The Moon and the Sun

Chapter 14


Mana was fuming silently in his bath-room. He had taken his time lecturing Masumi for letting Gackt into his bed-room (-gaining a few nasty comments about his bad manners in return), he had eaten his breakfast very slowly, he had taken a scalding hot and very long shower.. all the while hoping in vain that Camui would get bored waiting for him and leave. Now there was nothing more left to do than dressing for the day and facing the damned man who had taken over his living-room. It was true, he had promised him that he would willingly meet him today, but he would have never imagined that Camui would come over this early and demand that they'd spend the whole day together and since Mana was so stupid to reveal that he had nothing else planed he had difficulties now to come up with something that would help him avoid the pestering vocalist.

'What the hell, a promise is a promise..' Mana thought defeated and made his way to his closet. He decided to wear something that would help holding Camui at arms length because if he decided to come on to him again Mana knew that he would be doomed. He couldn't push him away anymore-that would just seem childishly stupid as it was obvious that he wanted him back..

'It's just sexual, so why not.' Mana convinced himself. He could handle it-after all he was no stranger to a casual sexual relationship and if he'd have meaningless sex with Camui a few times the chances that the man would loose his interest in him after that were very high so he would be finally able to go on with his life in peace.

He could do that.

'Okay, plan B is settled, now on with plan A..' he thought and searched his closet for his manliest clothes. Gackt always used to praise him for his femininity and never made a secret out of how fascinated he was by cross-dressing Mana. There was a chance that if he would see him dressed as a man he would discover that his attraction was based on an illusion and back off.

Mana pulled one of his casual suits out of the closet and put it on. He refrained from wearing any accessories and had to almost restrain himself from putting on too much make-up. Feeling almost naked he glanced one last time into the mirror. The person he was looking at seemed even to him only vaguely familiar..

---

Gackt was sitting on the couch in Mana's living room tapping his fingers rhythmically on the armrest of the furniture while waiting for the other man to get ready for the day. He had been already sitting there for almost an hour since Mana had stomped off to get dressed and if he knew him at all he was sure that he'd continue waiting for him for at least another hour. The guitarist was after all known for taking his time with his appearance and given the fact that he didn't seem particularly keen on spending the day with him he would probably take even longer than usual. Gackt didn't really mind the waiting.

He smiled to himself as he thought about how Mana had looked that morning, disgruntled with his ruffled, shoulder-long brown hair, with no make-up and clad only in his grey silken shorts. He couldn't remember having seen him like this before and he decided that he liked him that way. Liked him very much..

Gackt closed his eyes and imagined how it would have been to take Mana's thin frame into his arms. He would hold him close and shelter him from the cold. He would caress him until he'd feel him relax and surrender to him. Then he would tilt his face up and kiss those pale lips he had been denied all those lonely years..

"Oh Mana.." he sighed longingly.

"What?" Mana spat from the doorway.

Gackt opened his eyes to be greeted by a not so fragile looking Mana whose appearance seemed very 'manly'-for Mana standards at least. He was wearing a long well-tailored black jacket, made of velvet over a simple, only slightly frilly white button-down shirt. His pants were also of black velvet matching the jacket and his hair hung straight down to his shoulders with the shorter bangs covering partially his face. He hadn't used much make-up, just a hint of black eyeliner and mascara accentuating his gorgeous eyes. The lips Gackt had been fantasizing about just seconds ago were free of Mana's usual dark lipstick but shiny with a little bit of lip-gloss. He looked stunning but Gackt had to wonder if he had chosen this more 'manly' attire thinking that he would seem less attractive to him that way.

'No way in hell.' Gackt thought. For all he cared Mana could be wearing a garbage-can and he would still be appealing to him.

"You look beautiful." he said and saw Mana's eye twitch in annoyance. 'Bingo..' he thought. Mana was still childishly trying to get rid of him. As much as this knowledge pained him he wouldn't even think about giving up. He stood up and approached the other man with a smile on his lips.

"You always look beautiful to me." he added as he put one long finger under Mana's chin to make him look up. The guitarist glared at him but was also chewing unconsciously on his bottom lip, like a child who had been caught doing something it shouldn't.

"I never greeted you properly this morning.." Gackt said softly as he slowly tilted his head to bring his lips closer to Mana's. He closed the distance between them in painful slow motion giving the other man enough time to pull away if he wanted to but Mana surprised him and stood his ground. Their lips met and Gackt's heart almost jumped out of his chest with joy when Mana didn't reject his kiss. Not wanting to push his luck he pulled reluctantly away.

"Thank you." he murmured and saw Mana furrow his brows at him in question.

"For letting me kiss you. It means a lot to me."

Mana exhaled sharply, the look of annoyance once more on his face and turned away to go and sit down on the couch.

"So Gackt-san, what have you planned for us to do today?" he asked glancing expectantly at the vocalist while crossing his arms in front of his chest.

"First of all we'll go and pick up Belle," he said referring to his small dog "then we will go for a long walk at the Shinjuku Gyoen (*) where we'll also have a picnic. How does that sound?"

"Wet, Gackt-san. I guess you didn't notice yet but it's raining outside and it doesn't seem as if it's about to stop soon. Don't your plans require sunshine and the happy chirping of the birds in the trees? At least a mud-free ground to walk and sit on?" Mana countered sweetly obviously happy that Gackt hadn't thought about the obvious. His smugness however faltered as he was greeted again by one of Gackt's utmost annoying smirks.

"Actually rain is the best thing that could happen to us as it means that not many people will be visiting the park and we will have it all to ourselves! And don't worry about getting wet-I have thought of everything!" he said cheerily and vanished for an instant out of the room to reappear seconds later holding two hideous blue raincoats.

Mana stared open-mouthed at the awfully wide and formless garments. "You are kidding, right? I wouldn't be caught dead in one of those!"

"Oi, come on Mana! Don't be such a spoilsport! You promised to go on a walk with Chappy Belle and me, don't chicken out on us now with the lame excuse of the weather! Don't worry, no-one will recognise you like this and I will be wearing also an exact same one. You'll see it doesn't look so awful when you are out in the rain!" with that Gackt approached Mana and wrapped the offending piece of cloth around him while the guitarist was asking himself out loud and in a desperate tone what in all hell's name he had done to deserve such a disgrace. When Gackt had pulled the hood over the still cursing guitarist's head and secured it by tying the strings to a nice bow under Mana's chin he bent down and silenced the profanity spying mouth with another kiss. Mana was at first confused by the sudden onslaught but soon kissed back.

Gackt was very surprised to feel the other man's hands travel slowly up his chest to finally settle on the back of his neck and bury themselves into his hair. He embraced Mana firmly wrapping his arms around his waist and pulled him up and closer to his body deepening their kiss. The vocalist felt as if he was about to loose his mind out of happiness while Mana was kissing him back-passionately. He groaned and let his lips wander along the other man's cheek to his earlobe taking it into his mouth and sucking gently on it. Mana was starting to shiver lightly in his arms by his ministrations on his ear. It felt so good to feel the other man respond to him and when Gackt felt him squirm rubbing his body on his he almost lost control. Almost.

Because then Mana did something that in Gackt's although lust-ridden mind registered as wrong. Mana let one of his hands travel to the front of his pants and boldly placed it's palm onto his sex, rubbing it through the layers of cloth all the while watching him through narrowed eyes. Mana's touch felt good but somehow it didn't seem right and Gackt collected all his willpower and broke away from the guitarist.

"What?" Mana asked raising his brow. Gackt watched him carefully and registered how collected and casual Mana seemed while he himself was flushed and panting lightly from their making-out session. He abruptly registered what Mana was up to and felt major disappointment drowning his heart.

---

'What the hell is his problem?' Mana wondered. Did he after all just want to be friends? It sure as hell didn't seem like it until now.

"Come on, let's go." Camui just said and dragged him by his hand to the front-door.

Mana decided that he would never get any wiser from this man and that there was really no use in analysing his actions.

When they reached the door Mana suddenly remembered something. "Would you mind if we'd pay Hikari, Masumi's daughter a short visit?" he asked the vocalist who shook his head in a silent 'no'. "Then wait a second for me to get something before we get going."

Mana immediately lightened up because he couldn't wait to see the girls face when she saw Camui Gackt himself visiting her and he sprinted up the stairs to get the present he had brought her from America -the curious look Gackt was giving him totally lost on the excited guitarist.


(*) Shinjuku Gyoen : Tokyo's largest garden. It is the property of the imperial household and used as a public park.

A/N: Merry Christmas to all of you!