Archive of Our Own ^beta

It wasn't the first time, and it wouldn't be the last. "Shall we have a bath?" murmured Seimei quietly into Ritsuka's ear. He felt the younger boy, not so much a child anymore, tense beside his cheek, and then, that strange pretence they always had, that this was normal. Family did these things.

As the bath filled, they showered, Seimei with meticulous thoroughness, Ritsuka with that cursory way of his that left tiny, barely-detectable traces of his scent clinging to nooks of his body. That scent, Seimei knew, would work its way free in the bath and mingle with the water; it would cover them both, and this was more than acceptable in this one case, because it left Ritsuka lingering on his skin. They could share scent, because they were family.

Clean and unclean, they slid into the warm tub. They were like mirrors of each other, now that Ritsuka was almost as tall as Seimei and built just the same, and from the back only the hair on their heads and tails told them apart, Ritsuka's straight and short, Seimei's curly and plush. Their movements, their speech, their smallest mannerisms matched, habits kept precious through all circumstance, lying to erase the time they'd ever spent apart.

As always, Seimei washed Ritsuka meticulously, using his hands rather than a scrubbing-cloth, "to be sure all the dirt is gone" from the places "harder to reach". He pretended to ignore Ritsuka's erection and his own, because, after all, "these things happen in the bath". It was just like every time, except for Ritsuka's sudden ear tic, but that too must be overlooked, pretending that nothing was tense or strange.

"Seimei?" The name was a quiet, breathy hiss of air. From Ritsuka's throat it often sounded so.

"What is it?" he said cautiously, determined and hoping that nothing new could break their shared illusion.

"We never talk about..." Ritsuka flattened his ears, but the tic didn't go away.

"There's so little to say--" Seimei's justification was broken as his younger brother molested his mouth in a fierce and needy kiss.

When Ritsuka finally pulled back, Seimei put a hand behind the boy's head and grasped his hair close to his skull, holding him in place so he couldn't retreat too far. He'd never imagined Ritsuka would assent to admitting this, explicitly. He'd been so afraid the bathtime, the nighttime snuggles, might end.

Now he held Ritsuka's face a few inches from his own, no further, and examined him, so pure and perfect. His little Ritsuka was made for him, was he not? Except in one way, which could be easily fixed. "You kiss me," he said with distaste, "like you're kissing Soubi."

"Then show me how. Please. You want to too, right?" begged Ritsuka.

Seimei pushed his brother back against the rim of the bathtub, keeping his head bent forward just above the water, and straddled him, his body just barely grazing Ritsuka's, the warm water swirling around them. "I want a good deal more than that. Do you want me to get rid of that ear tic for you?" He paused only long enough to savour the mix of shock, anticipation and fear on Ritsuka's face before pressing him back with a firm, invasive kiss. This time it was Seimei's tongue that thrust into Ritsuka's mouth, pumping suggestively, as his hips twitched towards Ritsuka's body and his cock slid lightly against the young boy's stomach, obliterating the caress of the firm pressure of water and the warmth of Ritsuka's thighs between his own.

Ritsuka whimpered, and after Seimei finally pulled back to let him speak, he said, "Seimei, please, I can't hold out."

"Then don't," suggested Seimei, "for once."

"But I want to..." Ritsuka trailed off. "For you."

Seimei sat back on his heels. "I want what I've always wanted." The warmth of his body. The pure, unconditional love. A Ritsuka who would do and admit to anything, shamelessly; and as if he could seize the very essence of that wish, Seimei seized Ritsuka's feline ears and yanked him forward, plunging him facedown into the water, into Seimei's lap. "Drink."

Ritsuka's warm lips enveloped his cock immediately, soft, yielding sometimes, and then sometimes with pressure, letting Seimei slide further into his mouth as Seimei pushed down on the back of his head. "Ahhh... That's good, Ritsuka. That's... very good..."

Seimei didn't last long, driven by a lifetime of pent-up need and the vague awareness that Ritsuka would stop pumping so deliciously if he drowned. He twitched with agonising delight as he felt Ritsuka swallow every drop.

As soon as he took his hand from Ritsuka's head, the younger boy flung himself up, water cascading everywhere as he gasped for breath. Seimei didn't wait for Ritsuka to be able to speak before he said, "That's how."

Ritsuka let out a wordless, desperate cry and rubbed his cock against Seimei's crotch and came all over the bathwater.

Well, he'd wanted Ritsuka's scent all over him. These things happen in the bath.

Not that Seimei intended, in the future, to always wait for bathtime. There was little to say, but much to do.