Work Text:
Kissing Eiji was the best. Ash could do it forever. It already felt like he had been; there was no telling how much time had passed that the two of them laid lazily on the couch, clinging to each other. Eiji felt so light and small on top of him, a gentle weight, a familiar warmth. Ash had his hands in Eiji’s dark hair, wanting to pull but holding back. Instead, he just ran his fingers through it and savored its softness.
Eiji’s small body moved against him, opening his mouth wider to let Ash’s tongue in, melting and sinking into Ash’s chest. Ash knew there was the ghost of an athlete’s body somewhere in there. He had no doubt that in his peak condition, Eiji really could take him in a fight. But for now there was just that quiet strength, small muscles moving in the way they remembered.
Ash moved his hand down Eiji’s back slowly and pushed his fingers up under Eiji’s shirt.
Eiji cried out, startled, and pulled away from Ash’s mouth.
“What’s the matter?” Ash asked with a cheeky grin. He could feel Eiji’s back muscles straining, the perfectly formed curve of his spine.
“Nothing, you just surprised me, that’s all,” Eiji replied. His cheeks were flushed the most beautiful shade of red. Ash moved his hand from Eiji’s hair to his cheek, rubbing his earlobe as softly as he could. Eiji shivered, and the tremor rippled through them both.
Ash traced Eiji’s back with his fingers, long, slow strokes, and tried to make a picture of his body in his mind. He’d never gotten a chance to just look at Eiji’s body before. Never just sat and stared, taking in every curve and nuance until the image was forever formed in his mind.
“You’re cute, do you know that?” Ash said quietly, heat building his face. It was still strange to admit out loud, how he really felt about Eiji. And so very dangerous.
“I’m not ‘cute’,” Eiji huffed, narrowing his eyes in that way he did when he was offended. Ash laughed. That expression certainly didn’t help his case.
“What would you rather me call you, then?”
That flustered him even more, the blush spreading up to his ears and down to his chin. “I don’t know,” he murmured softly.
Ash hooked one finger in the collar of Eiji’s sweater and pulled it away to reveal the flushed skin of his neck. He looked so soft, Ash could almost taste it just by looking. He leaned in and pressed an open-mouthed kiss to the crook of Eiji’s neck and shoulder, and was rewarded with a low gasp.
Ash sucked and kissed as hard as he ever had, in love with the idea of leaving three or four marks on Eiji’s perfect skin when this was done. Eiji was holding onto him, fingernails digging into Ash’s shoulders, back muscles flexing and pulling, and a very conspicuous hardness began to press up against Ash’s leg. The noises he made were magnificent: a series of throaty groans and whimpers that made Ash dizzy.
I love him. I love this boy, Ash thought to himself. If the thought stayed there, safe and silent in his head, then nobody else would ever hurt Eiji. It could just be this between the two of them forever.
Eiji bucked, almost involuntarily, against him and Ash began to laugh. “I guess we found out what you like, didn’t we?” he teased. Eiji only replied with an embarrassed groan.
Ash turned his head to look at his handiwork, and his heart soared to see three little bruises beginning to form on Eiji’s skin. Just as he was truly beginning to admire them, Eiji clapped his hand over his neck and asked, “Oh Ash, what did you do?”
“What?” Ash asked innocently. “I’m just kissing…” my boyfriend, he wanted so desperately to say, “…kissing you, Eiji.”
“The guys are gonna tease me so bad about this when they see,” Eiji pouted. He shuffled down Ash’s body far enough to lay his head on Ash’s chest. His pouting face was barely an inch away.
“They won’t say a damn thing because it’s none of their business.” Ash pulled the sweater back up over Eiji’s shoulder and rubbed it once, twice, before tucking his hand behind his head.
Eiji’s eyes followed the motion of Ash’s arm. “Your shirt is ripped,” he observed.
“Is it?” Ash shrugged. “Whatever. I’ve got more.”
“I could fix it for you if you want.”
Ash snorted. “There’s no need. I think this was three dollars at a Wal-Mart.”
“Whatever it cost, you should take better care of your things.” Eiji reached up and smoothed down a wrinkle across Ash’s chest. He flashed him a grin. “Besides, you can afford really nice things now, can’t you?”
“Yeah,” Ash sighed, wrapping his arms around Eiji and lacing his fingers together at the small of Eiji’s back. It took all his self-control not to let his hands wander further. “I could buy anything I wanted.”
“Really? You’ve never bought me anything,” Eiji said with a fake pout. Or was it a real pout? Sometimes it was impossible to tell.
“Ah, it’s like that now, is it? You get a whiff of that cash and all of a sudden it’s, ‘oh, Ash, buy me this, buy me that!’”
“And why not? You don’t know how to share?”
Ash threw back his head and laughed. “You’re just as bad as these New York girls, you know that?”
Eiji responding by pressing the flat of his palm against Ash’s face. Ash kissed it, quick and soft, and thought about all the things he wanted to buy for Eiji, and how none of them would really keep him safe.
“I don’t know why any girl would fall for you,” Eiji said, even as he sank deeper into Ash’s embrace. “All you do is tease, and you never take me anywhere.”
Ash raised a bemused eyebrow. “Take you where? Where do you want to go?”
Eiji averted his eyes, a pinkness spreading across the bridge of his nose. “I don’t know,” he murmured, all the mirth gone from his voice. “It doesn’t really matter, does it? Since I can’t leave in the first place….”
Guilt, not for the first time, snaked its way around Ash’s heart. He didn’t regret confining Eiji here, and he thought that Eiji understood too. There was no other way to keep him safe. Of course Ash wanted to take him places. Of course he wanted to show Eiji all his favorite places in the city, of course he wanted….
A date. Ash’s heartbeat kicked up so fast he was sure Eiji sensed it. He turned the word over in his mind. Something so simple, so normal, and so impossible.
Distantly, the front door of the apartment opened. Ash pressed a kiss to Eiji’s forehead and held his gaze.
“I gotta go,” he said softly. Eiji only nodded, and they got up.
Ash was especially late coming home tonight. Eiji stayed up, willing his eyes to stay open as they drifted over the same page in the book for the fourth time. Ash had been moody like usual these past two days, but there was something else going on. Eiji didn’t want to ask. He didn’t trust himself to not accidentally make Ash angry.
He awoke suddenly; when had he fallen asleep? Eiji blinked, moved the book from where it had fallen on his chest, and looked to the bedroom door. There in the dim light, looking like the guiltiest child alive, stood Ash, a small bouquet of flowers in his hand.
“Ah…shit,” Ash hissed, hastily shoving the flowers behind his back. “Go back to sleep, Eiji.”
“What are you doing?” Eiji asked as he rubbed his eyes.
“Nothing, nothing, I just…fuck.” Ash glanced away, the blush on his pale face visible even in the dark. “I fucked this up already.”
Eiji’s mind slowly cleared as he woke up further. “What do you mean?”
Ash chewed his bottom lip, eyes darting around the room. He began to tap the floor with one nervous foot, then finally pulled the flowers back out. “Okay, I…I didn’t really expect you to be up so just….”
He crossed the space to Eiji’s bed swiftly and sat down on the edge of the mattress. Ash held the bouquet in front of him, hesitating as he stared down into the fragrant blossoms. Their scent filled the space between them, a delicate aroma of lilies and roses. It was a small arrangement, understated and elegant. Eiji realized, as the final dregs of sleep left him, that the flowers were for him.
“I’ve been thinking about what you said,” Ash blurted out, his voice only harsh because of his nervousness. “And…okay, well, first of all, I want to ask you something.”
Eiji nodded slowly, his head swimming. “Sure.”
Ash took a deep breath and clutched the flowers with a too-tight fist. “Do you wanna go out with me?”
It took everything in Eiji not to burst out laughing. From joy, from relief, from the intense look on Ash’s beet-red face as he stared Eiji down like this was life or death.
In the end, Eiji couldn’t resist letting a grin break free. “You’re practically a genius and you have to ask me that?” he replied. “You know I’m going to say yes.”
Ash’s eyes widened, lighting up with a brightness that reflected his true age. Not a gang leader, not a broken victim, but just a teenager. A nervous boy talking to his crush. It only made Eiji love him more.
“Really?” Ash said. “W-well…well, these are for you.” He handed the flowers over ungracefully, the roses’ thorns poking Eiji in the chest as he thrust them towards him.
Eiji grinned wide. “Thanks. I didn’t realize you were the type to do flowers.”
“I’m not, not usually, but…I wanted to…give you something.” Ash stared down at the blankets, a smile dancing on the edge of his lips. A moment passed before he spoke again.
“So…” Ash said, his voice wavering a bit, “you know I can’t really take you anywhere, but…there’s this pretty nice Italian place about two blocks from here. I bought out the whole place for tomorrow night. I’m gonna have the guys on look-out until we’re done.” He paused. “I know it’s not the most romantic, but…thought it was a good place to start.”
He looked up, searching Eiji’s expression nervously.
Eiji’s heart was swelling, so full of joy that it hurt. It spread into his whole body, into his smile, until he was laughing with ecstasy. A date with Ash. A real date. Something that might feel normal, that was as close to it as they might ever get.
It was probably dangerous, and almost certainly ill-advised. But just for a few hours, it would be fine, wouldn’t it? Neither of them were asking for much.
“All right,” Eiji said, nodding. He felt the pinpricks of happy tears and forced them back. “It’s a date.”
Ash’s smile was like a burst of sunlight. “Great,” he said, exhaling the word like a tightly held breath. “Uh…I should…let me put these in some water for you….”
He took the flowers and got to his feet, breathing out again and grinning wide.
“One thing, Ash,” Eiji called as Ash went for the door.
“Yeah?”
“You’d better not wear any ripped three-dollar T-shirts from Wal-Mart on our date.”
Ash rolled his eyes, but the smile remained. “Whatever you say, honey.”