Tenshi's note: Okay, due to some MAJOR MAJOR confusion in this fic, I have (HA!) attempted to clarify some stuff. In this fic Mink's set of Ronins, due to a shift in the space time continuum, or just for the sheer unadulterated fun of it, get plunked into my yaoi realm for one night. Mass confusion ensues due to everybody having a twin (and not knowing it for a while)- and of course the differences in relationships. If you want to know what's up with Mink's set, read her fic, dummy... it's better than cappuccino cheesecake. ;) As per my set, it's Rowen/Sage (with ocassionally Ryou), Kento/Sai, and Ryou/Mia. FOR THE SAKE OF CLARITY Mink's set are under the Japanese names, Ryo, Seiji, Touma, Shin, Shuu. MY set is Ryou, Sage, Rowen, Sai, Kento. If you wonder why nobody is confused that they're being called a different name (e.g.: Ryou calling Seiji Sage, coz he THINKS he's Sage...) It's because they consider their names interchangeable anyway. For added clarity, my set all have tattoos of their armor emblems (Ryou's on his chest, Sages on his left upper arm, Rowen's between his shoulderblades, Sai's on his left hipbone and Kento's on his right thigh). Sage also has a silver lighting bolt earring. ALL RIGHT! Everybody got that? Good. If you're confused... hell, that WAS the idea... (well, that and a sick and twisted desire to see Sage fuck himself, but whatever...) On with the chaos!
0=)

Yo. Rowen he'a. Tenshi wanted me ta do the intro on this fic, and kinda a disclaimah. Y'see, this is a little different than the usual st-

Shin: There you are! I've been looking all over for you! *hugs him*

Rowen: *looks slightly embarrassed* Um, Shin, I think ya got the wrong Rowen by the tail. *carefully disentangles himself*

Shin: *blinks in confusion* But.. I... *puzzled frown*

Rowen: *smile* look, ya Mink's Shin, right?

Shin: *nods*

Rowen: 'Kay cool. I'm TENSHI'S Rowen. Ya looking for Touma.. o'va theah.

Shin: *glances between two identical wearers of the Strata armor* *scowls crossly* This is utterly ridiculous.

Touma: I dunno, I kinda like it. *winks at his twin*

Rowen: *smirks back*

Shin: Well whomever thought it up should be tied up and... and... well... Severely chastised! *looks as miffed as he can manage*

Touma: Hey... good idea. *sly grin, grabs Shin's arm* C'mon Shin.

Shin: *blush* TOM-A! I didn't mean... argh!! *they exit stage left*

Rowen: ANYWAY! As I was sayin. This story is a bit different, coz, obviously, there are two sets of us. Tenshi's cast is me, Rowen. And Ryou Sai Sage Kento.

Mink's cast is Touma, Ryo Shin Seiji Shuu. I nev'a said it was gonna be easy. We'a all kinda stuck in one fic, in one house tagetha, in a big scrambled mess.

Ryou: It's "Mimic" meets "Clue" meets "The Rocky Horror Picture Show"!

Rowen: Yeah whate'va. Anyway... he'as where everybody starts out. Ryou, Sage, and Rowen are in Ryou's room. Seiji and Ryo are in Sage's room. Kento and Sai are in Sai's room, Touma and Shin are in Rowen's room, and Shuu is in Kento's room. There is only one Mia, Tenshi's. She's in her room coz she went to bed early.

Seiji: For once I agree with Shin. This is insane. *folds his arms, tosses his hair imperiously.*

Ryou: What are YOU bitching about? YOU'RE not the one that gets gangbanged!

Seiji: *glances at Ryou, moving nothing but his eyes, a modicum of interest creeping into his tone* Gangbanged?

Sage: I don't recall that bit.

Rowen: Act II scene three... page 24.

*all whip out well-thumbed scripts, busy turning of pages for a few moments*

Sage: hmmmmmmm... here we go... I'm not in that part.

Seiji: no? *peers over his double's shoulder* Well. I must say I'm disappointed.

Sage: *smirks at him* Are you really? Well maybe-

Sai: *highlighting his lines with a pale blue fluorescent marker* Ahem. If the Narcissistic Wonder Twins are done flirting, could we get on with this?

Seiji: I think I like you better submissive.

Sai: *not looking up from the script* I don't think I like you much at all.

Seiji: *predatory smile* You don't have to like me to want me.

Sai: *begins to speak, Ryo intervenes*

Ryo: Um, guys?

Rowen: Chrissakes! This is getting longer than the fic!

Ryo: My point exactly. *Exits with Ryou, Sai, Sage, Seiji, Kento and Shuu arguing over blocking and costume changes... and who's in charge of lighting this time, coz Sage is tired of being stuck with it by default*

Rowen: Touma! C'mon, let's get this fic goin!!

Touma: *steps back out, looking insufferably pleased with himself.* Okay... let's go.

Rowen: Umm... where's Shin?

Touma: *smirk* I'm sorry, Shin can't come to the fic right now, he's a bit tied up at the moment. However if you leave you name and number at the beep...

Rowen: Do you EVER quit?

Touma: Do you?

*both grin*

Rowen: Okay. *to audience* Please hold on to the bar. You may get ravished on this fic. Please keep your arms and legs inside the fic until it comes to a full and complete stop.

Touma: Void where prohibited, some restrictions apply, all rights reserved, no purchase necessary, 18 and over only. Employees of Sunrise Inc. not eligible. That cov'a it?

Rowen: Yup. *thumbs up* Good luck gang!

*exeunt*

"It's just a Glitch!!"
-The Right Stuff

It had been a restless night in the first place, windy, with trailing gray wraiths of cloud that danced and seduced an opal full moon. On such evenings Sage always said: "It's not a night for sleeping" and usually it wasn't. If sleep came it was an exhausted and sated one, and never alone. Ryou woke up in his room at about three am, too comfortable to want to move but too thirsty not to. Moving was a delicate procedure, though. Sage had his arms around Ryou's chest, his pale cheek resting on Ryou's shoulder. Rowen had his head against Ryou's stomach, his strong arms entangled with Ryou's dark legs.

Ryou sat up slowly, reluctantly sliding out of Sage's grasp. Sage blinked at him blearily, his violet gaze unfocused.

"Go back to sleep. I'll be right back." A soft kiss accompanied the whisper, and Sage, assured nothing was amiss, slipped back into slumber. Rowen was harder to escape, but he slept like the dead and never stirred, unconsciously wrapping himself around Sage in Ryou's absence. Ryou smiled faintly at the two of them, feeling a tinge of desire at seeing them twined asleep together.

Maybe- just maybe... he'd kiss them awake when he got back. If he kept remembering how having one in his mouth and one between his legs felt... that maybe would become a possibly. If he thought too hard on Sage's mouth and Rowen's hands... that possibly would become a definite. He sighed happily, reaching out to ruffle Rowen's hair (which, he had delightfully discovered, was the same shade of perfect indigo all over), and turned to find his pair of boxers amid the pile of clothes on the floor. He held up several items to the smidgen of moonlight seeping in through the blinds, throwing stripes over his back and the two sleeping warriors. Blue shimmery stuff... nope. Green silk... nope... white tiger stripes... bingo! He slipped into them and vanished into the hall, pulling the door to behind him before padding downstairs into the kitchen.

Ryo woke up, not surprisingly, in Seiji's bed, Seiji's ivory back to him. He shuffled the tangle of blankets and sheets off and yawned his way into the bathroom. Touma sleepily discovered the bathroom occupied, frowned at the locked door, and stumbled downstairs to the other bathroom adjoining the living room. A flare of light from the fridge caught his eye, but he ignored it. Back in Rowen's bed, Shin blinked awake, fumbling for the warm body that had been asleep next to him and unaware in the slightest that his location in his home dimension had changed; the room was identical to Touma's.

Sage restlessly got up and walked onto the balcony to clear his head. He'd been having a disturbing dream where none of his friends were who they seemed to be.

Shin, only barely conscious, wandered out into the hall. He smiled faintly at discovering Rowen asleep in Ryou's bed. (Sage had left the door open... and a whole lot of mess could have been averted if he hadn't...) "Sleepwalking again, love?" He murmured, and crawled into bed with Rowen. Ryo wouldn't care- he was sleeping with Seiji.

Seiji rolled over and opened his eyes. "Ryo?" His sharp hearing caught the sound of the refrigerator door opening. Seiji smirked and pulled a silk robe around his shoulders, but left it open. He crept soundlessly downstairs.

"I thought I was your preferred midnight drink."

Ryou almost choked on the applejuice he was swigging straight from the carton. Before he could turn, Seiji had pressed up behind him, carefully removing the juice from Ryou's hands and replacing it back in the fridge, then kicking the door shut by edging one leg in between Ryou's. His arms slid around Ryou's waist, green silk around his arms cool against Ryou's sides.

"Not even a hello?"

Ryou was too frozen to respond to the soft query, as Seiji's hand slid familiarly up over his breastbone and back down. A warm open kiss on his throat made a tremor of ticklish sensation shimmy down Ryou's spine, sharp teeth nipping lightly at the dark skin. Seiji moved a little closer, rubbing his hips against Ryou, who couldn't help but arch back in response, his mind racing as fast as his pulse.

"Tell me you want it," Seiji whispered against the ebony hair, his sex pressing against the soft silk of Ryou's boxers and into the flesh beneath. His tongue flicked Ryou's ear expertly. "Tell me..."

"umm.." Ryou wanted it, sure enough... enough that his knees were wobbly. But this was too bizarre. Sage and Rowen were a set- he never made love to one without the other, and he knew himself to be an occasional auxiliary. He did, after all, belong to Mia as much as to any of them. Like Rowen and Sage belonged to each other and Kento and Sai... for Sage to be seducing just him wasn't only strange- it was almost unnatural.

"I don't hear anything, Ryo." Seiji's tone was soft and edged with dangerousness, the deadly whisper of a Katana being eased from it's sheath. One hand slipped down over the tanned ripples of Ryou's stomach, and into his boxers.

"Un!" Ryou jerked as his hard sex was gripped painfully, his eyes going wide in utter shock. Sage had never before HURT him... certainly not on purpose... not when there was often a green armored form between Ryou and danger.

"Tell me," Seiji insisted reasonably, his fingers constricting a little more. Ryo was playing well tonight. He usually gave in much too fast.

Ryou groaned softly at the dull warm wave of pain, sending sensation clean up into his stomach. Pain... and something unexpectedly sweet, like dark chocolate. "Sage..." he managed to gasp, squirming a little and frustrated that it only further agitated his desire. "Sage... let me go."

Seiji's eyes narrowed. Show of defiance should be suitably rewarded. His hand moved suddenly in the darkness.

"Ah! unnn.." Ryou twisted, trying but unable to escape. The pain faded fast and he realized with a start he wanted Sage to do it again.

"What was that Ryo?'

"Nothing, Sage."

"Louder."

"Nothing, Sage."

"and you don't want this?" Seiji's hand released Ryou. Ryou shook his dark head, but it was in protest at being released, not a refusal. Ryou couldn't have refused now if he wanted to. He sighed, feeling himself being stroked gently, so different from the hurting force. Seiji's lips traced a path down the back of Ryou's neck. "You don't want this?" the caressing fingers slipped away, over the sculpted curve of his hip, and Ryou felt two fingers push hard and expertly into him. "You don't want this? I don't believe you. I think you do." The fingers began to move in and out, now three instead of two, probing deeper each time. Ryou stifled a sob and shuddered. Seiji's other hand reached around and began massaging Ryou in time. "You do want it, don't you." Seiji bit at the soft skin between Ryou's shoulderblades, tasting salt. "This tells me you want it." A warm squeeze and a simultaneous flutter of the fingers inside him made Ryou gasp and tremble violently. Sage had never done THAT before. Bewilderedly, Ryou nodded.

Seiji's hard sex nudged his hip. "Tell me."

"Yes." Ryou's voice was a bare shadow. Something was terribly wrong but he could no longer think... He was burning under Seiji. He was hovering right at the edge.

"Yes WHAT, Ryo?" The hand thrust in suddenly and hard, Seiji's voice deceptively benign. Ryou reached out to grab the fridge to steady himself, his body being rocked so hard it almost hurt. But Seiji's hands felt so ~good.~ He glanced up and saw Seiji's blurry reflection in the black lacquered fridge, a smudge of blond hair and pale skin. He was almost past the point where he could talk. He nodded to the best of his ability.

"Uhn! I... I want it..."

"How?"

Ryou blinked. He knew somehow that there was a proper answer to that, but what it could be eluded him. Punishment or pleasure awaited his choice. Sage was acting so strange. He'd never been afraid of him before. "Now?" he tried cautiously.

A low laugh. It wasn't Ryo's usual answer but Seiji rather liked it. A nice change of pace. "That will do, I think." Seiji kissed his ear. "Say please."

The fingers stretched.

Ryou moaned breathlessly. "p l e a s e...."

"Good boy." Ryou's sex was released, Seiji's hand trailing up to play with the silver ring in Ryou's nipple, a "gift" last Christmas. He liked to toy with it when they made love.

The violet eyes blinked twice in surprise. His pale hand encountered nothing but smooth unpunctured skin. Ryou sensed the sudden change in Seiji's attitude, partly that the hand inside him went still. He tilted his head slightly, trying to see Seiji's face.

"Sage? What's-?"

The fingers vanished from within him unexpectedly, leaving Ryou feeling washed out and unable to fend off Seiji when he spun him suddenly and slammed him back against the fridge. Ryou's breath was knocked from his body; he couldn't speak as Seiji scrutinized his chest, holding Ryou down by his upper arms.

No silver ring with the glittering emerald stone. Not even a place for it to be, not a scar, nothing. And where before Ryo's chest was unmarked, there was a symbol tattooed into the molasses colored skin, staining it like blood in the shape of four diamonds forming a star. Ryou's armor emblem, emblazoned over his heart. Seiji's eyes turned to bitter gray ice, freezing the blue flame of Ryou's.

"Who are you?"

Ryou had managed to get air back into his lungs, and his legs were once again working properly. So was his temper.

"Get your fucking hands off me!" He snarled, shoving Seiji off him. "What do you mean, who am I? Damnit, Sage, if you're going to be a pretentious little bitch you can do it without me!" Frustrated not only with Seiji's behavior, but also that he still wanted him desperately, Ryou stalked past Seiji towards the stairs.

"Just where the hell are you going?" Seiji's tone would have seemed mild but it was one that Ryo never EVER disobeyed. Ryo should have stopped in his tracks. Ryo should have apologized. Ryo should have buried his face between Seiji's thighs and asked to be forgiven.

Ryou didn't even bother to turn his head. "Back to bed!" he snapped. "Maybe Rowen's better behaved than YOU are!"

Seiji was so stunned he just watched him tromp up the stairs. Touma? And RYO?!?

Ryou was too pissed to be confused, bitching his way up the stairs and fumbling into his room. It was too dark to see after the dim light of the kitchen and he prodded at the lumpy shape in his bed. "Scoot."

Just what the hell was WRONG with Sage? Ryou flopped onto his side, not noticing that there were two shapes in his bed. He shifted his hips in frustration. Now he ached like hell, and just his luck, Rowen was comatose and Mia would KILL him for waking him up when she had an early morning tomorrow. Not that either way mattered. He wanted Sage. He never even considered going outside the unspoken boundaries but... He sighed audibly. Boundaries. None of it relieved the need... and he was damned if Sage was going to force Ryou to relive it himself. He'd rather be miserable. Ryou sniffled. Miserable he had covered. He tried to make himself sleep but the soft voice kept playing over and over in his mind... like the touch of the hands... blurring the line between pleasure and pain.

Shin blinked in sleepy confusion, recognizing a voice and pattern of profanity he took for Ryo's. What on earth was he doing back in his bed at this time of night? Shin's brows lowered in puzzlement as Ryou cuddled his body into the mattress, trying to ease away the relentless pressure between his legs. Shin felt himself blush. It was pitch dark in the room... but he knew what that move meant. Had Ryo fought with Seiji? Shin could think of no other reason why Ryo would return to his own room in the middle of the night- as obviously upset as he was unsated. A muffled sob sounded into the room, soft as gathering night.

Shin's heart ached with sympathy. He looked down at Rowen's general location, feeling the Archer's head nestled against his thigh. It was too dark for Shin to see the dark blue arrow emblem between Rowen's shoulderblades; Shin had no idea he was gazing fondly at entirely the wrong warrior, or that the Ryou he was commiserating with was NOT the Ryo he had followed into battle. He did however know that fighting with the one you loved was perfectly awful. He and Rowan never fought much but it was ghastly when they did. And when your body still needed your lover-

That made it worse. Seiji and Ryou would work it out; they always did- but right now... Shin chewed his lip, thinking hard. He hated seeing anyone miserable, it was twice as bad when it was your friend and they were hauntingly beautiful- even when barely visible. No one of his friends should suffer. Not when he could do something about it.

Ryou was ready to give up, swallow his pride, and go find Sage when he felt a warm hand slide up his thigh, and a soft kiss against his stomach. Ryou jerked in surprise. Rowen was sound asleep- that faint snore was inimitable. Who else was in here with him? "Wha-"

"Shh." The hand removed itself from his leg and covered his eyes, pushing him back against the mattress. He still couldn't even sense who was with him, and obviously he wasn't supposed to know. Another hand tugged his boxers down. Ryou started to snarl in protest. Did he have "Boy Toy" tattooed on his ass or something? The caress came then, gentle and promising and almost shy. Ryou's defiance melted like a popcicle in August. He pushed against the stroking hand offering him release. "Please..." He whispered, tossing pride out the window. "Please I need-" A warm kiss was placed on the inside of one trembling thigh, and then his sex was enveloped in a soft but determined mouth. Ryou groaned softly. This wasn't familiar- whomever was bestowing this gift on him was not anyone who had done so before. Any such contemplation was soon lost, however, as a faint moan emanated from the throat he was slipping in and out of. A tongue was working him slowly and expertly, the hands tightened on his thighs. One moved between his legs and underneath him, Ryou lifted his hips up instinctively, spreading his legs wider. It was almost too sweet to be borne, this intense anguished pleasure. He was ready to finish when he walked in the room, but now he was being forced to enjoy the wait. Delicate hands stroked him, Ryou reached down to touch soft hair- realizing in an almost psychic flash who his anonymous lover was. He should have known immediately but- The train of thought derailed abruptly as Shin's fingers thrust inside, making Ryou writhe a bit. "Sai?" Ryou choked on it, the fingers were working him as well, searching for a secret.

"Why- why're yoUUUNNNNNNHHH!" Ryou arched, forcing himself deeper into the now furiously suckling mouth, Shin's fingers stroking what they had found. Ryou shuddered violently. It felt like he was being taken all over, that all sensation in his body was focused into the fill and being filled. Somehow Shin knew he needed both.

Shin was almost drunk with it. He was turned on, yes to be sure- but there was something more. A kind of rich, darkly benevolent power. In a flash he understood everything Seiji had ever done, to him or otherwise. Ryou, strong willed, stubborn, indomitable in battle, was helpless under HIS touch, weeping with the pleasure HE gave. Ryou was begging HIM for more. Seiji may have given Ryou this ache and inspired the need. But when Ryou came, hard and hot but not briefly, it was not Seiji's name Ryou was gasping as he surged into Shin's mouth. Shin knew he did it, and could do it again... and again...

Shin gave a few more soft licks and lifted his head from between Ryou's slightly trembling thighs, watching the slowing rise and fall of the shadow that was Ryou's chest.

"Sai-" Ryou half sat up, still feeling weak and washed out. The relief was beyond words. He reached out to touch features he knew but could not well see.

"Thank... thankyou. How did you know I-?"

Shin kissed him, Ryou yielding to the tongue tasting of his own release. "I knew." The line of a shy smile was visible in the dark. Ryo felt better... that was good. But now Shin was the one shifting his hips uncomfortably. His gaze dropped to the juncture of the dark muscular legs he was kneeling between. Hummm...

Ryou flopped back, still panting a bit. Wow. Kento was one lucky bastard. (This is true, but not for the reasons Ryou was thinking, having the wrong Torrent armor wearer in bed with him).

"Ryo."

"mmm?"

Ryou felt the warm weight of a body covering his. Shin gently lifted Ryou behind his knees, spreading him gently. Ryou blinked. "Do you want to take me, Sai?"

Shin swallowed, and nodded. "Yes." He whispered.

Ryou was surprised that he almost seemed ashamed.

"But... I- I want you to ask me for it."

Ryou grinned, thinking that Sai must not be used to being dominating. He was adorably embarrassed. Not surprising... Kento was probably a dominant lover. Ryou had no clue how far off he was. Ryou lifted himself slightly. What the hell, it was a weird night anyway. "Take me, Sai." Ryou exhaled softly as Shin did just that, pushing into him with a soft gasp. Ryou moaned slightly. So different from Rowen or Sage but still similar... like the differences in wines. He ran his hands up Shin's chest and pulled him down for a kiss as their bodies moved in synch.

Neither one of them was aware of a pair of stunned midnight blue eyes shining with desire and shock, watching them. Ryou's cry of release had been one hell of a wake-up call. Rowen had never contemplated a three way with Sai and Ryou, but the thought crossed his mind then-

And stayed there.

That's it, Seiji decided. He was going to find out what was going on if he had to castrate Ryo to do it. Ryo- or whoever the hell that was. He stalked up the stairs like a predator and then stopped short before he was even halfway there, an expression on his usually neutral face that might almost have been called terror.

From the top of the stairs, Sage looked back at himself, his hand frozen on the railing, gray eyes a perfect startled mirror of his own. Sage's expression was definitely terrified. They might have stayed that way indefinitely, a symmetrical tableau, had not Sai stepped up behind Sage on the landing.

"Oh, good, you're awake. Sage- is it just me or is something weird going-"

Sai simply stopped talking, his gaze following Sage's line of sight into the darkness pooled at the stairs' bottom. Sai couldn't help but gape at the Seiji staring back up at them, perfectly identical down to the shell-shocked look.

" Sai," Sage's voice seemed to have been dragged over glass before it got out, his eyes never

leaving those of his twin. "Round up everyone you find... and I do mean everyone. Meet in the living room as soon as you do."

Sai blinked three times, even though he was already turning to go. "But-"

Seiji glowered up at him. His patience was gone. MUST Shin choose to be an imbecile at the LEAST convenient time? "Don't ask stupid questions you sniveling little brat, just DO it!"

Sai froze dead in his tracks, his shoulders shifting slightly, and EVER so slowly turned back around, a baleful light in his green eyes as he turned them on Seiji. "What," he purred softly, "Did you say?" It was Seiji's turn to blink in surprise. Good God. Could it be Shin actually had a spine? He sounded almost... dangerous?

Sage glanced between them. "Sai, go. We haven't time for this. As for you-" Sage glanced at his doppelganger, feeling his insides twist a bit. "Downstairs. We'll sort this out when everyone is rounded up."

"I’m having a nightmare," Sai told himself firmly, walking down the hall to the first door he came to- Ryou’s. "I’m in some funkadelic bad dream, and it’s all the fault of that triple mocha hazelnut cappuccino I had before bed." With this resolve armoring him to face whatever was beyond Ryou’s door, he put his hand on the handle. His expression of determination dissolved into shock before he could even turn the knob. A hot wave of pleasure shot over him out of nowhere, sending him gasping to his knees, mind reeling as his body contracted in reaction to some non-physical stimulus. He shook with the sensation but not the reality of release, his head touching the polished floorboards lightly. From his peripheral vision he saw the door to Rowen’s room crack open.

"Hey, are you okay?" Toma’s voice hit him like cool starlight water, gentled with unexpected affection. "Shin, are you sick?"

Sai shook his head, his heart slowing from its sudden hammering pace.

"I’m... better... Sorry if ... I woke you..."

"Nah, I just got back from the bathroom... and somebody was makin’ a racket in the kitchen… .Are you shu’a you’re all right?" Toma knelt down and put his arm around Sai’s shoulder, pulling him upright and close and smoothing back his hair. Sai blinked in faint confusion. Rowen was being very... familiar with him. He usually wasn’t this cozy. Certainly not smiling like that and-

Sai’s brain went dead. Toma had leaned in and kissed him, easily, as if it were the most natural thing in the world and he had done it thousands of times. (Actually, Toma had kissed SHIN thousands of times, and Shin was, if you recall, on the other side of the door engaged in a frolic with Rowen and Ryou and utterly oblivious that they were the wrong set).

Toma pulled away at the lack of response, frowning. "Shin, are you shu’a ya okay?"

Sai nodded and shut his mouth, aware he was gaping like a landed fish.

"I... I um... I’m just a little bit rattled, that’s all." Rowen just kissed me. Oh my God. And not just any kind of Kissed me; he KISSED me kissed me. And... I liked it.

A lot.

Toma angled his head, trying to get a better look at him. "Is the’a anything ya need? Ya all flushed." Toma’s hand brushed Sai’s cheek, cool and sweet on his heated skin.

"I-... " A thousand questions rushed through Sai’s mind, mostly what the hell was going on, but nothing could stay in focus. He remembered, dimly, wasn’t he in some sort of bad dream?

A bad dream that was getting warmer by the second. Sai had noticed Rowen, certainly, it was impossible not to. But it was like imagining growing daisies on Jupiter, so farfetched he’d never let himself consider the option of loving Rowen. He practically had "PROPERTY OF SAGE" tattooed on his forearm!

But his lips were still parted, invitingly, his body kneeling so much closer than usual, the cobalt folds of silk around his hips just barely giving enough hint of the form underneath. Something left from the strange feeling coursing through him made him want to know what Sage saw when he made love to the archer, how that slender frame would bend and arch to touch like a willow in the wind. His hand reached out, almost of its own will, tracing a shy path over Toma’s shoulder.

Toma grinned at him. "Feeling bettah, huh?" he kissed Sai again, grateful now that there was a response. In fact, more response than he expected from Shin, in the middle of the night in the hallway. He practically jumped him, hands kneading his shoulders as though afraid that he would never have this chance and if he hesitated, he wouldn’t take it.

"Hey... slow down, loverboy..." Toma grinned, nipping at Sai’s lower lip. "What, ya wanna take me right he’a in the floor?"

Sai turned suddenly, violently crimson. Toma smiled easily, and tugged Sai to his feet. "C’mon," he said, leading the slight warrior into his room. Sai trailed after like an obedient child, caught up in something beyond his control, unable to even consider resistance. Rowen shut the door with a soft click.

Ryo wandered out of the loo with the same non-conscious obliviousness as he had walked in with, frowning at the sounds coming from his bedroom. Honestly. It was warm out, if they wanted a change of scenery couldn’t they go OUTSIDE? Nobody respected his space. He walked back into Seiji’s room and curled up on the mattress, hoping his lover would get back soon. He hated sleeping by himself.

"What the hell is keeping Sai?" Sage grumbled, glowering up at the stairs.

"He probably got distracted by a shiny object," Seiji returned from the couch, irritably immobile.

Sage shot his double an aggravated glare. "I had no idea I was such a prick."

Seiji’s cold glare was disturbingly identical. "I had no idea you were either. Thank you for letting me know."

Sage opened his mouth, then shut it again. This was as pointless as one of those playground games where someone repeated all your words. He didn’t pace the floor as Rowen would have, just stood immobile by the banister and dared the darkness at the top of the stairs to mess with him. A slow prickle warned at the back of his neck, or maybe it was a sliver of heat at the base of his spine. He was being watched. He tipped his head slightly to look at Seiji, the silver violet eyes fixed on him, revealing nothing. "What are you looking at?" He demanded, proud that his voice stayed calm and even no matter how many grasshoppers were doing the tango in his digestive system.

Seiji might have shrugged, a vague lift of his left shoulder. "Me." His kimono slithered down slightly as he spoke, and he paid it as much mind as a dust mote fitting through a beam of sunlight. Sage found himself entranced by the smooth curve of pale skin, so very like his own but separate, watching his own motions in a reality that could never be duplicated in mirror or video.

"I look like you." Sage said, taking a step forward, almost in challenge. "And you breathe like me and move like me and talk like me but you aren’t me. I’m someone else. I don’t know how you got here, but there’s a wrongness to it."

"Is there?" Seiji seemed almost droll. "Yes, perhaps. But for now it just is."

"Yes."

They looked at each other.

"Have you ever wondered-" Seiji began.

"No."

Seiji smiled. "Not so different after all."

Sage was grateful that the shadows concealed the heat rising to his cheeks. "I don’t know what you’re assuming-"

"Of course you do." Seiji’s teeth were briefly white in the moonlight.

"We’re already a-"

"Be quiet!" Sage hissed, his teeth clenched, a slight twitch in his jaw.

Seiji was silent, smiling inwardly. He didn’t think he would be so easy.

But then again, this wasn’t him.

Now was it?

What a very interesting evening this was turning out to be.

0;)

by Tenshi no Korin
yoroiden samurai troopers
b i s h o n e n i n k