The Black Hawks weren’t really suited to training in enclosed areas, at least not if those areas were supposed to stay enclosed. So as often as Ayanami could wring permission out of the government, they stopped in at the small floating island, F34, just outside and a long way above the capitol.

It was not, Hyuuga thought, much of an island. It only had a name because the military used it for weapons testing.

And for Warsfeil to train, which was kind of the same thing.

Today, he’d sent Konatsu off to stalk Katsuragi through the wind-twisted stone of the island’s west side, practicing how to track an opponent who could hide his presence. It was something his Begleiter needed to work on and Hyuuga was looking forward to seeing how he would solve this problem without power of his own. Besides, Ayanami had agreed to a work out with Hyuuga himself, and that always required some extra space. It wasn’t that Ayanami was profligate with his zaiphon; far from it, actually, he was as precise with those attacks as Hyuuga was with his swords. But if Hyuuga didn’t have room to move, Aya-san would pin him down in short order and that wasn’t much use for training.

Or much fun, either.

Hyuuga laughed as he twisted aside from Ayanami’s attack, caught his sword on Hyuuga’s wakizashi and spun to strike for Ayanami’s back with his long blade. A single line of zaiphon threw him back and Hyuuga showed his teeth, landing light on his toes and driving his own zaiphon out through his katana to carve apart the rock where Ayanami stood. Ayanami didn’t move; his zaiphon spiraled around him, tight and perfect, and Hyuuga’s broke against it.

After two more exchanges whose simplicity drew Hyuuga’s nerves tighter, Ayanami finally flicked his sword out level, one hand against the flat of the blade. Hyuuga had known it was coming, and he crossed his swords before him to catch it, hot lines of zaiphon scribing down the blades as he sprang back to put some distance between himself and Ayanami’s focused attack.

That did about as much good as ever.

Ayanami’s zaiphon cracked his like a chisel hammered into steel, and the burning force of it wrote itself across his body. Hyuuga hit the ground hard and rolled up to his feet, breath heaving in his chest as his cock hardened. When a strike like that connected he could taste Ayanami’s power on his tongue, and he had to work to keep his focus. It was good practice; no one else he’d encountered had been able break his focus for years, now.

Though it might, on reflection, have been a mistake to admit that to Aya-san.

The quirk of Ayanami’s mouth made Hyuuga brace himself warily. Ayanami started casting line after line of zaiphon against his defense, bursting against the zaiphon wrapped around Hyuuga’s swords until it was nearly a scent in the air. Hyuuga lunged into it, fighting to close with Ayanami, to get back into range where his swords would have the advantage, but now Ayanami was moving too, keeping out of weapon’s reach while his zaiphon bound Hyuuga’s.

And eventually started breaking through.

Hyuuga gasped as Ayanami’s power bit into him, burned into his skin, brutal and sharp, so precise he could almost read the words that formed it. No… he could read them.

…my hunters….

…my chosen…

Hyuuga’s head whipped up and he stared across the field of stone between them. Ayanami smiled, a slow curl of lips, and lifted his hand again, zaiphon twined around it in threat and promise. Another line, another, and Hyuuga could feel his defense faltering, fatally undermined by his hunger for Ayanami’s power and the temptation Aya-san had put in his path today. Another line that traced my sword against his ribs, and Hyuuga knew he was defeated. He stood square in the path of Ayanami’s zaiphon and let his swords fall and took it.

It burned like fire, with the icy slash of a sword cut, and Hyuuga’s body jerked under the force of it. He could taste blood. But now he could read the words clearly.

…soul that belongs to me…

…my sword to draw and use…

Line after line struck him and left Hyuuga gasping desperately for breath. He didn’t know if his eyes were closed or if he was blinded by the darkness of Ayanami’s zaiphon. All he knew was the bite of that power into his body and the wild intensity of pain and pleasure and need that it etched into him.

…who surrenders all that he is to me…

…your master…

It was the cutting caress of that last line across his skin that finished Hyuuga, and he screamed as heat raked through him like claws, on and on and on, until it left him collapsed on the ground barely able to breathe. He couldn’t even lift his head as Ayanami’s footsteps approached, until Aya-san’s fingers wrapped around his chin and drew his head up.

Ayanami was smiling. “You’re so demanding, Hyuuga,” he murmured.

Hyuuga managed a shaky grin. “But Aya-tan, you like me that way.”

“Mm.” Ayanami’s thumb stroked over his mouth. “I suppose I do.”

Hyuuga’s lips parted under the touch, and he closed his eyes as Ayanami leaned in, surrendering without question to the slow kiss. He wasn’t sure he knew how to do anything else, when Aya-san was involved. He did know he didn’t want to.

Ayanami’s zaiphon had spoken the truth.

End