Reishiki

DISCLAIMER: I do not own these men or any rights to anything about them except the CDs and DVDs and photobooks I've spent a couple months' pay on so far. No elephants were harmed in the making of this story, although fic!Sugizo almost was. If anyone portrayed in or associated with those portrayed in this work of fanfiction objects to its public posting (at absolutely no profit to myself, naturally), then they may contact me at yokozuki @ gmail.com and request its removal, which will be happily done.


Title: Reishiki [1/2]
Author: yokozuki
Rating: NC-17
Warnings: Slowness in getting around to the juicy bits, a lot of what I like to pretend is humor, no buttsecks (sorry!), swearing everywhere, Yoshiki, jrockers being awkward, molestation and sexual harassment, Toshiya abuse, a stripper (Female! Be warned!), far too little oral sex, gratuitous Sugizo, and elephants. Yeah, elephants.
Pairings: Unrequited Sugizo/Kaoru. Kaoru/Die. This was written for the DxK Takeover on livejournal. ♥

Thank you to Jen and the lovely girls of the livejournal community fear_the_editor for the beta.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~


They emerged into the cold gray light of a Los Angeles winter morning, blinking.

"So..." Die cleared his throat unsteadily, wincing at the noise. "What do we do now?"

"Ummm..." Kaoru shifted, squinting up at the palm tree above them, and fumbled for a cigarette. "Go back to the hotel and try to get a little sleep? Taishou looked absolutely trashed when they left, but we still have a schedule to keep - "

"No, Kaoru. You know that's not what I'm talking about."

"Ah." He began searching his pockets for a lighter, grateful for the maroon hair falling to shield his face. "Well, just go on... playing and all that?"

"And pretending nothing ever happened?" He could feel Die's wary gaze on the back of his neck.

"No, not... necessarily," he answered vaguely. Straightening, he threw his hair back and looked up to lock eyes with Die, as much focused sincerity in his expression as he could manage when still this drunk. "I think that we should talk about it again when we're sober."

"But you'll never agree to anything like this then," Die whispered awkwardly, reaching back to rub his neck. He looked down at the long, bright red hair falling over his shoulders, winced and began running his fingers through the tangles. "I think you'll be hardly acknowledging my existence, once you wake up in..." he looked around distractedly, "Oh, the afternoon, I guess."

Kaoru stopped Die's grim fidgeting with a hand laid lightly on his shoulder, regarding the taller man neutrally. "What do you want, Die?"

Die chewed at his lip and said nothing.

"Come on," Kaoru sighed. "I think I'm sobering up quickly now. Let's get a cab."


~*~*~*~*~

~Seven Hours Earlier~

"Uh... Kaoruuu..." Die whispered, hitting his arm lightly.

He turned, frowning, and found Die's eyes shifting between him and the control room window, an increasingly nervous look on his face. "What in the hell is wrong with you?" He knew he was looking at Die as if the red-haired man had suddenly sprouted tentacles, but he had been acting so odd lately around Kaoru... almost like he was afraid to talk to him. But there was no reason for that. Nothing had changed...

"Um, didn't you used to kind of like Luna Sea?"

"Yeah? Didn't everyone?" He cast Die an impatient stare.

"Look," Die whispered, jerking his chin at the window as if he thought he was being subtle. There was a person standing in there grinning at them, but he couldn't make out the face, only that they were taller than Yoshiki and had... dark pink hair? Fucking glasses, where had they gone?

The person turned, apparently saying something to Yoshiki, who nodded and laughed. Kaoru made a face at them, giving up on the glasses and rising to walk straight at the plexiglass. Die could huddle back there all day, but he didn't have time for this.

The door between the rooms opened. He found himself looking into impish, sleepy eyes over a thin-lipped but sweet smile - and stopped dead, jaw dropping.

"Told you," Die hissed behind him, sounding almost like he'd cry or something. Kaoru realized that he was still frozen in place with his mouth hanging open, and Sugizo had closed the door behind him, leaning against it and grinning at the younger guitarists' reactions.

Kaoru blinked, shook himself and said... something very clever and witty, come on, Kaoru - this certainly isn't as intimidating as meeting Yoshiki - but that was Shinya's idol, not yours, his mind whispered. This is yours. Or at least the one that's still around.

He finally blurted out, "Um, I was excited to hear that Luna Sea had started working together again... ah... not that I didn't absolutely love your solo work even more, because I... but... uh," and wished desperately to fall through the floor into hell, because surely it had to be better than standing here while a man he'd practically worshipped for almost a decade looked like he wasn't sure whether to pat Kaoru's back and tell him it was okay, or simply burst out laughing.

Die sounded like he was choking back there. Fucking Die, he'd better not try to blackmail him with this...

Sugizo finally seemed to settle on taking him by the shoulders and turning him to walk far enough from the door that Yoshiki could come through, said evil blond hiding a snigger as he introduced them. Kaoru met Yoshiki's eyes with his own wide and despairing, then narrowing to promise some form of retribution, someday.

"Why don't we stop for the day," Yoshiki suggested rather gently, after two more minutes of Kaoru bowing and stuttering while Sugizo remained torn between laughter and sympathy.

"But - " Kaoru stopped and blinked at him, sweeping his eyes around the studio guiltily. Die was already packing, Sugizo wandering over to peer at his red guitar.

"It's after one in the morning, anyway," Yoshiki told him with a shrug, "and honestly, we finished everything that was scheduled for today two hours ago; he'd - " nodding toward the dark pink head that dipped to examine Kaoru's pedals now - "said he would drop in tonight, since he's in town for the week. It was supposed to be earlier, so we could all have a drink together, but..." he shrugged and smiled toward the man. "Always late. So I finally let the others go, since it seemed that the two of you would have the most interest."

"And Toshiya," Kaoru said absently, working to get himself together. "I think he used to have a crush on him... covered one of Kyo's walls with Luna Sea and ESP Eclipse posters..."

Yoshiki looked momentarily boggled, saying weakly, "Ah... well, probably better that he wasn't surprised with him, then; who knows what he might have..." Yoshiki's eyes nearly crossed, Kaoru smirking now and nodding.

"Yeah, Totchi's got a way of putting things right out there, doesn't he?"

"And acting on his feelings with a little too much honesty," Yoshiki murmured, looking increasingly grateful that he'd let Toshiya go with Shinya and Kyo. "Are you sure that you want to be responsible for having inflicted him on Thailand? They claim to have seen everything there, but I don't know..."

"Yeah, it'll be fine." He hesitated. "Probably."

"I will be praying for you," Yoshiki said seriously. "The interpreter called back earlier. She's available, luckily, and she'll meet the two of you at the airport, Monday after next."

"Thank you again. I wouldn't have known where to begin."

Yoshiki nodded, and asked with a grin, "The others are still going home to visit their families? Nobody else fighting their way in to your trip?"

"Yeah, so far it's only Toshiya... you know it's half your fault for talking it up so much," Kaoru said, mock-glaring.

Yoshiki shrugged, looking over Kaoru's shoulder and raising his eyebrows. A mischievous smile touching his lips, he asked, "Are you feeling more yourself now?"

Kaoru groaned, closing his eyes, and nodded.

"Good." Yoshiki led him slowly over to where Sugizo and Die were talking. Sugizo was sprawled across a chair like he owned the place, while Die sat very straight, dipping his head at something Sugizo had said. As they came closer, Die smiled hesitantly, then opened up to a full grin as Sugizo made some crack that Kaoru couldn't quite hear, but must've been hilarious, judging by how hard Sugizo was laughing at it himself.

"Oh, fuck... I got distracted, didn't I..." Yoshiki walked away from him to stand in front of the chatting guitarists, apologizing and introducing them. Die nodded like his head would fall off, and Sugizo grinned cheerfully at him, then poked him in the ribs. "Come on, let's go drink. I haven't been out since... ah, in forever."

"You came a bit late for that, Yuu." Yoshiki rolled his eyes at Sugizo's surprised look, as the man glanced around the walls for a clock, finally finding the one that Die had been staring at for the majority of the last two hours, when he hadn't been sneaking sidelong looks at Kaoru. Another symptom of the growing weirdness.

Sugizo's eyebrows shot up, and he grimaced, shaking his head. "Sorry. Luna was being fussy, and I couldn't inflict her on my friends while she was screaming her head off. I didn't even look at the time."

"It's all right," Kaoru said, his voice echoing hollowly in his ears. "I know a place that doesn't stop serving... ever, as far as I can tell." Sugizo blinked up at him happily, Kaoru still feeling the earth want to shift under his feet at the sight. You really need to get over this awe thing, he told himself firmly. He's just another musician, like you. Yeah, but a fucking amazing one, his fanboy self retorted. Fuck.


~*~*~*~*~


The place was just as it'd been every other time Kaoru had come here. He'd discovered it in the company of a woman that he'd met at a random bar close to the studio; she spoke enough Japanese for them to get by, and they'd had a good time getting each other drunk and doing their best to chat, at least until coming to this place.

After three drinks here, she had climbed on top of him and started trying to take off his shirt at the bar. He'd honestly had no clue until that point that, as she informed him acerbically, she had been doing her best to move things in that direction all night - going on to say that he was evidently either absolutely self-absorbed or gay. Possibly both. Of course, he resented the first, and gave puzzled denial to the second. He'd been with several women, never mind that they'd had to basically throw him down and start stripping him before he noticed that they were trying to fuck him. He just tended to get completely absorbed when thinking and talking about music, and it wasn't like there was anything else to talk about with someone that he barely knew.

Anyway, he had never seen her again, but he had been coming back to this bar ever since, as Yoshiki liked to keep them past closing time for almost everywhere else. A few booths and a couple of the high tables were filled tonight, with two women in less than adequate clothing taking shots together at one end of the bar and a tired-looking man paced back and forth behind it, trailing cigarette smoke.

"I thought smoking in bars was illegal here," Sugizo murmured.

"It is... but then, so is serving alcohol after two a.m.," Yoshiki said, quirking a brow and holding up his watch. It was quarter after, and no sign of anyone preparing to leave.

"Ah." Sugizo didn't ask anything further, looking around. Kaoru followed his gaze, finding one of the two decrepit pool tables occupied, and the darts board turned off with a sign over it that read, "No play after 1:30 am!" in seven languages.

A hand slid around his elbow, and he jumped. "Come on, there's rooms in the back," Sugizo whispered in his ear, uncomfortably close. He nodded mutely and allowed himself to be led, Die trailing along close beside Kaoru and glaring at the long fingers stroking lightly along Kaoru's arm. Kaoru himself felt rather like glaring at them also, but maybe it was just Sugizo's odd idea of friendliness... he reached a hand over to touch Die's arm, looking up at him and shrugging. Die rolled his eyes. Kaoru narrowed his in return, and Die finally grimaced and faintly nodded. No troublemaking unless it was truly warranted.

The room was no more brightly lit than the bar had been, but considerably better furnished - if one's taste ran to the always-classic "Late Bordello" style. A red satin couch barely fit along the left wall, matching chairs at the back and right side of the room, with a low, round table in the center that looked as though it could host a dancer just as well as it could drinks.

Sugizo dropped his hand from Kaoru's arm finally, to his relief. They shuffled in slowly, Kaoru and Die eyeing the odd prints on the walls nervously before sitting together on the couch, wordlessly agreeing that it was safest that way. Sugizo walked around for another couple minutes pointing out the more interesting bits to Yoshiki, both of them dissolving into fits of snickering. "Didn't Toshi and Taiji do that once on stage?"

"Nah, I thought that was you and Ryuichi."

"Same difference, I suppose." Sugizo finally sank into the chair along the back wall, and Kaoru cursed himself for sitting at that end of the couch. The reality of spending time with the man was turning out to be less comfortable than how he'd always secretly imagined it; possibly if he were out of touching range, then they could probably have a good conversation, but... his feet were already being molested by Sugizo's, and in those eyes was a clear intent to grope at the earliest opportunity. Very disturbing.

"Hey, so are we just getting a couple bottles, or what do you guys want?"

They looked at each other and shrugged. "Anything's fine," Die told Yoshiki.

"How about bourbon," Sugizo said abruptly. "This place, it reminds me... of somewhere we used to go." He looked over at Yoshiki with an oddly intense expression, nodding a little when Yoshiki grimaced and looked down at his hands.

"You're right. I've been trying not to think about it. It's quite... nostalgic."

Sugizo's face remained inscrutable to Kaoru, as he leaned over and murmured something that they couldn't hear into Yoshiki's ear.


~*~*~*~*~


"I haven't been able to think about anything but him since I saw your face again. If it's hard for me to push it back and make myself forget, find things to be happy about... kill the loneliness..." He paused, shaking his head, and then said in a barely audible, broken whisper that had tears behind it, "I don't want to imagine how these months have been for you."

Yoshiki closed his eyes for a long moment.

He cleared his throat and glanced over at Sugizo, then looked across the table at the two young men who were rather poorly hiding their curiosity. "Let's get fucking drunk."


~*~*~*~*~


Kaoru lost count of the bourbon and cokes poured for him and urged down his throat by the combined forces of Sugizo and Yoshiki. Sugizo was pretending innocence when his hands weren't somehow making their way over the arm of the couch onto some portion of Kaoru's body. He had had to elbow Die back from confronting the man twice. It was nice that Die was so protective of his friends and all that, but... they didn't need to piss off Sugizo, let alone Yoshiki - and nothing had really gone over the line of Kaoru's tolerance yet. Speaking of Yoshiki, Kaoru was going to be having words with him later. It was fucked up that he was doing nothing about all this annoyance, only sitting over there chainsmoking and giggling into his drinks when he wasn't making them all take shots.

"Hey," Sugizo said suddenly, reaching over to tap Yoshiki's knee. "Didn't the guy who showed us back here say something about strippers?"

"Yes..." Yoshiki eyed him warily. About fucking time you're not just laughing and egging him on, Kaoru fumed. Thanks so fucking much for your help, Taishou.

"I'm gonna go find him!" He beamed blissfully to the room at large and bounced out the door.

"What the - what??!"


~*~*~*~*~


The woman wasn't exactly gorgeous, but she did have a beautiful smile. Nothing as beautiful as Die's, but that was an impossible standard to hold anyone else up to. She certainly knew how to move. He supposed that was really all she needed, for this job.

It was strange watching her grind on Die next to him, once she'd overcome Die's weak protests and attempts to push her across to Yoshiki. The look on his face after she'd begun slithering up and down his body... somehow, Die's smile when it was set on "sexy" had more of an effect on Kaoru than anything the woman had done. He'd felt something oddly like jealousy, and he'd finally had to admit to himself that the only cause in sight was her; that intense, flirtatious smile being for her pissed him off somehow. He had to turn uncomfortably away and occupy himself with his drink and chainsmoking until she was done. Possibly Sugizo had broken his brain, if he was finding goddamned Die more attractive than a mostly-naked woman with great tits.

Unfortunately, after Die, it was Sugizo's turn - and more than half the time that she was on him, the relentlessly cheerful pink-haired man was pulling Kaoru over, making an uncomfortable pile of three bodies on the slippery red satin chair. Kaoru kept escaping, eventually switching places with Die, despite his apprehension about them being too close - Die had leapt at the chance to switch, and at this point Kaoru wasn't feeling like being too quick at pulling Die away if he did start something - but Sugizo hadn't done a thing to Die, totally ignoring everything but the woman practically sucking him off through his black jeans.

Then Kaoru made the mistake of leaning past Die to grab the bourbon bottle. And Sugizo's eyes lit up, Kaoru having a single moment to think "oh, fuck" before Sugizo took a firm grip on his forearm and pulled. Having a choice between going along with it or being dragged over Die and the glasses on the table, he reluctantly went along, but immediately began hissing into Sugizo's ear, "Look, this isn't fucking funny, okay? What the fuck? Why are you doing this?! You aren't doing it to Die!"

Sugizo gave him a slow, mischievous wink, sliding one hand back to cup his ass, and whispered, "Shush, or I'll - "

"No! I won't fucking "shush"! You - " and Sugizo's wickedly smiling lips came within a breath of his own before he jerked back, shocked. Die's hands shoved in between them, his arms wrapping around Kaoru and pulling him back on to the couch. He could feel Die's black glare at Sugizo over his shoulder, Sugizo grimacing in return before turning his attention back to the stripper.

"Ah... Die. Let go," he whispered, hand fumbling for where he thought his drink had been on the table.

"Why have you kept letting him do that?" came an oddly agonized-sounding whisper back. "If you don't want me here, I can leave..."

"What the hell are you talking about?" Kaoru growled, head jerking blindly around to accidentally smack into the side of Die's face. "Fuck, why is everyone so... touchy-feely tonight, anyway?! Did I turn into a chick when I wasn't looking? It's not like we're on a fucking stage!"

A bubbling, choked snicker arose from the direction of Yoshiki.


~*~*~*~*~


Two bottles stood empty beside the table. "Are you going to be alright, telling the cab driver how to get to his place and all that?"

"Yeah. Don't worry, we've done this plenty of times around here before." Sugizo dug through Yoshiki's wallet quickly and pressed a small stack of cash into Kaoru's hand with a quick, shadowed smile and a quiet "Thanks, it was good meeting you two," before hauling the older man's arm across his shoulders and beginning to guide him through the door that Kaoru held open. Yoshiki was weaving hard enough to almost throw them into the walls and howling some apparently risque (judging from Sugizo's winces and attempts to cover his mouth - or possibly it was just that Yoshiki's voice was about as good as Kaoru's) song in English as they made their way down the hall. Kaoru sincerely hoped that they made it back to Yoshiki's home without anything more disastrous occuring than Sugizo forgetting himself and starting to feel up the blond.

He closed the door, turning to slump against it heavily, staring at his boots. "Well." He looked up and pinned Die with a glare. "What the hell were you thinking, threatening Sugizo and then practically plastering yourself over me until they fucking left? You were pissing me off almost as much as he was! Both of you needed to get a fucking grip!"

Die cleared his throat awkwardly, fiddling with a shoelace. "...sorry?"

"What the fuck has been your problem lately? You've been acting fucking weird, and it needs to stop!"

"I don't, um... okay, I do know." He winced and reached for the third bottle of Old Crow, which still had a few inches left, taking a long slug.

"Well?" Kaoru threw himself down on the couch next to Die, holding a hand out in silent demand for the bottle. Die surrendered it and sat back into the opposite corner, thinking.

He finally asked slowly, "So... what did you think of Sugizo?"


~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~


Second part's halfway typed. I've been procrastinating, sorry. :-P Let me know what you think, if you have a spare minute and are so inclined. ^^ "It's boring," or "I like it," or "Get to the smut already, and how the fuck did Sugizo end up in a Kaoru/Die fic anyway??!"... it's all good. ^_~