Under the gentle streaks of the early sun, Hiko Seijuro stands before the roofed gateway of the Kamiya dojo, his sparkling white cape fluttering in the mild summer breeze.

He raps at the big door of wood.

No answer.

He glances at the little piece of paper in his hand, and then at the signboard tacked to the jamb on the side. He cocks an eye. "I have the right place all right."

He gives the door another knock. Still no answer.

"Well," he sighs briefly, "I suppose no one is coming to open this."

"Look there, Okaasan, that man's wearin' our bed sheet!"

The tall, hulking swordsman whips his gaze a bit to his left. A little boy and his mother are skulking past by.

"Urusai, Kiku-chan!" the woman censures her loud son. Writhing in chagrin, she bows hastily at Hiko before she snaps the staring child up by the waist and makes a clean break.

Unmoved, Hiko turns back to the shut gate. He stares at it for a moment.

"Feh, might as well let myself in."

He hoists his sake jug from the ground, slides open the door, and promenades straight in. Greeting him is the sight of his baka deshi's young friend something-or-other, Sanosuke, asleep there with his long, lean body hugging the wooden floor of the front porch.

Just before the porch step, Hiko clears his throat.

No movement.

...until Sano jerks, flipping himself over. Nothing special, if not for the placement of his hand between his splayed legs, stroking the prominence there.

Hiko's form noticeably stiffens, but the man makes no effort to shut his slightly watering mouth or refrain from paying Sano undivided attention as he rolls his hips all over the floorboards. In fact, Hiko even clicks his tongue in apparent disappointment as Sano's hand eventually discontinues its stroking movements and Sano re-flips himself over and performs nothing more.

As if he hasn't just behaved the drooling voyeur Hiko steps up calmly, dignifiedly, to the front porch. He drops the sake jug. THUD!

The sleeping body stirs again, now stretching itself out like a pussy cat yearning to be petted. The spiky head lifts and half-hooded chocolate brown eyes establish contact with Hiko's burning coal black pair.

"Hello," Sano purrs, "what can I do ya for?" The young man pulls himself up on his ass, a lazy hand rubbing -- this time -- his eyes. He takes a better look up at Hiko and recognition unfolds across his features. "Oi, it's Kenshin's sensei!" he squeals. "When didya get here?"

"Just now," Hiko replies, a grin running across his mug. "You didn't hear me knocking, I let myself in."

"Oh, sorry." Sano brushes his hand -- not the same one -- through his thick, soft brown hair. "I was dead beat, I guess, musta had a li'l too much fun last night. Heck can ya blame me for not wasting all that sake though? Heh, 'least Jou-chan let us have some anyway, the party woulda been boring as shit."

Hiko's eyebrows sweep upward. "Party, did you say?"

"Yeah, Jou-chan's party. 'Was her birthday."

"Yesterday?"

"Uh-huh," Sano nods, the space between his own eyebrows slowly bunching. "Waita minute -- what're ya doin' here anyway?"

"I'm here for that very birthday party, actually," Hiko frowns. "Just like that baka deshi to give inaccurate directions."

"Hm." Sano shrugs. "'Snot your fault then, I guess."

Catching his chin between his thumb and forefinger, Hiko tosses his inquisitive gaze around. "Where is everyone?"

"I dunno. At the train station, maybe." Sano fixes transported eyes on the jug by Hiko's foot. "Our friends from the Aoiya were here last night, Kenshin and Jou-chan musta seen 'em off."

"Is that so." Hiko settles himself down cross-legged beside his sake jug. "You got some cups?" he winks at Sano.

Sano winks straight back. "Yeah I got some cups," and promptly bolts off to procure them.

+

Kenshin and Kaoru march into the main dojo hall to come upon Sanosuke sitting on the floor with unexpected company.

"Shishou!" Kenshin halloos.

Hiko glances up from his little cup of sake. His grin bears a twinkling display of white teeth. "Ah, there you are."

Kaoru stumbles forward, bowing low enough to smell her own crotch. "Welcome to my humble home, Hiko-sama," she gushes. "My, this is such a tremendous honor, thank you so much for accepting my invitation!"

Hiko comes easefully to his feet and proffers a gracious bow in return. "My apologies, Kamiya-kun. If baka deshi here had sent me better directions, then I would have come in time for your birthday party."

"Kenshin!" POW!

Sporting a fresh lump in the head, "Oro, gomen ne, Kaoru-dono," Kenshin bows several hundred times.

"Please forgive us, Hiko-sama!"

"That's all right," Hiko flashes a toothier grin, reseating himself down beside the tittering Sano.

Kaoru folds her hands together. "I have an idea, Hiko-sama, why don't you extend your stay here to a couple more days? That's the least I can do for you in compensation."

Sano gives Hiko a well-meant slap in the back. "Sounds cool to me!"

Hiko looks over at Sano, shiny black eyes beyond intent. "Yes, well, that seems like an attractive idea alright."

"That's wonderful, I'll go prepare your room now!" Kaoru tweets, and is off dashing.

"More?" Sano chuckles, sake jug in his crooked arm poised to pour for Hiko.

"Please," Hiko himself chuckles, holding his open cup for Sano. He peers over at the motionless and now-glowering Kenshin in the doorway, then switches right back to Sano. He drapes his arm of bulging muscle across the shoulders of the flushing boy. "Now, where were we?" he purrs.

"Kenshiiin!" Kaoru hollers from three rooms down. "Could you give me a hand here?"

The short redhead can do nothing but clear out, face set in an unbecoming scowl.

"Um," Sano whispers, "I don't think this's okay with Kenshin." He delicately peels Hiko's arm off him.

"Feh." Hiko gives the boy's knee a subliminal pat. "You shouldn't let that little man scare you."

Sano sits up, bare golden chest out. "I'm not scared!"

"Glad to know that." Hiko readily pours another cup for Sano. "So what if baka deshi doesn't approve? You don't owe him anything, it's not like he feeds you or anything, is it?"

"Uh, he does, sometimes..."

"My point is he can't keep you under his thumb! You're free to do what you want. ...who you want."

"It's not really that, see -- I just don't wanna get between you guys, y'know, I mean you got this sacred teacher-student thing going."

"Nonsense. You say it like we're bound by marriage."

"Oh." The young man pauses in thought. "Oh."

"Anyway," Hiko raises his cup, "kampai."

Eagerly Sano returns the toast. "Bottoms up!"

"Bottoms, ah." Grinning, Hiko drains his cup. Just outside the window, he can hear the little birds and the bees humming with pleasure.

Sano gazes quietly at the long tails of Hiko's jet-black hair falling on either side of his face. "You've got really long hair," he notes, studying the slim ponytail running down the full length of Hiko's back.

"I've got really long everything," the older man claims.

"Heh, I bet you do."

"Would you like to touch it?"

"Touch what."

"My... ... ...hair...on my head."

"Sure." Sano slides his curved fingers along Hiko's ponytail. "Wow. It's just like silk, too! Kenshin's hair ain't anything like this."

"Pity, ne?"

"And you don't even got a single gray strand, considering your age!"

Hiko winces, as if he's just had a taste of grease in his sake. "Most people consider 44 too young to be a Hiten Mitsurugi Ryu master," he mumbles.

"What's that?"

"I said the aging process varies among people. Look at baka deshi, at 29 he still has the body of a growing schoolboy. Now look at you, must be barely out of your teens and yet you've already got a physique mature enough for the ladies to dig."

"You mean that?" A passionate shade of pink spreads across Sano's cheeks. "Thanks."

"Don't mention it. I'm just stating the obvious." Hiko's eyes prowl all over Sano's mature physique.

"I'm going to clean up this room."

Hiko and Sano behold the reappearance of a scowling Kenshin in the doorway.

Sano makes a quick leap to his feet. "I-I'm outta here," he stammers. "W'll, guess I'll see ya, Sensei. Thanks for the drink, it was real fun. That's all we did here, right? Drink?" He laughs nervously as he toddles past the rigid Kenshin.

Hiko grins, raising his cup for a toast to himself.

+

Later that morning. Hiko wanders off to the back porch. Out in the small laundry area, he finds Kenshin squatting over a foaming tub, rubbing cloth on the washboard.

"Domestication suits you," is Hiko's nonchalant, unsolicited commentary.

Kenshin glares sidelong in Hiko's direction.

Hiko takes a seat by the porch step and observes the busy younger man. After a wordless minute, he begins to nod off.

"Shishou!"

Hiko rouses. "Huh? What?"

"You're distracting me."

"From your laundry?"

"Why don't you let Kaoru-dono and Yahiko keep you company."

"No, thank you. You don't need to sound so pushy. Where has that friend of yours gone?"

"What friend?" Kenshin demands, casting another sidelong glare.

"Oh, you know. The pretty one who likes sake as much as I do."

"... Don't you realize you're old enough to be his father?"

"All the kinkier."

"Listen, Shishou, if you're just trying to get back at me for that last time, then deal with me. Leave Sano out of this."

"That last time is ancient history now, baka deshi. This is what I'd call turning a new page."

Kenshin's hands work faster and harder on the washboard. "Just don't touch him," he warns.

Hiko smirks. "I'll touch whoever I please."

"Not those that are mine."

"Just keep in mind," Hiko rises, erect, "sooner or later that poor girl will figure everything out." He makes his leave, sparkling white cape swishing in the air.

Lips drawn tight, Kenshin watches Hiko round the corner. Then he turns back to Kaoru's kimono on the washboard...to find it all tattered.

"Oro?!!?"

+

That night. Kenshin's room is somewhat dim, the light of the moon barely seeping through the paper doors. Sanosuke is down on his back on the tatami, his jacket caught around his elbows, his stomach bandages tied around his mouth, his bare long legs held by Kenshin, who is ramming himself between them.

As the man in pink thrusts into Sano, Kaoru's voice comes floating in the air. Sano can make out her silhouette just outside the room.

"Kenshin?" she calls.

Kenshin doesn't bother with a response, just carries on topping Sano.

"Kenshin, are you asleep?"

Sano makes a series of wild and frantic gestures to Kenshin, but the redhead merely shuts his eyes. And cuts loose a loud whimper.

"Oh, Kenshin, I'm sorry I woke you," Kaoru wails. "It's an emergency, you see. Yahiko's been throwing up for half an hour now, I don't know why. Could you get Megumi-san, please, so she can see what's wrong with him?"

Sano does his best to wiggle himself free but Kenshin tightens his viselike grip on him in resistance. His yellow eyes are drawn in slivers, full canines bared.

"Kenshin?" Kaoru calls forth again.

Sano scrambles to tug down the bandages from his mouth, and makes a very terrible Kenshin-like utterance of, "H-hai, Kaoru-dono!"

"Oh thanks, Kenshin! I'll get back to Yahiko." Kaoru's silhouette vanishes.

Sano sits up frowning at the lust-possessed man stuck between his legs, before giving him a crisp slap in the face.

"What -- who -- where am I?" Kenshin sputters, his wide eyes back to their normal purple.

"Baka!" Sano growls. "Didn't ya hear Jou-chan? She wants you to get the kitsune for Yahiko!"

Kenshin blinks. "Oh. Right now?"

"Yeah, now scoot your little butt outta here so we can finish this!"

On the double, Kenshin pulls up his hakama pants and crawls out. "Don't go anywhere, okay?" he tells Sano.

"'Course I won't." Sano pulls his own pants back on and lies down to wait resignedly, closing his eyes.

After a minute and nine seconds, the door slides open.

"That was quick," Sano smirks, opening his eyes to see that it is not a short redheaded swordsman pussyfooting into the room. "Sensei? Whatcha -- Kenshin's not here, he --"

"Shh," Hiko puts a finger over his lips. "I came here to get you. Come to my room."

"Uh, w-why?"

"Why?" Hiko takes a still moment to pause. "Is that a why 'Why your room?' or a why 'Why are you so good to me?'"

Kaoru's high-strung voice rattles in the vicinity.

"On second thought," Hiko hurries to slide the door shut behind him, "I think we'd be safer in here."

"But, sensei," Sano's face begins to exhibit significant worry, "Kenshin's gonna...ahmmnh..."

Hiko slides his large hand further up Sano's thigh, settling to mold itself over Sano's crotch. "Forget about that little man. I'm here now." He swoops down on Sano with a silencing kiss.

After an unbroken stretch, Hiko detaches his mouth finally.

"Maaann," Sano pants, "where'd'ya learn to move your tongue like that??"

"You don't learn such a skill, boy," Hiko grins, head swaggering, "you have to be born with it."

"You're amazing."

"Yes, well, tell me something the whole world doesn't know." He makes to slip off Sano's pants.

"Wait, what if Kenshin sees us?"

"All the kinkier."

"Sensei --"

"Shh," Hiko slides his palm up along Sano's arousal, as he shifts to kneel right between the boy's legs.

At that moment the door slides open, allowing Kenshin to advance inside. He doesn't look pleased the least bit.

Sano lets out a gasp. "Kenshin, wait, before you --"

"Ah, baka deshi," Hiko grins, full set of white teeth flashing. "Come sit wait for a while, we're just about starting."

Kenshin scowls. "This is my room. And that is my boy."

Hiko shrugs. "And this is my dick." He drops his pants to expose the gigantic throbbing swell of meat that apparently is his dick.

"Hell no," Sano shakes his head, buttocks flinching, "you are not gonna stick that size in me."

"Feh. You're a tough boy, this won't break you to pieces." Hiko captures Sano's legs astride his waist and plunges inside.

"AARG--"

Quickly Kenshin stifles Sano's cry with a clamped hand to his mouth.

At full steam Hiko barrels in and out of Sano, and before long Sano stops his squirming and writhing and even moans into Kenshin's hand.

Kenshin shoots Hiko his Battousai glare, sans the golden irises. "At least hurry up," he snaps at the rocking man.

Hiko smirks at the wriggling motions of Kenshin's hips. "There's a hole in that corner, if you can't wait."

Suddenly Sano's back rises from the floor in a sensual arch. His hand drifts over to the erection by his belly and begins to administer an intensive caress to that slick red hardness. Hiko and Kenshin look closely, the air growing smoking hot and thick with silence. Then:

Kenshin eases down his hakama. "Move, Shishou," he orders, eyes now once again blazing yellow.

"I am moving, baka deshi."

Kenshin yanks a leg of Sano's to himself in an attempt to shove Hiko and derail his headlong locomotive. "It's my turn," he seethes.

"It's mine still," Hiko moans.

Sano looks on in annoyed disbelief as Hiko and Kenshin scuffle for position between his legs. "One at a time, bastards!"

Just then, sounds of Kaoru and Megumi come wafting in the air.

"Shit, guys," Sano hisses, "I think the girls're comin!"

But no one listens to him. The tattling voices, meanwhile, seem to drift nearer by the second.

"You stupid dicks!" Sano springs up, fists charging forward to smash into the faces of the squabbling pair of perhaps the two greatest sword fighters in the land today.

Out like a light, Hiko and Kenshin drop to their backs on the floor, their hakamas caught around their knees.

Sano gathers his jacket and pants in his arms and bails out of Kenshin's room. In his haste, he tears straight out to the road still naked.

"Well, well, look who just crawled out into the wild."

Sano whirls around. Across from him stands a tall, dark figure, a coil of cigarette smoke wafting over its head.

As if a portent of things to come, Sano hears a wolf howl in the distance.

...just before an ear-piercing scream from the Kamiya dojo.

END