Chapter Text
Scrutinizing herself in the tiny, cracked mirror of her powder box, Goromi frowns at the shiny spot on the bridge of her nose. This won't do, she thinks as she taps powder puff on it once, twice with painstaking care. For Kiryu-chan, she has to be flawless. He won't probably even notice - he tells her she's beautiful when she's fully glammed up as well as when her painted face melts away in the heat of passion he smothers her with in her bed - but she will know, and she won't accept anything else than perfection. She inclines her head left, right, watching her reflection like a cat that is so taken with the doppelganger mimicking its every move, purses her coral pink lips, forgets herself in the moment of just how pretty she is that she startles when Nishida addresses her from the driver's seat: "Should I wait for you at the usual spot, boss?"
Goromi claps the powder box shut that it whips up a palm-sized cloud of fine dust. "Goddamn, Nishida, no, I'm goin' on a date with intentions," she says, putting a comical emphasis on the last word so it gets through Nishida's thick skull. "No need for ya to third-wheel along."
"Boss! I didn't mean it like that!"
"Aw, worried 'bout my honor?" she croons and opens the door. Nishida stutters and tenses up behind the steering wheel. "So sweet. But this ain't my first rodeo. Now chop-chop," Goromi orders after she has climbed out and slams the door.
It's twilight and Theater Square is starting to fill up with people, a forewarning of the bustling crowds that come with nightfall. Goromi gives herself one last once-over in a shop window to her right: She got a new outfit for the occasion, a shimmery black tube dress with a rich, pink tiger-stripe pattern that clings to her taut muscles and sharp curves in a mockery of modesty and only barely manages to cover both her bosom and her ass at the same time. It beautifully accentuates the long lines of her legs and she's fairly certain that, between the hem of the dress' skirt and the bright pink peephole pumps, Kiryu-chan will pass out once he sees them. She straightens the lapels of her cropped leather jacket with a wicked grin, the four mismatched necklaces adorning her cleavage cheerfully clinking with the motion, hoists her flashy and thoroughly impractical handbag over her shoulder, and sets off in a leisurely pace toward the center of the square. Her heels are click-clacking on the paving and Kamurocho is lying at her feet.
In the milling of random passersby, there is a flash of a dull grey jacket. Goromi grins from ear to ear. "Kiryu-chan!" she screeches and breaks into as much of a run as her fashion choices allow, leaps forward when she's close enough and Kiryu-chan staggers a step back with a pale blush high on his cheeks and solid arms around her waist, holding her clean off the ground.
"Hello, gorgeous," he says in that voice that always threatens to melt her insides into jelly and the whole thing is so cheesy Goromi can't help herself and bends her legs at the knees like a dainty princess who got swept up by her prince charming.
"What a greeting - were ya rehearsing that?" she says between giggles. Kiryu-chan frowns a little, probably stuck interpreting whether it's a taunt or genuine curiosity, slides her down to the ground and raises his chin to kiss her. "A-a-ah," Goromi exclaims in a sharp staccato and presses her pink-clawed index and middle finger against his mouth. "No ruinin' my lipstick, attaboy, the night is too young."
The face he makes is that of a kicked puppy. "Can I kiss you on the cheek instead?"
Goromi slides her arms around his neck. She almost wants to eat her words and French kiss him so hard he'll drool all over himself. "Ya one depraved weirdo, hyper-focused on ruinin' my make-up. That a new kink? You're spending too much time on the net, Kiryu-chan."
"Goromi," he says in The Voice again.
Goromi dramatically rolls her eye with a sigh so deep it encompasses all sorrows of the world, but in the end decides to grant this one wish. She cocks her head to one side in an offer and waits with her eye closed; a feathery light kiss warms a patch of skin just next to the neat line of her beard before it fades with Kiryu-chan drawing away, but then it reappears in an underhanded move on the soft shell of her ear.
"I missed you." The words are a deep rumble she can more feel than hear; the shiver it sends down her spine is definitely from the fact that Kiryu-chan's breath tickles.
She whines and pushes him away, but keeps her hands on him. "Really testin' my patience. How are ya so sure I don't turn on my heel and leave ya here all flushed and achy? Bet Nishida is still 'round the corner with the car and keepin' tabs on how ya treatin' me."
He squeezes her waist. "I'm not. I know you're a strong, independent- wait," he stops and scowls. "Is he?"
"Just a guess, but I know him like the back of my hand," Goromi says and cackles when Kiryu-chan whips his head around, checking every shadow around the square for an unwanted audience. She pinches his jaw and makes him look at her and only her. "C'mon, let's hit it off. There's this weird stuffed animal of non-descript species in the UFO catcher and I couldn't nab it if my life depended on it - if ya manage, I might kiss ya for real."
He gets this cocksure smirk on his face that Goromi finds equal amounts of charming and infuriating. "Looking forward to it."
"Might, Kiryu-chan, I might also change my mind," she yaps more for the sake of appearances than real conviction. The way Kiryu-chan smiles when he offers her his arm suggests he saw right through it. Whatever. It's a special occasion - she may afford some leniency.
The arcade is the usual cacophony of chipmunk tunes, youngsters cheering and coins rattling into the bowels of game machines. Goromi leads Kiryu-chan to a specific UFO catcher like a reigning queen leads her eye-candy king consort to a banquet and jabs her finger at the glass display. "There."
"A white teddy bear?"
"Duh, Kiryu-chan - with bunny ears and pink knickers? That ain't no bear."
"The ears are a pink cap. See? It goes all the way to the back," he says while fishing out change from his pocket. "It's wearing a costume."
Goromi crosses her arms. "Bears don't wear costumes, dum-dum."
"This one does."
"Nah, it's a little freak of nature. Cute, but weird as they come. Kinda like me," she says and suggestively runs her open palms down her chest and sides and settles them at her hips. "No dress-up, just a raw state of mind."
He looks at her from counting coins. "You're not a freak."
"Oh?" she intones, amused, and puffs out her chest. To Kiryu-chan's credit, his gaze does not slide downward once. "Can't stand the thought of dating one?"
"I don't know," he says and starts feeding the machine 100 yen coins. "I'm already dating the prettiest girl in town."
At the third coin, the crane machine animates with lights and a cheery tune, and it effectively robs Goromi of a way to think of a witty comeback. He has a hidden talent, Kiryu-chan - shutting her up with his painful, child-like honesty. It's easier to deal with when she's drunk or out of her mind with a severe case of horny, but not in a casual setting like an arcade date. She watches Kiryu-chan step up to the controls, shoulders squared and head hunched in a predatory prowl and shakes her head when a strange, bubbly warmth seeps through her abdomen like heavy red wine spilling on a thick fur rug. No use dwelling on it. Instead, she crowds the pane of the machine and hypnotizes the crane sliding toward her dream prize.
"No, no, no, no, NO Kiryu-chan, ya goin' at it all wrong!" she whines in frustration at the descending claw in what she knows is an ill-fated attempt, because she tried exactly that yesterday at least ten times before storming out. "I'll never get the little critter like this."
"Have a little faith."
The claw closes around the toy's legs and topples it face down as it begins retracting. Goromi lets out an exasperated snort and pokes her elbow into Kiryu-chan's ribs. "Faith is for chumps. I want results."
He has the audacity to chuckle and she would definitely poke him again if he already hasn't started on his second try. He chooses nearly identical approach and Goromi suppresses the urge to kick something, because she naively thought he was actually good at this game, so when the claw settles around the plushie's neck in a wobbly hold and starts rising, she clutches both hands to her chest with a wheezy gasp of surprise. They watch the mechanism transport the teddy - because it probably is a bear after all - through the stratosphere of the machine's display and when it is released and falls right into the accessible compartment, Goromi starts bouncing on her feet.
"How?!" she exclaims in her excitement when Kiryu-chan bends down to pick the toy up. "I literally tried that all evenin' yesterday."
"I went in with higher stakes," he says, offering her the elusive prize.
Goromi snatches it and holds it in her outstretched arms, beaming. "I'll name him after you. Our firstborn! Makin' momma proud."
Kiryu-chan is fussing in embarrassment and Goromi seizes the opportunity to swoop in. "And a reward for the dad of the year," she purrs, pursing her lips and imprinting a long kiss into Kiryu-chan's cheek with a loud humming sound, topping it off with a smacking 'muah!' and then she promptly makes for the exit, knowing full well Kiryu-chan will trail after her as soon as he collects himself from her onslaught.
Back at Theater Square, Goromi opens her purse and stuffs the teddy bear inside. It's too small to fit things bigger than a make-up pouch and the round head of the toy is sticking out like a loaf of French bread. Kiryu-chan catches up to her then, all flustered and red and with a lipstick stamp in the shape of her mouth for the wide world to see whose quality check he just passed. She slings the purse over her shoulder and taps her own face with a grin: "Got a little somethin' there, stud."
He wipes once at the incriminated spot; the pink stain on his fingertips makes him blush a little redder before he starts searching around his pockets. "You wouldn't know anything about that, would you?" he asks wryly, tissue in hand.
"Nope."
"So I'm still eligible for the 'kissing me for real', right?"
Goromi barks out a laugh. "Clever, Kiryu-chan! But no, yer not. Ya can only redeem the prize once."
He stuffs the tissue in his pocket. "You denied your involvement."
"Fine, I confess - it was me who done it, officer."
He makes a thoughtful sound and he's looking too smug for Goromi's comfort. "Come to think of it, there was this old lady at the arcade. I guess she must have mistaken me for her grandson or something, she got very personal at one point-"
"Ya asshole! Shut the fuck up!" Goromi shouts at the whole square that people further away are turning in their direction and people who are passing them by pick up the pace. She grabs him by the lapels of his suit and growls when she sees the amused twinkle in his eyes and how hard he fights to keep a straight face. "Guys are all the same - fuckin' rude."
She wants to say more, but Kiryu-chan gives her the puppy eyes and she relents - he may be driving her crazy, but kissing him is like heaven, and she can deny herself only so long. His arms come up to wrap her up like a present and Goromi melts in his embrace, licking into his mouth with bold swipes of her tongue. He's always so receptive, so thoughtful to mold himself into a shape she favors, into a form she craves, consciously or not. Another hidden talent.
Pulling back, Goromi patronizingly pats his cheek. "There. Satisfied?"
He tilts his head to kiss the pad of her thumb. "Yeah."
"That all it takes?" she says, rubbing his lip. "Kinda basic."
"I just feel it that way. You. Here, and now." His hands run over her back and while Goromi isn't ticklish, she shudders when they gently squeeze her sides. "It's enough to be thankful for."
"Ew, Kiryu-chan - this is way too corny to say while sober."
He frowns - she offended him. "Why not just accept it?"
"What?"
"A compliment."
"Compliments are dime a dozen, handsome. Be this hot and they'll eventually lose their meaning."
"Goromi."
"Goromi," she mocks and pinches his cheek in a manner that must be painful, but Kiryu-chan does not even flinch. Morphing, shifting, meeting her need. "Ya say that every time ya run out of arguments."
"I don't want to argue," he says, slowly. The way he's looking at her is doing something because she eases her grip and somewhere, at the back of her mind, feels even a little ashamed of the ridicule she constantly subjects him to. "I just want you to see yourself the way I do."
They stand there, unmoving, while the crowds are washing around them like waves. Goromi is looking down at him from the superior height granted by her heels and can't help the nagging feeling that she has been outplayed and, what's more, that she doesn't really mind. She dips her head forward to plant a kiss on the reddened mark she left on Kiryu-chan's cheek and scratches the patch of skin behind his ear. "Y'say the weirdest things, Kazuma."
He breathes out a laugh. "Sorry. It's always too easy, with you around."
She nips his ear and Kiryu-chan deliciously gasps. "Is it?"
"Yeah."
"Hm." Goromi draws back and scrutinizes her work. He's blushing like a schoolboy. "I guess I might have that effect on people." She slithers out of his embrace and prompts him to a walk with an arm around his waist. "I'm starving. Where're ya takin' me for dinner, Kiryu-chan?"
"Where would you like?"
She has a mind to say barbecue, but that might be a bit of a dick move even for her, with Kiryu-chan being a single dad now, with expenses and everything. "Izakaya."
"Really? I mean, sure, but I thought you'd suggest something more... Glamorous?"
"I'm in the mood for the homely feel. It's your old man soul rubbin' off on me - give it more time and I'll be content with sippin' warm beer on a couch with ya dressed in nothing but a pair of oversize sweated through pajamas."
"I... Wouldn't mind that."
She lets out a bark of scandalized laughter and slaps him on the chest. "'Course ya wouldn't! Kiryu-chan, ya perv."
*
The dinner is a plain affair, with grape sours, sashimi slices and many kinds of tempura. They talk about everything and nothing and Goromi keeps bumping their legs together under the table, at first accidentally, then on purpose. Kiryu-chan lets her. With the looks he's giving her, he'd probably let her get away with much more - had it not been for the table between them, she'd definitely go wild, consequences be damned. As it stands, Goromi can't wait to move him somewhere more private and she gulps down her drink proportionally to her growing desire.
Kiryu-chan must be feeling the same, because he calls over the waiter to pay.
They wander down Nakamichi alley glued at the hip and preoccupied with each other, so the muggers ambushing them behind a corner come as a surprise, but Goromi throws them off with her glaring mean attitude and before they can do anything, Kiryu-chan steps up and takes it upon himself to mop the floor with them. He rolls his shoulders and neck, tells Goromi to stay back as if she needed protecting, and then he's poetry in motion. He's fast and precise and so ridiculously powerful that Goromi leans on the wall with a sigh and fishes out a cigarette from the confines of her purse.
She has barely taken the first drag when the last of the wanna-be muggers falls face-down at her feet. "What a letdown."
Kiryu-chan raises one eyebrow.
"Coulda watched this longer. You're a real spectacle, Kiryu-chan. I always get all warm and fuzzy from seein' ya throw down some ground rules," she takes a deep inhale of the cigarette and exhales a cloud of smoke, humming with her eye closed. "The only better thing would be me bein' on the receiving end instead of some snot-nosed brats. They won't appreciate it."
Warm hands on her waist. When she reopens her eye, Kiryu-chan is right there. "For you I have something better."
Her grin grows teeth. "Do ya now? Pray, what might it be? An' how do I get it?"
He tilts his head closer. "You could ask nicely."
She giggles and her grin turns wicked. "I don't really ask for anythin', hot stuff," she says and cups him through his slacks. With the way he gasps, he clearly had something else in mind to give. "I'm a go-getter."
"Why are you always trying to rile me up?" he asks and gently pries her hand away. "I won't fight you. I told you that."
"That's part of my charm. What - second thoughts? Ya knew I was a mean bitch."
"Goromi."
"Ah, for fuck's sake, Kiryu-chan." She rolls her eye and brings the cigarette to her lips. "Yer like a broken record."
"Is it so unbelievable?" he says and caresses her cheek just below the eye-patch where the leather strap is digging into her skin. It's so tender that it is her turn to gasp in surprise. "That I like you?"
Goromi leans her head against the cold brick with a thud, hoping for a spark of pain to distract her from the blunt honesty he's adamant on bulldozing her with. It's not enough. "Ya wanted to give me something," she says, resigned to her fate.
Kiryu-chan smiles a little. "I did."
"So?"
"You want it then?"
She rolls her eye. "Gonna make me say it, ain'tcha?"
He kneads her hips while looking way too satisfied with himself. "That's the idea, yeah."
"You're a sadist. That baby face is a front."
The tip of his nose bumps into hers, like a cat displaying its undying love for the hand that feeds it. It's stupid and cheesy and Goromi wants him to do it again.
"Please?" she ends up saying, the word a mere whisper above her breath and below her vocal chords, and Kiryu-chan kisses her like he did for the first time, without a care in the world and unhurried, nudging her to open up and accept what he has to give. Goromi brings her arms to his shoulders, remembers the still smoldering cigarette in her fingers at the last second so she doesn't burn him and lets him crowd her against the wall as if she wasn't a fever dream, but a girl with a real name and a future without co-dependence. It's enough to make her swoon.
When Kiryu-chan pulls back, he basically glows. She half expects him to tease her for giving in, but he isn't like her. It's both good and bad. "You're lovely tonight."
Goromi scratches the dark thatch of beard on his chin. He tilts his head back and closes his eyes in delight - truly like a cat. "Only tonight?"
"You're lovely all the time, but even more so when I'm there to see it."
"Think ya add that much to the equation, hm?" she says with a smile, not unkindly. "That I light up like a Christmas tree when I see your rippling physique?"
He kisses her forehead and doesn't say anything. He doesn't have to - he knows she does.
A groan from below catches their attention - the punk Kiryu-chan previously knocked out rolls to his back, his head ending up only a step away from Goromi's legs. His bleary eyes are working hard to make out his surroundings and when they settle on Goromi, he cracks a bloodstained dopey smile. "Hey, babe."
She snorts out a giggle; next to her, she can feel Kiryu-chan winding himself up for another skull cracking. And they say chivalry is dead. "Hey yerself, boytoy, this queen needs a real man," she says and flicks the cigarette butt right between his eyes. He yelps and curls in on himself in pain. "I'm gonna take ya home, Kiryu-chan," she announces and tugs at his arm. "All these crowds are makin' me want ya for myself."
A minute later they're boarding a taxi. Goromi keeps it together just long enough to rattle off her address to the cabbie and then she makes it her life mission to kiss and grope Kiryu-chan into the car seat. He lets her, to a degree, but when she gets spicy and rubs his crotch he becomes all flustered and restrains her, nodding in the driver's direction. He's no fun - and she tells him as much, but chooses to respect this lame quirk and settles for sucking hickeys into his neck and squeezing the rock-hard muscles of his thigh. His struggle for control is delicious and his blush vivid, underlined by the yellow glare of the streetlamps passing outside. She whispers a sleazy remark about his too tight slacks into his ear and he hurries to shut her up with a toothy kiss of his own; he dives into it with such urgency that, combined with the momentum of the cab taking a left turn at moderate speed, he accidentally topples her on her back. Goromi giggles into his mouth and hugs him so tight that he can't escape.
The cabbie is beyond professional and politely waits until she lets Kiryu-chan go with a loud smacking sound; he pays their fare without a word, probably too embarrassed to even say 'sorry', and Goromi clambers out of the taxi with a bubbly wish of a goodnight. Outside, she starts rummaging through her bag for keys, holding the stuffed teddy bear to her chest under her forearm.
"You," Kiryu-chan accuses once he's caught up to her.
Goromi shakes the keys with a rattle and a laugh. "What about little ole me?"
"One of these days I'm not going to survive a date with you, and it will be entirely your fault."
She gasps and covers the teddy bear's pink cosplay ears. "Not in front of the little one!"
Kiryu-chan pinches the bridge of his nose and she cackles.
She makes up for the little headache she's repeatedly causing him upstairs where she toes her pumps off and lets her jacket slide down her shoulders and to the floor; she can practically feel his stare on her back, on her ass, on the playful stride of her legs as she tiptoes to the living room and kneels on the sofa. She sits sideways draped over the backrest and pats the seat next to her - the moment Kiryu-chan settles, Goromi climbs into his lap, straddling him aside, princess-style. "Wanted to do this all evenin'," she says, her fingers absent-mindedly rubbing his shoulders.
He lays his head on the backrest, relaxed. In the privacy of her apartment, his hands grow bolder, tracing the elegant lines of her lean body. He toys with the pell-mell tangle of her necklaces before sliding lower to cup the modest curve of her breasts. "Me too."
"Oho. What stopped ya?"
A whole date has transpired and he still blushes at the smallest hint of raunchiness. "Circumstances."
Goromi clicks her tongue. "Gotta bend 'em to your will, stud. Nothin' will just come yer way without working for it."
One of his hands squeezes her ass with such a crushing purpose that Goromi moans like the slut she is, and then it's a free fall to his embrace proper and a heady kiss. Somehow, even when he wants this as much as she does, Kiryu-chan retains a gentleness to his touch, unlike her - where she scratches and bites, he rubs and nips, where she pulls and pushes, he caresses and pets. He mouths at the column of her neck until Goromi feels too big for her dress and all she can think about is Kiryu-chan on her naked skin.
So when he stops the kissing and the groping and just holds her, a wistful expression on his face, she isn't at all pleased.
"Can I ask you something personal?" he says, infuriatingly calm.
She groans. "Seriously, ya had the whole evening for probin' my brain."
He's rubbing circles into her back - his take on apology. He'll have to try harder than that, she thinks. "I know I did but... There wasn't a right time."
This piques her curiosity, despite the lack of making out. "What ya need to know so bad that ya can't ask it over drinks, ha? Do I like vibrators? Am I open to a threesome? Because I am," she shoots blindly, counting each guess on her fingers, "do I have a piss kink?" she continues and wrinkles her nose, "please tell me you're not into piss. I'm too pretty for that."
"No! Goromi," his voice rises and he looks so offended that she can't help the laughter welling up inside her lungs and spilling out. "Nothing like that."
"Aw, no judgment, Kiryu-chan."
He winces and repeats: "No."
"Then what is it so personal and embarrassing that ya need to get me all woozy an' horny before ya work up the courage to spit it out?"
Kiryu-chan looks up at her with that wistfulness again. Next to woozy and horny, there's another state of mind creeping in, something much more palpable than the first two. Goromi staunchly ignores it. "What was it like, for the first time?"
Her hand flies to her mouth and she squeals. "Ya creeper! You can't just ask a girl that!"
"I didn't mean-" he starts and grunts when the innuendo catches up to him. "I'm sorry. I lack the proper wording and I don't want to say something insensitive."
"Hmm, try me, stud," she croons and taps his temple. "Nothin' ya can cook up in here can really offend me."
That appears to do the trick; he keeps caressing her sides and tries again: "What was it like, going out as Goromi for the first time?" he says with the same fool-proof honesty as when he tells her she's beautiful. "Was it a whim? What did you do? Have you always been blonde?" His hands squeeze her waist. "Have you always liked short dresses, did it take long to learn to walk in heels, or have you somehow always known?" He pauses and his cheeks darken even now. "Did you let others see you?"
It's a lot to unpack. Goromi, sitting aside Kiryu-chan's lap in stunned silence, has little mind to do so at this moment. Especially when he's knocking at the door she has successfully kept locked and shuttered for years.
But it wouldn't be Kiryu-chan if he didn't barge right in. "Was there someone special?"
In her mind's eye, she can see a flash of a manic grin and a blaring magenta suit - she weeds the vision out before it can take root, but an echo of the wild laughter that always seemed to accompany it lingers in her ears. "What kinda half-assed question is that?" she says, flat, much like when she wears another skin and berates her subordinates. "Getting jealous all of a sudden?"
Kiryu-chan shakes his head. "No. I just want to know you," he explains in a low voice and it's so soft, sugary-sweet that Goromi can't even find solace in getting mad at him. "All of you, and whatever makes you happy."
A frustrated whine escapes her. She slides off his thighs to drape herself over his torso, face hidden in the crook of his neck. "Kiryu-chan, you're gonna be the death of me," she mewls and headbutts his chest, once, twice for good measure. "Can't just take what ya have at face value?"
To his credit, he holds her tighter. "I didn't mean to upset you."
"Upset? Nah. But way to kill the mood."
He hugs her tight, and the distance she has put between the excitement she craves and the baggage she has accumulated over the years threatens to hollow her out so there's nothing left except a vague shape of a person and a bitter taste of undirected anger. "Sorry." He kisses her brow through her fringe and Goromi wishes he'd just hit her instead. The simplicity of violence would set her right. "I'm sorry, baby."
She growls. "I'm not one for sap," she says and gasps when he maneuvers her to lie flat on the couch, her head cushioned by the armrest so she is directly meeting Kiryu-chan's face hovering over her. It borders on too much and she closes her eye.
She gets a kiss on the fluttering eyelid for her trouble. "Could have fooled me," he murmurs between the kisses he places on her nose, on her cheek, on the corner of her mouth. The last one Goromi intercepts with an inclination of her head and a kiss of her own, then roughly shoves him away and rolls off the sofa to stand up.
"Don't fall behind now, stud," she calls over her shoulder as she rounds a corner on the way to her bedroom. Once there, she flips the muted bedside lights on and turns in time to end up in Kiryu-chan's arms again. She bites his lower lip when he initiates yet another kiss and he withdraws with a hiss and a frown. "Don't look at me like that, a girl needs more than smooches, and this dress has been too tight for the past hour."
He briefly gropes before his fingers discover the tucked zipper on her right side. Goromi holds still for him to pull it all the way down to her hip, waits with hands on his shoulders and teeth worrying at her lip as Kiryu-chan wrestles with the skin-tight fabric and makes a valiant effort of rolling it down, freeing her nipples, past her abs, down to her waist at which point he has to kneel to peel the dress past her hipbones and ass, leaving her to stand there only in her jewelry and candy pink lace thongs. Goromi hums, appreciating the sight before her - this unstoppable, mouth-wateringly powerful man on his knees, for her pleasure. The shed clothing pools around her ankles and she leaves it there, like a goddess rising out of sea foam.
She pinches Kiryu-chan's chin so he will look at her - he's flushed and his eyes have turned black. "Ever sucked a lady off, sweetie?"
He turns crimson and shakes his head.
Goromi hums, amused. "Well, good news for you is that it ain't exactly rocket science."
"Goromi," Kiryu-chan protests while rubbing the backs of her thighs.
"Yer such a prude. Old man's soul in a strapping young lad's body."
"Don't you think it's a special occasion and not... Porn?"
"Oh honey, 'course it's a special occasion," she tells him and rubs her lace-covered length on his cheek. "But it's also just sex. There won't be angel choir for those magical six minutes where ya rail me like your life depends on it."
"Hey!"
She cackles until her sides hurt. "Yer face! Kiryu-chan," she wails and dabs at a teardrop on her eyelashes. "So cute when offended."
In retaliation - apparently, if she pushes enough buttons, Kiryu-chan has it in himself to hit back - he bites and sucks at the soft flesh of her inner thigh, hard enough to leave a mark that will smart for a week. Goromi chokes on her laughter and moans, clutching at his hair. His teeth scrape her skin when he lets her go with a wet sound and he has the nerve to smirk.
"Feelin' lucky today, huh?"
His hands move to tug the waistband of her panties. "Yeah," he nods a little and pulls the lace down.
He's sloppy and compensates for his inexperience with raw enthusiasm; he quickly catches on what makes Goromi whine and claw at his shoulders and what doesn't, adapting himself to suit her taste. His tongue is hot and attentive, his lips soft, and when he works her length almost fully into his mouth, Goromi's toes curl with a broken cry of 'Kiryu-chan'. She pats his head, whines at the pornographic stretch of his lips around her, and she is overcome with the desire to ruin him, to come all over his face and in his hair that nothing short of a shower will fix it.
It catches her off guard when one of Kiryu-chan's wandering fingers starts probing at the pucker of her hole. She chokes on her moans and has to brace herself on Kiryu-chan's shoulders when he wriggles the tip inside - the dry burn sets off fireworks in her vision, and the hint of pain nudges her across the edge. Her cock bursts into a flood on Kiryu-chan's tongue and she is vaguely aware of his struggle to keep it all in, to drink up all she has to offer, and isn't that how it always is with him, soaking up all of her affection and even more of her dismissal as if that was all the love he could get in this world.
She sighs and gently shoves at his shoulder. There's spit and snot on his lips and he is the best thing she's ever seen. "How ya doin' down there, stud?" she whispers patting his cheek. "Still kickin'?"
"Yeah." His voice is hoarse and grainy like an old record. Goromi feels a sudden urge to start dancing to it.
"Wanna fuck me for real?" she says and giggles at his eager nodding. "Spread me wide and pound me silly?" He gulps. "Think ya earned it, sugarpuff?"
"Yes, Goromi - please-"
She hums as if in deep thought, enjoying every second of Kiryu-chan's needy squirming. With anyone else, she'd be power-tripping so hard she'd howl with laughter like the unhinged demoness etched into her back and kick the unfortunate soul out, but Kiryu-chan is akin to a stone block that wears her sharp edges down with every blow she lands until she's as smooth as a pebble. She isn't equipped to deal with it - somewhere, in the back of her mind, in the same place where she keeps the washed out memory of the only brother she ever had and the phantom of the only man who had touched her soul, she doesn't even want to.
She wants him there, too.
"Strip," Goromi orders, stepping out of the pool of rumpled clothes, swaying on her legs on the way to her bed, "then come join me, stud," she says and nests herself on the pillows.
Kiryu-chan doesn't waste a second - he rips his jacket and shirt off so fast Goromi lets out a bubbly laugh, teases him for not being one to put on a show, readies a bottle of lube and a handful of condoms on the nightstand in just the right moment that she can enjoy the visual of Kiryu-chan stepping out of his briefs uninterrupted, sinks into the bedding with her arms raised next to her head and limp on the pillow in mock surrender, her legs bent at the knees and drawn together. They're the first thing Kiryu-chan touches when he gets there, first her feet, her ankles, following the line of her tibiae up and over the bony knees to the warmth of her thighs, like a red string.
Goromi chuckles. "A true leg man, huh? Did ya like my outfit today? I picked it with this little fetish of yours in mind - that's how thoughtful I am."
"It's not a fetish - anyone in their right mind would look. They're stunning." He squeezes her upper thighs just below the junction of the limbs and her buttocks. "But yes, I did like it."
"Mhm. Definitely not a fetish."
Kiryu-chan replies with grabbing her right ankle and raising it up, exposing the patch of sensitive skin under her knee, and Goromi calls him names when he licks it. His beard tickles and scratches and his grip is firm, rendering her struggles to break free futile. When he finally retreats, she has already squealed all her dignity away and slaps him on his flank.
"Yer a regular pervert, Kiryu-chan." Goromi points her finger in a damning accusation as he's lowering her leg back on the mattress. "A kinky little weirdo."
He chuckles. "Sure," he says and pushes her knees apart to settle between them.
Despite the fact he has not even touched himself yet and must have been painfully aroused for some time now, Kiryu-chan takes his sweet time opening her up. It's enough to make her grow hard again and Goromi has to both verbally and physically goad him into fucking her already - she even goes out of her way to wrap him up because his useless lube-slicked fingers take forever to open the condom package - so when he finally slides into her, it is close to receiving a blessing from a god she has long worshipped. Kiryu-chan isn't like the usual crowd she normally gravitates to for a temporary relief - he's a solid, warm presence, unwavering and tangible even while he's not physically there, always at the corner of Goromi's thoughts, not the flickering candlelight of one-night stands that does not survive the first breath of a morning breeze. Nor is he the burning iron Nishitani branded her with, once upon a time.
Her eye flies open, her breath stuck in her throat.
"Goromi?"
She blinks, the voice reaching her as if through fog. Above her, she can make out Kiryu-chan's face tinged with concern, because of-fucking-course it is.
"Are you alright?"
She exhales. "Yeah." It sounds shakier than she would have liked.
He cups her face and she subconsciously flinches. "You sure? We can stop here."
"Kazuma."
He's waiting for her orders, like the good boy he is.
"Don't you dare stop."
Goromi gets a kiss, a caress, then he hoists her up until she is sitting upright in his lap with her legs squeezing his ribs so hard he must have trouble breathing and arms around his neck, holding on for dear life as he's thrusting up into her, grounding her in this moment, this life, this slice of reality. She lets it in and become her up to the point she overflows and comes for the second time that evening, gasping and calling Kiryu-chan's first name like a mantra.
After that, she remembers snippets: Being lowered onto the bedspread; a compliment whispered directly into her ear; a damp towel tenderly wiping her belly; Kiryu-chan's weight dipping the mattress right next to her. Goromi inches toward it, the plight of a blind kitten seeking warmth and security, drapes herself over Kiryu-chan's broad chest and dozes off to the sound of his beating heart and to the soothing circles he is drawing on her back.
*
The place is airy and vague - only for the sake of framing the context of a person leaning against what could be a door frame or a tree, depending if one prefers the indoors or the outdoors, because the human mind may be able to compute quantum physics, but is still only capable of perceiving the basic dimensions of height, length, and width. The colors are muted and runny at the edges - a blot of ink fitting poorly into the outlines - and flicker when the figure turns to reveal a grin of too sharp teeth. "Hey, hotshot."
It's enough to know it's just a dream. "The fuck ya doing here, old man."
Nishitani's grin softens into a smile, the vision made uncanny through the memory it is based on that has been distorted through time. "Just passin' by."
The wide portal-like absence of color next to him seems like a compelling exit. "Right. Carry on."
"C'mon, Majima-kun," he says, placating, "no need to be so prickly. Just wanted to see how ya doin'."
"You're not even real."
He reaches out, and his hand runs through long, silken strands of hair, from a time to match his own. "I don't know, that pent-up rage under all the ecstasy seems pretty real to me."
There are no words to be said to that. Up this close, there is another detail to the apparition - severed threads and frayed fabric of the suit jacket where the bullets tore through it. A child-like curiosity compels to try sticking a finger in one of them.
Nishitani laughs, amused. His hands are warm and he feels solid, like an actual body to embrace. It feels good, giving in. Even better, letting go.
"Live a little, princess."
*
Goromi wakes up, confused and winking owlishly at the bedside lamp, squirming into a more comfortable position only to realize she is not alone. She jerks up to her elbows to take a better look.
Kiryu-chan is looking at her with puzzlement to match her own.
She groans and falls back down to sprawl on his chest. Naturally, he rolls her over and confronts her: "What is it?"
"Nothin'."
"A bad dream?"
Goromi rolls her eye. "Whatever gave ya that idea?"
"You were restless in your sleep."
She blanches and hopes Kiryu-chan won't notice in the limited light. With the way he touches her cheek, she suspects he does.
"Was it something I said?"
She shakes her head.
He breathes out through his nostrils in frustration and it occurs to Goromi that, for the first time since he's known her, she's losing him to her hunger, to her greed, to the black hole inside her that sucks up everything within a ten mile radius and compels her to take and take and take, lest there be nothing else save void.
"Kiryu-chan," she starts, defaulting to the comfort zone of her nasal hot-bitch intonation, "it's got nothing to do with ya. No need to worry."
"It isn't really me I worry about here."
Goromi sighs and wipes matted hair from his forehead back to his usual styling. His skin is sticky with dried sweat and so impossibly warm. "Not today, stud. I'm begging here."
She doesn't know what she expects him to do - to scowl, to berate her, or maybe to storm out - not to gather her up in his arms and hold her. Goromi returns it on instinct, grateful he's not asking questions anymore, and Kiryu-chan takes it as an encouragement to flatten her against his torso until he's threatening to squeeze the air out of her lungs. Goromi yelps into his shoulder, only partly from surprise. He presses a lengthy kiss to her cheek and she wriggles in his arms until she can meet his mouth with her own, drinking up the tenderness he's always so ready to offer.
When he pulls back, she wants to backtrack and tell him everything. "I'll have to go. I wish I could stay," he says.
"I thought ya had a babysitter or somethin'."
"I did, but I need to be there before morning."
"Ya hoped to sneak out while I was passed out, hm?"
He gently nips her earlobe, definitely because he knows she's ticklish as all hell there. "No. I'd wake you for a goodbye kiss."
"Ew."
Kiryu-chan laughs a little, in the same fashion as he did earlier in the evening, and climbs out of bed. Goromi rolls over, her back to where he's fussing with his clothes, refusing to acknowledge his presence because it will be that much easier to acknowledge his absence if she forces him out on her terms. She dozes a little to the noise of a light switch being flipped and to the muffled swoosh of running water, expecting him to leave any second now.
When he magically reappears at her side, caressing her through the blanket she draped over herself and nuzzling her neck, Goromi startles. "I'll text you," he says, as if he didn't give her a jumpscare.
"Just go already, ya creeper."
He kisses her again, for the last time. Then he gets up and turns the bedroom lights off. "Goodnight, Goromi."
Goromi grunts in reply, curling up in the covers. The three steps he takes away from her bed is all it takes to trigger a change of heart. "Goodnight, Kiryu-chan," she mumbles and listens to him leaving.