Hyuuga peeked into his commander’s quarters and sighed. According to reports, Aya-san had been standing at the picture window in his rooms for a very long time, looking out on the city as dark fell and all the lights that lived on conquered zaiphon twinkled on. That was usually a bad sign. Sometimes, when Aya-san brooded for too long, he lost himself a little, and when he lost himself to Verloren’s memories of pain or anger it wasn’t good for anyone. Not unless there was something on hand he could kill to regain his equanimity.

When there wasn’t, well, that’s when getting him back out became Hyuuga’s job.

Hyuuga waved to Katsuragi, waiting down the hall, and slipped in, closing Ayanami’s door behind him. Katsuragi would keep everyone clear until he was done. He came up behind Ayanami on quiet feet and slid his arms around his waist. The straightness of Ayanami’s spine went a little stiffer.

“Hyuuga,” Ayanami said, cold and low. It was the voice of death, sharp as the edge that could cut a soul, and if Hyuuga hadn’t already guessed he’d have known right then who he had his arms around.

He bent his head under the dark weight of that voice and murmured against Ayanami’s shoulder, “You are my Lord. I was born to serve your will, like every other one of the Fallen families that come from your blood.” Ayanami’s stiffness settled a little with what Hyuuga suspected was satisfaction, and he went on, soft and coaxing. “But you’re also my commander, who leads and cherishes us. And my oldest friend, who I love.” Very low, he finished, “Let me take care of you tonight?”

As he spoke he could feel Ayanami relax, slowly, until the body in his arms leaned back against him with a human sigh. “Hyuuga,” his friend’s voice said, quiet and level but warm again.

“Thank you.” Hyuuga smiled against Aya-san’s ear. “Come to bed, Aya-san? You’ve been standing here a long time.”

“I suppose I have.” Ayanami stirred and straightened, and if Hyuuga kept a sharp eye on him and a hand on his shoulder until he was sure his friend wouldn’t fall after so long ignoring his mortal body, Aya-san pretended he didn’t notice.

He did snort a little bit when they got to the bedroom and Hyuuga brushed his fingers aside and undid Ayanami’s sword belt himself.

“Let me, Aya-san,” Hyuuga said softly, eyes on the buckles. He wanted to keep Ayanami focused on the here-and-now-and-human tonight, until whatever he’d been brooding about receded a little and he was in a better temper.

He hung the sword and belts over Ayanami’s weapons rack and delicately undid the hidden clasps of Ayanami’s uniform coat. Aya-san’s lips were ever so faintly curving up, which was a good sign. Hyuuga shook out the coat and hung it carefully while Ayanami sat down on the edge of his bed. He knelt swiftly at Aya-san’s feet, glancing up at him admonishingly over the edge of his glasses, as he loosened the buckles of Ayanami’s boots. Aya-san let Hyuuga tug them off and sat patiently while he put them in the closet and came back to unbutton Aya-san’s shirt.

“You’re starting to look overdressed,” Ayanami finally murmured, and Hyuuga laughed.

“Am I? I’d better take care of that, then.” He laid his sheathed swords across Ayanami’s table and folded his coat over the back of a chair. Boots, shirt, and pants followed quickly, and Aya-san was definitely looking amused when Hyuuga came back to kneel by the bed in nothing but his shorts and socks.

“Less so now,” he allowed, and let Hyuuga undo his pants, tugging them off, and the shorts with them, with brisk, gentle hands.

“Lie down,” Hyuuga directed. Ayanami’s brow rose, eyes turning hard again, and Hyuuga gave him a wry smile, still on his knees. “You command me, Aya-san. In every way. You know that. But let me be your old friend for tonight?”

After a long moment, Ayanami nodded and stretched out on his stomach, head pillowed on his crossed arms. Hyuuga slipped up onto the bed and knelt beside him. He spread a hand against Aya-san’s back, leaning just a little weight on it until he finally felt Aya-san breathe out and relax a hair.

That was enough to start with.

He slid his hand up into Aya-san’s unruly, silver hair to knead his fingertips over where the band of the uniform hat fell. He worked his fingers lightly over Aya-san’s wrists where the cuff of the gloves bound sometimes. He ran his hands slowly down Aya-san’s body to knead his calves where the boots buckled tight and his feet where the hard boot heels made cramps. All the little places where the uniform chafed or pulled, he soothed and he didn’t even try to work on Aya-san’s shoulders until he’d had a while to calm under the slow touches.

Finally, though, Aya-san’s arms unfolded and he settled a little more easily against the bed, and Hyuuga smiled. Now he could lean over Aya-san and put some force into it as he kneaded his friend’s shoulders and back. Tonight Aya-san was even at ease enough to let his breath hitch and gasp as Hyuuga worked his muscles loose.

“There,” Hyuuga murmured, when the muscle and skin under his hands was warm and flushed and flexible again. He leaned down and brushed a soft kiss over the back of his neck. “Ready to sleep?”

“Mmm.”

Hyuuga very carefully did not chuckle at the drowsy sound. He’d save up this triumph to tease Aya-san with the next time he wanted to match his speed against Aya-san’s whip. He just raised the covers and held them for Aya-san to slide under before tugging off his shorts and socks and joining him.

It wasn’t all that often that Aya-san let him do this, and Hyuuga hoarded the memories of nights that Aya-san let Hyuuga hold him, nights he consented to rest his head on Hyuuga’s shoulder and drift off while his oldest friend watched over him.

Hyuuga carded his fingers slowly through Aya-san’s hair and smiled into the dark.

Hyuuga woke with most of the covers kicked off and no Aya-san anywhere near. That wasn’t unusual for these mornings, and he just stretched and yawned, rubbing sleep out of his eyes as he glanced around for his commander. He half expected to see Ayanami already in his uniform and finishing breakfast, but instead he was standing in the sun from the windows in only a robe.

“Morning, Aya-tan.” Hyuuga leaned up on an elbow, lazily. “Taking it easy today?” Maybe he could even tempt Aya-san back into bed for a little…

The thought cut off abruptly as Ayanami turned and Hyuuga saw his eyes, brilliant and distant and sharp as knives over a curl of lips even sharper. Ayanami had clearly gotten over his brooding, Hyuuga thought with incongruous calm, which didn’t mean he would be any less volatile as long as he stayed like this. Merely less inclined to outright bodily harm.

“So,” Ayanami murmured, chill and velvety. “You say you serve me?”

Hyuuga swallowed against the scald of adrenaline through his veins, seeing that edge in Ayanami’s smile, hearing it in his voice. Both focused on him, and his cock was hardening in response. “Yes, Lord,” he answered, husky.

Ayanami’s eyes raked up and down his body, and a curl of amusement threaded through their sharpness. “Hmm.” He reached out a hand and beckoned, and Hyuuga came up off the bed in one swift movement to stand before Ayanami.

It was crazy to stay in the same room with this man, with the memory awake behind Ayanami’s eyes right now, turning them inhuman. Nothing Hyuuga had ever met on any battlefield would ever be as dangerous as that soul’s attention, as what Ayanami could do to him with a gesture. With a thought.

Hyuuga’s breath came short and fast as he thought about that, and he was so hard he was getting light-headed.

The curl to Ayanami’s lips was definitely amused, and he wrapped his hand around the nape of Hyuuga’s neck with casual, inhuman strength. “Not as much to say for yourself as usual, this morning,” he observed.

Thrill sang through Hyuuga and he grinned, teeth bared as he stepped up to dance with death. “Well, if you want your own personal jester, of course I’ll be happy to oblige. Aya-tan.”

Ayanami laughed once, low in his throat, and his hand pressed down, bearing Hyuuga down to his knees with terrifying ease. “Not today.” He slid his hand up the line of Hyuuga’s jaw and brushed a thumb over his lips.

“Yes, Lord,” Hyuuga agreed, husky, eyes lifted to Ayanami’s. Ayanami held them as he pulled loose the tie of his robe and stepped closer. Hyuuga didn’t look away as he opened his mouth for Ayanami’s cock, wrapping his lips around the thickness of it. This was familiar, and so was the possessiveness of Ayanami’s fingers threading through his hair. But the casual force that drove Ayanami’s cock deep into his mouth was something he had only tasted a few times. When Ayanami was like this, when the age of his soul walked abroad laughing, he used Hyuuga as off-handedly as if it was his right to do so.

It was, of course.

Hyuuga slid his hands up to close tight on Ayanami’s hips, not trying to move him at all but still a bit of presumption, a teasing challenge to Ayanami’s authority. He moaned low in his throat as Ayanami’s fingers tightened, holding him perfectly still while Ayanami fucked his mouth hard and thorough. There was no other thrill, no other danger, quite like this. Hyuuga savored the edge of it as he worked his tongue over Ayanami, never looking away from the cold, brilliant eyes that looked down at him with distant amusement.

It was the eyes that finished him in the end, he thought. The way Ayanami watched his body pull taut, his breath come fast and short, with nothing but that sharp amusement. The way Ayanami held his eyes and didn’t let him look away while his cock filled Hyuuga’s mouth. Even when the raw heat of being pinned under that gaze finally raked through Hyuuga, sending his hips bucking helplessly against air as pleasure wrung him out, Ayanami didn’t let him look away, and his moans were chopped short by the deep, hard thrust of Ayanami’s cock into his throat.

When hot, salty flatness spilled across the back of Hyuuga’s tongue, it wrung one last shudder of pleasure out of him.

Ayanami finally pulled away, fingers loosening and sliding through Hyuuga’s hair. “That will do,” he murmured.

“Yes, Lord,” Hyuuga panted, voice husky, but still teasingly smug. He shivered as Ayanami drew his head all the way back and leaned down to kiss him, sharp and possessive. He didn’t move from his knees as Ayanami turned and walked through his rooms to the bath, just slumped back to catch his breath.

And grinned.

He knew even the other Black Hawks thought he was a little crazy, but that was okay. It meant he got mornings like this all to himself.

And there was nothing like it.

End