A/N: Here it is! At the beginning, I just started jotting this fic down before class and at first I didn't like it at all. (are you surprised?) Then I showed Kitten and she was spazzing over it, and then after I read it over, realized that it was sinking its way into my heart at well. Now I get to share it with all of you! And as another treat, there are three pictures for you at the end! And I'll also give you the heads up that I have two or three more one shots planned - I just have to get around to writing them.
Poor, poor FaS... Going so slow. I really DO hope that these one shots are holding you guys until something happens with it.
Warning: There's a bit of swearing in this one, since we're kinda in Kazu's head, and BL but nothing graphic.
OMG don't even get me STARTED on how much of a pain the title was. It was going from 'dogged' to '3 dog night' to other stupid, retarded things.. And I wanted to stay away from things like 'dare' or 'truth or dare' or 'triple dog dare' because it was just so unoriginal. Of course, what I ended up picking makes me wanna shoot myself. 'Crow's Dog' refers to the triple dog dare that our favorite crow dishes out to Kazu. Was that a spoiler?
Note: The infamous Triple-dog-dare is infamous for the sole reason that you cannot back down from it--without exception! An issued triple-dog-dare has no counteraction and must be implemented and/or carried out. The triple-dog-dare is also known as being dogged.
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Air Gear
a fiction by Crimson Vixen
Crow's Dog
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It's only after you've been stuck there for a while that you realize that the wind doesn't blow, it howls, and it kills you to admit it to yourself but those creaking trees don't have branches, they have fucking claws. And you don't dare open your mouth to breath or curse because the air smells so rank you can taste it; your feet are sinking into the mud with every step you take and it's getting harder and harder to haul them forward because of it. The place is damn dark, hard to see even with your eyes adjusted, and the wind is blowing with an icy touch and an annoying persistence through all those goddamn trees and every snap of a twig is making you jump like a pussy and god damn it all you don't even know what you're doing here and…
Oh wait. That's right.
It's all that damn crow's fault. Like it's a huge surprise or something. How could you say no to his dare, when all you've ever wanted to do was impress the idiot?
But you were expecting to be licking the mud off of Ikki's shoes, or being his slave for the entire day, or – and you should be so lucky – to kiss him smack dab on the lips. Lord knows you never had the balls to make the dare for yourself. But no, Ikki had dared you – no, triple dog dared you – to spend an entire night in the woods on your own, and like the hopeless, lovesick, attention pining fool you are, had instantly accepted without a second thought. Not that you had much of a choice. You were dogged, after all.
Well, it was your idea to play the stupid game in the first place but you're certainly regretting that decision. After recieving your dare, the crow informed you that you would have no help, no supplies, no nothing but yourself and clothes on your back. And shit it's just so damn cold and you don't know your way around and you don't even know what direction you're facing or where you're going and all you can think about is how much you hate Ikki and how much you hate yourself for not being able to hate him for more than an hour. God, you hate that.
Something to your left makes a fucking weird ass sound and it makes you jump like a sissy, hand flying to the space over your heart to see just how fast it was going – and it was going so quick it wasn't even beating, it was buzzing. The noise sounds off again and this time you don't even feel stupid for running in the opposite direction, smacking twigs and leafs and webs out of your way as you go, the tips of your shoes catching the occasional root and you almost fall – almost – but wouldn't be caught dead face down in all that disgusting mud and who the fuck knows what else.
After you've had some time to be ashamed of yourself, you slow to a stop and rest against one of those stupid, monstrous trees and look up. There's so many arms and claws that you can barely make out the sky above it. You can't even see the fucking moon, and since it's so impossibly dark, the moon probably can't see you either.
You've run a pretty good distance, but that sound comes back, accompanied by something clamping down on your shoulder and you jump a mile high, you yelp, you spin around so fast you almost fall for real. You're eyes are wide like a deer in the fucking headlights when you make out the silhouette of someone standing there, and in your paranoid state you can only think of an ax murderer chasing you to where no one can hear you scream, or the forest monster that no one will believe if you somehow survived to tell the story. You've heard the stories, right? It's stupid to think those kinds of tales to be real but when you're in the middle of nowhere with no one there to piss your pants with, your mind easily allows reality to mesh with idealism.
The breaths you take are deep, and for some stupid reason your feet are frozen; possibly stuck. The figure before you takes a step forward, just enough to give you a fuzzy view of the hair jutting out in every direction and the cocky posture that only one person you know has.
"Ikki?"
You've never been so happy to hear him laugh at your misfortune.
"What are you freakin' out about?"
You scoff. There's no way in hell you're going to tell him that he scared you shitless because you thought he was a goddamn tree or some shit like that. You blow him off by facing the other way but you won't walk away, no, not that you have an even worse idea of where you are than before.
"What the hell are you doing here?"
Ikki shrugs, hands in his pockets, before he steps closer to you and spins you around to face him. His face is a little dirty. His clothes are slightly torn. You don't bother thinking too far into it.
"When I gave you that dare," he said carefully, gripping at your arms now, tightly, as if he needed you for something. "I didn't know it was going to be raining."
"What?"
"There's going to be a storm tonight," the crow explained further, sliding his fingers down your arms until he could grip your hands instead. "So come on."
Don't be mad, you can't be mad. He's not here to poke fun at you or play a prank on you and he didn't even make any snide comment about the way you freaked out at his presence. He actually looked…
Well of course he does, idiot. You're his best friend and he's not totally heartless, even if he was a total dick at times. He pulls at you, picking up speed as he goes when the wind seems to get even colder. You automatically assume that there are dark and ominous clouds taking the moon hostage and stealing away your light, and now that you perk your ears up to hear past the suction of feet pulling out of mud, you can pick up the faint roll of thunder. You can feel yourself blush. Ikki had come all the way out here, having no idea where you were in the woods but looking for you regardless to save you from the storm.
Ikki had always been slightly contradictory in that way. He'd set people up for things, thinking nothing would go awry, but when it did… well… Ikki didn't like having a guilty conscious.
"Kazu."
Huh? You look up at him and he's looking back at you, brows lowered in an aggravated way. You've slowed your pace, you realize, so you quickly apologize and speed up, the tips of your feet almost nicking the back of his heels as you both trudge past the trees that were trying to startle and jump and rape you moments earlier. They're scared of Ikki, it seems, since they don't even budge.
"Keep up with me," Ikki tells you, and you nod, even though he's not looking at you anymore. "We're almost out."
You don't ask him how he knows where he's going, or how he knows how to get there so easily. You've been in here for a few hours now, and eventually everything blended together and looked the same, and every direction would lead you further to nowhere. Ikki was like a compass, and somehow the thought makes you blush again. Idiot.
The sky claps with thunder and flickers with a white light and you apparently haven't gotten out of your jumpy skin just yet, since it sends your head diving between your shoulders as if you can hide from it. With the action, you stop in your tracks and Ikki's tugging at your wrist.
You open your mouth to apologize again but the thunder cuts you off. It's not that you're scared of the weather; you're actually not entirely sure why you're acting the way you are right now – maybe you've just been having one of those days and this is your way of giving into it. Who knows – Ikki is facing you again, hands warm on your freezing face and coaxing you to look at him, for the love of…
"Kazu, knock it off. I don't want to be caught in the rain. I'm tired, I'm cold, I'm hungry…"
For a moment, you shoot him a glare. How does he think you feel? He seems to pick up on the message and sighs, reaching behind your neck and pulling your hood up over your head. (1) Softly, he convinces you to keep following him and not to fall behind or he's leaving you. Not that he really would, but it's enough to keep your feet moving.
"There, see?" he says after a few minutes, and the sky starts to sprinkle; a foreshadow of the downpour about to come. He grabs you by the collar this time, yanking you forward so you can walk side by side now. You squint past all the damn trees and see spots of light through them; lights from houses and streetlamps. Then you look at Ikki, see that even in the darkness of this fucking patch of woods, his eyes are shining like the only neon light in a city blackout. It sends a smile to your face and without even a moment's hesitation, you slip your hand into his and squeeze. You don't think about the action, or what it is you've actually done, until he squeezes your hand right back, and starts pulling you that way. He mumbles something, something about the way you look when your hood is up, but you don't bother pressing the matter.
The sky crackles again and you choose now of all times to stop in your tracks, again, stopping Ikki with you, again. The rain is heavier now, flattening his hair a little, and you try to peek past your bangs as they cling to your face. You haven't let go of his hand. He hasn't loosened up on yours, either.
"Does this mean I lose?" you ask, because you just have to know. His face twists in thought before he eventually smiles at you. It may just be in your head, but you think you feel his fingers clutching you even tighter still, as if to avoid losing you now that the rain has slicked his grip.
"No," he says. "You had no intention of coming back even if you did get caught in the rain. This one's on me. And no arguing, kay?"
He starts pulling you again, but only for a moment before he stops to face you a second time.
"But you get a new dare when we get back."
You jeer at him when he moves, practically dragging you now since your feet still want to turn back and finish the original dare anyway, and your mouth works frantically to form the right words.
"Ikki, let me finish the dare."
The look he gives you sends shivers down your already chilled spine and you wonder just how far into your hood you can duck to hide from that sharp gaze. He steps up to you, pushing his chest against your own – you've challenged the alpha male – and his hand is resting on your waist.
"You suck at listening but try to hear this one out," he says sternly. "Come back to the house with me. Consider it a dare."
"But Ikki I – "
"Make that a triple dog dare."
You pause. Then…
"You're an ass."
"And if it means anything to you, I'll make sure you see this one through."
Your teeth are grinding when he stoops down and wraps his arms around your thighs and hoists you up and over his shoulder. He has his arms enveloped around your legs to keep you from falling and you fist your fingers around the back of his jacket to do the same. (2) He starts jogging, his shoulder digging into your stomach whenever his foot hits the ground.
It starts to make you sick after a while so you start to wriggle around a little, then a little more, then a lot. Then you squirm enough to make him lose his balance and he falls. You, naturally, go down with him, into the soggy earth, because you were never meant to leave the woods without getting it on your clothes.
Somehow, unbeknownst to you, you end up on top of him, and your faces are just so awfully fucking close that you start to freeze up again. So you don't move. But neither does he, until he breaks into a sly grin.
"What?"
"You. You look so…" he struggles for the right word, a single brow shooting up to his hairline almost apologetically before settling on the worst possible one. "Cute."
You call him an unpleasant name and try to stand but his arms enfold around your back and keep you from going the fuck anywhere. You stare at him wide eyed; you're not sure what he wants from you at first.
"You're looking pretty damn kissable right now."
You gulp. Then you try again because it gets stuck in your windpipe. Why you're tensing up like you are, like you don't want anything to do with it, you don't know. It's all you've been able to think about lately and now that a chance was presenting itself you were blowing it sky high. Said sky ironically lights up with another streak of lightning, giving you a brief glimpse of the just plain sinister way Ikki's eying you. Drops of rain drip off your lip when you're able to move them.
"You…" you breathe. "You wouldn't dare."
Ikki cranes his neck off the ground a little, close enough to brush his lips against yours when he speaks but not close enough to –
He whispers huskily.
"Triple dog dare me." (3)
And before you can even answer, like he somehow just fucking knows the answer you want to give, he leans up just a little bit more and he's kissing you, he's fucking kissing you and you're kissing back and neither of you are pulling away and god he's so…
You break away, hands reaching and grasping for anything they can touch, for support, and they just happen to land on Ikki's broad shoulders. He doesn't seem to mind. But you do. Your weight is pushing him deeper into the mud. This time he doesn't hold you still when you move to get off of him.
When you're both on your feet, he snakes an arm around your waist. You'll ask him later what he was thinking, or if he intended to clean your clothes for you when you got back. For now you'll settle with his hand sneaking up your shirt so he can feel your skin, and the way he tugs you close enough to walk with your hips touching. Being so close to him makes the chill of the rain not so bad, and for a brief moment you forget it's even raining at all.
And you're so damn focused on the way he's holding you that you hardly remember to keep track of time, and you don't even realize you've made it back until you're through the door. Fuck, you don't even understand what Ikki's doing to you until your shirt is gone and your back is on the floor and Ikki's on top of you now, shirtless as well.
Ravished is the first word that flashes across your mind, which is easily blanking the more he touches and kisses you. Ransacked.
You squirm delightfully at the mere thought of it, arching your hips for him to grab, throwing your arms over your head to grant him access because this is just what you want, just what you've always wanted, and now was not the time to question anything. Ikki is exploring everything you have, your skin, your taste, the countless different sounds that your vocals chords manage to create whenever he touches you in a new place…
Your fingers are curling, clutching at the thickening air when you realize just how heated you've become, and how you feel practically blinded even when your eyes are wide open when his lips find those sensitive areas, or how when Ikki puts his hand on you, it shoots like a wildfire through your veins like you can't even fucking believe.
Moving your hands is suddenly prohibited, you find, when he pins them to the floor. He licks his lips like a starving animal and starts to devour your neck in a way that makes you roll your head back and – god – moan like your life fucking depends on his hot mouth on your skin, and you realize you're starting to tremble but its okay because you know you're not scared but excited. You don't just want this, you need this.
By the third try, Ikki's name is able to slide messily from your lips, airy and not even fucking sounding like your own voice – you almost don't even recognize it – and he pauses to look at you. He swallows and lets up on his hold on you.
"You alright?" He asks you. "I'm not being too rough?"
And you laugh. You laugh because fuck no it's not too rough, it's not too hard and it doesn't hurt in a way you don't like… You shake your head with a small smile, encouraging him to continue because damn, it feels so good that you forget how you lived before without someone taking you every second of every day. Before Ikki is convinced to carry on, you have to whisper a small plea for him to do so. When he doesn't hear you, you ask him again, this time in the form of a scream and like the gun signaling for runners to move, he dives in, licking and biting you all over and leaving nothing untouched and holy fuck who knew feeling this good was even fucking possible!?
How pathetic, you think with a wry grin. He's not even doing anything that dirty or kinky to you and you've turned to absolute butter under him. The thought of him doing even more to you makes you outwardly giddy, and Ikki momentarily stops, slightly confused.
"Just don't stop," you tell him, biting at your tongue to keep yourself from moaning it instead. He's let up enough that you can prop yourself up on your boney elbows, and he's resting all his weight on his knees. He doesn't seem happy unless your faces are close when you lock eyes. Questioning you with his eyes, he puts his hands on your shoulders.
That's when you drop the line.
"Triple dog dare you."
He laughs when you say it because you laughed while saying it. And he doesn't seem very opposed to the idea since he pulls you in and kisses you full on the lips, tongue slipping into your mouth and fingers squeezing your shoulders. He sighs into your mouth and you whine into his. And when your lips go swollen and numb and you can't seem to find your breath anymore, and your gasping and spent and grinning like an idiot as you just stay sprawled on the floor with Ikki doing the same – half resting on the floor and half on you… you decide that - cold night and dirty clothes set aside - you rather like this game.
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A/N: (yawwwnnn) BOY am I worn out!
Anyway, as usual, here is your eyecandy for the day. You should all know by now, that I did not draw these, Kitten chan did and you should comment and give credit as such! Her work is amazing and beautiful and deserves the best love and compliments that you have to offer! So please do, either via her page or in a review. I promise she'll see them either way.
(1) http://yaoi (dot) y-gallery (dot) net/view/380956/
(2) http://yaoi (dot) y-gallery (dot) net/view/380931/
(3) http://i246 (dot) photobucket (dot) com/albums/gg88/crimvix/mxb (dot) jpg
Ugh I'm going to bed now... I have been yawning the whole time I was editing this, and I have to get up early to do the homework I'm too tired to do now.. for tomorrow. Anyway, g'night. (curls into bed)