Business as Usual, XX
by Laura Bryannan

Thankfully, there were no injuries. The rock wrapped in gasoline-soaked rags hit the unadorned cement floor where it could not start a fire and the flying shards of glass hurt no one. But it was the third broken window this year and Jin cringed, for they were expensive to replace and their insurance rates were going to skyrocket.

The twins lept into action, Tatsu phoning the police and Kazu organizing a clean-up crew. Jin was starting to wonder where Yuki was when he suddenly appeared at his side. “I'll start shooing folks out of here,” he announced, and proceeded to do so.

As he filled out the forms and answered the precinct detective's questions, Jin was comforted that Mugen was still hanging around, first talking on his cell and then to Okuru-san. He looked so nervous in the older man's presence, Jin couldn't help smiling even in these trying circumstances. Finally everything was completed and only a small handful of people remained in the loft.

“Do things like this happen often?” Okuru-san asked, as he and Master Niwa joined them.

“Often enough that Detective Matsuda and I are very good friends,” Jin told him, and the officer chuckled. “The local gangs don't like us stealing their grunts.”

“Or their potential customers,” Sensei chimed in.

“I like what you're doing here, Takeda-san” Okuru-san enthused. “I'll be happy to fund a scholarship.”

“Thank you, sir,” Jin replied, bowing formally.

“Is there anything I can do, my boy?” Sensei asked.

“No, honestly,” Jin assured him, praying they would leave. “I'm sorry for all the drama, but we're used to it. Tatsu, Kazu, come take your papa home.”

The twins stepped up, Kazu tossing the car keys into the air and twirling twice before catching them behind his back. “Yeah, c'mon dad. Let's book. I'm drivin'.”

“No way! I'm drivin',” Tasu insisted, shoving his shoulder.

Their father rolled his eyes. “I will drive,” he decided. “Can we drop you somewhere, Okuru-san?”

“No, thank you, my car is outside.”

Sensei and Okuru-san made their farewells and finally...finally...Mugen approached him. Jin couldn't believe that he had remained calm throughout the entire catastrophe but now his heart beat faster with every step Mugen took.

“Pretty crazy shit,” he observed, his cologne making Jin's knees weak. “You need to get outta here.”

“Yes, we're finished,” Jin agreed. “I'm heading home. Thank you for coming, Mugen, I hope you weren't too horribly bored.”

“Uh...no.” He cast a quick glance at Yuki, then rallied. “Hey, wait! You can't go home, you're coming with me.” Jin resisted. Emphatically. Considering the unpleasant surprises of this evening's event, he was done with humanity for the night. Mugen persisted, cajoling, attempting to persuade his reluctant lover, but all his arguments proved unsuccessful...until he was hit with a bolt of inspiration. “I'll rub your feet,” he sing-songed in a seductive voice.

Jin shuddered. He was weary of battling and the offer was impossible to refuse. “All right, Mugen, I'll come with you.”

“Good!” Mugen strode toward the door and Jin turned to his VP. Feeling guilty but unwilling to extend an invitation, Jin ignored Yuki's hurt expression when he said goodnight and followed his lover to the waiting limo.

Mugen was blessedly quiet during the ride uptown, allowing him his thoughts. They stopped once in front of a restaurant where he jumped out and returned a few minutes later with dinner. Jin was soon at the kitchen table eating, unaware how famished he was until he tucked in. Mugen joined him, setting down two small glasses. Jin knew that the Scottish whiskey Mugen was pouring cost three times as much as the Glenlivet he bought himself, and it tasted wonderfully mysterious—heather and smoky peat from faraway lands he longed to visit but knew he never would.

“I bought this for you, but it's really good,” Mugen told him. “I can see why you drink the stuff.”

Jin smiled, enjoying the langour and warmth it generated. “I don't drink anything this expensive, so it's quite a treat. Thank you.”

They finished their meal in silence and then Mugen stood up. “C'mon, I promised you a foot rub.” Jin eagerly followed him into the bedroom where he stripped down to his skivvies and jumped into bed. Mugen did the same and made good on his promise, sticking a towel under his feet and using something slidey that made it feel sooo good. “It's just olive oil,” he was informed. “Don't have nothing fancy.”

Mugen was being firm but gentle, so Jin stopped bracing himself for ouches and relaxed, sinking back into the pillow at the head of the bed. It went on so sweet and so long, he was able to turn off his mind and let all the glorious sensations in. Eyes closed, awareness focused inward, his body moved and emoted purely by instinct, cooing, purring, moaning, writhing, causing his lover to make lusty plans.

Jin was dreaming, floating on euphoric clouds, so when his shorts were pulled off and his knees pushed back, he did not protest. The heated mouth laved and gnawed on his right cheek to make introductions, then swirled between, causing him to cry out with the pleasure of it. The low rumble of Mugen's chuckle created earthquakes in his foundation, and he hugged himself to still his body's embarrassing shudders. The reality that his ardent playmate would continue until he was literally trembling and moaning with need, begging for release, was both rapturous and terrifying to contemplate.

Mugen was not a goal-directed lover and Jin found that amazing. He had never known anyone so generous, so sensual, so obviously interested in lovemaking for lovemaking's sake. Yuki had always been reasonably giving in bed, although it was the nature of their relationship that Jin never let down his guard completely or allowed him equal status. Yuki was, and always would be, little brother. As it turned out, none of the other lovers in Jin's past had been particularly sensual or giving, either. Their focus had been on the pleasures they received at his hand, not the other way around, and he had been fine with that.

But Mugen...Mugen was another something altogether. By the time the teasing warmth wandered to his cock, Jin was so melted and awash in his lover's passionate ministrations the activity did not register consciously. The tantalizing nibbles, laps and suckling weren't intended to bring him off, but his body was hyper-sensitive so the magic had its effect. The orgasm was lurking, growing, and with it came discontent and frustration. Something more was necessary.

“Mugen,” he ventured, hoarsely. “Stop.” When his lover's activity did not cease, bringing him perilously close to the edge, he tried again to no avail. Grabbing a shock of spiky hair, he pulled, but it took an heroic yank before Mugen lifted his head.

“Ow! What th'fuck?” Mugen looked drunk, mouth slack, eyes blurry. “You were close. Don'cha wanna cum?”

“Cum inside me,” Jin demanded, pulling him upward by the shoulders.

Mugen's eyes regained their focus, peering at him sharply. “Really?”

“Do me, Spike,” Jin smiled, enjoying his lover's predatory expression.

“I'm pretty close,” Mugen warned. “Don't know how good a fuck I'll be.”

“You've been pleasuring me this whole time and I've been shamefully lazy. How can you be close?”

Mugen snorted. “You don't get it, do you? I look at your skin and I want to bite it. The sounds you make when I eat you out make my balls ache. I think about what your cock does to me and I want to worship it all damn night.” He hovered over Jin, sighing in contentment as he pushed himself inside. “You're hot, Takeda-san. It turns me on to smell you, taste you....”

Jin thought that was unbelievably crazy, but in one mighty thrust his brain stopped functioning. Mugen leaned down, giving him his tongue to suck as he ground into him seductively, trying to drag it out and make it last. It didn't work. With his lover in both ends, the sensations were impossible to control and Jin let go, moaning, biting Mugen's tongue and clinging to him like a man drowning in the sweetest bliss.

“So,” came a quiet voice near his ear, much later, “did you get a boner when you saw Okuru-san, like I said?”

Jin chuckled, brushing his lips against the sweaty forehead, grateful to be entwined with such a spicy, delicious body. “Yes I did. Partly, anyway. He's very handsome.”

“What were you bowing and scraping about?”

Jin groaned and rubbed his eyes. “I'm not thinking about anything so embarrassing now. Tomorrow, all right?”

“Aw, c'mon, I gotta know.”

“No,” came the firm reply. “Tomorrow, Mugen.” Pulling the about-to-protest mouth to his, Jin shut him up for the night.

------------------------------

The warm hands on his ass woke Mugen up. They were gently stroking and exploring, clearly waiting for him to respond, so he stretched and pulled the pillow off of his head. “How long you been up?” he asked his way too early rising lover.

“A few hours.”

“You work out?”

“Yes.”

The massage began in earnest now, and Jin must have been using the oil from last night because his hands were sliding over his back and ass so nice. They would wander down his thighs, pressing into the wiry muscles there and along his calves, then come up to his ass again for more impassioned caressing. “Your cheeks feel so right in my hands,” Jin enthused, kneading them firmly, pushing into certain places and causing zings right where it counted. Mugen couldn't believe how turned on he was.

The skillful hands worked their way higher now, over his back, shoulders and arms. Mugen had experienced massages before, but not from anyone he had the hots for, and he found his heart becoming as malleable and vulnerable as his knotted muscles. He learned why Jin was into having his feet done, but who would have thought it could feel so amazing to have your hands rubbed? Mugen liked that way better—that and his head...oh man! He realized he could become as enslaved to these sensations as Jin seemed to be, but he didn't give a shit.

The hands were on his ass again, and Mugen was almost missing them elsewhere when the massaging began inside. One finger, slick with oil, teasing with maddening diligence at the opening even though he needed no stretching. He shuddered, wanting the tickle deeper, pushing back into the taunting hand. “Come on, man,” he complained. “Gimme more.”

Jin chuckled and obliged him, sliding two long fingers inside, searching for that special place and stroking gently. Mugen moaned, back arched, hips bucking as the sensitive gland was captured and massaged between Jin's thumb behind his balls and his fingers deep within. He began a rhythm and Mugen rocked into it, playing with the sweet sensations for a long while. Jin was patient as always, letting him set the pace but still goading him onward, and he felt himself getting close but he didn't want to cum this way. “You better fuck me before I lose it without you,” he warned.

Jin pulled him on his side and snuggled behind, positioning himself at Mugen's back door and allowing him to impale himself. “I've been waiting to get inside you all morning,” said the deep, shiver-inducing voice at his ear, “and I'm not going to be in any hurry to leave. Are you comfortable?” Mugen whispered an assent and the fucking commenced. He could tell from experience that the pace Jin set meant it would go on forever, so he tried to relax and ready himself for the onslaught.

Jin was good at it, stroking carefully, aiming well. Varying the depth of his thrusts in a hypnotic pattern that Mugen watched and tried to anticipate, shallow, shallow, shallow, deep DAMN!, shallow, shallow, deep OOOH!, shallow, shallow, shallow, deep AHH!, deep UMM!, deep SHIT! Jin went on and on in his lazy but persistent way until Mugen could feel the orgasm building of its own accord, so when Jin began to touch him—tugging his balls, trailing fingers along his length—he had to put a stop to it. “Don' go messin' with me if you're not close,” he threatened.

“I'm close." Jin was moaning too, biting his shoulder, causing involuntary shudders. And then the longed-for sensations exploded into his awareness as Jin stroked him in earnest. He remembered mind-numbing pleasure as he was ridden hard and fast, his blissful moans spilling into the talented hand, the warmth flooding him inside...but then, nothing.

Mugen's complaining bladder and growling stomach caused him to rouse, but it was the happy news his nose was transmitting that finally broke through the fog of his nap. Rolling over, he found Jin sitting on the bed in a pair of his sweats eating something. Uhhh...food...yes...good. He went to pee and found his brain functioning by the time he returned.

“You cook this?” he asked, munching happily.

“Yes, there were lots of leftovers in your fridge,” Jin told him. “I threw out a bunch too. Hope you don't mind.”

“Nah, sometimes I let stuff pile up in there. This is good!”

“Thank you.”

“I can't believe you're still here. Usually you fuck me and split.”

Jin eyed him thoughtfully. “I don't know why I'm still here. I like your place, I guess.”

“You could move in.” Mugen cringed. What the fuck did I say? “Uhh...I mean bring up some of your stuff so you could stay over twice like tonight,” he hastily explained.

His lover was wearing his I'm pleased but I hope it doesn't show face, so at least he wasn't going to be laughed at. “Yes, I could do that,” Jin conceded, “bring some things over, I mean.” Mugen relaxed, ass covered, even though he continued to puzzle over his strange utterance.

Jin wanted to soak rather than shower, so Mugen decided to join him in the tub. They sat and scrubbed as it filled, but he saw the steam rising and was concerned. “If it's too hot we won't be able to get it up.”

“I want it hot,” came the reply. “We'll get it up later.”

And so he stepped in, trying to adjust to the searing water as quickly as Jin did, and leaned back against his chest. All semblance of rational capabilities disappeared at that point. There had been something he wanted to know...something he was supposed to bug Jin about, but he couldn't remember.

Jin's hands were on him again, lazy, aimless explorations that felt comforting and reassuring. Mugen had never known anyone who's hands were so commanding without being brutal too. Jin was masterful, Jin was ruthless, but Jin was silken and tender as well. Jin got off on him, he didn't try to hide it, and that was the most heady reality of all.

His weird Freudian slip earlier got Mugen thinking. He liked hanging with Jin. He was comfy to sleep with and it suited him to wake up to such quiescence. And he was going to do everything in his power to keep Jin from going home tonight. Mugen's focus returned to the hands on his body, the hands that were gently studying him, appreciating him, making him feel like he was worth getting to know. If those hands never left, he wasn't gonna complain. Maybe it's time to make sure they don't, he decided.

------------------------------

Jin was satiated and content. He couldn't remember when he'd felt so completely at peace. It was lovely.

They were lounging on the couch watching baseball, Mugen with beer and ciggie in hand, Jin declining both but unbothered by Mugen's indulgence. “If I have a drink before six, I'll be asleep by eight,” he explained. Uninterested in either of the teams playing, he mused about the past twenty-four hours instead.

Mugen's behavior...so puzzling, although he conceded his own was equally strange. Mugen had taken him under his wing last night, something no lover had ever done before, and he remained incredulous, grateful and confused by it all. Mugen had rescued him last Friday too, keeping him happily distracted before his visit with Uncle Mariya, and he was concerned by how good it felt to relax in his lover's capable strength.

Suddenly Mugen shouted, startling him out of his skin. “I remember!” he exclaimed. “Tell me about Okuru-san. Why were you embarrassed? You promised to spill today.”

Jin sighed. He'd been happy to forget all about it. Such a little thing, but still...so thickheaded! “It's all your fault.”

“Say what?”

“I gave Yuki the Okinawa Development account to avoid you,” Jin said. “I even told him to handle the CEO if he called, not thinking he'd ever call, of course. So, mistake one: when Okuru-san did try to reach me, Yuki followed instructions and took care of it himself.” He took a deep breath, unsure whether Mugen would understand the social delicacies at play here.

“Yesterday, when Okuru-san told me he was considering a sponsorship, I made mistake two: I mentioned I'd have Yuki pull an information package together for him and he said, “Hojo-san is very competent, I know, but I would like to work with you on this, Takeda-san.” Jin groaned, rubbing his eyes under his glasses. “Of course he should expect to work with me! I can't believe I didn't step up to the plate immediately. I'm usually not so stupid about such things.”

“Okuru-san wouldn't give a shit about stuff like that but, you're right, you were stupid.”

Jin blinked at his lover's honesty, but had to grant his point. “Thankfully he's not overly traditional and my insult hasn't put him off sponsoring us.”

Mugen smiled impishly. “So, you don't mind I gotta crush on him?”

“Why should I mind?” Jin replied. “I've got a crush on my sensei.”

“No way! That bald dude?”

“He's not bald, he's bald-ing.”

“OK, but still....”

“You have to know him, Mugen,” Jin insisted, passionately. “His skills are unparalleled and yet he is kind and loving, wise and full of fun. The opposite of my uncle. He's given me so much, I can't help but adore him, and his body is perfect, by the way, even though he's forty-six. Unfortunately, he's never taken any of my hints, and I'm not ashamed to admit I've dropped many over the years.”

Mugen eyed him thoughtfully, rubbing his chin. “He must either be really straight or have amazing will power. So how did he get you and Okuru-san to blush the way you did?”

Jin peered at him curiously. “You're very observant.” There was a pause as he considered whether to tell the tale, then decided it was flattering that Mugen had been watching so closely. “It appears your boss is a student of Sensei's,” Jin told him. “He was chiding us both for not keeping to our training. I had no idea Okuru-san was blushing, but it's your fault I was.”

“My fault again, huh?” Mugen seemed unperturbed, chuckling to himself.

“Yes. I've been spending time with you instead of at the dojo. Master's noticed my absence, of course.”

“So is it a thing like the dojo or me?”

“No, he would never demand such an ultimatum.”

Master Niwa had actually been happy to learn it was a new romantic interest keeping Jin away, but couldn't hide his bemusement when Jin pointed Mugen out to him. Master considered boy's trysting to be play, a way to let off steam, games to grow out of once one matures and assumes adult life. Jin found the attitude frustrating, to say the least.

Mugen's cell rang, disturbing his reverie. “Yuki,” he announced, arching a brow.

“It's fine with me,” Jin replied. “I feel guilty about leaving him yesterday.”

“Me too.”

And so their ecstatic friend arrived a little while later, having never been invited to Mugen's apartment before. His host tackled him in the front hall, extracting a toll that left him blushing and breathless when he flopped on the couch, laying his head in Jin's lap. “Thanks for letting me invade.”

Jin smiled down at his handsome ex, brushing the long bangs off his forehead. “I'm sorry about last night,” he apologized.

“I'm over it,” Yuki told him, “and I'm here now.”

Mugen brought him a beer, turned off the baseball in his honor, and fired up a video game. Jin sat back and tried not to laugh as he watched them squabble over who was the hottest fighter in Soul Caliber.

“Taki's got the best tits,” Mugen stated definitively. “They wrecked her in the third game, but that red cat suit....”

“Ivy's are better,” Yuki countered.

“Ivy's barely got nips and no jiggle factor.”

“Taki's one of those ninja priestess types,” Yuki declared. “You try to get it on with her and she'll spout feminist BS and kick you in the nuts, but Ivy would make you lick her boots then tie you to the bed and hump you all night.”

“Femdom, Yuki?” Mugen inquired, leering. “I never woulda thought.”

“Only in my head,” Yuki protested. Jin rolled his eyes, amazed that either of them had considered the subject enough to have such a conversation.

Mugen's cell rang and all conversation stopped. He looked at the ID and gasped, “Okuru-san!” Jin was charmed to watch him sit up straight and hurriedly card his fingers through his hair before answering. Their conversation amounted to Mugen agreeing to something, clearly reluctantly, although one could tell only by his expression, not his voice...then finally, “Yes sir, of course I'll do it. Thank you for contacting Li-san, I'll get my itinerary from her. Goodbye.”

Mugen closed his phone looking so dejected, Jin had to ask, “What's wrong?”

He received a pointed glance. “I'll bet you don't have your passport yet, do you?”

Jin's heart sank. “No, it will take another few weeks.”

“I gotta fly to New York tomorrow.”

“On a Sunday?”

“Yup, the meeting's Monday afternoon.” Deep sigh.

“New York!” Yuki exclaimed. “You lucky shit.”

“Yeah, yeah,” Mugen grumbled.

Jin's inner world suddenly grew calm. The solution was clear. “Yuki has a passport,” he announced quietly.

to be continued