Between Friends

Between Friends

Chapter Note: language, violence, exhibitionism, "bisexuality," romantic M/M love, lime.

Chapter 3: The Lovers

“Hey, Asuma and Izumo, why don’t you two just let me and Kotetsu check out the rooms, and you can go get us a table and start ordering the food,” suggested Shikamaru as he turned away from the main desk at the hotel. To his horror, Izumo saw Mikage, Kotetsu’s lover from the last time they had stayed at this place, parting the curtain behind the desk. The flood of jealousy that filled him made him act in a way he’d never acted before. In fact, before leaving on Team Asuma’s mission over a week ago, Izumo would have sworn on the honor of his clan he’d never do such a thing. But that was then, before he knew he loved Kotetsu. And now with that love so new and hopeful, the thought of losing Kotetsu to a former lover before they’d even so much as kissed was intolerable.

Before Mikage could even greet them, Izumo’s hand was in Kotetsu’s spiky hair, and he jerked his friend harshly against his body and kissed him. People tended to forget that Izumo was just that little bit taller and had just that little bit more weight on him than Kotetsu. They thought he was the smaller, the weaker, the gentler one because his hair wasn’t spiked out in all directions. But now Izumo was marking his turf. If he was going to act like a madman, there was no point in holding back. He would make clear that Kotetsu was not available to Mikage or to anyone. He was determined to give the hotel staff something to gossip about that would make it clear Kotetsu was taken.

He ground his lips harshly against Kotetsu’s, pushing his soft lips harshly back against his teeth, then pushed his tongue in his friend’s surprisingly passive, still mouth. `Kotetsu must be in shock,' thought Izumo as his friend did nothing to stop him and nothing to respond. It was as if Kotetsu was an untutored virgin, not the same man who had fucked Mikage against the door of their shared hotel room telling her to squeeze her fucking pussy tighter, or he’d put his cock up her ass. She’d left a hickey right on Kotetsu’s throat too, he remembered with rage. Izumo captured that unmoving, limp tongue and sucked it hard into his mouth, biting and tugging, forcing his whole mouth into Kotetsu’s, spreading his jaws apart. His heart was beating so hard, and he was hoping for something, some sign that Kotetsu wasn’t disgusted or angry. But nothing, not one answering tug, lick, suck, twitch, nor even any effort to pull his tongue, mouth, or head away from Izumo’s forceful plundering. No sound of pleasure or pain, nothing. Kotetsu wasn’t a quiet kisser. Izumo had always found the sounds he made kissing women excessive and sloppy. But evidently Izumo’s kiss wasn’t registering with him.

Rage just flooded Izumo, and he jerked Kotetsu’s face around pulling his ear to his mouth hoping that the hard tug hurt. “If you have one bruise, one hickey, one scratch, that you didn’t have yesterday, I’m going to do exactly what I did to you the last time we were here again, only worse,” Izumo threateningly whispered in Kotetsu’s ear and then just abruptly pushed his friend away from him towards Shikamaru, turning toward the doorway to the restaurant.

“I love you too, Izumo, but if you are going to break some ribs of mine tonight, you better make sure there’s a medical nin who can heal them, or Tsunade-sama is going to break two for each one you do,” came Kotetsu’s voice to his ears, speaking calmly as if he said this sort of thing every morning over breakfast.

Izumo turned back, his mouth open in shock, horrified. Shikamaru was scowling in annoyance. Kotetsu just grinned at his friend and put his hand over Shikamaru’s shoulder, tugging the young genius towards the stairs to the rooms. Izumo just stared at the stairs, not even caring as that hateful woman Mikage followed Shikamaru and Izumo to the upper hallway. The shock of Kotetsu’s claim had made Izumo indifferent to the fact that one he loved was going towards a bedroom with a woman he’d spill his seed into. Izumo no longer felt any of the anger and jealousy about Mikage that had been making his stomach upset since Asuma had told them of the plan to spend the night here.

When he felt Azuma tugging his own arm, he just let himself be moved along. It wasn’t true. No way. The only time he had broken Kotetsu’s rib in a “training accident,” he had atoned. It was just horrible, horrible bad luck that Tsunade and Shizune had been needing someone to test that new bone-knitting drug on. He had felt so guilty that Tsunade and Shizune had refused to heal Kotetsu’s rib. Yeah, it had been guilt that had him acting like Kotetsu’s slave for weeks on end, cooking and cleaning for him, basically moving into his cramped, crappy little apartment. Kotetsu had certainly acted like a broken rib was the end of the world. It couldn’t be true.

“I think a table, not the bar,” said Asuma. Izumo felt himself calm since he could consider ordering dinner a mission task. Time to go into mission-mode, work-mode, and shut everything else back up in his increasingly disordered mind.

But when they were sitting at the table, food ordered, and Asuma was sipping his first drink of the night with a sigh of relaxation, Izumo’s mind went back to what had happened that long-ago morning in Room 104 in this very building, under this same roof.

The whole thing had started because Kotetsu couldn’t find the face bandage he’d worn the night before, that night he’d slipped out to get some female company and ended up bringing Mikage of the hotel staff back to their room. When Kotetsu had started his typical frenzied search, Izumo had simply thrown him a clean one without a word. It should have ended there, but, no, Kotetsu insisted he needed to find the older face bandage because it was a “lucky” one. He’d run around the room in the tight black underwear he wore when he dressed for sex, even more annoying than he usually was when on one of those frenzied morning searches for something he’d misplaced. Izumo could have let all that go, but when Kotetsu found the face bandage in Izumo’s pile of blankets that he’d left bunched at the bottom of his very own bed, Kotetsu had gone from annoying to physical. He’d started it. He’d shoved the bandage in Izumo’s face, teasing him, insisting Izumo had stolen it, wanting to get some of Kotetsu’s luck. He come up with ludicrous and disgusting theories of why Izumo would have his face bandage in his bedding. But it had been the comment about thinking the bandage had pussy juice on it, and Izumo wanting to sniff it and masturbate with it that had pushed Izumo into rage.

He’d thrown Kotetsu against that very door he’d been fucking against only a few hours before and kept punching him to stop him from that laughing and teasing. Kotetsu had been laughing so hard his whole body was shaking, and he had his head thrown back forcing Izumo to stare at his new hickey just next to his Adam’s apple. He’d finally stopped hitting his friend after Kotetsu had started moaning instead of laughing, moaning in a ridiculously sexy way, almost sounding just like he had the night before, pushing into that cheap slut Mikage. Izumo had assumed it was mockery, but could it have been pain?

A broken rib was incredibly painful—how had he not seen that Kotetsu was in pain? He had been—he’d been walking funny, sitting funny, and Izumo had assumed he was playing, trying to get his goat, and make him feel guilty. My god, if Kotetsu’s rib had been broken he had to have traveled the two days back to Konoha in excruciating agony. He had insisted that next night he needed to have his own room. Izumo had assumed it was to be able to entertain another slutty woman for the whole night, but had it really been to hide a broken rib and a night of excruciating pain? When Izumo had broken his rib in Konaha, Kotetsu hadn’t stopped complaining from the second it happened until he’d had that pain medicine at the hospital. Surely Kotetsu couldn’t have had a broken rib the last time they were here.

But Kotetsu had been in pain, wincing, moving carefully, taking every opportunity to stay still that whole trip home. Izumo felt the bile rising up in his throat. Kotetsu had never said a thing about a serious injury. Then suddenly, Izumo knew, just knew it was true, he’d broken Kotetsu’s rib punching his friend over something as stupid as a lost face bandage and a few jokes.

`That’s why Tsunade-same was so furious with me for a week after we came back from that mission! She kept throwing teacups and reports at me and glaring. I spent hours trying to figure out why she suddenly hated me, and the whole time it was because she thought I was an abusive, insensitive jerk.’ Ninja sparred all the time and training injuries were a common thing, but they didn’t break each other’s ribs and never apologize and never ask about their health. They certainly didn’t call an injured friend a whiner and a wimp, or accuse him of faking pain to try to drag out the trip home as long as possible.

`I’m a shame to Konoha,” thought Izumo, “A ninja who doesn’t take care of his teammate is worse than trash, just like Kakashi says. How can I ever look the Hokage in the face again? She must think Kotetsu is insane to be friends with someone who keeps breaking his ribs and giving him black-eyes or fat lips or—oh damn, knocking out teeth and breaking his wrist.’ Izumo winced as he thought about how he’d been enraged to find that Kotetsu had slept with Ino, knowing very well that Izumo had a date with her in only a few hours. Not that he’d caught them, but when Ino’s mouth tasted of the leek soup Kotetsu had been sucking down before he disappeared and her clothing reeked of the smell of his cum and sweat, it was pretty obvious what had happened.

`I only agreed to go on that stupid date since he insisted he wasn’t interested in her any more and because I stupidly told him I fantasized about Ino when I never did anyway. My god, it shouldn’t have mattered that he made love to Ino; I shouldn’t have hit him so hard or twisted his wrist so much.’ Everything weird about that fight was all making terrible, plain sense now.

‘Oh god, no wonder Kotetsu had insisted that we hide the damage from that stupid fight over Ino--that broken wrist and the teeth--from everyone.' Kotetsu had even begged, and it had been needlessly, tortuously complex to do, but they’d managed to get Ino’s friend Sakura to secretly heal Kotetsu up and had sworn her to secrecy. It was clear now why Tsunade-sama had refused to let Kotetsu and himself work alone together for a month after that famous broken rib, the one that had him acting as Kotetsu’s cook and maid and barber, even washing Kotetsu’s hair, for week after week because of Tsunade and Shizune’s annoying insistence Kotetsu test that damn drug by healing his rib naturally.

But if the second broken rib was so awful so immediately, and still hurt so much later on, why had Kotetsu hid the first one for two days? Suddenly, that too was annoyingly clear, and Izumo’s guilt changed back to rage again. `Because he was faking the pain, faking the agony that second time! That bastard was lying through his teeth and using me to get free cooking and cleaning. He made me clean his god-damn hair! Cripes, I’m an idiot.’

“That rotten, lying little turd,” spat out Izumo. His team leader gave him a sharp look and raised his eyebrows.

“I’ve read Kotetsu’s medical file,” said Asuma, “and he’s had at least three incidents with broken ribs. I don’t see why he’d lie about that. And if you think he doesn’t love you, you better cut that hair in front of your eye off and get some glasses. A blind man could tell you he’s completely bonkers over you.”

`Kotetsu is in love with me, bonkers over me?’ Izumo asked himself. “What are you talking about, Asuma?” he said aloud, his voice still tight with anger, “I know for a fact Kotetsu sleeps with women, has had sex with a woman right here in this hotel in fact.” Asuma’s face looked at him skeptically, and Izumo added, “Right where I could watch in fact.” Asuma’s jaw dropped in shock, he then shook his head as if to shake out the memory of the last thing he’d heard.

“Look Izumo, sex and love aren’t the same thing. I’m going to assume these lovely memories you are sharing are why you went cave man out there in the lobby, not that you are emotionally unstable and a danger to our mission. But the only thing Kotetsu has wanted to do every night of this mission is fuck you Izumo, and I appreciate the fact that you two are restraining yourselves on this mission, waiting till you get back to your new place. But seriously, the tension isn’t good for the team. I know it’s hard not to be all over each other when you first move in with the one you love. You’d damn well better give him a lot tonight and let him get that need out of his system. You two just radiate sexual tension and hormones. In fact, you both sort of glow like an engaged couple, and I got to tell you, all those little blushes and lovey-dovey looks are distracting.”

Izumo felt the world changing and shifting for him, for yet another time on this mission. He had barely had a week to come to realize he was a gay man, not a bisexual one, in love with his best friend, and now his team leader was telling him that “everybody” knew Kotetsu was the bisexual one who was romantically interested in his new roommate. Izumo felt himself blushing.

`Oh my god, that explains all the nudity, the open door to his bedroom in our new apartment. He’s been trying to tell me he’s bisexual for a while. I’m so slow! My god I’m so lucky! He’s interested in me!’

A grin came across Asuma’s face, and he said mischievously in a way that made Izumo immediately realize their two teammates were about to join them, “You know the sexual tension is building up so much, I swear I caught Shikamaru with his hand in his pants.”

“I was merely adjusting myself,” said Shikamaru sliding into the booth next to Izumo, instead of his more usual position near Asuma. “That had nothing to do with the atmosphere being generated by our two love birds.”

Izumo felt himself blushing bright red again and tipped his head to the right so his hair would cover more than just the usual one eye. He could feel three pairs of eyes staring at him.

Kotetsu suddenly started laughing in that loud uninhibited way he usually only did when hanging around with Izumo. He was snorting. Izumo peered through his hair to watch. Fortunately the food arrived at that point, allowing the team to simply start eating and drop the whole thing.

When the last bit of food was gone, Shikamaru said lazily,“Hey, Asuma, you want to play a game of Shogi now?”

When Asuma let out that grunt that meant yes, Shikamaru slid himself out of the booth and said, “Get out of my seat, Izumo. Why don’t you let Kotetsu show you the room you two are sharing tonight?"

“Aaahh,” was all Izumo could say, another one of those embarrassingly breathy comments he’d been coming out with since he’d realized his feelings for his friend.

Asuma rolled his eyes and then barked out, “Don’t forget you have mission tonight, soldier.”

Izumo snapped to, bowing, “Hai,” grateful that Asuma had worked on his deep sense of duty to get him out of this embarrassing moment. As he and Kotetsu walked calmly out of the restaurant towards the stairs to the guest rooms, Izumo marveled at how calm they both were.

`I’m walking upstairs to take my first lover, and I’m walking normally. I’m breathing normally. I’m not falling down. I’m really handling this in a mature way,’ Izumo reassured himself. When Kotetsu opened the door to Room 200, Izumo was proud of how he walked in as if it was just another room two friends would share. But when he saw the one large bed in the center of the room and heard the door shut behind him, he felt weak and unsteady. When he felt Kotetsu’s hand touch his shoulder, he jumped and stumbled, letting out another little breathy, “ooohhh.”

He felt Kotetsu gently pick him up in his arms, carry him to the bed, and lay him down upon it. When he felt his body flop back on the bed, all he could manage to say was another, “ooohhh,” and he shyly shut his eyes, waiting for what would come next. He felt his friend move on to the left side of the bed, gently pushing his hair back away from his face.

“I don’t want your hair over your eye, Izumo,” whispered Kotetsu. The voice moved closer to his ear, and Izumo kept his eyes shut. “Do you want to know why?” the voice asked.

Izumo didn't say anything until he realized that Kotetsu was serious about waiting for an answer. “Aahh, yes, I, I want to know why,” he said feeling himself hardening and starting to almost pant.

He felt his friend slowly straddle his body and, finally, press his own stiff and eager cock against Izumo’s. When he felt the contact of Kotetsu’s cock straining against his pants press down on his own groin, Izumo’s whole body jerked with excitement and pleasure. He threw his head back and just moaned with all the desire and need he felt.

He felt Kotetsu slowly tug down the black cloth he used to cover his chin and throat. Izumo only let medics and Kotetsu see his neck. Kotetsu’s lips brushed against his throat making him spasm again, his head rising and falling back, their cocks rubbing together as close as two cocks held beneath two pairs of pants can rub. Izumo was panting and moaning without shame now.

Kotetsu’s mouth rose up from Izumo’s throat, and that voice he loved whispered, “I want to look into both of your eyes, to watch both of your eyes watching me. I want to see your eyes loving me as I make love to you. I want that because I love you more than I’ve loved anyone or anything in my whole life.”

Izumo’s eyes flew open, and he met Kotetsu’s, seeing the truth, seeing the love in his best friend’s eyes. It was a moment Izumo knew he would treasure for the rest of his life, and all he could do was reach up with eyes open to draw his lover down to him in a kiss that offered his new love his heart. And then Izumo just gave himself up to the joy of loving and being loved.