As soon as lunch was finished, Shinji swept Hyun-ki off into her room and changed her into warmer clothes; stockings and a cute dress and a cardigan and then her coat and mittens and a scarf. He made sure she was wrapped in enough layers and then put her in gumboots, just in case there was snow in the park. He didn’t want her feet getting wet; couldn’t stand the thought of her catching a cold and being miserable. When he was finally satisfied, he took his little marshmallow bundle out to Kippei and cautiously handed her over.

“Don’t push her too high on the swing, she might fall off!”

Kippei looked amused, scooping her up and giving her an eskimo kiss to make her giggle, then leaning in for a proper kiss from Shinji.

“Don’t worry, lover. I have actually taken care of a little girl before… ” Never mind that he’d only been a year older than his sister, he still felt that he knew as much about little girls as Shinji did, or almost. At any rate, it was cute the way Shinji worried about her. “I’ll watch her,” he promised.

“You going to be okay?” he asked Rien, eyeing them both with some trepidation. If there wasn’t Yuni to consider, he’d wish he could stay to hold their hands, both literally and figuratively.

“Sure, fine,” Rien told him dismissively, grinning widely at Shinji. He was completely enchanted with the idea that Shinji was willing to get his ears pierced for him, much less that he wanted Rien to do it.

“We’ll be fine,” Shinji assured him, kissing him one more time, and then kissing Hyun-ki’s cheek for good measure, leading them down the hall and out the front door, waving excitedly until they were out of sight. Then he turned around and sighed, going back in and nervously wandering around Rien.

“So…what do we need, how do we even do this? It’s not going to bleed heaps, will it? I get dizzy if stuff bleeds heaps…” He bit his lip nervously. “Are you going to use the nice earrings? Won’t they get blood on them? Should we use other ones to start with? They have to stay in for a while, right? Little ones would be better, otherwise they’ll get stuck in my hair and pull and stuff…”

“Ain’t gonna bleed at all,” Rien promised him, turning to cup his face in his hands and kiss him gently.  “Don’t worry none, princess. I got it covered.” He nudged Shinji into a chair at the table. “Jus’ sit there a minute, I be right back.” He went to bedroom first, then to the bathroom to retrieve the things he needed.

When he came back he held out his hand to Shinji, showing two pairs of studs glittering in his palm. “Which ones y’want, beautiful?” he asked, grinning. Yeah, he so had this all planned out and prepared for.

Blinking, Shinji found himself laughing as he realised Rien had planned everything, and then he studied the studs closely and shrugged, pointing to the silver ones with dark blue gemstones in them. He had no idea what they meant, just liked the colour and knew Kippei would prefer it over the pale pink ones. He was still nervous though, looking curiously at the things Rien had brought out and picking up a bottle of anasthetic, laughing again.

“So…I won’t even feel anything? That’s kinda cool.”

“That’s the idea,” Rien assured him, kissing his forehead and setting the studs Shinji had chosen on a clean napkin, setting the others aside for now. He arranged everything he would need in the order he would need it, and then carefully applied the anaesthetic to Shinji’s earlobes.

“There y’go,” he murmured in satisfaction. “Should kick in shortly, let me know when y’can’t feel ‘em anymore.” He went to the fridge and pulled out an apple, quickly slicing it into chunks and setting most of them on a plate to eat after they were done. He chose two that were just the right shape and size, and set them on the napkin beside the studs.

“Almost done,” he muttered absently as he picked up the needle and carefully sterilized it with a cotton swab dipped in alcohol. “Ready when you are,” he finished, giving Shinji a quick flash of an encouraging grin.

Shinji tugged at his earlobes and looked up at Rien, biting his lower lip and shrugging.

“I can’t feel them,” he admitted softly, but his gaze shifted to the needle and he couldn’t help thinking that it would hurt. It had to hurt, didn’t it? Rien was going to stick a hole in his ear! But then, he’d had a hole punched through his head before so it couldn’t hurt anywhere near as bad as that. Reasoning solidly in place, Shinji sat on the edge of the table and tilted his head, letting his hair fall over his other shoulder, leaving his ear easily accessible for Rien.

“Don’t make them crooked or anything!”

“Would I do that t’you?” Rien asked wryly, a little amused but knowing that it really would bother Shinji, who was so self-conscious about his appearance already. “Relax,” he soothed, stroking Shinji’s hair reassuringly. “S’only take a minute, y’won’t even feel it.” He picked up one of the apple wedges and placed it behind Shinji’s ear, eyed the placement carefully and then swiftly plunged the needle through, withdrawing it as quickly and replacing it with one of the studs. He set the apple aside where Shinji wouldn’t see the marks of blood on it, and carefully slid the fastener into place on the back of the stud to hold it in place.

“There we are,” he said cheerfully. “One done!”

Blinking, Shinji let his head rise back up and tried to feel it, but he couldn’t feel a thing, the anasthetic having done it’s job and he smiled brightly at Rien, rather amused by the whole thing. He knew he would be annoyed with it in a few days if they got infected or something, but he also trusted Rien to know what to do, and so felt no qualms at all about tilting his head the other way to do the other one.

“Make sure it’s exactly the same spot!” He reminded Rien vainly, genuinely concerned about having them at odds.

“Don’t worry,” Rien repeated, grabbing a pen with a rather devilish grin. “Hold your head up straight for a minute, babe, let me just…” He held Shinji’s chin to steady it as he looked back and forth from one ear to the other, and carefully marked a tiny dot on the earlobe he had yet to pierce where the hole would align perfectly with the one on the other side. Then he nodded for Shinji to tilt his head again, brushing his hair back with a tender hand to make sure it was all out of the way and then quickly repeating the process he’d used on the other side.

“Ahhh, beautiful,” he murmured, a little amazed really at just how good that looked on Shinji. Tiny blue gems gleaming from his ears, a subtle but somehow perfect accent. He grinned delightedly, and quickly wrapped up the used apple chunks in the napkin to discard them, tossing them in the bin before he came back to put the rest of the supplies away.

“How’s it feel?” he asked hopefully, mentally crossing his fingers that it hadn’t hurt and Shinji wasn’t having second thoughts about it now it was done – though of course he could always just let them close up again if he changed his mind in the next few days or weeks.

Shinji just shrugged again, going to get a hair tie and carefully tying his hair back so it wouldn’t tangle around them. He looked in the mirror while he was there and paused, staring, tilting his head from side to side at the red earlobes, a little surprised it wasn’t hurting, and that they didn’t look too sore at all. He smiled then and went back out to hug Rien.

“Feels good. They’re even!” It had been his biggest fear; that he would have stupid looking earrings instead of nice, straight normal ones.

Rien hugged him back, chuckling a little and nuzzling the top of his head. “Course they are, princess. I ain’t gonna let you look silly now, am I? Ain’t you worry, they look gorgeous, an’ once the numbness wears off they be sore for a couple days but they ain’t really gonna hurt you. Jus’ gotta keep em clean til it heals.”

“Doesn’t sound too hard,” Shinji grinned, hesitantly touching one but feeling nothing as his ears were still numb, a fact he was grateful for. His hands slid under Rien’s shirt and he knelt down, kissing his way across the exposed strip of warm skin, up to Rien’s belly button, where he paused to look up at Rien.

“Hmm…so when?”

Rien blinked down at him, his brain stalled to a halt by the sight of Shinji on his knees like… like…something.  “When… what?” he asked blankly, not sure really at all what Shinji meant by that. When could he take them out again? When for something much more fun and a great deal more unlikely? When was Kippei coming back? Shinji’s guess was as good as his about that.

Shinji laughed and didn’t reply, dipping his tongue into Rien’s belly button and then biting down gently on the upper lip of flesh and tugging gently. He thought it would be fun, having a piercing hanging there to play with, but he didn’t want Rien to do it if it would be a nuisance, or if it was against work rules or something.

“This.”

“Ohhh.” Rien moaned a little, biting his lip to hold back a whimper because that felt pretty good and once he got it pierced it was going to feel better, and he was so looking forward to that. “Yeah. That. Soon. Tomorrow? Maybe tomorrow…you want to come?” He ran his fingers through Shinji’s hair where he knelt, feeling a little bit melted and a little bit horny. Maybe more than a little, but okay, who could blame him, seriously?

“Mmm, Kippei’s taking me to the mall tomorrow…you could come too. But you’re not allowed to follow me! I’ll go do other stuff while you get it done!” Because he didn’t want to see someone stabbing a hole in Rien either. He wrapped his arms around Rien’s waist at the thought and squeezed, nuzzling against his hip.

“Love you, Ri.”

“Nngh,” Rien answered while he collected the scattered parts of his brain. “Yeah, okay.” Probably best if Shinji wasn’t right there watching. “I love you too,”  he added softly, smiling to himself as he stroked Shinji’s hair. He was just the most insanely beautiful thing Rien had ever known.

“I’m so lucky, y’know that?” he murmured, a bit awed by it. “How’d I end up here with you, an’ Ki an’ Yuni too, my own family an’ you all so gorgeous. I love you so much, Takayama Shinji,” he added, grinning a bit foolishly at the sound of it.

“Mmm but it’s us who were lucky and ended up here with you,” Shinji pointed out shrewdly, standing slowly and wrapping Rien up in a tight hug, smiling at him and kissing his cheek. “You collected us all and made us all Takayama’s,” he pointed out softly before sweeping in for a hungry kiss, turning to whisper in Rien’s ear.

“You know, being on my knees makes me think naughty things…” He smirked and pushed Rien back toward the bedroom, figuring they had plenty of time before Kippei would be back with Hyun-ki.

Laughing a little breathlessly, Rien allowed himself to be pushed, not entirely sure where Shinji was going with this or if he was serious at all, but pretty much up for anything Shinji had in mind, even if it was just rolling around on the bed making out for awhile. Rien was totally up for that, even if he’d always hope for a whole lot more.

“What kinda things?” he asked, teasing lightly as he pulled Shinji in for another warm, delicious kiss. It was so sweet, kissing Shinji, always so incredibly sweet.

Shinji just smirked and pushed Rien back onto the bed, crawling up after him and tackling him down into the pillows, pinning him there and laughing a little breathlessly, loving the sight of Rien sprawled across his new, shiny red satin sheets. He used his teeth and tongue to slowly flick open each of the buttons on Rien’s shirt and then kissed a trail down Rien’s chest to his belly button again, still fascinated by the idea of him piercing it.

“My sexy Rien.”

“Mmmm,” Rien agreed, sprawling as wantonly as he knew how, not even begging yet but just… offering, with every line of his body. Anything and everything Shinji wanted, but he was already feeling warm and glad and… loved, just knowing that Shinji wanted to look, wanted to touch, wanted him to belong.

“S’right, all yours, complete an’ total,” he said contentedly.

Laughing softly at the blissed look on Rien’s face, Shinji carefully tugged Rien’s throusers off and stared at him for a long minute, naked on the bed, licking his lips at all the warm, sunny toned skin against the rich red. Then he went about teasing Rien; starting at his feet with soft kisses, then working his way up the inside of Rien’s ankle to his knee. Higher, along the inside of Rien’s thigh into the crease of his groin but not touching, letting his lips ghost past, curling up and around, over Rien’s hip, across to the other and down again, just playing and exploring, enjoying it all the more because he had control of it and even if he didn’t know exactly what to do it was his choice and that made it better.

Rien was getting teased within an inch of his life, he was sure, but he was loving it, delighted that Shinji was feeling confident enough to just explore the way he was, and not about to do anything that would break the mood. He moaned and whimpered and let his body react unhindered, not caring at all how needy and desperate he sounded when he was pretty sure that was what Shinji wanted.

The sounds reassurred Shinji; let him know he was doing it right, and that Rien was enjoying it and wanted more. If Rien had held back at all it would have made Shinji worry, but instead he just felt happy and mischievous as he went about his exploration, leaving several dark hickeys for Kippei to find later before finally settling beside Rien and reaching down to wrap his fingers around Rien’s cock, wrapping it up snug inside the cocoon of his fingers and stroking gently, watching the reactions on his face.

“I love the sounds you make, Ri.”

“I can make more,” Rien breathed, laughing a little as he closed his eyes, finding that watching Shinji’s bright, curiously interested face put him just a little too close to the edge, and he kind of wanted this to last. “I love when you touch me,” he moaned, and he meant that quite literally, anyway, anyhow, whether it was here like this or just a hug in passing…physical contact was his weakness and his joy, and any kind of touching from the ones he loved was a deep, comforting fastness in his soul, a warm glow of security and peace.

Amused by this assertion, Shinji went about touching Rien with the express intent of driving him half mad, releasing his cock for the time being, wanting to hear every whimper and moan Rien was capable of making, thriving on each as they slid from his lips between Shinji’s kisses. It was intoxicating, getting that sort of response from Rien, and Shinji found himself growing increasingly bold in his attempts to wring out more and more until he gave in to the soft pleas and leant down to suck on the end of Rien’s hard length, teasing the slit with his tongue, suprised as ever to find the taste wasn’t as bad as he always expected it to be.

Rien groaned and held himself still with a great effort, reaching down to caress Shinji’s shoulder, anchoring himself but otherwise refraining from doing anything that might startle him, keeping his hands well away from Shinji’s head and panting as he struggled to keep his body from thrusting into the wet heat of Shinji’s mouth, or writhing in desperation.

“Oh god, Shinji,” he moaned, finding himself rarely on the receiving end of this but no less thrilled and delighted, and god it felt good. “Y’so amazing,” he gasped, a little blown away by the thought that Shinji was sucking on his dick.

Shinji was as amused as ever, and rather stunned, that he could get that reaction from Rien, but every sound made him want to hear more and he slid his mouth down over the soft skin, humming faintly, nothing in particular but just wanting to show Rien he was enjoying it without talking, and knowing it felt amazing was an extra bonus. His fingers were gentle as they stroked Rien’s balls, first down the crease through the centre and then around the edges, tracing the lines in the skin, fascinated by the design because it was like a fingerprint; just Rien’s.

The humming dragged a strangled groan from Rien’s throat, and Shinji’s teasing fingers weren’t helping matters any. He felt overwhelmed by the intensity and the effort of staying still when Shinji was driving him insane like that. His breath came short and fast, almost sobbing, and he moaned Shinji’s name in an incoherent stream of praise and begging and bliss, hardly even knowing what he was saying.

“Love you, so much, oh god, fuck, Shinji, so good… so good, please, want you, want more, please, Shinji, want you so bad…”

“Shhh,” Shinji pulled back just long enough to smile up at him, reaching out to tuck Rien’s curls behind his ear and then smirking. “Come for me, sexy.” He didn’t waste any time sliding Rien’s cock down his throat, grateful that at least hospital tubes had finally taught him something useful. His hand slid down between Rien’s thighs, curling in under his ass to stab his finger into Rien’s hole, feeling his whole body clench down on the digit as he came. Shinji was grateful he couldn’t taste it as he swallowed before drawing back and sitting up, looking entirely smug.

Rien lay there limp and boneless, slowly catching his breath as his heart rate finally slowed, and reaching for Shinji’s hand to just hold on, squeezing it as hard as he could when he felt like a used dishrag, wanting to say so many things but not having words. Shinji looking smug was hot as hell, but it was also adorable, and Rien loved him so much it hurt.

“You be too damn good at that for some as ain’t had much practice,” he noted rather amusedly, giving Shinji a contented, blissed out smile. He brought the hand he held to his lips and kissed it, fervently. “C’mere,” he murmured, tugging Shinji down beside him where he could kiss him warmly.

Shinji was more than happy to comply, curling up against Rien’s side, the cuddles he got after Rien came always a thousand times better than anything else Shinji could think of. He kissed back softly, lingering on it and enjoying every quiet moment. Quiet time was rare in the house these days, but Shinji still needed it and he was a little grateful to just be able to lie down and doze, pleasantly sated by the knowledge he’d made Rien happy.

“I love you,” he reassurred Rien again, just in case he needed to hear it. “My Takayama Ri.”

“Love you too,” Rien assured him, feeling warm inside and relaxed on some very deep level, beyond muscle and bone to his heart and soul. “Never felt better.” He stirred a little as some of the lethargy wore off, sliding his hand down Shinji’s side caressingly, curving over his hip and lingering there, looking at Shinji questioningly.

“You want… can I…is it okay…?” He felt awkward, on as unfamiliar ground as he ever was when it came to the deeply emotional lovemaking that wasn’t just sex, and with Shinji it was always like that, no matter how far they went. He knew Shinji hadn’t come yet and he wanted to return the favor, but he wasn’t sure if Shinji actually wanted him to, or would rather just leave things as they were and enjoy his cuddles.

Shinji bit his lip and looked nervously down at Rien’s hopeful face and his own cheeks blazed.

“Can…later? When Kippei’s here?” He didn’t mind when it was just them – sometimes it was better when Kippei wasn’t there, like the day with the strawberries and cream. Shinji would’ve been embarrassed if Kippei had been there for that, but at the same time Shinji wanted Kippei there; liked it best when no one was excluded.

Rien’s lips twitched and he kissed the blush on Shinji’s cheek affectionately. “Course we can, love. Always better when it’s all of us, hey? But I’m glad for this here, right now. It was really good,” he assured Shinji softly, his brown eyes shining with warmth as he drew him down for another slow, deep kiss.

“Love you so much, beautiful.”

“Well…you look all sexy when I’m on my knees and I just want to…do…stuff.” Shinji felt about to explode and hid his blush against Rien’s throat, a little amused by the way desire had flooded him as soon as he kissed Rien’s belly button. But really, what else could he do? Rien was sex; every line of his body screamed to Shinji and he’d just wanted to play with him.

“I like playing with you,” he grinned, kissing Rien’s cheek.

“Mmmm I like you playin’ with me too,” Rien told him, grinning shamelessly and cuddling him closer. “So sexy, Shin, I love y’so much… love ever’thing about you. I want everythin’ from you, anythin’. You’re so… gorgeous, beautiful, sexy and adorable. I wanna kiss you forever an’ never let you go…you’re the most amazin’ thing I ever seen.”

Sure he was going to die of embarassment if he let Rien continue, Shinji slid his palm over Rien’s mouth to stop anything further from coming out. He kissed Rien’s cheek and pushed past his own fears, grinning again as he got up off the bed and held out a hand.

“Guess we better get you cleaned up. Can’t have Yuni seeing you all messy like that.”

Rien chuckled softly and let Shinji pull him up, wrapping his arms around him immediately and kissing his hair. “Yeah, time to clean up,” he agreed huskily, but he wasn’t quite ready to let go of this incredible place where Shinji initiated sex-type stuff and gave him a blowjob and seemed more or less comfortable with it.

“I love you,” he said again softly, not sure that Shinji really got it, how much and how desperately he was loved. “I love you more than anythin’.”

“Well, as much as Kippei and Yuni,” Shinji corrected, but he was smiling brightly, warm and delighted as he hugged Rien back. “I know. Love you too, silly.” He led them into the bathroom and pushed Rien in under the water as soon as he turned the taps, taking his time stripping out of his own before joining him, wrapping his arms tight around Rien’s waist and just leaning against him. “Love you so much.”