Saizou wanted to pace. Unfortunately Juubei was already taking up most of the room.

"How could he go back up there?" Juubei demanded of thin air, and possibly any gods who might be listening, and whirled to stalk back across the room. "What is Kazuki thinking?"

"He did win last time, you know," Toshiki pointed out from the couch where he was sitting with his feet tucked up. "He says Yohan isn’t focused on destruction anymore."

"And none of us know what he is focused on," Juubei growled. "On top of that, he’s still living in the middle of the Beltline! The whole thing is dangerous!"

Saizou scrubbed his hands over his face. He kind of wished he could have an attack of screaming nerves himself, not because he thought Kazuki couldn’t make short work of anything he encountered in the Beltline but because he did know Yohan. Unfortunately, his sense of duty, which he swore got him in more trouble than his sense of humor ever had, insisted that something had to be done about Juubei before he exploded. Or took off after Kazuki. Possibly both. "Juubei," he said, standing to catch Juubei’s arm as he paced past again, "that’s enough. You know perfectly well Kazuki can handle anything up there."

"Can he handle Yohan?" Juubei snapped, shaking free of his hand, and an answering snap ran through Saizou as Juubei put his finger right on Saizou’s own greatest fear.

He caught Juubei’s shoulders and swung him around until his back hit the wall, and held him there. "I said that’s enough." His voice was low and hard, driving down his own reservations along with Juubei’s. "Kazuki doesn’t want us trailing along up there, so we won’t. Nor will we make the kind of fuss that says we doubt his judgment and ability. Is that understood?"

Juubei was staring at him, eyes wide. "Saizou…"

"I said," Saizou said quietly, "is that understood?"

After a frozen moment, Juubei swallowed. "It is." His voice had turned husky, and Saizou noted with some interest that he was a bit flushed. Come to that, he supposed he hadn’t shown this face to any of them since the betrayals and heartbreak of the winter. He hadn’t thought it was called for, and half expected that it would remind the others of things they didn’t really want to think about.

He thought he had a pretty good idea why Juubei was responding to it now, though.

Well, they could both use some distraction…

He tightened his grip on Juubei’s shoulders, pinning him against the wall, and leaned in to kiss him.

---

Juubei didn’t know where this was coming from. The only thing he could say with any surety was that the levelness of Saizou’s voice, the unsmiling line of his mouth, the ruthlessness of the hands that had pinned him so abruptly, all shook him, reached down into him and turned him hot and breathless. The kiss took firm possession of his mouth, and he heard a low, wanting sound in his own throat.

"Yes," Saizou said quietly, drawing back. "I think that will do." He stepped back, releasing Juubei to lean against the wall, and crooked a finger. "Come with me." He led the way into the bedroom and Juubei took a breath and followed him.

Saizou stripped off his clothes, unhurried, and the easy confidence of every gesture fixed Juubei’s eyes on him—at least until Saizou turned, mouth quirking, and raised a brow at him. Juubei flushed, hands fumbling now and then as he undressed. Saizou paced back to him and closed a hand on the nape of his neck. "So?"

A shudder ran through Juubei at that sure grip, and his voice was unsteady when he answered, "Yes."

Saizou smiled faintly and nodded to the bed. "Lie down, then. Face down."

"What…?" Juubei found the breath to ask, and lost it again when Saizou’s hand tightened.

"Do as I say," he said, low and even. "You know I won’t harm you, Juubei."

Heat clenched his stomach at the stillness and calm of Saizou’s expression and Juubei went to lie down as he was told, head spinning. Saizou’s weight dipped the mattress as he settled beside Juubei, stretched out half over him. One lean arm snaked around Juubei’s chest, fingers spread over his heart, and Saizou reached up past Juubei to the bedside nook. Juubei buried his head in his arms as glass clicked and rattled, breath coming short. Long fingers pushed between his cheeks, slick and cool, massaging his entrance hard, and he moaned. Saizou was usually a slow, gentle lover, but his touch didn’t coax this time, it demanded; it required that his muscles relax and yield. It scorched his senses, being handled this way, and he didn’t even know why.

"Kazuki rules us gently," Saizou said in his ear, so conversational that it took Juubei a moment to make sense of the words. "He commands little, when he could command everything." A soft laugh huffed against Juubei’s neck. "Of course, we give him everything without that, our loyalty, our hearts, our lives. Our obedience." A shiver ran down Juubei’s back and he gasped as Saizou drove two fingers deep into him. "You, especially. You were raised to serve, Kakei Juubei, and Kazuki has always known he’s your master." It was three fingers, now, working in and out of his ass, stretching him hard, and Juubei moaned into the sheets. "It was a friend he needed most, though, for all of the time he’s known you, so he doesn’t think to command you; especially you." Saizou raked his teeth slowly over Juubei’s earlobe, fingers driving deeper, and Juubei was panting hard for breath now. "I’m not Kazuki; I’m not your lord. But I can promise you this. Here and now, your body and your mind will both answer to me."

His fingers thrust into Juubei’s ass hard, and twisted, and his other hand slid up to gently pinch Juubei’s nipple, and Juubei bucked helplessly between his hands as sensation and response pulled his nerves tight. "Yes!"

"Good." Saizou kissed the back of his neck gently. "Up on your knees."

Juubei was shaky as he pushed up onto his knees, and bent to rest his head against his forearms, panting. Saizou moved behind him, pushing his knees wider and wider until it was only Saizou’s hands wrapped around his hips that steadied him.

Those hands tightened and Saizou held Juubei still as his cock pushed in, hot and hard. Juubei gasped for breath against the sheets, dizzy as Saizou’s words echoed through his head, promising. Saizou’s hips flexed against Juubei’s ass, driving him in deeper. "Stop thinking. Just feel."

"Saizou…"

Saizou’s voice turned cool and level. "Juubei."

That tone tumbled Juubei back down into raw heat and he moaned openly, trembling under Saizou as Saizou fucked him hard and sure. The iron control of Saizou’s pace made him whine as pleasure coiled tighter and tighter, low in his stomach; he could barely move, spread out like this, hips caged in Saizou’s hands, only feel the slide and burn as Saizou’s cock worked in and out of his ass. He was shaking, lightheaded with panting for breath, when Saizou finally took one hand off his hip and reached down to wrap it around his cock.

"Nnn!" Juubei’s hands fisted on the sheets, hips jerking helplessly into the pleasure of that strong hand sliding over him.

"Let go," Saizou ordered, voice hard, and Juubei nearly screamed as heat flashed through him in response and wrung him out, wild and rough and ruthless, and he surrendered to it. Saizou’s pace finally broke and he drove into Juubei fast and hard, drawing the shudders of pleasure out and out until Juubei was panting hoarsely, whole body shaking. When Saizou finally let him down against the bed he could only groan faintly.

Saizou chuckled, breathless, and worked slow hands over Juubei’s ass and thighs, kneading them. "Better now?"

This, of all things, was what made Juubei’s face heat, the inarguable evidence that Saizou had done this to take care of him. "Yes," he said softly.

"Shh." Saizou settled over him, warm and solid, caging Juubei down again though more gently. "It’s my place to look after these things. Now go to sleep."

"But…"

Saizou’s voice was kinder this time, but just as authoritative as before. "Do as I say, Juubei."

Drifting already in the aftermath, Juubei finally decided what was going on; Saizou was his elder, and spoke as such. Of course he submitted, as was only proper. "Yes, Saizou," he murmured, eyes sliding closed.

---

Saizou smiled ruefully as Juubei drifted into sleep and rubbed his back gently. Juubei was probably going to be just a little sore after that. He’d been a little rougher than he’d planned to be, but it had been so good to find that release of tension in answering Juubei’s need. To forget his fears for Kazuki in making Juubei forget his. And he couldn’t help a satisfied grin at how thoroughly he’d made Juubei forget. He curled around Juubei, hand stroking up and down his body absently, and let himself doze too.

At least until he heard the front door open and close.

"Toshiki?" Kazuki’s voice drifted through the bedroom door as Saizou fished his pants off the floor and pulled them back on. "Where did Juubei and Saizou get to?"

"They decided to distract each other," Toshiki said dryly. "At length. Loudly too."

"Hey, at least it worked," Saizou protested, slipping out and closing the bedroom door behind him. A quick once-over showed Kazuki was smiling and at ease, and he tried to hide how much that made him relax. From the tilt of Kazuki’s smile he didn’t think he was wholly successful.

"For a second there, I thought it was going to work by the two of you getting into a fight, not bed," Toshiki snorted. "I still can’t believe you just ordered Juubei to calm down and he actually listened."

Kazuki’s brows went up. "Ordered him?"

"And then into bed," Toshiki added as Saizou cleared his throat and tried not to shuffle. "Which also worked. I was speechless, which may be why they apparently forgot I was still here."

Saizou could tell he was going to have to make that up to Toshiki some time soon.

"It worked?" Kazuki looked half disbelieving and half amused; and, under that, perhaps just a little disturbed.

Saizou shrugged, a bit self-consciously. "Juubei needed someone to do it, and you weren’t here." And he needed to defuse Kazuki’s worry. He came to Kazuki and sank gracefully to his knees, turning one of Kazuki’s hands over to kiss the palm. "Will you forgive my presumption, my Prince?" he murmured.

Kazuki laughed softly at this bit of flamboyance. "Well, since it seems to have calmed him down, I suppose so."

"My lord is gracious." Saizou grinned up at him.

And that was the secret, of course. Saizou let it be half a game, with Kazuki, so Kazuki didn’t worry about losing his friend inside his vassal. It was all a matter of balance.

Saizou tipped his head at the bedroom. "He’ll probably be even calmer if you’re the one who wakes him up."

"Probably," Kazuki agreed and leaned down to tip Saizou’s head up and drop a kiss on his forehead.

"That was fairly impressive," Toshiki admitted as Saizou came to drop into one of the armchairs. "What I saw of it."

Saizou laughed; so that was it. "I’ll remember to invite you next time, I promise."

Toshiki smiled. "Do that."

Saizou eeled around to sprawl comfortably over the chair. The underlying problem of Yohan and his unpredictableness hadn’t been dealt with, and he honestly couldn’t see how it might be, but at least he had another card in his hand for fixing the immediate problems.

He’d have to remember how Juubei responded to that tone of voice.

End