Saiyuki fic: Next to the Moon, Koumyou/Ukoku, NC 17

[louiselux]

For karose: birthday challenge fic for you.

Fandom: Saiyuki
Pairing: Ukoku/Koumyou
Rating: R, m/m sex

Notes: Spoilers for Ukoku's Burial saga. Big thank yous to mistressrenet and daegaer for betaing and at short notice too. Any other mistakes are all my own work. The first section was written some time previously, for a previous challenge, so the bulk of the story forms a sequel.


Next to the Moon

The gardens of the temple at Chou'an were washed in moonlight. When the newly crowned Ukoku Sanzo kissed him, it wasn't entirely unexpected, although the way he was almost demure about it was.

'Hmmm. Oh.'

'Are you shocked?' Ukoku said, pulling back but leaving his hands on Koumyou's shoulders, where they moved slowly, stroking over his scripture.

'No, but do you want me to be? I can pretend if it makes you feel better.'

'You're laughing at me,' said Ukoku and his features sagged in a way that Koumyou didn't like.

'No,' he said, because he wasn't. He took Ukoku's arm and they walked on a little further. Koumyou bit his lip. He’d seen this coming and had done nothing to stop it.

'Being a Sanzo is what you wanted most of all. Does it make you happy?' He looked at the bare place on Ukoku's forehead where there was no chakra. Ukoku grinned and put his finger there, tapping the place where it should be.

'Well, no, actually.'

'Listen, Ukoku-- ' was as far as he got before Ukoku turned and kissed him again and this time he was a bit more adventurous with his tongue. Koumyou pushed him back very gently but with unstoppable force. 'Careful with me. I'm an old man, after all.'

'Don't make me laugh. You're not old.'

'I'm nearly twice your age! Isn't there someone younger that you like?'

'Koumyou,' Ukoku said, and looked at him then as if he were very simple, 'they all bore me to death.' He leaned in again.

'Goodness me. But if it's just sex, it doesn't matter if they bore you, does it?'

'No, no. You're right. But wouldn't having both be better?'

'Well, I haven't done it for years and I'm not starting again now.'

'Koumyou,' he murmured. 'That's no reason not to.'

'Stop,' he said, in a tone of voice he used only rarely and Ukoku did, instantly. 'Just walk with me instead.'

Ukoku moved away and fell in to step beside him. He didn't say anything.

'Look, isn't the moon beautiful tonight?’ Koumyou said, after a while.

Ukoku looked up at its pale, round face and then looked over at him, just one quick, careful glance.

'Yeah.'

*

The night after, Ukoku came back, asking again in everything but words. He had his pride, after all, Koumyou supposed.

Ukoku smiled and leant his head against the doorframe of the room Koumyou had been given. It smelled strongly of beeswax polish and more faintly of fusty linen. Koumyou had slipped more than once in his socked feet on the polished floor.

'It seems a shame to waste it,' Ukoku said. 'Do you want to come for a walk with me?'

He meant the full moon that looked over his shoulder, its face the colour of fresh cream. It lit the temple gardens and glistened on the lake, where the night breeze rustled through the reeds.

'I don't think that's a good idea.'

'No kissing, I promise,' and Ukoku held up his hands to demonstrate how harmless he was.

Set against Ukoku's crooked smile he could feel the no of the night before already slipping away from him, the reasons for it obscure and meaningless when put next to the tilt of Ukoku's hips and the lust that was plain in his eyes, there for everyone to see and for some annoying monks to comment on when they thought he was out of earshot.

Koumyou was still young-- sort of, still capable, still a man. Maybe a bit rusty; the last time he'd had sex was some years ago, when a mother of the parish had misconstrued, wilfully he thought now, his attempts at comfort after the departure of her husband with the nursemaid. He'd not wanted to refuse her and the jilted wife had looked quite cheered up by the end, although he wasn't one to brag. The good lady had been mercifully discreet.

His reasons were sound. Ukoku was unpredictable, troubled and lost. Despite his filthy stories, innocence rolled off him in waves.

'It's very pretty,' he said pointedly, staring hard at Ukoku, who went a little pink. He relented and looked away, 'But I'm tired and we've got a long way to go tomorrow.'

They were to leave in the morning for the walk back to Kinzan temple and when they arrived, Ukoku was to set out again on his own journey. They wouldn't see each other often. It would be easy to forget this feeling. Koumyou wished momentarily for a bath of ice water to freeze him, but no. Better to know and understand his desire than to ignore it.

Ukoku swung away, still flushed. 'Looks like I'll have to keep myself company. Bye,' he tossed casually over his shoulder and left, but not before Koumyou saw the sharp disappointment and the tightness of his mouth.

The moon laughed down at him, a round pearl swathed in inky velvet.

'Oh, shut up,' he muttered at it, and closed the screen harder than was necessary.

*

Ukoku left the temple to wander among the people, he said. He would have no temple of his own. He said he didn't want one but mostly it was because no one trusted a priest who was minus his chakra.

Koumyou didn't see him for some months and then one day he came back, striding into the gardens with a big smile. They sat together on the stone bench near the pond. Koumyou took care to seat them somewhere in full view of the acolytes' dormitory to prevent temptation, although he wasn't entirely clear on whose part.

'Where have you been?'

'Here and there,' Ukoku said, vaguely. 'These are interesting times.'

'Too interesting for an old fart like me. I'm happy to stay here with Kouryuu.'

'Is he the only thing you find interesting these days?'

Koumyou studied the sky, then his fingers. 'Not the only thing. I'm getting very good at origami. My paper planes fly properly now!'

Ukoku put his head in his hands and laughed. 'You know, I think I need a drink.'

They talked until the moon rose and then Koumyou went off to find him an empty room to stay in.

*

Sometimes Koumyou wouldn't see Ukoku for months, but since he often forgot to notice exactly how much time had passed between visits it seemed like he came often. Koumyou realised he was glad to see him and when it seemed time for another visit he'd start to look for that particular tall figure and striding gait.

'Why did you have to name me Weeping Crow?' Ukoku asked, one night.

'You look like a crow,' Koumyou said.

'Huh?' Ukoku's mouth turned down at the corners and his fingers reached up to touch his nose. 'You really think so?' He sounded deflated.

'Yes. But I happen to think crows are very handsome.'

'Handsome, scavenging raucous things, you mean.'

Koumyou laughed. 'Maybe.'

'You're flattering me.'

'No. I really think so. And, ah, the rest of it-- I saw you weep once, remember.'

Ukoku stopped grinning and looked straight ahead.

'I won't forget that anytime soon,' he said

'It's how I'll always think of you,' said Koumyou.

Ukoku still didn't look at him, but stared into his wine. Koumyou could hear the man's breathing and suddenly the night seemed very warm, the collar of his robe too tight. It chafed his neck. His heart began to thump.

'Ukoku,' he said, softly, opening his eyes wide to the moonlight and not letting himself think too hard about what he was doing, 'do you still want to sleep with me?'

Ukoku didn't say anything at all, but after a few moments he stood up and put his straw hat on. He shook his head.

'Don't make fun of me,' he growled, and stalked off.

'I wasn't,' Koumyou said, but it was to an empty garden.

*

It was a long time before he came back; so long that Koumyou noticed and began to worry. He took to staying up late on the nights of the full moon, sitting on the slatted wooden seat in the little private courtyard outside his room, smoking his pipe. The nights would pass slowly, but at least he got to know the call of the temple frogs very well.

Then one night Ukoku came back. He was smiling.

'You look happy,' Koumyou said, staring.

'Happy? Perhaps,' and he told Koumyou of the young lad he'd saved from a life of misery and prostitution, who he'd taken for his disciple. 'He's a very quick learner. Very bright. I think he'll make a fine pupil.'

'He sounds adorable. But can you really take care of him?' Koumyou said, frowning.

'We've got a place to stay now-- very comfortable too. Besides, I'm only following your example, sensei.'

Ukoku sat close by him, almost shoulder to shoulder and they talked of this and that. Ukoku told him of things he'd seen, men and youkai and monsters and Koumyou dredged up some anecdotes from temple life. He recounted some of the things Kouryuu had said about the other novices that made Ukoku snort with laughter. The night air grew cool and damp but Ukoku stayed and Koumyou thought that he might not be angry anymore.

'Here, have some more sake. It's very good. No, take more than that,' Koumyou said, sloshing the bottle against the cup.

'Are you trying to get me drunk?' Ukoku was laughing, so real, so warm.

'No, no! Yes, a bit, maybe. But you must be tired. Would you rather come to bed instead?'

Ukoku coughed out a mouthful of sake and turned to stare at him. 'What?'

That hadn't sounded right. He hadn't meant to make it sound like an offer, really he hadn't, but since the subject appeared to be well and truly broached, even if unintentionally, he might as well carry on.

He was too aware of last time and the fine view he'd had of Ukoku's tense, retreating back.

'Don't run away before I can get it all out again,' he said quickly.

'Uh. Okay,' Ukoku said faintly. He'd put his sake cup carefully to one side and his dark eyes were narrowed and sharp, watching him.

'I'm not your teacher anymore, Ukoku. Um, about that-- '

'Koumyou, shhh.'

'I mean to say-- '

'Let's go to bed. I still really really want to have sex with you.'

'Ha! You do?'

'Of course,' and then he frowned. 'But why now?' Ukoku asked.

Koumyou had thought about why as he listened to the frogs calling to each other, an incessant croak croak in the damp night air.

'I don't know. I want to. I'd like to take what I want.'

He didn't smile and he knew that his voice was hard. Ukoku shivered next to him.

'Ah, yes, I understand that very well indeed.'

Ukoku met his eyes and the effect was just the same as drinking too much wine, and too quickly.

'Just so you understand,' Ukoku said, his voice very low, 'what I've got is yours to take. If you can,' and a smile curled the edge of his mouth.

'Hmmm. I don't know about that.'

Ukoku's mouth was hot on his and his hands came up to touch Koumyou's face gently on either side, like he was some precious thing that Ukoku might break.

'Don't be afraid,' Koumyou said.

'I don't want to wear you out, old man,' Ukoku murmured and slid his tongue a little into Koumyou's mouth, teasing.

How familiar and odd it was to sit close to Ukoku and kiss him and laugh together, mouth on mouth, breath mingling, his hands tangling in dark hair. His chest was heaving. He put his face in Ukoku's neck-- his hair was as cool and as smooth as feathers.

'I may be a bit rusty, but I can show you a thing or two,' Koumyou said. 'I want to show you things…'

Then Ukoku was almost sitting in his lap, hard and pushy, hands threaded tight in Koumyou's hair and his tongue forcing its way between his lips.

'Uhhm, Koumyou,' he whispered between desperate kisses, pressing himself close. 'I never thought you'd ask me,' he whispered, 'never.'

*

'At least I know how to get all this off you,' Koumyou said a little later.

They were in his room, embracing, swaying a little. Ordinary men would be baffled and defeated by the secret fastenings of the bamboo breastplate.

'Mmm, please do,' Ukoku sighed into his mouth.

Ukoku was pliant against him, his eyes glazed and his mouth swollen from kisses. He seemed drunk, but Koumyou knew that couldn't be so because they hadn't even finished the bottle. Ukoku's fierceness of before was gone, replaced by an almost hesitant, minute observation of each of Koumyou's movements. His hands flattened themselves on Koumyou's back, sliding down to his hips. It was a possessive gesture and Koumyou put the thought aside for later.

Three sutras fluttered to the floor and Koumyou nudged them under the bed with his toe while Ukoku murmured with laughter and began tugging at Koumyou's sash. Robes were untied, gloves were pulled off, belts unfastened and underthings pulled down in a fumbling rush. The low wooden bed gave an alarming crack as they both toppled onto it, wrapped around each other.

'Guess what,' Koumyou said, groaning at the softness of Ukoku's skin.

''What?' Ukoku sat astride him and pinned him to the mattress, his hands cupped tight round Koumyou's shoulders. He pressed his face in Koumyou's hair, slid his arms round his neck and kissed him, then pulled back to grin madly down at him.

Koumyou looked up, winded from the fall and the impact of so much naked flesh. Ukoku had fine long limbs and slim muscles, a scattering of dark hair on his chest and around his nipples, a long snaky line of fine dark hair that pointed south. Koumyou ran his fingers down it.

'I've never slept with another sanzo before,' Koumyou said, pressing his palm over hot, hard flesh. His fingers slid over the wet, sticky tip. 'Ukoku Sanzo,' he whispered.

He was wondering if it was going to be different. Ukoku clutched at him and then collapsed laughing onto his chest and the sound of it thrummed through his ribcage.

'Not all sanzos are as good looking as you,' Koumyou went on. 'Not any,' he corrected himself, his fingers wandering lower over hot skin.

'I think, I think-- ah-- Koumyou--' but whatever else he was trying to say, Ukoku was having trouble getting it out and instead began to shift his hips, moving in little circles, riding what was below him.

Ukoku was strong and surprisingly heavy. 'Looks like I've got you where I want you,' he said, showing his teeth and bearing down hard.

But Koumyou knew how to push back and was, it turned out, still far stronger. Ukoku fought as they wrestled, with a funny hissing laugh trapped between his teeth. It made him sound exactly like the young man he was.

'You can't win,' Koumyou said into his ear.

'Maybe I don't want. Not here.'

The bed gave another groaning creak and then Ukoku was the one on his back, starting up wide eyed and breathless. He reared up and wrapped his arms around Koumyou's neck the better to kiss him, his breath hot and quick over Koumyou's face, biting his lips, licking them, lapping hungrily at Koumyou's mouth.

'Let me undo this,' Ukoku said.

He tugged a little on Koumyou's plait and slid the band off the end. Ukoku slid his hands underneath and pulled his fingers through it, spreading it out.

'Do you like it?' Koumyou asked, pleased. He shook it so it fell around them, blocking the soft golden light of the candle.

'I love it,' he said, tangling it around his fingers.

'Took me forever to grow. I can't tell you.'

'It's beautiful,' Ukoku said, serious, then stopped.

Koumyou thought he wanted to say more but Ukoku just tugged him closer with the ends and kissed him again; this time no one pulled back.

'Ukoku,' he managed to get out a little later, between deep, long kisses, 'what do you want to do? Because-- '

'Fuck me,' Ukoku said straight away, making Koumyou smile. He had his hand down between Koumyou's legs, spit on his palm slicking his slow, teasing strokes.

'You always were very forward. There's-- ah- oil in the cupboard.' Ukoku's hand tightened and sped up. 'But whatever you want to do, you'd better stop or I won't last.'

Ukoku pushed him off and scrambled up from the sheets.

'Where is it?' Ukoku said, pawing at the shelves.

'Top right-- no, that's the jasmine hair oil-- '

'Who cares,' Ukoku said. He flung himself back down, covering Koumyou with his body, tangling their legs together and rolling them over, nuzzling into his neck.

Ukoku smiled, really smiled as Koumyou lifted his knees up and apart. He reached for a pillow.

'I don't need that,' said Ukoku.

'But I don't want you to get a bad back,' Koumyou said, raising his brows when Ukoku just laughed at him.

But Ukoku settled himself on the pillow and then stretched, lithe and graceful and shameless. Koumyou stroked one hand down over the back of his calf, kissed the hollow of his knee and traced the long muscles of his thigh.

He ran his fingers down Ukoku's stomach, leaving a glistening trail of oil as he anointed it, slipping down to push a finger into the heat of his body, curling it again and again until Ukoku was thrashing under him, his head tipped back and his long white throat exposed.

'I'm not so out of practise, am I?' he said, bending close to whisper it in his ear.

'You-- you-- ah... '

Ukoku was quieted by the push of Koumyou's hips. Whatever he'd meant to say fluttered away into small fragments of speech until he was silent apart from his shuddering breath, until he made another sound, high pitched like a sob as Koumyou pulled out and slowly pushed back in again.

He liked to do it slowly. It gave him time to feel. Ukoku liked it too, because he arched himself up with a soft moan and flailed his head on the pillow, damp hair sliding over his eyes, his legs tensing where they were hooked around Koumyou's arms. His mouth opened as Koumyou began to thrust harder and Koumyou saw the glitter of his eyes as they watched each other. This wasn't wise, not at all, but then the thought finally slipped away. He wasn't a wise man. He knew nothing.

'I'm just a man,' he whispered, 'nothing else,' and he shifted, pressed harder and their oil slicked skin slapped together, an obscene fleshy sound that made Ukoku moan under him.

Ukoku squirmed and his fingers pulled at his own erection, circling the head and gathering the glistening fluid there, slipping down the pulsing vein underneath, then gripping in a tight circle, going faster than Koumyou's thrusts.

The bed was groaning and creaking and Ukoku's head was jammed up against the wooden bed head, one hand braced there to stop his head thumping against it with every thrust, until he reached up and hooked his arm round Koumyou's neck, arching up to pull their mouths together, hot and wet and perfect. Ukoku flexed underneath him, clenching tight and breathing in great gasps. Koumyou pressed closer, getting the fit between them nearly perfect, feeling Ukoku's thighs shift and spread further, his hands braced either side of Ukoku's head.

'Kenyuu,' he groaned as they kissed, not meaning to say that name.

Ukoku cried out, muffled against his mouth and came, wet between them, his hand clenched in the hair at the back of Koumyou's neck and then Koumyou was coming too, sinking in one last time and the pleasure was so sharp it was almost pain and they moved together, a slow, pulsing grind until Koumyou fell gasping onto his chest and Ukoku clutched at him, murmuring his name.

In the quiet room their breathing slowed and they wriggled to get comfortable. Koumyou's back twinged in complaint. Perhaps he wasn't so young after all. In that case Ukoku must certainly be made to lie in the wet patch.

Ukoku gazed up at him, not complaining, slit eyed and satisfied, his face smoothed out and relaxed. Without his glasses his face looked vulnerable, the curve of his cheek almost childlike. Ukoku's fingers were still in his hair, stroking the back of his neck.

'Thank you,' he said and it was so quiet, hardly a whisper, that Koumyou nearly missed it.

*

Dawn came with the angry cawing of crows in the elm trees that stood in the temple grounds. Grey light seeped in as they sat cross-legged on the bed, knee to knee. Ukoku was wrapped in an old cotton robe that gaped around his neck and his hair stuck up wildly. Koumyou had fetched the last of the sake in from outside and they sipped it, grinning foolishly at each other. Koumyou wondered exactly what he'd started, letting this happen. But it was done now and remembering how Ukoku had clung on to him, his sweetness revealed with every touch, he couldn't say he regretted any part of it.

There was a distant rattling of screens. Soon the monks would be up and shuffling around. Kouryuu would come in with tea. The day would begin.

'I know, I know. I should go,' Ukoku said, watching him. 'But first-- ' and he caught Koumyou round the back of the neck and kissed him, long and slow.

'Will you come back?' Koumyou asked, as Ukoku dressed. Koumyou watched as he pulled on his top, dragged his gloves back on and smoothed them out. He wanted to take them off again already.

'Yes, yes. Always,' Ukoku said, running a hand through his hair. 'Now, where's my sutra again?'

Koumyou reached under the bed and threw it to him.

Ukoku caught it and smiled.

Comments

[new-kate.livejournal.com]

Incredible. Hot, bitter-sweet (considering how this ends), poetic, perfect. Both guys are so great: adorable, kind, magnificent Koumyou and smitten young Ukoku. The imagery and pacing are gorgeous. Thank you!

[louiselux.livejournal.com]

I'm so glad you like it! Thanks for the feedback--Ukoku is definitely smitten I think, however you read the burial arc. Koumyou is the one person he's interested in. I know this pairing might not make sense to everyone, but they're defintely an OTP for me, even if it does end bad.