to me...you’re so thin, you should eat more. We caught them for you! Oh, haha, hee, he didn’t like that I told you!”

Out of the corner of his eye, Rei sees Kuya—seated at the far end of the table next to Blade and Olivine—frozen in place over his plate, watching them.

Oh? Is that a clenched fist on that fork he sees? Well, well...is that nasty old man upset that his little puppydog is happy to play around with another old man? Is that it? Suspicious staring isn’t going to win Kuya anything, not this time.

Rei brings his hand around to stroke through Garu’s hair, lingering around the shell of a rapidly pinkening ear. He does this a few times, for good measure; the light grooming pulls out a spiderweb, a twig, and several leaves.

“What,” Rei laughs softly, “Were you up to get so dirty this early?”

Fiddling with his hands, Garu replies, “I was trying to catch another one of those poisonous birds. The first one must have gone bad by now.”

“It’s perfectly preserved, thanks to a magical artifact. Your brother and I can prepare that whenever he’d like.” With no more clods of dirt or bugs in Garu’s hair, Rei resumes his gentle ruffling. “He wanted to give the feathers to Eiden, right? He didn’t get around to telling me the reason. What for, besides being pretty?”

“The rainbow color! It’s like Master’s gemstone, and, ehehe, we both like Master very much. Karu just won’t admit it out loud.”

Rei can see that. He can also see everyone sneaking peeks at them now, to various degrees of skepticism and befuddlement and excitement. And seething...but he already knows that one.

He looks Kuya dead in the eye, then dismisses him to plant a dry kiss on Garu’s forehead. Have fun with your jealousy, pest. It doesn’t have to be a competition.

“I had fun with your brother that night, hm? Some scrapes and scuffs are to be expected for a first time...but once I’m in a better condition, does he want to try again?”

“Oh! Not in the bath, right?”

“Not in the bath.”

Garu pauses, going cross-eyed while he consults; he blinks through with clarity once the matter has been resolved. “Yes! Karu would really like that… and I would too. Can you help him with the bird after dinner today? He doesn’t know what to make with it, but you can figure that out together!”

That’s true. They can do that together.

One last tousle, affectionate, and a grin, real. “Sure. It’s a date.”