Chapter Text
This can’t be happening Tadashi thinks, but sure enough, the figure standing where his beloved stood only seconds prior is smaller than the beefy back of the ‘Matador of Love’. Donning a familiar white school uniform over a black hoodie, hood pulled up, with small curls of that precious blue flitting over the edges-
“Ainosuke-sama…” Tadashi breathlessly gasps. His panic from the bright flash of light and the instant disappearance of his master had managed to steal the air from his lungs.
The figure flinches at the name, turning just enough that Tadashi’s sure he’s seen. Certain that he’s been recognized by the other-
And the boy starts marching away with determined purpose.
“Ainosuke- sama!” Tadashi shouts in fear and now the other is running across the garden. If he makes it past the brick wall-
Ai!” He cries out, frantic, and finally the hooded figure stops in his tracks. Hood twisting around slowly, his entire body stiff and distrusting with a snarl set on his face.
But Tadashi can see the slight tremble running over that body. He’s scared.
“Since when did you start calling me that?” He growls in a voice that hasn’t had years of smoke covering the edges of it in a deep sultry grit. But it’s still such a familiar sound…
“...please stay,” Tadashi pleads without answering the question, taking small steps towards his young master’s side. “I admit I don’t know what’s going on but…” He’s almost to the boy now, not even an arm’s length away. Tadashi’s brain feels like it’s being slow to catch up on the situation but the one thing he does know is that he can’t let this Ainosuke leave him alone. Tadashi can’t possibly live in a world without some form of Ai. So he reaches out, “...at least here there’s food and shelter-”
“And an overbearing father and three witches,” Ainosuke cuts in sharply, brushing off Tadashi’s arm and crossing his own. No, no no no, he can’t lose him, not again.
Tadashi straightens up, honing in on his inner ghost of ‘emotionless servant’ that he’s spent the last year trying to shake. Anything to make this Ainosuke feel something…familiar. Even if it is dreadful…
“Actually, you had your aunt’s sent away so they’re no longer at the Shindo mansion,” and your father’s dead he doesn’t need to say because the boy visibly perks up, finally, finally facing Tadashi and…yep, that face belongs to the past. There’s no mistaking, though the little genuine smile gracing Ainosuke’s lips is something Tadashi can’t believe he missed out on in his own youth. Such a small silver lining to an otherwise hellish current situation, but it remains ever-present all the same.
For his part, Ainosuke is searching Tadashi’s face as well. The servant can almost feel the residual heat of those red eyes as they trace over everything he has the offer. They linger on the mole that his Ai loves to lick and kiss, trace the expanse of his shoulders, travel down…
Those lips then curl into a sneer, sending confusing shivers throughout the servant’s spine.
“You’re old Tadashi,” Ainosuke mocks, voice dripping with delight at the discovery.
Tadashi exhales in relief. At least his young master seemed willing to comply for the moment. “Yes, sir,” he agreed with a bowed head causing the other to scoff with derision.
“Ugh, still the same boring Tadashi,” the teen groans. “Not like I expected anything different. Fine. Show me to my quarters, Dog.”
The word lost any bite when Tadashi could still clearly hear his Ai’s softly whispered ”Puppy~" echoing in his mind. He missed it already…What if he never heard it again?
“As you wish.”
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Having teenage Ai in the mansion made Tadashi’s anxiety slightly ebb, if only because there was a giant closed door between them and the outside world.
Servants give the pair strange looks, a few of the older ones even gasping in disbelief at the blue-haired blast from the past, a ghost of their current master, but Tadashi shoos them all away, telling anyone deemed unessential that they’d be receiving a vacation soon. He might have no idea what’s going on but Tadashi knew it was better to prepare for the worst…
Ainosuke, meanwhile, was clearly taking in the mansion’s changes. The additions of bold red, the abundance of roses… each second Tadashi watched as his master’s eyes seemed to grow brighter. The boy must’ve realized he really was the head of the house now. His tormentors finally gone.
Above the main foyer stairway hung a painting of a gorgeous man with blue hair and a blue suit, a bright red rose tucked into the pocket. Ainosuke was entranced to say the least.
"This is…"
Beautiful, elegant, venomous? The man who had Tadashi’s heart on a platter? The servant mentally supplied, but his newly pubescent charge had already moved on, nearly speed-walking up the connecting stairs to their right. Tadashi suspects the only reason the young master isn't literally sprinting is because he's trying to act like the mature self he'd seen in the portrait, and Tadashi allows himself a tiny smile in the midst of his turmoil and confusion.
Cute.
Finally catching up to Ainosuke, where he is strangely frozen in the middle of the hallway, Tadashi holds a hand out with a respectful slight bow, ready to guide him towards Ai's bedroom.
"Please allow me to show you-"
"You lied to me."
Cold washes over Tadashi like a waterfall at the unexpected words.
Ainosuke’s voice is quiet as a breath, yet so much betrayal manages to shine clearly through the disbelief in his tone. As if Ainosuke can't fathom something that is currently breaking his entire world apart, somehow even more than whatever that flash of light had been.
"What?" Tadashi asks, stricken dumb. He's barely spoken to this version of Ai and everything he's said thus far has been truth-
"You!" Ainosuke whirls around on him, fire burning youthful and orange-ish red in those eyes. Not yet a rich bright scarlet, instead a young flame yet to become a wildfire. "You’re skating again!" He takes a step towards Tadashi and the servant can feel the dagger of a finger pressed accusingly to his chest. "That’s you right!?" Ainosuke absolutely snarls, other hand pointing to…
Oh.
The screen room full of S monitors. It was only open a crack but that was enough.
Enough to see the image of 'snake' fly across multiple screens. Ai must've been rewatching his performance last night-
"I know that’s you!" Ainosuke’s shouts pull Tadashi back to the present. The teen is tall enough for his age, but still too small to effectively tower over Tadashi without Ai’s build of muscles. Instead, he fists the front of that pristine pressed white cotton shirt. Rage rolling off of the boy like smoke but what surprises Tadashi is the glistening edge to those eyes.
The flame flickers as something devastatingly sad washes over Ainosuke’s entire face before he lets it droop down towards the floor. "I’d know your dance anywhere…"
Those last words are nearly whispered against Tadashi’s chest, face hidden before the first tear drop was allowed to form, clenched fist poised against his suit as if ready to pound against him in childish anger yet it remains still, resting tightly next to where the teen’s forehead is incessantly pressing into him as if pained. Now faced with the hunched back of the man who’s mere presence would someday send shivers of fear through hundreds of hardcore skaters… it looked smaller, more fragile.
With all of these strange actions, it took a moment for Tadashi to recognize the absolute sorrow dripping from those whispered words-
I’d know your dance anywhere
“Ainosuke?” Tadashi asks tentatively, for a moment, able to forget his own worries for this hurting boy as he carefully reaches his hands out to hold slim arms, slowly rubbing them up and down in a way he’d always dreamed of back when he had to watch Ai in pain from the sidelines. Or at least Tadashi had believed he’d had to.
Never again.
This Ainosuke doesn’t tell him to stop, allows them a few moments of solace in each other before letting out a shuddering breath against Tadashi, “…why?”
“Pardon?”
“Why!?” AInosuke suddenly bursts again, the resting fist now curled into Tadashi’s suit jacket along with a second one, pulling the startled man into a furious face. “Why’d you quit in the first place if you were just going to-” he stops suddenly, wildly throwing his head to the side in frustration, sharp teeth gritted and showing the glint of those fangs even as he’s turned away to the hallway carpet at their feet. He can’t even bring himself to look at me…
"All I wanted was skateboarding!” Ainosuke laments, “I could survive anything as long as I had that and…” his words once again fetter out. Temper hot then cold.
‘And?’
What else did Ainosuke believe he needed to survive?
“...You’re still skating, yes?” Tadashi asks quietly, hopeful that the reminder would bring the boy a piece of the comfort he now knows Ai had found by continuously sneaking around with a pair of green and pink haired teens.
“Of course you’d know that, damn stalker,” Ainosuke laughs mirthlessly, letting go as if pushing Tadashi away, then taking a couple steps before presenting the back of his white school uniform as he faces away.
It’s cold Tadashi thinks suddenly.
It was true, he’d followed Ai so many nights under the guise of keeping surveillance on him. Torturing himself over what he should do, what was the right thing to do for his master that he’d been the one to ruin-
Suddenly Tadashi sees this Ainosuke stiffen, shaking out a little tension in his muscles.
Tadashi knew that cue, he’d seen it dozens of times throughout the days he’d served his Ai. More often during stressful in-between moments of meetings…
Ainosuke had shifted again.
Sure enough, when Ainosuke turns around his rage is replaced by a conniving smile, like he’s figured out his plan of attack for this situation.
Then he stalks around Tadashi. Circling him.
A hungry predator.
“Look at you,” he coos, eyes squinted like a fox, wrists clasped behind his back as he continued his slow hunting circle around Tadashi’s back, “You went from ‘nerd in sweater vest’ and somehow managed to take it down an even further notch to boring 9 to 5 suit~”
Ainsouke stops directly in front of Tadashi before leaning in with wild eyes, “Disgusting, he spat.
Oh really? The servant is distantly tempted to sarcastically ask. Because between all of your…flare ups, in the short time since you’ve been here, I’ve noticed you looking at me as if you’d like to tear this ‘disgusting’ suit off of me. With teeth. A feat his Ai had achieved on more than one occasion…
“You chose this attire, Mr. ainosuke,” Tadashi simply reminds him instead.
“Of course I did,” Ainosuke throws his hands up dramatically, “you don’t make a single damn choice for yourself!”
“I chose to stay with you.”
Tadashi hadn’t been able to stop the words from tumbling out of his mouth in time and the effect they have on Ainosuke is immediate.
He freezes up again. Blank lost face blinking at Tadashi while he processed.
In the end, Ainosuke slumps in on himself as if he’s been defeated, a proud angsty teen turned into a ragdoll, but still, he reaches out and grips an iron lock around Tadashi’s wrist.
a chain
“Come with me,” he demands.
“W-wait” Tadashi hurries to keep up with his quick pace. “Allow me to show you-”
“I know which room I’ve chosen!” Ainosuke snaps, leading them directly to the correct door.
“How…?” Tadashi asks, confused and completely forgetting his earlier plan to revert back to an emotionless shell.
It wasn’t his childhood room, or even his mother’s or father’s. Nor was it close to Tadashi’s. When Ai had first picked it out, Tadashi had just assumed the reasoning behind it as his impulsive nature and desire for something fresh and different.
As Ainosuke opens the door and nearly tugs Tadashi to the floor with a sudden sharp yank to pull him inside, Tadashi barely catches the true reason mumbled under the teen’s breath-
“It’s the only room with a decent view of the pool…”
The door shuts with a heavy thump as Tadashi is tossed on the bed before he can so much as produce a sound in response to discovering such a sweet and surprising secret of Ai’s.
“You did it with him,” Ainosuke states, already somehow sure of the answer. Tadashi can only swallow thickly as he takes in the teen climbing on the bed, one white uniform pant leg swinging over Tadashi’s slightly bent ones.
This Ainosuke might be slightly less bulky than his own, but even so, the way his torso stretches as the teen leans his weight back a fraction- Tadashi can sense power. Sees the remnants of that mysterious aura that comes with short dark blue locks paired with piercing red.
Of course this person would be someone who would grow into his Ai. The only one who could captivate like Adam did.
“If you can do it with him you can do it with me,” Ainosuke reasons, tugging sultrily on Tadashi’s tie as if to reel him up, mere inches from a face full of hurt and want, “I command you, Tadashi.”
Tadashi is in no mental state to comply. Age difference aside, if this Ainosuke wasn’t somehow his Ai then Tadashi would be effectively cheating on the obsession of his life and one love.
But even if he wasn’t exactly his Ai, Tadashi knew this boy better than to believe he’d simply sit back and change his mind eventually. Still...this Ainosuke seemed quick to react so maybe, just maybe…
Tadashi could startle him with the true ‘intensity’ of his and Ai’s relationship.
“Very well, Ainosuke-sama,” Tadashi sighs, reaching up to loosen his tie from being Ainosuke’s leash and popping a few buttons. Just as Ai likes, and judging by the slightly parted mouth and sharp inhale, this Ainosuke finds the look favorable as well.
It doesn’t take much for Tadashi to flip them over. Pinning Ainosuke’s wrists in a surrender position below him. Ainosuke looks up at him completely bewildered.
“I’m the bottom!?”
That momentarily shocks Tadashi. If anything, Ai adored being pampered like this and he couldn't remember a time that wasn’t the case.
But if Ainosuke’s shaken by merely this then Tadashi’s certain he’ll have no trouble persuading him to calm down.
“Yes, I assure you I’m very ‘giving’” he whispers directly into the boy’s ear, trying to hide a smile at the resulting shudder. “But would you rather do it the other way?” Tadashi offers innocently. There wasn’t much he and his Ai hadn’t done, his master had always just seemed to prefer to taste Tadashi this way.
The chest below him is rising rapidly with barely hidden pants of breath; eyes blown out in lust and wonder staring at Tadashi like he’s the most desirable minx he could ever hope for.
Yet what comes out of Ainosuke's mouth is an unimpressed huff, face once again turning to the side as if he can feign disinterest with the amount of red painting those cheeks-
“…whatever way’s fine ‘Old’ashi.”
Even his name calling has grown lacking, Tadashi muses, momentarily checking with himself exactly how far he’s willing to go before calling this off and attempting to beg Ainosuke to let him get his head together.
Yet, it appears he doesn’t need to worry because the minute Tadashi lovingly threads his fingers through those curls, Ainosuke turns into a puddle beneath him.
There’s a sharp whine, loud enough for Tadashi to worry he’s injured the teen before his arm is grabbed to keep it in place as his palm is nuzzled.
Tadashi thinks the gasp he hears is his own but he can’t be bothered to care as he changes his mission. Scratching gentle paths at the boy’s scalp before flattening his hand and stroking reverently.
Ainosuke’s eyes go wide at the touch, a bit of that innocent purple Tadashi hasn’t seen since they were both children. He’d always thought of it as a warm sunset, flecks of stars scattered across the beginnings of a night sky as the red setting sun burns vibrantly behind at the edges.
He hadn’t realized just how much he’d missed such a treasured sight, but now Tadashi can’t look away…
Ainosuke continues to whine unabashedly, causing color to rise hot on Tadashi’s cheeks despite years of practice against Ai’s antics. The sight’s just too good. All he wants to do is give this boy the world, especially if it would make him as happy as he seemed to be now, touch starved and practically clawing at Tadashi with a need for the petting to continue, face morphing into one of blatant longing before the emotion seems to overwhelm Ainosuke; squeezing those precious eyes shut against it but always maintaining a firm grip to keep Tadashi in place.
As if he could move away from this.
Tadashi does shuffle them around though, making sure to hum comfortingly as Ainosuke lets slip a tiny sound of distress. The servant keeps them as close as possible, practically sliding along the side of Ainosuke’s body like a serpent. His hand and arm being twisted at strange angles until he’s finally stationed behind Ainosuke on the pillows, placing the boy’s head in his lap as he continues to sift through the soft blue.
“I take it we’ll just be doing this then?” Tadashi chuckles at the way Ainosuke melts once more, going completely lax in the elder’s caress.
Ainosuke looks up from Tadashi’s lap, suddenly vulnerable but still he tries to put on airs. “You’re my dog,” he huffs yet sinks further to a plush thigh, letting out a yawn far too adorable for any teen, “There’s no way you can judge your master…”
His master is asleep.
“Of course, Master,” Tadashi whispers his agreement with a fond smile.
As chaotic and frightening as the day was, as potentially losing his soulmate for possibly forever, Tadashi finds so much peace in Ainosuke’s young face. Features finally softened from anger or sadness as his exhaustion protects him. He’s so soft, Tadashi thinks as he brushes along his cheek and gets Ainosuke turning into the featherlight touch in response.
He’d never thought he’d see Ai like this. Never even dared to dream to see so many raw emotions and wounds, wounds that he’d caused, laid bare in a single day.
The boy sleeping peacefully at the ends of his fingertips had managed to not only give Tadashi such a sight…but also made him hopeful.
He’d see his Ai again. Tadashi was determined that somehow, if all this was able to happen today, then he would find Ai.
And he’d never let him go.