House Cat [temporarily complete]

c.h.a.p.t.e.r f.o.u.r.t.e.e.n

Isiel\'s ears flattened against his hair as he listened to Eiji and he tried to keep the brunt of the sadness from his face. It was easy to blame himself for Eiji\'s words and he found himself nodding in agreement even though the prospect of Eiji leaving once more, maybe for years now made him feel genuinely upset and reduced his voice to a faltering whisper, \"I don\'t deny I was happy back then, but after Oriel....when you left again that....that was what harmed me the most. I tried to mature so I can accept my responsibilities, but I was always focused on hating you for going away when I needed you the most....\"

\"Do you understand the risk to all of you every time I\'m here?\" Eiji asked slowly. \"I was not running from you; I was trying to keep you safe and alive. Is that the stem of your hatred? The thought that I had been the first to reject you?\"

Eiji was the first to admit to himself that he was not good with handling others\' emotions. Oriel had learned to tell Eiji outright how he was feeling after a few years, upon realizing that trying to be subtle or simply being angry with Eiji without telling the man why only went ignored. The man had better things to have spent his life learning than how to interpret emotions in those he barely saw.

He sighed. Was this why Oriel had insisted Eiji spend so much time with the boy? Had he foreseen these problems? \"I apologize then,\" he said slowly. \"For causing you pain, I apologize. For leaving, I do not-- your safety comes before whatever relationship you and I have, and it comes before me.\"

For the first time since Eiji had shut the door Isiel raised his head and looked over at him through the wan light, shifting and letting the myriad of colors from the lights overhead ripple across his skin yet not choosing the shadows over facing Eiji as he would have done in the past, \"I understand....I don\'t want to endanger any of the others....but I keep thinking of things in terms of just us now....I guess it\'s clouding my judgment...\" He uttered, sighing softly.

\"Why do you think that way?\" Eiji asked, some interest in his voice. \"Your behavior is erratic and confusing to me. I do not understand you and I do not pretend to, either; I merely ask questions of you, whether spoken or otherwise, and the answers are always mixed or misinterpreted. This is why I have asked you what you want of me; the question still has not been answered. I do not know what you want me to be to you. You reject the idea of me being your Master, yet you also reject my affections. What am I supposed to be understanding from this strange behavior?\"

\"That you\'re dealing with someone who finds it difficult to accept anyone\'s affections even if they want to,\" the blonde replied quietly, smiling again to himself rather self-deprecatingly as he watched Eiji, encouraged by the interest within his tone, \"You saw what I lived like....that was just one day in many and it\'s hard for me to let it go even now.....it\'s the only thing that frightens me any more.\"

\"Come here,\" Eiji said suddenly, though his voice was still quiet. He held out his hand, though nothing else moved, and his gaze remained fixed on the boy.

Isiel got off the bed slowly, still nursing his aching body and approached Eiji without suspicion or hesitance. \".......\"

When the boy was close enough, Eiji took hold of Isiel\'s left hand, and brought it to his lips, kissing the ring finger\'s knuckle once, gently, before releasing the hand.

\"You are mine, first and foremost. Nothing will ever change that unless you decide to leave. You will never see the inside of a cage again as long as I live. At any moment in time you are free to declare your desire to leave, and I will give you up to half of what I have now. When I die, you will receive it all; therefore you shall never go wanting in your life again-- you can take comfort in that fact alone if not anything else. I do not see you as a son-- I see you as a potential partner, as an heir, and as the one that my beloved cherished so dearly in such a short time. For all those reasons or for even just one, I would lay my life down for yours. I would like you to know that you are neither rejected nor hated.\" He fell silent for a few moments, taking a slow breath in and out. \"Anything else that blossoms or withers within this relationship you and I are in is your decision as much as my own, and I do not wish to see you as a slave among the rest when that is never what you\'ve been. This is about as clearly as I can put things for you, Isiel; have I made you understand me yet? I\'m not a complicated man. I don\'t have the time or the strength to deal with the rest of my life, and stress from making things too complex in my home at the same time, and so I keep that from happening as much as possible.\"

Isiel remained silent for a long while after Eiji had finished speaking as he digested the words and made sure he honestly understood what Eiji was trying so patiently to communicate to him. It brought a faint, relieved smile to his lips and he nodded looking as if he were on the verge of actually being alright for the first time in a long time. Carefully he held out his hand to Eiji, needing some kind of contact, no matter how brief or small it was to truly reassure him as well as answer Eiji\'s questions more effectively than any stumbling awkward words could.

Seeing the hand held out to him, Eiji lifted his own calmly, accepting the smaller fingers against his flat palm and feeling Isiel’s fingertips slide up, between slender digits, then slip together until their palms were flat against each other as one. Eiji allowed Isiel to lace their fingers and have his hand to do with as he pleased. He looked up at the boy with his ever-serious face, though if one looked carefully, they might have seen the slight hint of relief in Eiji\'s gaze as crystal blue eyes watched the boy before him, unblinking and unfaltering.

Isiel actually appreciated how much of a concession this was from Eiji and smiled warmly, feeling an uncommon surge of fondness for the man who\'d saved him and whom he now felt he might understand a little better. Carefully he settled on the floor beside Eiji\'s chair, wincing just a little as his hip complained yet feeling something akin to contentment which lessened the pain enough to stop him from making a sound.

\"Don\'t do that,\" Eiji said immediately, with a light squeeze to the boy\'s hand in his own. \"I told you you\'re not of the same status as a slave. Don\'t pick up on Kiba\'s habits like that one-- when I instate you as a Master of this household, you cannot be in the habit of sitting beneath me or anybody else.\"

He pulled gently on the arm attached to the hand he was still holding, until Isiel was standing once more. Holding out his other hand, Eiji guided Isiel to turn around, then drew him back so that he was sitting on Eiji\'s lap. Releasing the hand for just a moment, he guided Isiel to lean back, so that the boy was resting against Eiji the same way Eiji was resting in his chair, with Isiel\'s head on Eiji\'s shoulder just beneath his chin.

\"If there is only one seat to be had and I\'m in it, I\'d rather you did this than sit beneath me,\" he said quietly.

Isiel sat awkwardly for a few minutes, adjusting slowly to the feel of Eiji close in something other than a combat situation, but eventually his body relaxed, not to the point of looking like a lazy kitten, but in an unspoken sign that he was comfortable, \".....I didn\'t want to squash you...\" He murmured softly with the gentlest hint of humor in his voice.

\"To tell you the truth,\" Eiji said in his flat monotone, zero amusement in his voice at all, \"I was worried for a while there that you\'d crush me under your massive weight; you must weigh an entire three pounds more than you did when I last saw you. I don\'t know if I\'ll be able to get up after you get off me; I think you broke my hip.\"

Delivered in such a deadpan style Isiel couldn\'t help but try to suppress a little giggle at Eiji\'s reply and pouted even without meaning to - luckily Eiji probably couldn\'t see his expression from their position, \"I think we\'re even now then....feels like I\'m going to need crutches.\" He uttered, still smiling to himself.

What little humor Eiji attempted was gone, and the idea that Isiel might be exaggerating didn\'t occur to him. His hand lifted immediately, moving to the places he knew he\'d hit on Isiel; he\'d been watching the entire time. His large, warm palm and fingers cupped the boy\'s shoulder, then slid down along his ribs gently, and came to rest on his hips, smoothing over the skin gently. \"Here,\" he said calmly. \"And your shoulder, and your ribs and spine. I made sure to watch each time I threw you. You won\'t need crutches or even bandages; they\'re minor and at most they\'ll bruise.\"

Isiel felt color and heat rushing to his cheeks and was suddenly grateful for the lack of illumination, yet he didn\'t tense up even for a moment as Eiji\'s hands ran over his skin with none of the roughness he\'d displayed before and after a moment or two he tilted his head so that he could look up at Eiji and smile faintly, \"I was joking....it doesn\'t hurt that much. I....I know you wouldn\'t injure me.\"

\"Oh but I would,\" Eiji said in the same tone as always. \"You still have some training to do with Kiba, but the next step is to become my apprentice, and that means we\'ll be sparring seriously as you saw Kiba and I doing. Both of us are bound to be injured then, and at the beginning it will be mostly you. But when we\'re through, I won\'t have to worry about you being safe any longer; I\'ll know that no matter where you are you can defend and take care of yourself or others if necessary.\"



Outside, Kiba groaned and nearly fell out of his tree. \"One is a child, and the other has no idea what the words \'funny\' or \'romantic\' mean,\" he moaned, holding his face in his hands.


Isiel\'s smile faltered, but it was mostly out of surprise and within seconds he refreshed it and settled once more, resting his head upon Eiji\'s shoulder and closing his eyes as he pondered what training like that would be like....and whether it might end the same way as the rough instance he witnessed firsthand - a thought which made him shift upon Eiji\'s lap a tad uncomfortably, \"I\'ll do whatever it takes.\" He whispered, a mixture of embarrassment and determination mingling in his words.

\"Nnn,\" Eiji muttered in shock, clenching his jaw as Isiel moved on his lap and pressed his rear firmly against the man\'s groin several times. He realized he was holding Isiel\'s sore hip a little too tightly and that he\'d instinctively drawn the pressure back to his groin, and released it all together, clearing his throat as apology. \"Careful,\" he said in a tone that was more gruff than intended, his tone having thickened and lowered immediately upon stimulation. Eiji\'s \'Careful\' was a request, a warning, and an ultimatum all in one.


Isiel\'s ears flattened down without him realizing and he settled down once more, making sure to put most of his weight upon Eiji\'s thighs as he settled once more and remained completely still, gazing up at him apologetically from his new, comfier position, \"...I can get off....this can\'t be too comfortable for you.\" He offered, smiling weakly.

He wasn\'t about to say he missed being able to do this. What Eiji did say was, \"No, I would like it if you stayed; you\'re soft and warm. Just mind my dick; it doesn\'t have a set of morals as I do, and I have to do the apologizing for anything it does.\"

Isiel\'s smile regained its warmth almost instantly, but he managed not to laugh, knowing that Eiji had probably expended most of his intentional humor for the day. With a soft, genuinely grateful thank you he closed his eyes, seeming to drift into a light doze as he tried not to bother Eiji and yet still offer him the closeness he hadn\'t yet rejected.

He felt the boy\'s warmth and-- finally-- the total relaxation on Eiji\'s lap as Isiel drifted off. Eiji himself was worn out; it had been a long, tiring flight back to the city, and he\'d traveled through a gang war, a murder scene and a robbery to get here, having a hand in each of the incidents, though not always as the antagonist. After an hour of the boy sleeping atop him, Eiji\'s eyes drifted shut as well, and he allowed himself to submit to sleep.

As he dreamt of things he would never speak about, his hands crept back onto the warm, gentle body atop his and wrapped around it protectively as he leaned his head down towards the soft ear near his mouth and pressed his cheek against it, unconsciously soothed body and spirit to be holding what his unknowing body believed to be his beloved again.

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e.n.d c.h.a.p.t.e.r f.o.u.r.t.e.e.n