Dokugakuji guessed it was his punishment, getting roped in with the other workers like this, while his lord stood off to the side and belted out orders. Some construction project handed down from Gyokumen Koushu, he'd heard Kougaiji grumbling about it for a solid week, when he thought he was out of his servants' earshot.

He'd wanted to change that. Even just a few months into his service under the prince, Dokugakuji had noticed a character deeply troubled by a lot of things and really would have liked to get Lord Kougaiji to communicate on a bit more of a personal level to someone. Anyone. He'd love it if it was him, but right now even that little kid princess would have done. If the shoe fits, right?

And he'd almost succeeded, he thought. Last week. Only things had tugged way out of control and now they were in one huge fucking mess. Dokugakuji should've been glad that all it had landed him was a cold shoulder and some menial labor in the rain; the prince had the power and excuse to do way more.

It was almost like he was shy.

Dokugakuji had long ago reconciled with himself that he could grow fond of men just as easily as women, and didn't hate himself for it outside the trouble it occasionally landed him in. But it was damn near a sin the way he was lusting after that boy, prince or no. Not that the prince part helped.

That was the thing. Kougaiji had started it last week, even if he probably hadn't meant to. And now he was distancing himself out of what was most certainly embarrassment. If it wasn't, then it was the most unconventional disgust Dokugakuji had ever seen.

And it was sort of starting to annoy him to have to suffer it. Kind of like the rain. Rain that didn't have enough effort to be truly repellant, but didn't feel like giving in either. Just sort of... made your teeth clench.

His eyes were on him, he realized suddenly. Staring blankly without any sort of hint of emotion. And then just glided over him, to the other men hauling the wooden beam he was carrying. The prince shouted something to them, directed with a clawed hand. They went without a word.

And then it was back for another beam. And another one. But none of the successive passes granted Dokugakuji another look. He wouldn't have minded some deadly glare right now, if only it would indicate he was wrong and his lord hated his guts, so he knew to expect a summary execution soon. But Kougaiji wasn't even bothering to give him that much.

In the afternoon the rain had not thinned, but the humidity made his skin itch. A group of other servants came over to relieve them for lunch break. Dokugakuji should've siezed the opportunity to get something to quiet his stomach, and was halfway to the food tent to see to this, when he noticed his master heading the other way, back up toward the courtyard.

He followed.

Kougaiji's pace faltered for the slightest fraction of a second as he approached, and he knew the prince had heard him. But he said nothing, even ducked his head and stayed his present course, crossing over construction lines and taking a shortcut between a castle wall and an overseer tent toward the garden steps.

Here the rain splatted down after long falls from the tiling of the roof, made little sheet-like waterfalls under the overhang, but rainfall itself was all but blocked out. Mud squelched loudly underfoot, so much so that Dokugakuji barely heard Kougaiji when he stopped and spoke.

"Yes?"

Dokugakuji forced a smile, even though it went unseen. It was to get his mouth in working order. "I'm following you," he explained simply.

"You're not needed at the moment. Go back to your unit."

"I'm supposed to be your bodyguard."

Ah. This merited him a glance over a shoulder. Indigo eyes flared, but it wasn't outright malevolence behind them. Something close.

"Who are you to be telling me your duties?"

Dokugakuji's jaw moved a little. He struggled for a comeback to that, and realized directly answering would just make him lose this particular battle. So he tried instead, "Want to tell me what's with this cold front routine?"

His eyes narrowed a little more. "I don't believe I caught that."

"No," said Dokugakuji, edging a little closer, "I don't think you did, your highness. By the shape of things it looks like you don't pick up on a lot of stuff."

"Are you trying to insult me?"

"I'm trying to make a point." He moved closer still and, to his expectations, Kougaiji unconsciously started backing up. "And anyway, we were making way too much progress for you to go back to this formal bullshit again. We're past that and you know it."

Right now the prince's normal response would have been to bear his teeth and growl out something harsh, but that wasn't what he was doing. In fact, for every step that he retreated to Dokugakuji's advance, the more uncertainty was cropping up on that beautiful face.

When he found himself backed straight against a wall, Dokugakuji moved close and blocked his side escape with an arm. And made sure their eyes locked.

"If you want nothing to do with me, go ahead and say it. But I don't think that's it. Call it a hunch," Dokugakuji said. He was leaned in close enough to hear an uneven quality to Kougaiji's breathing. "So are you gonna make up your mind or what? Pick up where we left off last week?"

And knew it was exactly the wrong time to be asking this. But he couldn't care less. Because it was annoying him. It even managed to annoy him the way the prince fidgeted and tried not to stammer, the way he was fighting a losing battle against a terrible blush. It was even annoying the way Kougaiji all but yelped when Dokugakuji pressed his mouth into a kiss.

It was annoying how he tried to struggle away even as his lips moved and sucked hungrily, the way Dokugakuji had to hold him by the shoulders to keep him from escaping, even had to resort to pressing nearly his whole body against him to hold him in place. The way he fought to and against at the same time like his brain was working at cross purposes with his mouth and ended up making pained little animal sounds like he'd taken a gunshot to the leg.

"What's wrong?" Dokugakuji demanded, finally breaking contact for more than a few seconds and pulling back, and Kougaiji struggled to reign in his breathing.

The prince looked up at him in what was very nearly true weakness. Helplessness. Shame.

"I... I've never..."

The world slowed down for a moment.

"But you're a prince," Dokugakuji said flatly. "And biologically seventeen. What's stopping you?"

Kougaiji was in danger of turning just as red as his hair.

"Right," his bodyguard said instead in a lighter tone, leaning in to kiss the corner of his lips briefly. "Nevermind. If it's that involved, I don't wanna know. I--" He had difficulty finishing the sentence, as Kougaiji turned his head to draw in his lips again for a full kiss. Strong and desperate and empty, for a distraction.

Which didn't really work out. No, it would take more than an albeitly quite hot crown prince stumbling through one hell of a passionate kiss to get Dokugakuji out of his head. He'd had experience. He could keep himself in check. He even knew how to slip a hand down between pressed bodies and get the fronts of jeans undone before the other even notices.

Kougaiji was still rather keen for his part. When he did notice the sudden chill, he tore immediately out of the kiss and looked down in shock. "What are you--"

"Upping the ante. You still game?"

"But we're out in the open--"

"That's part of the fun," Dokugakuji said with a grin.

"You--" Kougaiji began, cut off by another kiss. Ended briefly, followed up by another, a downright assault of short, bruising embraces, his head pushed back against the cold stone. Dokugakuji's hand, broad and muscular, calloused, burning, shoved down without hesitation between jeans and skin, cupped tender flesh and stroked, and the prince's gasp was lost halfway to this throat.

The air was biting against bare skin as Dokugakuji let his pants down to his knees, freed an already half-erect member twitching in a cold so sharp they could nearly see their breath cloud in front of them. Kougaiji's jeans he pushed down to his ankles, then hooked his arms under the prince's armpits and bodily lifted him up to hang almost level with him, pinned with feet dangling with his back against the wall. Somewhere in there his young lord got the idea to kick off his shoes and trousers, get his arms in working order to fasten around Dokugakuji's neck.

The bodyguard couldn't help a small grin of approval. He made sure Kougaiji's grip was secure and let his hands drift south, running over taut muscle and firm buttocks and thighs, skin goosepimpling with the cold and not any better for the unfamiliar touch. But they still lifted at the coaxing of his hands. He edged in closer and secured raised legs against his sides and felt the prince's burning erection pressed against his stomach, rubbed a little on account and let Kougaiji moan to his heart's content as he suckled at a surprisingly sensitive neck, before where the silver bangles cut him off. The young man's thighs twitched in the effort to keep the awkard pose, as one hand left supporting his rear and reached up to gather some saliva between the two of them. Dokugakuji hadn't exactly set out prepared for this today.

He could literally hear the prince's teeth grinding to suffocate a betraying moan as his fingers entered, could barely move for how tense Kougaiji's muscles were on the inside. Dokugakuji murmured an advisory in his ear, hoping like nothing else it would be heeded, because the last thing he wanted on his hands right now was an injury.

Eventually the prince did relax a little, enough to do for now, for Dokugakuji to cover the rest once they got going. He got an unsuppressed whimper upon removing his fingers, and another one, more strained, when he pushed Kougaiji's thighs back up against his chest, so that his knees were near his bodyguard's shoulders.

"What... the hell... are you..." the prince wheezed.

"Better angle. It won't feel so bad in a second. Shh," he whispered near an ear, throwing caution to the wind and chancing to tug on one of his ornate earrings with his lips, offer just that little bit of a distraction as Dokugakuji angled himself and carefully made his first push inward.

He could almost be disappointed by the choked out cry, the barely audible squeak the prince stifled for his dignity, though he'd be hard put to find any here. A humming at the base of his throat, more like a groan than a purr, vibrated against Dokugakuji's pressing collarbone, as muscles twitched and shifted and struggled to adjust. And when the humming stopped, the bodyguard pushed in again.

Too far. He'd overestimated the prince's tolerance level and was rewarded with a sharp yelp, and claws digging into the back of his shoulders. For a moment, Dokugakuji was so stunned he thought of withdrawing before things got too messy, watching his master's eyes clench tightly shut and shake despite all efforts to keep up silent and still. And with a slight pang of guilt come far too late Dokugakuji remembered he wasn't an easy size to take in right off. Certainly not with virgins, for the gods' sake. Who cared if Lord Kougaiji was strong and took his punches well, this was a hell of a different matter.

"Do you want me to--" He stopped, feeling a cold and slightly wet claw touch the back of his neck. Slightly trembling. But insistent.

"All right."

He moved his hips. Felt the minute shiver run up and down Kougaiji's entire body as he slid his member almost completely out, before quickly thrusting back into the tight heat to a strangled shout and a painful dig of claws into his back. He didn't slow even for that, with each progressive stroke judging from the volume and quality of his master's moans that he was getting closer to hitting just the right spot, and that--

--there, right there, that was it. Everything in Kougaiji's body shook, his lungs rattled with every unsilenced cry and the claws tore at skin until the air smelled like blood. But Dokugakuji couldn't be bothered to notice the pain, incorporated it right in with his pleasure, the dizzying heat swimming in his head that lapped up every sound and shake. Sent him over his limit before he could control himself and shuddering up into that hot and perfect body. Realizing all too late that he had ended prematurely, shamefully, leaving his master hanging without climax while the world slowed down around him.

He fought against dimming vision and his legs jellying under him and kept going, sensing somehow by smell or sound that Kougaiji had to be very close, was probably right on the edge. Thought at last to raise his arms to those shaking hips and gripped hard, thrusting up into the prince strong and fast, as deep as he could go.

And realized with the choking defeat in Lord Kougaiji's voice as he let out one last cry that it had been deliberate, doing everything to hold out as long as he could even if it wasn't necessary. His delayed climax hit hard, every muscle shuddering violently held in Dokugakuji's embrace; hot, wet consistency hitting Dokugakuji's bare lower stomach and seeping into the prince's vest.

Kougaiji's head fell back and hit the stone wall with a dull thud, followed by most of the rest of him, while his chest rose and fell and Dokugakuji did everything he could not to collapse. Couldn't even remember a time he hadn't outlasted a partner, guy or girl, and trying to think just what it had been that had turned him into such an incompetent that he felt like he needed a lie-down after this.

Just. Gods.

He noticed, suddenly, that Kougaiji's body was very, very hot. Searing. It might just be the fatigue but Dokugakuji could even swear he saw steam rising off his dark exotic skin. The air around them vibrated with radiated heat, as though their joined bodies had just become some kind of furnace, some great mass of flame...

Ah. That was it, then. His mom had warned him about fire-types.

"Hot damn," he managed, finally letting Kougaiji's legs down. And summarily collapsed.

~*~

"How goes the construction by the western gate?" Gyokumen asked the advisor, handing back a glanced-over clipboard.

"Delayed, your highness."

"Delayed?"

"His highness Prince Kougaiji sent word up this morning complaining of a cold and back pain, my lady. He's presently being looked after by one of his servants."

Gyokumen Koushu hmphed. "Just like that boy. No constitution at all."