"Do I have enough leftover salmon, though? Himemiya might have eaten some for dinner. I could use something else in the sandwich, I suppose, but..."

Akio stared down at Utena with an affectionate look on his face. It was impressive, because affection was the last thing on his mind. The damn girl had been yammering on about food all night. Sure, he had gotten into her pants just the same, but it almost hadn't been worth it.

Almost.

Still, having to listen to her prattle on and on still was driving him near mad! He took some of her hair in his hand and began to stroke it and stare at it, mostly so that he wouldn't need to look her in the eye, in case his resolve should waver and some distaste show through. The hair was nice and soft and silky. Utena apparently took good care of it. It shone shiny and pink in the dim light.

The pink stood out most in Akio's mind, now. He would have much preferred a nice cherry red.

Some would say that neither man nor woman could ever hope to tame the rugged sexuality of Akio Ohtori. Those people were right. But they hadn't counted on another option that was 'none of the above.'

Akio closed his eyes and rumbled his throat. His rich, sexy voice sounded almost like a car engine, but not quite. To his well-trained ears, nothing so mundane as the human throat could produce a sound so pure and satisfying as the revving of a nice heavy engine with lots of cylinders and hoses and pistons and...

Ah, pistons...

Focusing on that pleasant thought made even Utena's drabbling tolerable. It wasn't as if he was actually listening to her anyway, but it was nice to have assistance in tuning her out. His brain reflected back on that nice, lovely shade of cherry red, and it made him smile. If Utena had that color hair, she might well have been irresistible.

Come to think of it, Touga had nice, red hair, too, And he also made a lot of noise, kind of like the car, but not in a good way. Besides, the Student Council president was far too submissive (and Akio would never admit it, but his voice might have rivaled his own in terms of sexiness).

Not the car, though. The car was all manly steel-framed goodness, propped up on four tires, equipped with a purring engine, and sporting both a big thick muffler, and a nice sturdy gear shifter. The seats were so smooth, smelling of both leather and the scent of private activities that Akio liked to indulge in with his "passengers."

But the real pleasure came after the Duelists were brought home, and Akio could stop playing 'End of the World' and instead be just 'Akio,' alone with nothing but the darkness and the automobile, to experience pleasures untold. Sure, sometimes Anthy would insist on joining in, and that was downright annoying, but luckily for him, the young Miss Tenjou seemed to have some experimental bisexuality issues which were good at keeping his sister occupied.

When he was alone--in the garage, on an isolated highway lookout point, or down by a beachside parking lot--he could truly be himself around the car. He could let all of his issues with 'control' and 'manipulation' go, and let someone else set the speed and shift the gears, as it were. It was a chance to experience life as he truly wanted it.

It was a chance for freedom.

Then, morning would come. He would invariably call up Kanae, attend to his Chairmanly duties, and send out cryptic letters about duels and revolutions and Apocalyspes... the usual. But all day long, his thoughts would always drift back to that crimson chassis, that sparkling chrome, and those vulcanized tires. And with the night came another opportunity to take another sucker for a ride, and the car would be there.

And where things would go from there... well, Akio knew the true meaning of eternity, and eternity meant needing regular tune ups, replacing oil and transmission fluid, and the occasional bottle of antifreeze.

Of course, you couldn't forget the lube jobs, either...

~fin~