Neckties and Birthday Wishes:

 

They walked silently, side-by-side, along the busy streets and towards the train station. Shivering from the cold, they huddled deeper within their jackets, small wisps of smoke escaping their lips as their warm breaths cooled in the chilly evening air. Neither said a word to each other and their gazes seemed to be transfixed on anything else besides one another. It wasn’t an uncomfortable silence by a long shot, rather it was one filled with companionship and unspoken understanding.

 

“Oh…that’s a nice necktie,” the boy with the bleached blond hair spoke up suddenly as he stopped before a window display of a large store. He pointed towards a dark blue one with black stripes across it. It, along with several others, had been draped across a sturdy wooden chair which had a male mannequin dressed in only a pair of boxers sitting upon it.

 

The darker-haired boy walked closer to the window that seemed filled with Christmas lights and decorations wondering why of all the better ties his friend could have picked out, he had chosen that particular one. There was nothing really special about it.

 

“You think so?” he replied softly. “I like that one.” He pointed to a fuchsia-colored one that had the blond making gagging motions. Flushing in embarrassment, he asked a bit defensively. “What’s wrong with it, Shindo?”

 

“Hehe…nothing…besides the fact that it is butt-ugly!” He laughed at the indignant look on his friend’s face and danced out of reached as he noticed the boy’s hand shoot out to punch him. But in that same swift movement, his own hand reached out to grab the slender wrist before him.

 

“Shindo…!” came the breathless gasp as he found himself pressed tightly against the blond’s body. His face darkening with even more color, he found himself lowering his lashes, now unable to stare into the piercing green eyes before him. His heart raced with mixed emotions of pleasure and denial. “Shindo…” he tried again. “Not…”

 

“Yeah, yeah, we are in public,” came the resigned answer as he released the flustered boy from the intimate embrace. He stuck his hands into the pockets of his pants and stared at the window display again. “I still say it’s a nice necktie, Touya.”

 

The meijin’s son could only nod softly as he rubbed his wrist gently. He could tell that he had disappointed his partner once again and the cold that seeped into his body now had nothing to do with the one that surrounded them.

 

“Oh, yeah! Your birthday’s tomorrow, right?”

 

Akira felt his heart sink even lower. “Yes, but…”

 

“Cool! I have to think of a present for you then.”

 

“You mean you haven’t been thinking of a present all this time?” He wondered why he sounded upset about that.

 

Shindo laughed and gave a sheepish grin. “Ah, sorry, sorry. Just been too busy lately.”

 

Akira scowled. “When it was your birthday, I had thought about it ahead of time for weeks!”

 

“Oh, the whole kifu thing?” Shindo replied with a smirk. “That was pretty creative of you…”

 

Akira flushed darkly at just how creative they had both been afterwards and he cleared his throat and pointed towards the station. “Let’s go already, Shindo. We are going to be late.”

 

“Late for what, Touya-chan?”

 

And knowing full well that his friend was beginning to ‘act dumb’ for him, Akira took the initiative and began to stomp towards the station…while dragging his whining companion by the scruff of his jacket.

 

“Ow…ow…that hurts Touya…come on…you are choking me!! Let me go! Tooooooouya!!”

 

 

~*~*~*~

 

 

He scowled fiercely at the goban before him, knowing that he ought to place the next stone on the board. But with each passing second, his frustration and disappointment grew and before he knew it, he was on his feet again and pacing around his room like a caged animal.

 

“It’s not as if I expected him to remember it,” he mumbled to himself as his restlessness caused him to begin rearranging the sheets of kifu that he had kept on his table. “I mean, we’ve only been together for…what? A year? Not long enough to make him remember something as mundane and boring as my birthday.”

 

He stared at the arranged sheets and then began to arrange them all over again. “I don’t care. I don’t care at all. I spent weeks, okay days, thinking about using the kifu to…to…” He shook his head; his cheeks bright with color as he remembered just how good Hikaru had felt in his hands and against his body. The heat they had generated between them was more than enough to make him…

 

“Aargh! Stupid Shindo!!” He growled as he flung the papers he had so carefully arranged against a wall. He sat down heavily on his chair and covered his face with hands that trembled.

 

“I don’t care,” he continued to whisper to himself, his voice sounding hollow within the small apartment. “I don’t care at all…”

 

The shrill ring of the phone, however, had him bounding out of the chair and straight towards the small black object.

 

“Hello?” he greeted breathlessly.

 

“Ah, hi, Touya! It’s me…Shindo.”

 

Surprise, surprise, Akira thought ruefully, even though he tried to ignore the quickening of his heartbeat at the familiar voice. “I know it’s you, Shindo. What do you want?”

 

The blond gave an embarrassed chuckle. “Can you believe that I forgot my keys in the apartment and locked myself out? I know you have a spare key so could you please come down here and help me out?”

 

Akira eyed the clock. It was eleven o’clock on the thirteenth. His birthday was less than an hour away and he was going to be stuck walking down the streets trying to help his absentminded friend. Could this day possibly end up any worse?

 

“Alright,” he murmured in resignation. “I should be there in twenty, okay?”

 

“Thanks, Touya! You won’t regret it,” Shindo enthused before adding softly. “I promise…”

 

Akira barely had the time to ask what Hikaru could have possibly meant by those two words before the dull hum of the dial tone filled his ear. Cursing softly and deciding that standing around wasn’t going to help matters, Akira reached for his jacket and the keys and began the lonely walk towards his best friend’s home.

 

 

__

 

 

Roughly, half an hour later, Akira stood panting in front of the solid wooden door, green eyes widened in disbelief and growing irritation as he reread the note that was pinned against it.

 

‘Sorry for making you come all this way, Touya. I now remember that I had left it underneath the welcome mat. But, I have to run off to do some errands, that’s why you don’t see me here. I really apologize for making you come all this way. So run back home now, or you just might miss something really important.’

 

Miss something really important, my foot! Akira growled and slumped down to the ground. He leaned against Shindo’s door and tried to catch his breath. He couldn’t believe he had run all this way for nothing.

 

‘…or you might miss something really important…’

 

What did Shindo mean by that?

 

He glanced at his watch. It was eleven thirty two. If he left here now, he could make it back home by just a few minutes past midnight. Knowing he could have very well ended up staying the night at the blond’s place, Akira figured it would be best to go back home for now. He was getting tired anyway.

 

He didn’t question the reason for his nervousness and the butterflies that had now filled his stomach. A dull nagging feeling at the back of his mind told him that Shindo was up to something and not knowing what it was made Akira feel so completely…helpless.

 

 

__

 

 

There were no lights in his apartment. No sign that anyone had been there, but then again, he was still standing on the street and looking up. One could hardly tell from here, could they? Taking a deep breath, Akira began to walk carefully up the flight of stairs, murmuring to himself that nothing could possibly be waiting for him. It wasn’t like Shindo to do anything extraordinary. The boy had only remembered that his birthday was…

 

He glanced at his watch. Ten past midnight.

 

…today and so Shindo would be unable to whip up anything that quickly in so short a time.

 

With hands that trembled slightly, he slipped his key into the lock and opened up the door carefully. Two…no three things hit him at once as he stepped into the room. One, the apartment was still dimly lit. Two, there were a familiar pair of black sneakers (the latest model) beside his other pair of shoes and three…there was that undeniable scent that he only knew too well.

 

Shindo! What is he…?

 

Taking off his shoes quickly, Akira began to run/stumble towards the inner room, only to stop dead in his tracks as he saw the final icing to the cake…literally. On a chair, sat a small white frosted cake with red strawberries and a lone candle in its center. Draped on its side, like the ones they had seen at the store, lay the black and blue striped ties, Shindo had liked and to his embarrassment, the fuchsia colored one he had liked. To complete the purely suggestive picture, stood the most annoying but yet lovable boy in the world to him. Hikaru stood akimbo with hands in his pockets, still dressed in the dark blue jeans and white dress shirt he had on yesterday. A small, teasing smirk lit up the blond’s face as he stood with said shirt unbuttoned, revealing his pale, but well-built chest to Akira’s gaze. A button on his jeans was undone as well and it took all of Akira’s strength not to whimper at how good…no, how sinfully good and sexy his partner looked.

 

“Shindo…” he tried to say.

 

“Happy Birthday, Touya,” came the husky reply as the blond reached for the cake to put it gently aside. “Don’t just stand there,” he added with a chuckle. “Have a seat.”

 

Flushing at the seductive tone, Akira sat down obediently – and he would have done so anyway as his legs could no longer support him very much. Hikaru seemed to have that effect on him no matter how hard he tried to will it away. He shivered as he felt Shindo wrap his arms around his neck from behind and the small tender kisses the blond had begun to place against his neck. With a low moan, Akira arched into the pleasurable sensation, his lashes falling shut as he struggled to get his mind to think coherently.

 

“Shindo…you…”

 

“Make a wish,” Hikaru interrupted quickly as he pulled away to hold the cake before the flushing teen. Dark green eyes clashed with lighter ones as they stared at each other in the thick silence that had fallen. Akira felt an emotion so strong sear through his chest that he had to close his eyes quickly.

 

I wish…I wish we could be like this together…always, Shindo.

 

And with a purse of his lips, he blew the flame out and opened up his eyes, cheeks reddening as Hikaru began to clap in glee. He opened up his mouth to say something else, but was silenced again as an icing-filled finger slipped through his parted lips. He gasped, but sucked on it willingly enough as the sweet, sugary taste filled his mouth and tingled his senses.

 

“I actually baked it myself,” Hikaru muttered a bit thickly. Watching the dark-haired boy tease his finger was beginning to do things that were definitely not innocent to his body.

 

Akira licked Shindo’s finger clean. “Really? It’s good.”

 

“Just good?” came the teasing question that had Akira shifting restlessly in the chair. He almost didn’t feel Shindo reach for the neckties and before he could utter another word, the blond had already made himself comfortable on his lap and had draped the fuchsia colored one around Akira’s neck.

 

“Tell me how good it is,” Hikaru whispered as he pulled Akira closer to him with the tie. With lips barely inches away from each other’s and the rising heat that stemmed from their groins, both groaned thickly with growing need. They both knew that they wouldn’t last long.

 

Akira tried to reach for the full parted lips before him. “It’s better than good, Shindo…please…” he begged as the blond teased him again with a feather-like kiss.

 

“Please what, Akira? You’ve got to say what you want, you know.”

 

The dark-haired boy thrust against his tormentor and was unable to stop the small smile that came to his lips as he heard the low gasp from Shindo.

 

“I want…you…” he murmured against the blond’s ear, hands reaching to hold onto the slim hips to keep Shindo prisoner. “…to let me have my way with you tonight.”

 

Hikaru snickered and reached for the other tie to hold it before Akira’s gaze. “Wanna do it blind-folded and all tied up?”

 

“You kinky bastard,” Akira muttered with his face as bright red as a Christmas bow as he watched his partner get off his lap. “You had your way with me last time, it’s only fair I do it…what? Shindo?? What are you…? Untie me right now!”

 

All he got for his efforts was laughter and a hard kiss on his lips. Akira tried to release himself, but discovered to his inner delight, that Shindo had done a good job of tying his hands behind the chair with the damning tie very well. His excitement was growing and it only became ten-fold as he felt the second one cover his eyes.

 

Hikaru took off his shirt and made himself comfortable on Akira’s lap again, but instead of pouncing on him (as much as he would have liked to), he wrapped his arms around the slender waist and lay his head against his lover’s shoulders. Akira, for his part, was more than surprised at the tender gesture and he felt a bit bad at not being able to reciprocate the act. He settled for a soft kiss on the blond locks beneath his chin, before whispering softly.

 

“Give me a birthday present to remember, Shindo.”

 

He could practically hear the smile from the blond as he felt the arms around him tighten. And as Hikaru lifted his head to stare into the hidden ones behind the tie, he replied softly against Akira’s lips.

 

“Don’t worry, I plan to make it the best night of your life.”

And hopefully, someday you’ll be able to say those three words to me whether we are in public or not, Akira.

 

And with a husky sigh, he began to unbutton his lover’s shirt with hands that trembled with the force of an emotion he could no longer deny.

 

“Happy Birthday to you, Touya with all my love…”

 

 

 

~THE END~

 

 

Author’s Notes: Ack! I seem to be avoiding the lemon scenes lately. Bad, bad, bad! Maybe someday I can get those wicked muses going again but until then, I am going to have to deal with the shounen-ai goodness that these boys bring to me.

Thanks again to LS’s picture for the inspiration! ^_^