Resoultions: Chapter 4
By Tokimaru
tokimaru@excite.com
http://www.geocities.com/Tokyo/Harbor/6466/rk.html



"Irrashaimase."

The hostess rose with timed graciousness from her bow and swept backwards
to allow the two men entry into the main room. Sano got the feeling that
the elegance of speech and manner didn't so much give honour to the inn's
guests as it did to the inn's own prestige.

"This looks really fancy," Sano whispered to the older man. "Are you sure
we can afford to stay here?"

Saitou began to remove his gloves as they were led to the proprietor of the
establishment. "Don't worry about it. And as I recall you're the one who
insisted on having a warm meal and bed for the night."

Sano folded his arms and regarded Saitou from under straight brows. "After
these past few days don't I deserve a reward after all the hard work I've
been doing?"

There was only the faintest suggestion of a smile in Saitou's voice as he
answered calmly, "I'm the one who deserves the reward for having put up
with you."

Sano grrrrrrd at him. "I've been an excellent student! No one else would
have stuck with you for so long!"

"Be quiet and quit making such a spectacle of yourself, rooster-head. This
is a respectable establishment."

There wasn't time to retort before they were introduced to the inn's
proprietor and the niceties were made. Sanosuke only half-listened to
Saitou's polite requests for dinner and a room as he occupied himself with
gazing around curiously. From the polished dark wood tables to the hints of
blossoms scenting the rooms to the discreet lighting and the murmured
voices, the whole ambiance of the place was one of quiet tastefulness. Of
the guests, Sanosuke could see only men, most being of middle age and
dressed with a slightly old-fashioned gentility. Sano glanced down at his
own, shabby, different clothes and for the first time in his life was
acutely, embarassingly conscious of being a weed amongst roses. Not that he
cared about things like that at /all/, but he was sort of glad when they
left the curious eyes.

Sano stretched as unobtrusively as possible as he and Saitou were led to a
room by their smiling hostess and stifled a groan as pain lanced through
his sore, stiff muscles. While the past few days had been an incredible 
learning experience he wouldn't have traded for the world, he was also thoroughly exhausted and in whole-body pain. The only thing that consoled 
him was the fact that Saitou looked almost half as tired as he did. I 
guess I couldn't have given too bad an account of myself.

"Make yourselves at home, honoured guests." With another polite smile, the
hostess left them at the doorway of their room.

Sano considered the small room with interest. Clean, new tatami spread over
the floor with a small table and heating lamp in the center. It was neither
big nor opulent, but it had class in it's own, quiet way.

"Hm, nice," he commented appreciatively. "Aaah... clean, and it smells so
nice in here!" Compared to the abandoned housing he lived in back in Tokyo,
it was elegance beyond his imagination. He walked right in and dumped his
bag on the floor, seconds before he plonked himself down too and wriggled
his toes blissfully. "Now all I need is some food and a bath."

Saitou placed his own travel bag more neatly in the corner, not bothering
to sit down. His only comment was, "You stay here. I've got some things to
do." He gave Sanosuke an assessing once-over before turning and walking out
the door.

Sanosuke blinked in surprise, but Saitou was gone before he could think up
any objection. When his footsteps had died away, he whiled away the time
with an objective consideration of the last few days.

He thought that he could safely say that they'd been the most intense days
of his life. Having had his challenge accepted, he'd been determined to
prove his mettle to the former Shinsengumi captain, and had plunged into
his first lesson with all the determination and enthusiasm that he applied
to every challenge that lay in his path. For the first time he actually
listened to Saitou's explanations of defensive techniques and applied them
when they fought - well, sometimes. But no matter how quickly he caught on
to each point, no matter how fast he tried to block a punch or connect a
hit, every time they fought was a lesson in frustration as each attack was
foiled, each defence breached. Sano had sometimes wondered with the slight
hysteria that came with frustration and exhaustion whether the punches he
took were better or worse than the taunts. But once Sagara Sanosuke vowed
to do something, he never gave up. Even at the end of a long day when his
mind was numb from concentration and his body aching worse than he'd ever
felt from the cunning blows he'd taken from the Wolf of Mibu, he would
stagger to his feet, mumbling, "Mada mada! Shoubu! Shoubu!!!" until the
final upper-cut knocked him unconscious for the night and he woke up
painfully the next morning to start all over again.

When Sanosuke thought about it as dispassionately as possible, he rather
thought that he /had/ made progress. At first it had felt a bit tame to
stick to blocking instead of attacking, but each time he'd tried to attack
he'd been ruthlessly deflected and received a nasty punch across the mouth
for his pains. But when he'd really gotten serious about what he was
learning, it had become a challenge to try to anticipate where he would be
coming from next, to try blocking the wolf's fists, to build up speed in
his movements instead of relying on brute force. It had been so long since
Sano had had the pleasure of fighting against someone so much better - it
was a stimulating challenge that got his adrenaline running more than
anything else he'd ever experienced. And then he found himself blocking
more and more punches, his movements getting faster and faster. He found it
a little easier to predict each movement as time went on.

Saitou was a good teacher. Sano hadn't had any doubts on that score when
he'd impulsively demanded to be taught and the following days had
reinforced that conviction and then some. Sano sighed and lay down on his
back, staring at the ceiling. Saitou always knew exactly how to describe
something so that it could easily be understood. The whole time he'd been
calm, sensible and patient, and while he was never short of a biting
comment when his student wasn't paying attention, or trying to attack
instead of defend, he never ridiculed mistakes which came from honest
effort. Most of all, he seemed to have a maddening ability to anticipate
his student's needs and questions better than he did himself. Was that what
was called instinct honed by years of battle? In any case, most of the time
they had been too busy training to squabble, and Sanosuke was surprised to
find that when antagonism had been put aside, the role of student to his
teacher filled it's place quite comfortably.

Rather than try to analyze the new, uncertain relationship between Saitou
and himself, Sano stood up and began to prowl around the room. Where the
hell was Saitou anyway? He was getting bored and the only place to explore
was the futon cupboard. The door slid smoothly open in the manner of a
well-crafted room and revealed the top cupboard with the overblankets, and
the main portion with the folded futons.

May as well make them up.

It only took a minute to shake each set out and lay them neatly in the
center of the room, then he stepped back to observe the effect. He eyed the
two futons. Were they too close to each other? Would it look kind of weird
if they were too close? Would Saitou think he'd done it on purpose? Did he
do it on purpose? Maybe they weren't too close together. Any more apart and
then they'd be too far from the heating lamp. But maybe they were too
close. Sano rubbed his hair further into a bird's nest, grinning wryly.
Here he was making a big deal out of something that was too ridiculous to
take seriously.

The idea of me and Saitou being lovers. What a joke.

But rather than striking a responding laugh, the thought was a stabbing
ache instead, acknowledging the fact that the thought of sleeping so close
to Saitou filled him with a nervousness that was excitement rather than
repulsion. From the moment they had met, the man had aroused turbulent
feelings in him as no other had done, but days spent travelling with him
had brought another perspective in which to consider Saitou Hajime into
clearer focus- as a flesh and blood man rather than a prickling thorn. It
had given him glimpses of the possibility of a different interplay between
them, something more adult than bickering. Sano lay on one side of the
futon, and allowed himself to imagine the other side filled with a long,
lean presence, his sword gone, his jacket off and wearing just his black
western-style t-shirt and trousers, the way he'd slept on the road. His
body was lean but solid and his muscles strong and well developed. Sano
found his unruly inner voice wondering what Saitou's back muscles looked
like under the shirt.

Oh god.

Sano buried his face into the futon and groaned. I can't believe I'm
wondering this about Saitou of all people.

When he had first met Kenshin, there had been times when he'd wistfully
wonder what it would be like if the red-headed rurouni ever looked at him
with anything warmer than friendship, but even then the thought of Kenshin
had never made him feel this restless. Instead there was Saitou - taunting,
infuriating, often cold and ruthless but honourable, powerful and carrying
a deadly strength in his whipcord body which was as sexy as hell. Sano's
breathing quickened as he tentatively explored a bolder theme, Saitou with
his shirt off, the broad chest flat and smooth under prominent collarbones,
an arched slender neck. The sudden urge to touch that body, to luxuriate in
the feel of warm skin under skin was impossible to fulfil, but even harder
to ignore. Instead, he rolled over onto his back and trailed his fingers
down his own chest, letting the sensitive fingertips play over his nipples
until they hardened to turned the sensation more acute. Mmmm, nice.... His
eyes having fallen shut, a panting sigh escaped his lips, and his fingers
began to make a slow trail up and down his stomach. He very much enjoyed
the way his stomach muscles twitched with a ticklishly pleasurable
sensation underneath, and then trailed his hands back up to his chest to
give further attention to the sensitive peaks. It seemed a natural
progression to let his fingers trail slowly up the sides of his neck, over
his warm cheeks and through his tangled hair, distending muscles releasing
tension with a distinctly pleasurable ache as he stretched his arms above
his head and sensuously arched his back. Another sigh of pleasure and he
let one hand wander back down again, loitering at the waistband of his
trousers. Even while the last cautious part of him was aware that this was
most definitely the wrong time and place, the temptation to rub his hand
against his awakening sex was absolutely irresistible. He was just about to
indulge when the deep velvet voice crashed through his senses in a cold
shock.

"What are you doing."

... Oh /fuck/.

Sano froze in horror for one long, paralysing moment, then slowly,
fatalistically, his head tilted to the side. Saitou was standing in the
doorway, a parcel in his hands and a slyly amused tilt to his brows.

Oh /god/ - How long has he been standing there?!

Any hopes he'd had of attempting to carry the situation off with even a
pretence of unconcern were immediately destroyed by the blush that swept
over him so strong that he felt as though it encompassed his entire body.

"You look as though you were enjoying yourself immensely, hyoko. Was I
interrupting anything?"

Sano felt the familiar heat of embarrassed anger that he always seemed to
feel around this man flare with magnified life through him as he realized
Saitou was /enjoying/ his discomfort, the bastard!

"SHUTTUP~~~!"

"However, since you mentioned being hungry, you might want to curtail your...
recreation. Go get cleaned up before we go down to the dining area. The
bathing rooms can be reached going down the stairs at the end of the
corridor." Saitou casually grabbed a yukata from one of the pegs by the
door and tossed it.

Sano was so glad of the excuse to get the hell away from this, the most
mortifying situation he could ever imagine, that he made no complaint but
caught the yukata and hurtled out of the room with burning cheeks, the
sound of Saitou's amused "hn" scalding his burning ears behind him.

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