tp5: kippei and shinji

[shattermelt]

Kippei had been carefully investigating the situation in Brown, and he didn't like at all the things he was finding out. Rikkai was up to something, and it wasn't going to be anything good. He was worried about Fudo people, since there had been fights breaking out with the overcrowding, and a lot of them were necessarily between the two races that had most reason to resent the other's presence. He was worried about the station as a whole and what Rikkai was planning, but most of all he was worried about Shinji, who still spent a great deal of his work time down in the troubled areas.

Shinji had been right, he did need to learn how to defend himself, and Kippei was relieved to have a suggestion for what to do about it. Shinji was frustrating the hell out of him still with his reactions to their fight the other night, but Kippei knew he'd screwed that up, and it was his own fault. It didn't change the fact that he need to teach Shinji how to fight. So in spite of the fact that he'd been working more hours every day than he ever had before on the station, he came home with the intent to find Shinji for a self defense lesson.

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[ayretala.livejournal.com]

Shinji was sitting at the table, which he had for once bothered to spread a sheet over, and he was fiddling with the insides of the electronic cat, adding a few little extra bits and putting a shell on it to protect everything. It was a long job and had taken him most of the afternoon, which he had been sent home for since there was a small riot and security had been called in to protec the reactor, cutting down the work detail to half to make it easier to check identification. Shinji had been of two minds about it; happy to go home and work on his own projects but wanting a few more shifts to start getting some money back in his account too. But he had gone home in the end, and decided to finish the cat as a present for Ina, because she needed company if Shinji wasn't going to be down there as often. Coming to that decision he had also decided to put in a few select weapons, that could be voice activated by Ina if she needed them. Nothing too odd, just a few lasers. He heard the door open but didn't look up, halfway through soldering wires into place and wanting to finish before he gave Kippei a proper welcome home.

[shattermelt.livejournal.com]

Kippei sighed, pulling off his jacket as he came in the door, spotting Shinji at the table. Well, that made things easy... though he looked rather absorbed. Kippei stopped at the fridge to grab a bottle of water, and came over to sprawl in a chair, kicking off his boots and taking a long drink as he looked over the parts and tools spread out on the table.

His eyes narrowed at a couple of them, and he tilted his head, giving a closer look. What the hell? "Are you putting weapons in that thing?" he asked, blinking.

[ayretala.livejournal.com]

"Yes," Shinji answered, thoroughly distracted as he finished soldering the last wires into place. He then finished attaching the last of the shell and righted the little cat, eyeing it critically but not finding any fault with it. Taking a deep breath, Shinji turned it on and waited. It wagged its tail. It did a lap of the table. It didn't shoot anyone. Awesome.

Shinji leant over the table and kissed Kippei quickly on the lips, grinning.

"Welcome home, Ambassador. It's pretty late...long day?"

[shattermelt.livejournal.com]

Kippei shook his head; what in the hell did a robot cat need weapons for? He watched it warily as it did it's march around the table, but nothing happened, and then he was distracted by Shinji's warm kiss, something that never failed to send a tingling thrill down his spine, no matter how often it happened.

"Yeah, long day," he answered, smiling up at Shinji as he slouched further down in the chair, reaching around to drag Shinji over to his side of the table and pull him closer.

[ayretala.livejournal.com]

His chair went skidding around the table and the little cat watched him the whole way. Shinji was very proud of the little thing and almost laughed at himself for it but felt there were better things to do, like snuggle a little against Kippei, wrapping his arms around him and pulling him close, petting his hair as if Kippei were a cat and kissing his temple. Long days sucked.

"It's for Ina," he said, nodding toward the cat. "To replace me. I'm not sure what that says about my self-image, but whatever."

[shattermelt.livejournal.com]

Kippei straightened slightly, his eyes widening, suddenly feeling kind of bad on all kinds of fronts.

"You?" he asked slowly, and shook his head, turning his face into Shinji's shoulder and breathing in the sexy smell of Shinji when he'd been working. God, he was tired. "It couldn't replace you," he muttered. "She'd much rather have you back." He felt guilty as hell; he'd taken Shinji away from Ina and he hadn't even done a good job of keeping him, this was twice now that they'd gotten into a huge fight because Kippei had screwed up.

[ayretala.livejournal.com]

"Well, maybe replace was a bad word. I still go see her but not every day like I used to and I don't like her being there all by herself so I just want to know that when I'm not there something is at least looking out for her. Besides, I told her about the ship and making the cat and she seemed pretty excited, but I think she was excited about the ship not the cat, but still the cat's not doing anything here other than getting in the way sitting by the bed when we're asleep so....I want her to have it. She might enjoy it. Maybe. Or she'll find it annoying and shoot it. Whatever." He enjoyed just getting to hold Kippei after a damn long day.

"I got sent home because there was a riot in brown and we needed to cut down on personnel near the reactor."

[shattermelt.livejournal.com]

Kippei tensed up again, reminded of the issue of safety down in Brown. There was a riot? That was new, sort of, and Shinji had been almost caught in it and he didn't like that at all.

"A riot?" he asked, frowning. "Damn," he muttered, wishing his sources, such as they were, could give him better information about what was going on down there and more importantly, what was being planned.

"You wanted me to teach you how to fight. I think it's about time we started." He shifted, sitting up and stretching a bit, thinking wearily that it was a good idea, but the timing sucked. They should have done this weeks ago, when they had time.

[ayretala.livejournal.com]

Shinji frowned. He didn't expecially like the idea of fighting, but he was serious when he said he did not want to be Kippei's weakness, so he nodded and looked down at himself. He was already filthy so getting dirtier was not going to matter.

"Here, or somewhere else? There isnt much room in here...You not going to beat me up for not having sex the last few nights right?"

[shattermelt.livejournal.com]

Kippei shot him a startled look. "The hell? What do you think I am?" Frowns as he stands up, running fingers through his hair. "If I was going to beat you up for that I'd have done it already," he said gruffly. He was shocked and a little hurt that Shinji would even suggest it, and apparently think it a legitimate concern.

"There's a place we can go, it should be fairly empty now." There was a workout room he usually used that had a nice mat area which would be good for this kind of training.

[ayretala.livejournal.com]

Shinji burst out laughing and shook his head, incredulous.

"I was kidding! Geez, you['re the one who should be worried; I think we've established I'm the one with the temper in this relationship. Honestly, like you'd ever bash me up." He got up and grabbed a bottle of water from the fridge, then linked his arm through Kippei's, grinning.

"You worry too much."

[shattermelt.livejournal.com]

"I... I worry too much?" Kippei stared at him, and shook his head, extricating his arm as he leaned down to tug his boots back on.

"What the hell are you worried about, is what I'd like to know," he grumbled, not really expecting an answer since Shinji had shown no signs of wanting to talk about what had happened the other night; he'd simply been quietly stubborn about not having sex, and Kippei was insanely frustrated and thoroughly confused and wished heartily that the whole thing had never happened, or at least that he hadn't been so stupid about it.

[ayretala.livejournal.com]

"Yes, you worry too much! About silly unimportant things! Like maybe Shinji wasn't joking and really thinks I'm going to beat him up. Me? I think about important things, like to how to make love to my boyfriend so he actually enjoys it for once!" He stomped into his shoes, stomping a few extra times under the pretence of getting them on comfortably, then ordered the door open.

"Come on, lets go let you get your 'revenge'." He rolled his eyes and started walking.

[shattermelt.livejournal.com]

"Yeah, okay," Kippei answered tiredly, the weariness hitting him all at once now that he'd stopped moving. A bath sounded good, but that would require getting up and going home and he was damn comfortable right here, he thought. But this place was closing for the night soon and he didn't really want to sleep here, anyway. He gave himself a minute and then pulled himself back together, drawing himself up and locking down the fatigue as if it were just another emotion, getting to his feet and reaching down to give Shinji a hand up.

"You alright?" he asked, looking him over. He'd be sore, for sure. Hopefully no bruises, but that wouldn't be surprising, either. Well, Kippei still had a fading mark on his jaw so they were even.

[ayretala.livejournal.com]

"Yeah I'm fine," Shinji murmered, taking the hand and letting Kippei haul him into a semblance of a standing position, wearily going over and getting the water, downing his half then handing it over while he leant casually on Kippei's shoulder.

"Got to drool over my action man boyfriend for a few hours while he showed me all his neat tricks. I'm feeling pretty damn good." He smirked and licked Kippei's cheek, tasting salt and dirt and Kippei and yeah. Perfect.

[shattermelt.livejournal.com]

Kippei smirked at him and took his own drink, handing it back to Shinji with some still left.

"You got to drool?" he murmured, turning his head just far enough kiss Shinji's sexy mouth. "I got to drool over my sexy mechanic in his work clothes getting hot and sweaty and more dirty learning how to do my thing, watch your body move like fucking art, not to mention sex. I think I win."

[ayretala.livejournal.com]

"You and your dirt fetish," Shinji hummed, amused. "But I so did not move like art, or sex...I think I moved like a kids bulldozer...ramming into the wall or something. My knees are killing me. At least you're working on kissing it better." He smirked and drank the rest of the water while he tugged Kippei out the door damn near skipping at the thought of hot and wet Kippei in the bath. Mmmm.

"Give me a massage in the bath and we can have sex."

[shattermelt.livejournal.com]

Kippei thought it was both art and sex, the graceful slender lines of Shinji's body twisting and turning as he fought and yeah, he was a bit awkward as he tried to follow Kippei's directions, but he'd caught on fast and it was beautiful and sexy as hell.

Also, what? He shot a look of disbelief at his tormentor. "You're trying to make a deal with me for sex?" he asked, ignoring the part of him that was screaming at him to say hell yes and damn the torpedoes.

[ayretala.livejournal.com]

"Well, its not so much a deal as a guarantee. I guarantee there will be sex if you give me a massage in the bath." He frowned, thinking of things that might get him to agree. "Ina would give me a massage even without the sex...but that's because she never got any sex from me. Come on, just one itty bitty massage, its not too much to ask for since you were the slave driver that killed every muscle in my body."

[shattermelt.livejournal.com]

Kippei liked that even less. "I would give you the massage just for trying," he told Shinji shortly. "I'd say you've earned it. But you can forget the sex. Not like this. I don't want a fucking guarantee like it's a business deal. If you can say no, I can say no, and fucking hell no."

He set his jaw grimly, wondering which of them was more fucked up, because whatever it was that had bothered Shinji the other night couldn't possibly be any worse than this; like buying sex with favors, from his own lover and just no.

[ayretala.livejournal.com]

Startled, Shinji looked at Kippei and smacked him on the back of the head again. God, like he would ever actually sell sex; there wasn't anything in the world he hated more. It had been a way of getting them out of their mess, or jokingly promising I'll sleep with you tonight no matter what happens. Because Shinji had wanted to and he wanted a massage too and didn't want to have to ask for one. Only he didn't want sex again.

"Damn straight fucking hell no." He was too tired to be mad so he didn't bother saying anything when he got home, going straight into the bathroom and locking the door. "Have your own damn bath."

[shattermelt.livejournal.com]

Kippei was tired and confused and frustrated and if Shinji wanted to be that way, he wasn't going to argue, not tonight. He didn't even feel like taking a bath, anymore, it sounded like too much effort. He went over and tried the bathroom door, just in case, but Shinji had locked it and Kippei sighed, resting his forehead against the door and feeling so incredibly weary.

He was never going to get this right, and he'd known it all along, but he wanted to, and he'd tried so hard, and now... he wanted to say something, like I'm sorry or goodnight, but he didn't want to apologize and he didn't know what else to say, so after a minute he straightened and went into the bedroom, taking off his boots and stipping off his sweaty shirt, then wandering back out in his bare feet to sprawl on the couch, waiting for Shinji to be done so he could clean up a bit.

He killed most of the lights, leaving just enough for Shinji to find his way when he came out; his head hurt and the dark was soothing and comforting and familiar, like space. He laid back and closed his eyes and listened to the faint sounds of water from the bathroom, getting fainter and fainter as he drifted farther into the darkness.

[ayretala.livejournal.com]

Shinji couldn't explain it but he felt himself once he was clean. He felt like something had been washed away and with it had gone the frustration and anger, leaving only guilt and sadness in its wake. He didn't know how to say the right thing to Kippei; the guy took everything seriously and Shinji didn't want to have to grovel to apologise, Kippei wouldn't believe him anyway. He didn't know how to say I'm sorry. He stared at himself in the mirror and sighed. He didn't get why Ambassador fucking Tachibana Kippei wanted a grease monkey like him anyway; he should have known this sort of thing would happen eventually. He sighed and silently flicked the door open and it was dark. Had Kippei gone to bed? Oh well, Shinji would just crash on the couch then...but there was a familiar lump on the couch and Shinji just stood there for a long time, looking at him, then he went to go get a few blankets and pillows and carefully maneouvered them around Kippei before getting himself into the mix, tangling his arms around Kippei's waist and snuggling against Kippei's hip, just listening to the soft breathing and he supposed it didn't matter all that much if he didn't get any sleep as long as he thought of a way to apologise. Only he had the odd feeling he wasn't going to get either. He sighed and stroked an apologetic hand down Kippei's thigh.

[shattermelt.livejournal.com]

Warm. It was warm. Kippei came slowly back to consciousness, aware of a comfortable weight and it was warm and he could hear the familiar sounds of breathing, and how strange was it that it was familiar? He didn't know where he was, at first, but he recognized that.

"Shinnjii?" he muttered, slurring in a sleepy tone as he raised a hand in the dark to rub his eyes. Shinji was here. That was such a fucking relief for some reason, and he frowned in confusion, trying to open his eyes. Then he stopped trying, relaxing with a sigh as he remembered--training and the fight on the way home and falling asleep on the couch. He'd been worried, afraid that Shinji was still mad, but he was here. God.

"M'sorry," he murmured, raising a hand to rub Shinji's arm in apology. "Sorry I'm stupid, didn't mean to... sorry." It occurred to him vaguely to wonder why he thought Shinji was awake still, until he realized that he could hear his breathing, not the rhythm of sleep.

[ayretala.livejournal.com]

He was awake. Shinji sighed and hoped that didn't mean they had to move and go to bed since he was damn comfortable where he was. The soothing hand on his arm was nice and Shinji just squeezed him a little tighter around the waist, his own little quiet apology.

"Me too. I'm sorry too." He sighed and wriggled a little, getting more comfortable, which was hard because he had been comfortable to begin with, but he managed it, kissing Kippei's hip in apology for being disruptive. "You're not stupid Kippei." That was Shinji, always forgetting that Kippei was a little odd and had no more idea what he was doing than Shinji did. "Reckon Ina would give us free rates for relationship counselling?" He smirked in the dark, trying to imagine how that would go.