CAKE

Chapter 3

Tentatively, Seiji bent over the offered finger wondering what it would feel like to take Shu's digit into his mouth and just suck on it. He licked his lips, and a thought popped into his head.

"Shu?"

"Yeah?" Shu's voice was wispy and breathless.

"You said the guys sent you in here?"

"Yeah, so?" Shu kept his finger within easy reach of Seiji's mouth.

"I was just wondering. Why did they send you instead of Shin?"

"Huh?"

Seiji could make out a pink blush slowly working its way across Shu's face. "Well, Shin is the oldest, and he's normally the one who gets picked to do this sort of thing. Why did they choose you?"

Shu shrugged his shoulders and refused to look at Seiji's face. "I dunno."

"It seems like Shin would have been a more…"

"Maybe they thought I was the best candidate…"

"Cut the crap, ReiFan. You can't lie worth shit. Neither can Shin." Seiji sat back in his chair and crossed his arms over his chest. "Spill it. Why did they choose you?"

Shu fidgeted in his chair.

"Tell me, or I'm dumping all the cake into the disposal."

The bearer of Kongo panicked. "No! Don’t do that, Seiji! Please?"

"Tell me."

Shu hung his head and sighed. For some reason Seiji felt like he was talking to a three-year old. "They chose me because I'm the one you've been…um…fantasizing about."

Seiji's mask slipped. His eyes went wide, and although he hadn't thought it possible, his face got hotter. "You…you could tell?"

Shu stared at his sneakers. "Yeah. I hafta admit that it was a little weird at first."

Seiji took a deep breath.

"The first time I noticed it was when we were sitting on the couch watching a race. I leaned over you to grab my popcorn off the coffee table, and well… I felt you staring at me. And something else. Something that felt like lust. It was gone as fast as it came, and I tried to dismiss it. That it really hadn't happened. That I'd just imagined it all."

Seiji picked at his lower lip.

"I caught other flashes of it here and there. Then Shin approached me and asked me if I felt it, too."

"Shin?"

"Yeah. He could feel it whenever the three of us were together. Like that time we went to the movies."

Oh, dear god. Seiji had been particularly interested in Shu that night. He hardly watched any of the film at all. He didn't even remember what movie they had gone to see. Shu had been sitting between Shin and Seiji, and occasionally, the dark haired man's leg or hand would brush against him. Seiji had spent most of the time with his jacket in his lap, trying to hide his arousal.

"He asked me about it. I told him I didn't know what was going on, but I only got those feelings when I was around you. You know how Shin is, once he found that out, he was bound and determined to find out why. So, here I am."

Seiji ran a hand through his blonde hair. "But why now? Why did you guys choose to do this now? Why not a few weeks ago? Or just let it go?"

Shu managed a weak grin. "Actually, coming in here tonight was all my idea."

"Nani? Naze?"

"Well…um…all of this was a little weird at first, but only because I figured it was my thoughts bouncing off you."

"Nan de…?!"

Shu came to sit next to Seiji and began to wipe the cake off his face with his sleeve. "I was having these…thoughts about you, Seiji, and I thought somehow for some reason they were being reflected back at me. Kinda like a mirror or something. I didn't know what to do. So I told Shin." His face still had splotches of frosting. "That's when he decided to figure out what was happening. He found out how I felt…um…feel about you."

"Why didn't you just come to me and talk to me about it?" Seiji used his finger to wipe some frosting off Shu's cheek.

Shu laughed. "The same reason you didn't come talk to me, I guess."

Seiji grinned and took Shu's hand in his. "Okay, you got me there." He sat and stared at the hand he held. Shu's hands were bigger and broader than his own. The fingers were shorter and wider. There were calluses on the palms, but they weren't too rough. Seiji wondered what they would feel like caressing his pale flesh.

Shu coughed. "Um…we could find out…"

Seiji snorted. "I was projecting again?"

"Um…Yeah."

Seiji gazed into Shu's caramel eyes and smiled. "You've still got some frosting…"

"Dammit! Where?" Shu frantically wiped his face with his sleeve.

"Hold still. I'll get it." Seiji firmly placed his hands on either side of Shu's face to hold him still. Then he leaned forward and kissed him.