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Title:
Available Options
Author:
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 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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