Fic: Available Options, Tenpou/Ni, NSFW
Jan. 26th, 2010 02:25 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
jedishampooTitle: Available Options
Author:![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
jedishampoo
Rating: NC-l7 (smut, language)
Pairing: Tenpou/Ni
Summary: Tenpou keeps getting called out of his own world, but what does his caller really want from him?
Author's notes: Written for a request byabsolutnegation in the ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-community.gif)
yuletide_smut exchange. Thanks for the opportunity to write this pairing, and to the Merciful Goddess for her work on the exchange. Thanks also to my lovely betas sharpeslass and whymzycal!
Available Options
Tenpou was back in the future again. This was the third time in two weeks; he was getting rather used to it. As used to such things as one could get, anyway.
"Nnnnnnhhhgod," moaned Ni.
The first time it had happened, Tenpou had been reading-- very good reading, the kind where he slowed down to infinitesimal reading-speed on the last few pages of his book because it was so good he didn't want it to end, single words read and interspersed with thoughts such as "perhaps I'll take a bath, the men will thank me" or "should I make another pot of coffee?" Coffee and procrastination had won out. But one second he'd been standing in front of the coffee-maker and the next he'd been there, in that other place.
More accurately, he'd been summoned there, because Tenpou hadn't chosen to go. Not that he might not have done so given the choice beforehand; it was all very fascinating, and every time he appeared there-- was summoned there-- he felt closer to something, a realization of some kind ...
Anyway, to wit: first time, kitchen, there.
There was what had seemed to be a hotel room in a fortress. It was a smallish room, containing a bed, a tiny table, and a glowing screen perched among stacks of papers on a desk. There was a dark-haired man sitting in front of the screen. A flap of paper or cloth at his shoulder might have been Tenpou's imagination. The man was good-looking under the dark, messy stubble on his chin and a general seedy air. He had a cigarette in his mouth and wore glasses and a lab coat. One lens of his glasses reflected the blue-white image on the screen, and through the other Tenpou could see a dark eye watching him.
The man didn't look surprised to see him and didn't appear ready to attack, so Tenpou took a moment or two to further assess his surroundings. There were four stone walls, bare except for a pornographic poster hanging crookedly opposite the bed. Behind the walls or perhaps deep below them something thrummed-- a deep, mechanical groaning like the machinery that existed in Tenkai only to power the door to the world below.
Somehow, Tenpou knew he was not in the bowels of heaven. This sound was deeper, thrummier. Tenpou flexed his fingers and looked back at the man and wondered if he should bum a cigarette. The man grinned.
"Professor Tian Peng? Oh, shit. That's not supposed to happen."
Tenpou at first thought the man meant the sudden drop in the thrumming noise, but then realized that everything was fading: the room, the man, the one blue-white lens of his glasses...
And then Tenpou was home, standing in front of his coffee-maker, not even a trace of vertigo to let him know that he'd ever been elsewhere or crossed some great space, which Tenpou assumed he had.
"Hmmm," Tenpou had said aloud. As he'd made coffee, he'd mentally reordered his "to-read" book-list, moving books on teleportation and out-of-body experiences to the top. First, though, he'd wanted to finish his current book, a delightful novel full of magic and fast cars and romance.
That had been his first visit to the future. His second came a week or so later, and it had not been entirely unexpected. His immediate research had revealed the possibility of teleportation given the correct scientific knowledge. Tenpou had been unable to recreate the experience in reverse, however, not knowing the name or location of the man who'd called him. And then further research had been curtailed by the rise of more pressing matters.
Thus, when it happened, Tenpou was reading a human philosophical history of one of the Lower World's wars. He was particularly noting the rise and fall of youkai prominence in the eyes of humans, and thinking that surely such events had some bearing on the current situation and the persistence of one particular youkai lord--
He'd been sitting as he read, and when he suddenly went from home to there, he'd still been in a sitting position but without anything to sit on, and so he'd landed on his ass.
"Sorry about that," said the same voice he'd heard before. There was a hint of a fluttering noise, and, under Tenpou's butt, the long thrumming of machinery rumbling through thick stone.
Tenpou remained seated; when he disappeared back home, he had no desire to land on his ass again. He looked up at the dark-haired man, sitting in the same chair in the same room with the same blue-white screen reflecting off his glasses. The man was clean-shaven, however, dispelling the illusion that no time had passed since last Tenpou had been here. The man flicked his fingers in a sort of salute-greeting.
"Yo. Welcome. Stick around a few minutes this time, wouldja?"
"Do I have a choice?" Tenpou murmured.
The man shrugged. "Who can say? Last time I fucked up the neutrino lock, but I think I've fixed that little problem."
"Ah," Tenpou said to that pronouncement, filing it away for further examination and computation. He patted the front right pocket of his lab coat for his cigarettes. The pack was blessedly present, and he pulled out a smoke. "Hmm. I'd wondered if objects other than clothing would make the journey."
"I'm good. What can I say?" the man chuckled back. His chair creaked as he leaned forward to offer Tenpou a light.
"Thank you," Tenpou said from around his cigarette. He caught the flame for a few moments, inhaling. The man handed him an ashtray.
"Professor Tian Peng?" the man asked as he had before, only this time without the oh, shit.
"I'm not a professor," Tenpou said. Since he didn't appear to be disappearing he decided to get off the floor. He reached up and brushed papers and sticky-notes off the seat of a nearby wooden chair and pulled himself up into it. He crossed his legs and rearranged his lab coat into a doubtlessly sad semblance of polite order. "I usually go by my military title. Marshal. You are?"
"Oh? Sorry. Your handwriting is for shit," the man said. He picked up a slim, battered book from the desk next to him and waved it at Tenpou, then dropped it again. The book looked familiar, but then Tenpou had many, many books. At Tenpou's interested gaze the man picked up the book again and held it open to the frontispiece. Tenpou could see a sticker and the crabbed handwriting on it: 'Property of scribble scribble Tenpou.' The title of the book was Demon Within and Without.
Ah. One of the books in Tenpou's to-read pile. And that was definitely his handwriting.
"How did you get that?" Tenpou asked.
"It wasn't easy, I can tell you that," the man said. He leaned back in his chair and crossed his own legs, one foot bouncing up and down in the air in casual reflex. "There are notes all over the inside. I wanted to meet the fellow who left me these notes."
"Ah," said Tenpou, who had written no notes inside. The book had come to him new. He filed that odd bit of information away.
The man continued. "I wanted to get a glimpse of his mind. Uh, up-close, sort of. Not just his knowledge, but his sense of humor."
"You went to a great deal of effort to do so. What do you think?"
"You're not what I expected. You're way hotter, for one thing. Less mousy and professor-y." The man pushed his glasses on top of his head. His eyes were lovely, dark and shrewd, belying his casual tone.
"Thanks?" Tenpou said.
"You're welcome. It's not often that I'm interested in other people, you know."
"I continue to be flattered," said Tenpou, who could swear he smelled coffee and wondered if it would be too pushy to ask for a cup. He held off in favor of retrieving more information. "I'd still like to know who you are."
"Ni. Ni Jianyi." The man creaked forward in the chair again and held out his hand. Tenpou noted Ni's complete lack of fear concerning him, yet did not feel at all underestimated. Interesting. Tenpou clasped the man's hand. His grip was warm and firm and confident.
"Hello, Ni Jianyi. Do you often use your incredible scientific powers to find dates?"
Ni barked out a laugh, and then looked surprised at himself for having done so. He grinned at Tenpou, white teeth under rather smirky, quirky lips. "Why the hell not?"
"Why not, indeed?" Tenpou smiled in return, feeling a little warm under the breastbone. The man had a secret charm hidden under his grubby, somewhat practiced-looking exterior. Tenpou looked away, around the room. He reconsidered his request for coffee, since Ni did not seem prepared to send him back home any time soon. "Might I ask where we are?"
"In my mistress's humble abode," Ni said, swiveling back in his chair to look at his screen. He pressed a couple of buttons on a keyboard that was half-buried under papers on the desk, and the screen went dark. Without the blue-white light Ni looked paler, somehow, under his dark hair.
"Mistress? You don't seem like the minion type. May I have a cup of coffee?"
Ni ignored Tenpou's further dig for information, but wordlessly produced a mug from a cubbyhole behind his darkened screen. He poured from a pot settled on a hotplate behind him on the floor, then handed the filled cup to Tenpou, who nodded in thanks and waited.
Ni's grin gained a seedy tilt and lost some of its charm for having done so. "All flirting aside, Marshal, my mistress has a teensy-eensy Gyumaoh problem."
Tenpou hoped that he didn't betray his surprise at hearing that name. "Ah?" he said, and sipped at the-- good-- coffee.
"It seems you have thoughts on the subjugation of said Gyumaoh, my dear Marshal. His ultimate defeat. I thought I'd ask you in person how it was accomplished."
"It wasn't only my sense of humor you wanted, then?" Tenpou tossed out, thinking furiously behind a bland, perfectly normal sip of his coffee. The man wanted to know about the great youkai lord Gyumaoh, who had not yet been subjugated. Gyumaoh, whose minions and magic Tenpou had fought, but who was so powerful himself that War Prince Nataku was being sent to kill him. Sent by those who never killed.
Disturbing information in itself, but more interesting was the fact that Tenpou now understood that there was more than one reason he'd been unable to recreate Ni's teleportation. This was no simple back-and-forth trip to the world below and, so, there was not only space but time involved. This was the future, at some point after Gyumaoh had been killed-- so he would be killed, at least once-- and after Tenpou had read the book with his name-sticker in it. At least he had something to look forward to; he only wrote in the books he liked.
"I think you are not asking for entirely altruistic reasons," Tenpou said. Travel into the future was not scientifically possible. Therefore, Ni had used magic as well. Mixing magic and science was forbidden.
"Untrue. I only wish to stop his reign of terror," Ni said.
Tenpou didn't bother to call bullshit. He just found a lie of his own. "Ah. In that case, I fear I have nothing to tell you, anyway. He was defeated by the armies of Tenkai. The battle was not unusual in any way. I wasn't even there."
It was a risky statement, since Tenpou hadn't yet read the book that Ni held, nor written in it. But the lie at least had the benefit of clearing the air. Now they each knew where the other stood. Not that Ni's probable perfidy mattered much to Tenpou personally; Ni wasn't the only one who was unafraid, and Tenpou had always liked a rogue.
"That's too bad. I've brought you here for nothing," Ni said, bouncing his leg up and down, up and down, and lighting another cigarette.
"It seems so."
"Hmm." Ni, seemingly absent-mindedly, patted the pocket of his own lab coat. Tenpou wondered what he kept there. "I could keep you here, you know, dear Marshal. Until you remembered other, more useful things. Or just because I liked you."
Tenpou set his mug on the floor, watching as the mechanical thrum that pervaded the room rippled the surface of the coffee inside. He looked up and made sure his next grin was very, very hard. "Like a cat toying with a mouse. How ultimately useful do you think such a course of action would be?"
Ni snorted. "Not very." He rocked forward in a quick motion and tapped a few keys. "Goodbye, Marshal. I probably won't bother you again."
"Bye," Tenpou said as everything-- the room, the smirk in Ni's dark eyes-- faded to a soundtrack of humming and faint flapping.
And that was the second time Tenpou had traveled to the future. At least at that point he'd finally understood that it was the future. He'd planned for it to be his last trip: one could learn how to do many things from books, and forbidden magic or not, Tenpou had felt confident he could stop a recurrence.
Until he was there, in Ni's room in his mistress's humble abode, for the third time, yet another week later. He thought for sure he'd put up sufficient resonance blocks, yet there he was. And he hadn't yet figured out a way to send himself back.
"Nnnnnnhhhgod," moaned Ni.
The room was dark, but Tenpou recognized it and the voice instantly. There was the light fluttering noise he remembered even as it faded, and a light smacking noise that did not fade.
Tenpou could see, faintly, the screen on Ni's desk as it flickered in pinpricks of white light like a starfield. He reached over and tapped the keyboard at random, and the blue-white screen blinked to life and cast its glow about the small room.
Ni was supine on the bed, masturbating. He wore a white nightshirt not unlike the one Tenpou was currently wearing-- he'd been nearly to bed when he'd been whisked away-- except Ni's was hiked up somewhere above his waist as he arched his ass off the bed and jerked his cock with slick, hard strokes.
"Hello, kitty-cat," Ni said between short breaths.
"Don't stop on my account," Tenpou quipped, though he was secretly glad that Ni hadn't indeed stopped, because it was a fine show. Tenpou also had a soft spot for performance art. And Ni's body was slender and tight, more muscular than Tenpou might have expected from a science-and-desk jockey. It was pale and picturesque in its white shirt against the white sheets, with only Ni's black pubic hair and dark eyes standing out in contrast. Tenpou didn't know which end was most fascinating to watch.
"Give me-- nnngh-- a minute, then," Ni said.
Ni's hand slowed so Tenpou watched that, and watched how Ni's thigh-muscles strained at the loss of momentum. His own cock twitched under his nightshirt and he plopped down into Ni's squeaky chair to enjoy the show from a more comfortable position.
"I-- ah!-- fuck my mistress, you know. God! She's got fucking amazing, huge tits and a tight ass." Ni's fingers curled and uncurled as he stroked himself, and his thumb stroked fluid in lazy motions over the head of his cock. His other hand caressed his pale belly lightly under the edge of his nightshirt. Tenpou imagined touching Ni there, the warmth of his skin, the dips and ridges of his muscles. His cock jumped to firmer life, but he ignored its gentle, insistent throb-- he was here to watch, and that was all he planned to do.
"Oh?" Tenpou said in a very low voice.
"Mmm," Ni said, and moved his hand further up under his shirt. "But sometimes a guy needs-- jeeze, that fucking feels awesome-- something more than tits and coming in long hair and feeling her fingernails on his balls, y'know? Like a nice, fat cock." His hips lifted off the bed once more and his hand had started stroking faster as he excited himself with his own words.
The light smacking noise started again and gained momentum as Ni jerked himself harder, base to tip slam, bam slam, and Tenpou thought of how, when he got home, he'd give himself a nice wank in the privacy of his own room. It would be quieter there, smack smack smack, without all the machinery thrumming and Ni's vulgar yammering.
"Indeed," Tenpou said, letting his cock ache as it felt anticipatory ghost-fingers.
"Hell yeah, Marshal-ah- Kitty. Fuck, fuck--"
Ni's eyes closed and his breath caught and his ass clenched as he came. Shiny white coated his stroking fingers as he drew out the last few spasms of orgasm. His ass plopped to the bed and his breath released in a long sigh.
Tenpou sighed a little with him, and his cock twitched in envy. And then he noticed something he hadn't before: the book, his book, tucked next to Ni's pillow, and something paper-thin and inscribed with symbols wrapped about it. Tenpou rocked forward out of the chair and made a grab for it.
Ni's eyes flew open. "Ah-ah-ah," he breathed, and then he mumbled something barely under his breath. The symbol-marked thing slithered away from the book and the scene faded to Tenpou's bedroom.
"Hmm," Tenpou said to nobody in particular, and rolled into bed and stared at the ceiling. He had work to do. One action in particular would go a long way to solving his Ni problem. Tenpou was loath to take that action, however, for it was a drastic one. Perhaps he could think of another way. Later. Tenpou slid a hand under his nightshirt.
***
The resonance blocks had proven useless at blocking anything. However, when combined with a few used prayer-sticks converted into tuners, they were great for twanging in warning. Thus, the next time Tenpou was about to be whisked off to Ni's mistress's humble abode, he had a moment or two to prepare. String was plain and old-fashioned but so useful, when one had sufficient books to give one direction. And string was happily un-drastic.
As Ni's playland came into focus and hearing, Tenpou knotted the end of the twine he'd dragged through space and time with him, then dropped it innocently to the floor to hide amongst the clothes and papers scattered there.
"Here, kitty. Holy shit, you look hot like that."
"Oh?" Tenpou looked down at himself. He'd thought himself rather soiled, as he'd just returned from a quick-and-dirty Lower World battle and had yet to change into comfortable clothing. He hadn't killed anything, but there was some blood spattered on his leather uniform jacket. "So you're one of those, are you?"
"Hell, yeah." Ni flicked ash from the end of his cigarette into a mug on his desk. Tenpou grimaced.
"A mouse?"
"Ouch. You're one of those pun-loving-guys." Both of Ni's glasses-lenses were blue-white with screen-reflection, but the slight, twitching motion of his head suggested that he'd rolled his eyes.
"Ah. My miscalculation. I thought you'd appreciate it," Tenpou told him. He looked around. He only needed something from this world-- ah. "May I please have a cigarette? And may I borrow a lighter?"
"So polite," Ni said, and handed over one of each. Tenpou lit the smoke-- not his brand but not bad-- but didn't hand the lighter back right away. He distracted Ni by pulling, one by one, at the fingers of the leather glove on his right hand. As expected, Ni was only too happy to watch the long glove as it eased slowly from Tenpou's fingers. Tenpou slipped the lighter into his pocket, and taking off his left glove sealed the deal.
"The fourth time was the charm-- though I'd hoped it would only take three. I can get home on my own today, you know," Tenpou said, stuffing the gloves into his pockets and puffing on the cigarette. After a quick drag or two he settled the smoke between his lips and started to unbutton his coat. Ni watched in barely-hidden fascination. "And never come back."
"Ha. I told you I was good," Ni said, jabbing his cigarette out in his mug.
Tenpou smiled at himself, playing this cat-and-mouse game to its expected conclusion. The muscles in his belly fluttered and he smiled on the outside. So maybe Ni's snarky-yet-excited gaze was a bit of a turn-on. And maybe, as he'd unwound string and sanded prayer-sticks sent to heaven, he'd imagined teaching Ni's muscular bottom some lessons. "I assume you'd like me to fuck you, first?"
"Absolutely," Ni said. His grin was so slimy that Tenpou should have been disgusted, but maybe he always felt a lot horny after a battle. He handed his cigarette to Ni and unbuckled his belt.
"Fuckfuckfuck," Ni hissed a few minutes later when Tenpou dug his fingers into Ni's hips and jerked his ass back onto his cock. Ni was tight. Tenpou rolled his neck, and was glad he'd decided to give the lesson. He dragged his hips back and snapped them forward again, and Ni's knees slid across the covers until his fingers clenched tightly into the sheets to stop himself.
"Ah," Tenpou said, jerking forward again a couple more times into Ni's tensed body, his squeezing body, squeezing his aching cock, hell. He'd barely gotten to fight today; he couldn't kill but he could carve and nick with his sword until the enemy got the idea to stay away from him, and now he had to deal with this asshole--
"Fuck, that's hot. You're not even human or youkai-- sexy fucking freak--" Ni was saying.
"Shhh..." Tenpou said from between his clenched teeth. He rocked back and forth into Ni's ass a few times in quick succession, working up sweet friction along his cock that tightened and built in his belly, built like battle-tension that was best released by sex or slugging.
"Jeeze, you're like the bull-fucking demon. Sure you-- ahfuck-- won't tell me dryly how you killed that bastard Gyumaoh?"
"I'm-- not-- ah-- that-- stupid," Tenpou pointed out, perhaps unnecessarily, punctuating each word with a thrust. On that and stupid he used enough force to send Ni's head knocking forward into the wall. It didn't shut him up.
"Nah, ah! Information is only a bonus. Just fuck me, sexy, brainy freak." Ni leaned his head against the wall for good and propped himself on one hand so he could jerk himself with the other.
Tenpou began to consider that of the two of them he was probably less of a freak than Ni; there was much he suspected about Ni and didn't know for sure-- But he was quickly distracted by the motion of his hips, which had begun to snap back and forth on their own. Ni had finally quieted except for panting harsh breaths and the occasional mumbled obscenity. Tenpou felt Ni's thighs twitch under his fingers, felt Ni's his body tighten around his cock as he came, and then there was only the sting of sweat that slapped between them, the ache that built and built and clenched his ass and had only one place to go. The slapping noise of skin on skin and the deep thrumming beneath it all; the building was alive, Tenpou was alive--
For he'd finally realized that at some point he would be gone, and that someone else would be able to get his books.
"Ah!" Tenpou cough-cried and came, one quick jerk and then several rocking drifts in and out, letting Ni's body work out the last few spasms of release, mirroring the drag of his own hand down his cock the other night as he'd jerked off and imagined doing this very thing. Life was funny like that.
"Jeeze, that was good," Ni mumbled into the pillow after a moment or two or ten. "Better than information. Screw that bitch and her boyfriend."
"Hmm," Tenpou said, neither knowing nor caring whom Ni was talking about. His relaxed cock slid out of Ni with a slurp and he used Ni's sheets to wipe himself off. Then he pulled his pants the few inches up his thighs and fastened them, and rebuckled his belt. He wanted another cigarette, but didn't ask for one because he didn't want to reveal that he'd stolen Ni's lighter. Only something from this world would give him the proper resonance, and the lighter seemed appropriate, somehow.
Though it was hardly fair that Ni was losing a lighter, and Tenpou would have to lose a book.
"Sure you can get back on your own?" Ni had rolled over onto his back and was lazy and naked, watching Tenpou with satisfied, smirky eyes. He pulled out a cigarette and lit it with some matches from the bedside table, lucky bastard.
"Yes," Tenpou said. He rolled off the bed and bent over to pick up his knotted string. He displayed it to Ni, dangling from between his thumb and forefinger. He noticed that Ni didn't mumble a word or flutter a thing or try to stop him. There would have been no point; Tenpou now knew the way. "I don't suppose you'd consider giving me that book?"
"Screw you," Ni said, mildly.
"Bye-bye, then," Tenpou said, and jerked the string just so. There was the expected fade and then the sight of his own bedroom, quiet except for the patter of raindrops on the ceiling. It had been threatening rain when Tenpou had come in from the battle. That was all right; rain would wash everything clean. And it would cover up the fire.
Tenpou dropped his cloak onto the floor and went to find his to-read book pile. He really, really hated to do something so drastic as to destroy a book, but the future needed to remain unknown. Science and magic were a dangerous combination.
END. Thank you for reading! Comments snuggled.
Author:
jedishampooRating: NC-l7 (smut, language)
Pairing: Tenpou/Ni
Summary: Tenpou keeps getting called out of his own world, but what does his caller really want from him?
Author's notes: Written for a request by
absolutnegation in the yuletide_smut exchange. Thanks for the opportunity to write this pairing, and to the Merciful Goddess for her work on the exchange. Thanks also to my lovely betas sharpeslass and whymzycal!Available Options
Tenpou was back in the future again. This was the third time in two weeks; he was getting rather used to it. As used to such things as one could get, anyway.
"Nnnnnnhhhgod," moaned Ni.
The first time it had happened, Tenpou had been reading-- very good reading, the kind where he slowed down to infinitesimal reading-speed on the last few pages of his book because it was so good he didn't want it to end, single words read and interspersed with thoughts such as "perhaps I'll take a bath, the men will thank me" or "should I make another pot of coffee?" Coffee and procrastination had won out. But one second he'd been standing in front of the coffee-maker and the next he'd been there, in that other place.
More accurately, he'd been summoned there, because Tenpou hadn't chosen to go. Not that he might not have done so given the choice beforehand; it was all very fascinating, and every time he appeared there-- was summoned there-- he felt closer to something, a realization of some kind ...
Anyway, to wit: first time, kitchen, there.
There was what had seemed to be a hotel room in a fortress. It was a smallish room, containing a bed, a tiny table, and a glowing screen perched among stacks of papers on a desk. There was a dark-haired man sitting in front of the screen. A flap of paper or cloth at his shoulder might have been Tenpou's imagination. The man was good-looking under the dark, messy stubble on his chin and a general seedy air. He had a cigarette in his mouth and wore glasses and a lab coat. One lens of his glasses reflected the blue-white image on the screen, and through the other Tenpou could see a dark eye watching him.
The man didn't look surprised to see him and didn't appear ready to attack, so Tenpou took a moment or two to further assess his surroundings. There were four stone walls, bare except for a pornographic poster hanging crookedly opposite the bed. Behind the walls or perhaps deep below them something thrummed-- a deep, mechanical groaning like the machinery that existed in Tenkai only to power the door to the world below.
Somehow, Tenpou knew he was not in the bowels of heaven. This sound was deeper, thrummier. Tenpou flexed his fingers and looked back at the man and wondered if he should bum a cigarette. The man grinned.
"Professor Tian Peng? Oh, shit. That's not supposed to happen."
Tenpou at first thought the man meant the sudden drop in the thrumming noise, but then realized that everything was fading: the room, the man, the one blue-white lens of his glasses...
And then Tenpou was home, standing in front of his coffee-maker, not even a trace of vertigo to let him know that he'd ever been elsewhere or crossed some great space, which Tenpou assumed he had.
"Hmmm," Tenpou had said aloud. As he'd made coffee, he'd mentally reordered his "to-read" book-list, moving books on teleportation and out-of-body experiences to the top. First, though, he'd wanted to finish his current book, a delightful novel full of magic and fast cars and romance.
That had been his first visit to the future. His second came a week or so later, and it had not been entirely unexpected. His immediate research had revealed the possibility of teleportation given the correct scientific knowledge. Tenpou had been unable to recreate the experience in reverse, however, not knowing the name or location of the man who'd called him. And then further research had been curtailed by the rise of more pressing matters.
Thus, when it happened, Tenpou was reading a human philosophical history of one of the Lower World's wars. He was particularly noting the rise and fall of youkai prominence in the eyes of humans, and thinking that surely such events had some bearing on the current situation and the persistence of one particular youkai lord--
He'd been sitting as he read, and when he suddenly went from home to there, he'd still been in a sitting position but without anything to sit on, and so he'd landed on his ass.
"Sorry about that," said the same voice he'd heard before. There was a hint of a fluttering noise, and, under Tenpou's butt, the long thrumming of machinery rumbling through thick stone.
Tenpou remained seated; when he disappeared back home, he had no desire to land on his ass again. He looked up at the dark-haired man, sitting in the same chair in the same room with the same blue-white screen reflecting off his glasses. The man was clean-shaven, however, dispelling the illusion that no time had passed since last Tenpou had been here. The man flicked his fingers in a sort of salute-greeting.
"Yo. Welcome. Stick around a few minutes this time, wouldja?"
"Do I have a choice?" Tenpou murmured.
The man shrugged. "Who can say? Last time I fucked up the neutrino lock, but I think I've fixed that little problem."
"Ah," Tenpou said to that pronouncement, filing it away for further examination and computation. He patted the front right pocket of his lab coat for his cigarettes. The pack was blessedly present, and he pulled out a smoke. "Hmm. I'd wondered if objects other than clothing would make the journey."
"I'm good. What can I say?" the man chuckled back. His chair creaked as he leaned forward to offer Tenpou a light.
"Thank you," Tenpou said from around his cigarette. He caught the flame for a few moments, inhaling. The man handed him an ashtray.
"Professor Tian Peng?" the man asked as he had before, only this time without the oh, shit.
"I'm not a professor," Tenpou said. Since he didn't appear to be disappearing he decided to get off the floor. He reached up and brushed papers and sticky-notes off the seat of a nearby wooden chair and pulled himself up into it. He crossed his legs and rearranged his lab coat into a doubtlessly sad semblance of polite order. "I usually go by my military title. Marshal. You are?"
"Oh? Sorry. Your handwriting is for shit," the man said. He picked up a slim, battered book from the desk next to him and waved it at Tenpou, then dropped it again. The book looked familiar, but then Tenpou had many, many books. At Tenpou's interested gaze the man picked up the book again and held it open to the frontispiece. Tenpou could see a sticker and the crabbed handwriting on it: 'Property of scribble scribble Tenpou.' The title of the book was Demon Within and Without.
Ah. One of the books in Tenpou's to-read pile. And that was definitely his handwriting.
"How did you get that?" Tenpou asked.
"It wasn't easy, I can tell you that," the man said. He leaned back in his chair and crossed his own legs, one foot bouncing up and down in the air in casual reflex. "There are notes all over the inside. I wanted to meet the fellow who left me these notes."
"Ah," said Tenpou, who had written no notes inside. The book had come to him new. He filed that odd bit of information away.
The man continued. "I wanted to get a glimpse of his mind. Uh, up-close, sort of. Not just his knowledge, but his sense of humor."
"You went to a great deal of effort to do so. What do you think?"
"You're not what I expected. You're way hotter, for one thing. Less mousy and professor-y." The man pushed his glasses on top of his head. His eyes were lovely, dark and shrewd, belying his casual tone.
"Thanks?" Tenpou said.
"You're welcome. It's not often that I'm interested in other people, you know."
"I continue to be flattered," said Tenpou, who could swear he smelled coffee and wondered if it would be too pushy to ask for a cup. He held off in favor of retrieving more information. "I'd still like to know who you are."
"Ni. Ni Jianyi." The man creaked forward in the chair again and held out his hand. Tenpou noted Ni's complete lack of fear concerning him, yet did not feel at all underestimated. Interesting. Tenpou clasped the man's hand. His grip was warm and firm and confident.
"Hello, Ni Jianyi. Do you often use your incredible scientific powers to find dates?"
Ni barked out a laugh, and then looked surprised at himself for having done so. He grinned at Tenpou, white teeth under rather smirky, quirky lips. "Why the hell not?"
"Why not, indeed?" Tenpou smiled in return, feeling a little warm under the breastbone. The man had a secret charm hidden under his grubby, somewhat practiced-looking exterior. Tenpou looked away, around the room. He reconsidered his request for coffee, since Ni did not seem prepared to send him back home any time soon. "Might I ask where we are?"
"In my mistress's humble abode," Ni said, swiveling back in his chair to look at his screen. He pressed a couple of buttons on a keyboard that was half-buried under papers on the desk, and the screen went dark. Without the blue-white light Ni looked paler, somehow, under his dark hair.
"Mistress? You don't seem like the minion type. May I have a cup of coffee?"
Ni ignored Tenpou's further dig for information, but wordlessly produced a mug from a cubbyhole behind his darkened screen. He poured from a pot settled on a hotplate behind him on the floor, then handed the filled cup to Tenpou, who nodded in thanks and waited.
Ni's grin gained a seedy tilt and lost some of its charm for having done so. "All flirting aside, Marshal, my mistress has a teensy-eensy Gyumaoh problem."
Tenpou hoped that he didn't betray his surprise at hearing that name. "Ah?" he said, and sipped at the-- good-- coffee.
"It seems you have thoughts on the subjugation of said Gyumaoh, my dear Marshal. His ultimate defeat. I thought I'd ask you in person how it was accomplished."
"It wasn't only my sense of humor you wanted, then?" Tenpou tossed out, thinking furiously behind a bland, perfectly normal sip of his coffee. The man wanted to know about the great youkai lord Gyumaoh, who had not yet been subjugated. Gyumaoh, whose minions and magic Tenpou had fought, but who was so powerful himself that War Prince Nataku was being sent to kill him. Sent by those who never killed.
Disturbing information in itself, but more interesting was the fact that Tenpou now understood that there was more than one reason he'd been unable to recreate Ni's teleportation. This was no simple back-and-forth trip to the world below and, so, there was not only space but time involved. This was the future, at some point after Gyumaoh had been killed-- so he would be killed, at least once-- and after Tenpou had read the book with his name-sticker in it. At least he had something to look forward to; he only wrote in the books he liked.
"I think you are not asking for entirely altruistic reasons," Tenpou said. Travel into the future was not scientifically possible. Therefore, Ni had used magic as well. Mixing magic and science was forbidden.
"Untrue. I only wish to stop his reign of terror," Ni said.
Tenpou didn't bother to call bullshit. He just found a lie of his own. "Ah. In that case, I fear I have nothing to tell you, anyway. He was defeated by the armies of Tenkai. The battle was not unusual in any way. I wasn't even there."
It was a risky statement, since Tenpou hadn't yet read the book that Ni held, nor written in it. But the lie at least had the benefit of clearing the air. Now they each knew where the other stood. Not that Ni's probable perfidy mattered much to Tenpou personally; Ni wasn't the only one who was unafraid, and Tenpou had always liked a rogue.
"That's too bad. I've brought you here for nothing," Ni said, bouncing his leg up and down, up and down, and lighting another cigarette.
"It seems so."
"Hmm." Ni, seemingly absent-mindedly, patted the pocket of his own lab coat. Tenpou wondered what he kept there. "I could keep you here, you know, dear Marshal. Until you remembered other, more useful things. Or just because I liked you."
Tenpou set his mug on the floor, watching as the mechanical thrum that pervaded the room rippled the surface of the coffee inside. He looked up and made sure his next grin was very, very hard. "Like a cat toying with a mouse. How ultimately useful do you think such a course of action would be?"
Ni snorted. "Not very." He rocked forward in a quick motion and tapped a few keys. "Goodbye, Marshal. I probably won't bother you again."
"Bye," Tenpou said as everything-- the room, the smirk in Ni's dark eyes-- faded to a soundtrack of humming and faint flapping.
And that was the second time Tenpou had traveled to the future. At least at that point he'd finally understood that it was the future. He'd planned for it to be his last trip: one could learn how to do many things from books, and forbidden magic or not, Tenpou had felt confident he could stop a recurrence.
Until he was there, in Ni's room in his mistress's humble abode, for the third time, yet another week later. He thought for sure he'd put up sufficient resonance blocks, yet there he was. And he hadn't yet figured out a way to send himself back.
"Nnnnnnhhhgod," moaned Ni.
The room was dark, but Tenpou recognized it and the voice instantly. There was the light fluttering noise he remembered even as it faded, and a light smacking noise that did not fade.
Tenpou could see, faintly, the screen on Ni's desk as it flickered in pinpricks of white light like a starfield. He reached over and tapped the keyboard at random, and the blue-white screen blinked to life and cast its glow about the small room.
Ni was supine on the bed, masturbating. He wore a white nightshirt not unlike the one Tenpou was currently wearing-- he'd been nearly to bed when he'd been whisked away-- except Ni's was hiked up somewhere above his waist as he arched his ass off the bed and jerked his cock with slick, hard strokes.
"Hello, kitty-cat," Ni said between short breaths.
"Don't stop on my account," Tenpou quipped, though he was secretly glad that Ni hadn't indeed stopped, because it was a fine show. Tenpou also had a soft spot for performance art. And Ni's body was slender and tight, more muscular than Tenpou might have expected from a science-and-desk jockey. It was pale and picturesque in its white shirt against the white sheets, with only Ni's black pubic hair and dark eyes standing out in contrast. Tenpou didn't know which end was most fascinating to watch.
"Give me-- nnngh-- a minute, then," Ni said.
Ni's hand slowed so Tenpou watched that, and watched how Ni's thigh-muscles strained at the loss of momentum. His own cock twitched under his nightshirt and he plopped down into Ni's squeaky chair to enjoy the show from a more comfortable position.
"I-- ah!-- fuck my mistress, you know. God! She's got fucking amazing, huge tits and a tight ass." Ni's fingers curled and uncurled as he stroked himself, and his thumb stroked fluid in lazy motions over the head of his cock. His other hand caressed his pale belly lightly under the edge of his nightshirt. Tenpou imagined touching Ni there, the warmth of his skin, the dips and ridges of his muscles. His cock jumped to firmer life, but he ignored its gentle, insistent throb-- he was here to watch, and that was all he planned to do.
"Oh?" Tenpou said in a very low voice.
"Mmm," Ni said, and moved his hand further up under his shirt. "But sometimes a guy needs-- jeeze, that fucking feels awesome-- something more than tits and coming in long hair and feeling her fingernails on his balls, y'know? Like a nice, fat cock." His hips lifted off the bed once more and his hand had started stroking faster as he excited himself with his own words.
The light smacking noise started again and gained momentum as Ni jerked himself harder, base to tip slam, bam slam, and Tenpou thought of how, when he got home, he'd give himself a nice wank in the privacy of his own room. It would be quieter there, smack smack smack, without all the machinery thrumming and Ni's vulgar yammering.
"Indeed," Tenpou said, letting his cock ache as it felt anticipatory ghost-fingers.
"Hell yeah, Marshal-ah- Kitty. Fuck, fuck--"
Ni's eyes closed and his breath caught and his ass clenched as he came. Shiny white coated his stroking fingers as he drew out the last few spasms of orgasm. His ass plopped to the bed and his breath released in a long sigh.
Tenpou sighed a little with him, and his cock twitched in envy. And then he noticed something he hadn't before: the book, his book, tucked next to Ni's pillow, and something paper-thin and inscribed with symbols wrapped about it. Tenpou rocked forward out of the chair and made a grab for it.
Ni's eyes flew open. "Ah-ah-ah," he breathed, and then he mumbled something barely under his breath. The symbol-marked thing slithered away from the book and the scene faded to Tenpou's bedroom.
"Hmm," Tenpou said to nobody in particular, and rolled into bed and stared at the ceiling. He had work to do. One action in particular would go a long way to solving his Ni problem. Tenpou was loath to take that action, however, for it was a drastic one. Perhaps he could think of another way. Later. Tenpou slid a hand under his nightshirt.
***
The resonance blocks had proven useless at blocking anything. However, when combined with a few used prayer-sticks converted into tuners, they were great for twanging in warning. Thus, the next time Tenpou was about to be whisked off to Ni's mistress's humble abode, he had a moment or two to prepare. String was plain and old-fashioned but so useful, when one had sufficient books to give one direction. And string was happily un-drastic.
As Ni's playland came into focus and hearing, Tenpou knotted the end of the twine he'd dragged through space and time with him, then dropped it innocently to the floor to hide amongst the clothes and papers scattered there.
"Here, kitty. Holy shit, you look hot like that."
"Oh?" Tenpou looked down at himself. He'd thought himself rather soiled, as he'd just returned from a quick-and-dirty Lower World battle and had yet to change into comfortable clothing. He hadn't killed anything, but there was some blood spattered on his leather uniform jacket. "So you're one of those, are you?"
"Hell, yeah." Ni flicked ash from the end of his cigarette into a mug on his desk. Tenpou grimaced.
"A mouse?"
"Ouch. You're one of those pun-loving-guys." Both of Ni's glasses-lenses were blue-white with screen-reflection, but the slight, twitching motion of his head suggested that he'd rolled his eyes.
"Ah. My miscalculation. I thought you'd appreciate it," Tenpou told him. He looked around. He only needed something from this world-- ah. "May I please have a cigarette? And may I borrow a lighter?"
"So polite," Ni said, and handed over one of each. Tenpou lit the smoke-- not his brand but not bad-- but didn't hand the lighter back right away. He distracted Ni by pulling, one by one, at the fingers of the leather glove on his right hand. As expected, Ni was only too happy to watch the long glove as it eased slowly from Tenpou's fingers. Tenpou slipped the lighter into his pocket, and taking off his left glove sealed the deal.
"The fourth time was the charm-- though I'd hoped it would only take three. I can get home on my own today, you know," Tenpou said, stuffing the gloves into his pockets and puffing on the cigarette. After a quick drag or two he settled the smoke between his lips and started to unbutton his coat. Ni watched in barely-hidden fascination. "And never come back."
"Ha. I told you I was good," Ni said, jabbing his cigarette out in his mug.
Tenpou smiled at himself, playing this cat-and-mouse game to its expected conclusion. The muscles in his belly fluttered and he smiled on the outside. So maybe Ni's snarky-yet-excited gaze was a bit of a turn-on. And maybe, as he'd unwound string and sanded prayer-sticks sent to heaven, he'd imagined teaching Ni's muscular bottom some lessons. "I assume you'd like me to fuck you, first?"
"Absolutely," Ni said. His grin was so slimy that Tenpou should have been disgusted, but maybe he always felt a lot horny after a battle. He handed his cigarette to Ni and unbuckled his belt.
"Fuckfuckfuck," Ni hissed a few minutes later when Tenpou dug his fingers into Ni's hips and jerked his ass back onto his cock. Ni was tight. Tenpou rolled his neck, and was glad he'd decided to give the lesson. He dragged his hips back and snapped them forward again, and Ni's knees slid across the covers until his fingers clenched tightly into the sheets to stop himself.
"Ah," Tenpou said, jerking forward again a couple more times into Ni's tensed body, his squeezing body, squeezing his aching cock, hell. He'd barely gotten to fight today; he couldn't kill but he could carve and nick with his sword until the enemy got the idea to stay away from him, and now he had to deal with this asshole--
"Fuck, that's hot. You're not even human or youkai-- sexy fucking freak--" Ni was saying.
"Shhh..." Tenpou said from between his clenched teeth. He rocked back and forth into Ni's ass a few times in quick succession, working up sweet friction along his cock that tightened and built in his belly, built like battle-tension that was best released by sex or slugging.
"Jeeze, you're like the bull-fucking demon. Sure you-- ahfuck-- won't tell me dryly how you killed that bastard Gyumaoh?"
"I'm-- not-- ah-- that-- stupid," Tenpou pointed out, perhaps unnecessarily, punctuating each word with a thrust. On that and stupid he used enough force to send Ni's head knocking forward into the wall. It didn't shut him up.
"Nah, ah! Information is only a bonus. Just fuck me, sexy, brainy freak." Ni leaned his head against the wall for good and propped himself on one hand so he could jerk himself with the other.
Tenpou began to consider that of the two of them he was probably less of a freak than Ni; there was much he suspected about Ni and didn't know for sure-- But he was quickly distracted by the motion of his hips, which had begun to snap back and forth on their own. Ni had finally quieted except for panting harsh breaths and the occasional mumbled obscenity. Tenpou felt Ni's thighs twitch under his fingers, felt Ni's his body tighten around his cock as he came, and then there was only the sting of sweat that slapped between them, the ache that built and built and clenched his ass and had only one place to go. The slapping noise of skin on skin and the deep thrumming beneath it all; the building was alive, Tenpou was alive--
For he'd finally realized that at some point he would be gone, and that someone else would be able to get his books.
"Ah!" Tenpou cough-cried and came, one quick jerk and then several rocking drifts in and out, letting Ni's body work out the last few spasms of release, mirroring the drag of his own hand down his cock the other night as he'd jerked off and imagined doing this very thing. Life was funny like that.
"Jeeze, that was good," Ni mumbled into the pillow after a moment or two or ten. "Better than information. Screw that bitch and her boyfriend."
"Hmm," Tenpou said, neither knowing nor caring whom Ni was talking about. His relaxed cock slid out of Ni with a slurp and he used Ni's sheets to wipe himself off. Then he pulled his pants the few inches up his thighs and fastened them, and rebuckled his belt. He wanted another cigarette, but didn't ask for one because he didn't want to reveal that he'd stolen Ni's lighter. Only something from this world would give him the proper resonance, and the lighter seemed appropriate, somehow.
Though it was hardly fair that Ni was losing a lighter, and Tenpou would have to lose a book.
"Sure you can get back on your own?" Ni had rolled over onto his back and was lazy and naked, watching Tenpou with satisfied, smirky eyes. He pulled out a cigarette and lit it with some matches from the bedside table, lucky bastard.
"Yes," Tenpou said. He rolled off the bed and bent over to pick up his knotted string. He displayed it to Ni, dangling from between his thumb and forefinger. He noticed that Ni didn't mumble a word or flutter a thing or try to stop him. There would have been no point; Tenpou now knew the way. "I don't suppose you'd consider giving me that book?"
"Screw you," Ni said, mildly.
"Bye-bye, then," Tenpou said, and jerked the string just so. There was the expected fade and then the sight of his own bedroom, quiet except for the patter of raindrops on the ceiling. It had been threatening rain when Tenpou had come in from the battle. That was all right; rain would wash everything clean. And it would cover up the fire.
Tenpou dropped his cloak onto the floor and went to find his to-read book pile. He really, really hated to do something so drastic as to destroy a book, but the future needed to remain unknown. Science and magic were a dangerous combination.
END. Thank you for reading! Comments snuggled.
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no subject
Date: 2011-08-28 12:04 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-08-28 08:38 pm (UTC)Actually, there has besn some pretty good Tenpou/Nii/Tenpou stuff out there. Have you read Double Helix by Teru Bozu Ebi?
http://minuswave.com/character/pairing/fiction/teru_bozu_ebi_doublehelix.htm
no subject
Date: 2011-08-29 11:51 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-01-26 11:35 pm (UTC)I really love their sex-dialogue. It's snarky and so full of fun, and I love how Ni's eccentricities are freaky to even Tenpou. Just brilliant.
Thanks so much for sharing, hun! I'll now go pretend I'm still 100% 10K. ♥
no subject
Date: 2010-01-27 10:29 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-01-26 11:46 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-01-27 10:43 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-01-27 11:26 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-01-27 01:31 am (UTC)Tenpou's methods are so scientific, if Ni knew about them he'd have to admire them anyway.
I just realized: I need to make room somehow for a Tenpou icon. Oh well. Have Ni.
no subject
Date: 2010-01-30 07:58 pm (UTC)Thanks so much! I struggled a little with this pairing. :)
no subject
Date: 2010-01-27 03:27 am (UTC)Favorite thought that stuck with me was Tenpou's thought that if Nii had his book, then for some reason he wasn't around to keep it.
no subject
Date: 2010-01-30 07:58 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-01-27 04:17 am (UTC)Thank you so much for sharing this amazing story--I love 102 even more now ...
no subject
Date: 2010-01-30 07:59 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-01-28 08:38 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-01-30 07:59 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-03-30 06:30 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-03-31 05:21 pm (UTC)