Fic, Hikaru no Go, Chuban (Mid-game)
Dec. 13th, 2005 02:01 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
mousapelliTitle: Chuban (Mid-game) [Touya/Shindou]
Rating/Warnings: PG-13 because Touya is still sore from the LAST horizontal tsuke.
Summary: 2 AM is really not the time for deep self-reflection, in Touya's opinion.
AN: This is totally the reason there is no advent fic today. Sigh.
Chuban (Mid-game)
The bed was warm and comfortable, and the comforter was wrapped around Touya in just the right way, but he cracked an eye anyway when he realized there was no whistling snore beside him. Sure enough, Shindou "I do not have allergies" Hikaru was not in the bed, although he had definitely been there when Touya had fallen asleep, as evidenced by the slight ache in the backs of his thighs when Touya sat up.
He ran a hand through his hair and glanced at the clock, glowing green in the darkness. What on earth was Shindou doing at two in the morning that didn't involve warm covers and snoring in Touya's ear?
The wood floor of the apartment was chill under Touya's bare feet as he padded to the bedroom door, and Touya heard the faint slosh of water from the bathroom.
" 'Karu?" Touya asked as he pushed the door open, the first syllable of the name mostly stolen by sleep. He rubbed the back of his hand over his eyes, and his vision cleared enough for him to watch Shindou trail fingers thorugh the melting islands of bubbles in the bathtub.
"I was all sticky," Shindou replied by way of explanation, making Touya snort softly. He shuffled over to the tub, shivering at the cold of it where it touched his thigh, then threw his leg over to climb in.
"S'what happens after sex generally." His hand slipped a little against the side, and Shindou grabbed Touya's waist to help steady him as he sank down into the water, still warm enough to be pleasant. Some more water sloshed over the side with the added bulk in the tub, but Touya found he didn't really care. He'd just make Shindou mop it up later.
Shindou seemed thoughtful, Touya thought lazily as he settled in against him, forehead tucked into the curve of Shindou's shoulder. He was sluicing water over Touya's back with his hand in a steady, repetative motion, lulling him back into sleep, until suddenly Shindou's hands under his armpits were the only thing keeping his mouth from sliding underwater.
"Geez, just drown in your own bathtub, why don't you?" Shindou demanded, hauling Touya up a few inches and locking an arm around his waist.
"Mm," Touya shrugged one shoulder a little and went even limper, then gave a wide yawn. "What're you thinking about?"
"We don't make any sense," Shindou answered bluntly.
"Don't lump me in with you," Touya said. "Just because you lose all your tournaments, I make plenty."
"No, sense, you idiot," Shindou snapped, flicking Touya between the shoulderblades. "Not cents. As in, it doesn't make any sense that we are here right now in this bathtub naked."
"Not when there's a nice warm bed in the other room, sadly unoccupied."
"Touya!" Shindou said in exasperation. "Akira, I mean it."
With a supreme effort, Touya braced his hands against the back of the tub and pushed himself up to peer at Shindou. Shindou was biting his lower lip a little and refusing to meet his gaze, and Touya reached over to smooth Shindou's abused lip down.
"What's wrong?" he asked. Shindou sighed.
"Nothing." Shindou dragged his gaze up at last, and his eyes were dark with that thing that Touya hoped Shindou would actually explain someday. "I was just thinking, you know? You're a freaking genius, it makes sense that I'd have followed you around, but there's plenty of twelve-year-olds who suck at Go. Why would you have been my rival?"
"You wanted to be friends first," Touya reminded, thumb still brushing Shindou's lip lightly. He knew Shindou was trying to be serious, but he didn't like it when Shindou's eyes were dark like that. "I figured, hell, why not cultivate a relationship where I spend hours of valuable study time trying to win badly-made plushies out of UFO machines and gain ten pounds from ramen alone? Just one of those can't hurt."
"Touyaaa." Shindou bit down on Touya's thumb, but the corner of his mouth was quirking up.
"Hnn." Touya flicked Shindou's chin with the back of his finger, then laid back down against his chest, arms sliding around Shindou to squeeze him lightly. "You chased me, because you wanted me. How could I ignore that? No one else ever wanted me."
"And that makes absolutely zero sense," Shindou replied, slipping fingers into Touya's hair and rubbing his scalp. Touya sighed happily, pressing his cheek against Shindou's water-slick skin. "We make sense, right?"
"You're the endgame specialist, aren't you?" Touya teased, smiling when Shindou gave his hair a tug. "You can't know the pattern of the game until you lay down the whole board. You can only know the flow until then."
"Thanks for that moment of zen, Touya-Meijin," Shindou snorted, but then after a few seconds added, "our Go does have good flow, at least."
A shiver worked its way down Touya's spine, like it always did when Shindou uttered the words 'our Go' in that low voice, and Shindou's quiet chuckle brushed against Touya's cheek.
Shindou's melancholy was just a touch catching, it seemed, and Touya found his thoughts turning towards what it would be like if he hadn't let Shindou chase or catch him. If there was no one leaving his stupid 5 T-shirts all over the floor, or eating the most disgustingly sugary cereal every morning, or making the bathroom reek of bleach every 4-6 weeks.
Or waking him up at three in the morning to tell him how he could have won that last game if he'd played at 4-10 instead of 4-11. Or bringing him tea when he stayed up all night with a stack of kifu. Or knocking gokes to the floor and scattering stones in every direction and seducing him into utterly defiling the goban in their room.
There had never been room in Touya's life for anything besides Go, not sleepy Sunday morning blowjobs or horribly embarrassing karoke or lukewarm bathwater being sluiced repetively over his back, but there was room for Shindou, because Shindou was Go, inside and out, it oozed out his pores and steamed in the air when the morning was cold and they were waiting for the train.
If Touya's life before Shindou hadn't only been in right angles of black and white, it wouldn't make him laugh every time he found a bright yellow jersey mixed in with his suits.
"Hey," Shindou said, palm warm against Touya's neck. "You ever think about what we'd be doing right now if we weren't rivals?"
"No," answered Touya.
Another few minutes ticked by, the steady rise and fall of Shindou's chest telling Touya that whatever Shindou had really been thinking about must have passed.
"4-6," said Shindou.
"6-5," answered Touya.
"5-5."
"God, again?" Touya rolled his eyes. "I'm still sore from last time!"
A further author's note, because I'm sure nobody will actually get this joke, but the hand Shindou and Touya just played actually IS a horizontal tsuke (a kosumi tsuke, if you want to get technical). Most of you will have caught on that that's a running gag euphemism for sex in my HnG fic.
I hesitated to explain this here, because I think that takes a lot of the funny out of it, but it's obviously less funny if you don't get it at all.
Rating/Warnings: PG-13 because Touya is still sore from the LAST horizontal tsuke.
Summary: 2 AM is really not the time for deep self-reflection, in Touya's opinion.
AN: This is totally the reason there is no advent fic today. Sigh.
Chuban (Mid-game)
The bed was warm and comfortable, and the comforter was wrapped around Touya in just the right way, but he cracked an eye anyway when he realized there was no whistling snore beside him. Sure enough, Shindou "I do not have allergies" Hikaru was not in the bed, although he had definitely been there when Touya had fallen asleep, as evidenced by the slight ache in the backs of his thighs when Touya sat up.
He ran a hand through his hair and glanced at the clock, glowing green in the darkness. What on earth was Shindou doing at two in the morning that didn't involve warm covers and snoring in Touya's ear?
The wood floor of the apartment was chill under Touya's bare feet as he padded to the bedroom door, and Touya heard the faint slosh of water from the bathroom.
" 'Karu?" Touya asked as he pushed the door open, the first syllable of the name mostly stolen by sleep. He rubbed the back of his hand over his eyes, and his vision cleared enough for him to watch Shindou trail fingers thorugh the melting islands of bubbles in the bathtub.
"I was all sticky," Shindou replied by way of explanation, making Touya snort softly. He shuffled over to the tub, shivering at the cold of it where it touched his thigh, then threw his leg over to climb in.
"S'what happens after sex generally." His hand slipped a little against the side, and Shindou grabbed Touya's waist to help steady him as he sank down into the water, still warm enough to be pleasant. Some more water sloshed over the side with the added bulk in the tub, but Touya found he didn't really care. He'd just make Shindou mop it up later.
Shindou seemed thoughtful, Touya thought lazily as he settled in against him, forehead tucked into the curve of Shindou's shoulder. He was sluicing water over Touya's back with his hand in a steady, repetative motion, lulling him back into sleep, until suddenly Shindou's hands under his armpits were the only thing keeping his mouth from sliding underwater.
"Geez, just drown in your own bathtub, why don't you?" Shindou demanded, hauling Touya up a few inches and locking an arm around his waist.
"Mm," Touya shrugged one shoulder a little and went even limper, then gave a wide yawn. "What're you thinking about?"
"We don't make any sense," Shindou answered bluntly.
"Don't lump me in with you," Touya said. "Just because you lose all your tournaments, I make plenty."
"No, sense, you idiot," Shindou snapped, flicking Touya between the shoulderblades. "Not cents. As in, it doesn't make any sense that we are here right now in this bathtub naked."
"Not when there's a nice warm bed in the other room, sadly unoccupied."
"Touya!" Shindou said in exasperation. "Akira, I mean it."
With a supreme effort, Touya braced his hands against the back of the tub and pushed himself up to peer at Shindou. Shindou was biting his lower lip a little and refusing to meet his gaze, and Touya reached over to smooth Shindou's abused lip down.
"What's wrong?" he asked. Shindou sighed.
"Nothing." Shindou dragged his gaze up at last, and his eyes were dark with that thing that Touya hoped Shindou would actually explain someday. "I was just thinking, you know? You're a freaking genius, it makes sense that I'd have followed you around, but there's plenty of twelve-year-olds who suck at Go. Why would you have been my rival?"
"You wanted to be friends first," Touya reminded, thumb still brushing Shindou's lip lightly. He knew Shindou was trying to be serious, but he didn't like it when Shindou's eyes were dark like that. "I figured, hell, why not cultivate a relationship where I spend hours of valuable study time trying to win badly-made plushies out of UFO machines and gain ten pounds from ramen alone? Just one of those can't hurt."
"Touyaaa." Shindou bit down on Touya's thumb, but the corner of his mouth was quirking up.
"Hnn." Touya flicked Shindou's chin with the back of his finger, then laid back down against his chest, arms sliding around Shindou to squeeze him lightly. "You chased me, because you wanted me. How could I ignore that? No one else ever wanted me."
"And that makes absolutely zero sense," Shindou replied, slipping fingers into Touya's hair and rubbing his scalp. Touya sighed happily, pressing his cheek against Shindou's water-slick skin. "We make sense, right?"
"You're the endgame specialist, aren't you?" Touya teased, smiling when Shindou gave his hair a tug. "You can't know the pattern of the game until you lay down the whole board. You can only know the flow until then."
"Thanks for that moment of zen, Touya-Meijin," Shindou snorted, but then after a few seconds added, "our Go does have good flow, at least."
A shiver worked its way down Touya's spine, like it always did when Shindou uttered the words 'our Go' in that low voice, and Shindou's quiet chuckle brushed against Touya's cheek.
Shindou's melancholy was just a touch catching, it seemed, and Touya found his thoughts turning towards what it would be like if he hadn't let Shindou chase or catch him. If there was no one leaving his stupid 5 T-shirts all over the floor, or eating the most disgustingly sugary cereal every morning, or making the bathroom reek of bleach every 4-6 weeks.
Or waking him up at three in the morning to tell him how he could have won that last game if he'd played at 4-10 instead of 4-11. Or bringing him tea when he stayed up all night with a stack of kifu. Or knocking gokes to the floor and scattering stones in every direction and seducing him into utterly defiling the goban in their room.
There had never been room in Touya's life for anything besides Go, not sleepy Sunday morning blowjobs or horribly embarrassing karoke or lukewarm bathwater being sluiced repetively over his back, but there was room for Shindou, because Shindou was Go, inside and out, it oozed out his pores and steamed in the air when the morning was cold and they were waiting for the train.
If Touya's life before Shindou hadn't only been in right angles of black and white, it wouldn't make him laugh every time he found a bright yellow jersey mixed in with his suits.
"Hey," Shindou said, palm warm against Touya's neck. "You ever think about what we'd be doing right now if we weren't rivals?"
"No," answered Touya.
Another few minutes ticked by, the steady rise and fall of Shindou's chest telling Touya that whatever Shindou had really been thinking about must have passed.
"4-6," said Shindou.
"6-5," answered Touya.
"5-5."
"God, again?" Touya rolled his eyes. "I'm still sore from last time!"
A further author's note, because I'm sure nobody will actually get this joke, but the hand Shindou and Touya just played actually IS a horizontal tsuke (a kosumi tsuke, if you want to get technical). Most of you will have caught on that that's a running gag euphemism for sex in my HnG fic.
I hesitated to explain this here, because I think that takes a lot of the funny out of it, but it's obviously less funny if you don't get it at all.
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: 2005-12-13 07:55 am (UTC)Very impressive ^_^
no subject
Date: 2005-12-13 05:45 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-12-13 08:03 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-12-13 05:47 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-12-13 08:44 am (UTC)"our Go does have good flow, at least."
That's really sexy and powerful to me, because it's as though their relationship is totally in the open, and it's part of them.
but there was room for Shindou, because Shindou was Go, inside and out, it oozed out his pores and steamed in the air when the morning was cold and they were waiting for the train.
Gorgeous and intimate. It's like they know each other so well. Thanks so much for this!
no subject
Date: 2005-12-13 05:53 pm (UTC)haha, well, they are in their early 20s, they aren't going to run out lustiness any time soon, trust me. I do like writing them in a comfortable relationship, though. Writing the drama of first times and all that is fun, but it doesn't have that deeper understanding that I think is a big part of the feel of HnG, that Shindou is normal in a lot of ways that Touya has never been, but at the same time, nobody else really does understand how Go-consumed they really are.
The line that's implicit here is that both of them know that if they didn't have each other, there wouldn't be anyone else, not for either the sex or the comfort, and while Shindou can be complacent about that, Touya sees his father every day and knows that he is luckier than he really deserves to be.
sorry, er, for depositing my exposition on you there. I'm glad you liked it!
no subject
Date: 2005-12-13 08:48 am (UTC)Just so you know, I hate you for being able to reduce me into incoherent idiot-person just when I need to give feedback deserving of such wonderful work.
You know what I loved in this first of all? The way they used their names. I love the sleep-stolen-syllable of " 'Karu?", and I love "Touya!... Akira, I mean it." That was incredibly intimate.
I also love how you expanded on Perfect Game by once again pointing out that Shindou likes to bathe after sex, while Touya "marinates". ;)
"We don't make any cents" is gorgeously cute. Especially, you know, since it's in English and all. And me explaining that really just took all the cleverness out of it, but explaining seems to do that in general...
(I did get the horizontal tsuke reference actually! Hee! *score* )
Ahh, explanation of canon history. THAT I adore. I love that Touya's motivation first and foremost was to have a "normal" friend, it speaks so much to his characterisation, the sense of lonelienss.
And then, "You chased me, because you wanted me. How could I ignore that? No one else ever wanted me."
Guuhhh. This is my new favourite line from you EVER. My heart broke right there.
or making the bathroom reek of bleach every 4-6 weeks.
Amen to that. Lovely detail.
Damn fine effort and probably my favourite HNG fic from you yet. I've said this time and time again, but last I checked no one actually gets tired from hearing this: you are an AMAZING writer. Your style is incredibly elegant and touching. Wonderful work.
no subject
Date: 2005-12-13 06:15 pm (UTC)The 'Karu' is unbearably cute, and probably too chibi really, but Touya is half-asleep and sexed out, so I can forgive him. And I'm also glad you picked up on the marinating *g*
the sense/cents joke almost didn't go in, because of it being an english joke, but in the end i left it because it was a good way to show Touya trying to tease shindou out of his mood (which he isn't very good at, but he tries hard).
I did get the horizontal tsuke reference actually! Hee! *score*
HUZZAH. *awards you a million points* it is bad practice probably to have your ending be something you KNOW that 95% of your readers will never get, but I loved it too much to take it out. I think this is the beginning of my slow slide into Anne Rice-dom.
A lot of the dialogue feels too straightforward to me here, Touya's line in particular, but the conversation really didn't want to move in the way I needed it to. I do think it's true that what impresses Touya about Shindou, even before he becomes a huge mystery, is that he just wants to play with Touya, and makes him laugh, but I'm not sure that Touya would just tell Shindou like this. A multitude of dialogue sins can be covered by the fact that it is 2 AM.
sorry to ramble on like this! You should know that this is all your fault really, i'm sure it's talking about my other stuff that has woken touya and shindou from their cryogenic sleep in my brain.
no subject
Date: 2005-12-13 09:05 pm (UTC)I think if ever you were going to have a more straightforward conversation between them, 2am is a great time to do it. While Touya is usually more prone to go for the Go metaphors, it's also clear that he's extremely sleepy here and so things don't seem out of place at all; they just end up sounding really touching because you know he wouldn't say stuff like this when he's more awake. It makes the whole situation more... precious. (In a good way, not in a Paris Hilton way.)
i'm sure it's talking about my other stuff that has woken touya and shindou from their cryogenic sleep in my brain.
Ha! My evil plan all along. I for one am terribly grateful for the Touya/Shindou fic revival. Keeps my obsession alive and well. ;)
no subject
Date: 2005-12-13 09:21 pm (UTC)Also, everybody writes Touya as some crazy neatfreak, and I just like being contrary. Moreover, shindou is the one who does the weird thing with his hair, so he must be invested in what he looks like, whereas Touya is clearly CLEARLY being dressed by his mother, which says to me that he doesn't care much about it.
precious. (In a good way, not in a Paris Hilton way.)
*cracks up*
no subject
Date: 2005-12-13 08:56 am (UTC)This was just perfect:
Or waking him up at three in the morning to tell him how he could have won that last game if he'd played at 4-10 instead of 4-11.
no subject
Date: 2005-12-13 05:55 pm (UTC)Thanks so much, the blend of humor and heartbreak is what makes this series so lasting for me, and I love writing fic that way.
You know Shindou does it. touya does it too, but he's sneakier, and usually acts like Shindou is the one that woke HIM up for something.
Thanks so much! glad you liked it!
no subject
Date: 2005-12-13 10:24 am (UTC)I love Touya's shiver when Hikaru talks about their Go together. The defiled goban makes me happy and the little nuances of their everyday relationship. It's just so perfect and appropriately, you MAKE them make sense. Domesticity gets me everytime. Them in a bathtub is just a wonderful treat.
*gives you a black and white cookie*
no subject
Date: 2005-12-13 05:59 pm (UTC)For these two? Go so = sex. but only insomuch as Go = fighting and teasing and snuggling and understanding as well.
*munches* thanks!
no subject
Date: 2005-12-13 12:00 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-12-13 06:00 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-12-13 12:33 pm (UTC)"You chased me, because you wanted me. How could I ignore that? No one else ever wanted me." <= i felt my heart been twisted... ouchhh... yet that my fav line :P
"4-6," said Shindou.
"6-5," answered Touya.
"5-5."
"God, again?" Touya rolled his eyes. "I'm still sore from last time!"
That wicked... LOL
loved your hikago fics :)
no subject
Date: 2005-12-13 06:02 pm (UTC)that horizontal tsuke is the best thing ever, imo. they're such dweeby boys, deep down.
Thanks! glad you liked it!
no subject
Date: 2005-12-13 03:49 pm (UTC)but there's plenty of twelve-year-olds who suck at Go = win at life. XD So tasty. I can hardly wait for more of your HnG things.
Particularly the pronny ones♥no subject
Date: 2005-12-13 06:03 pm (UTC)I'm not sure why Touya and Shindou take over my brain like this for no good reason sometimes, and then wring another handful of fics out of me. *shrugs*
thanks! glad you liked it!
no subject
Date: 2005-12-13 06:56 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-12-13 10:23 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-12-14 04:07 am (UTC)I love how you wrote it so it's sweet with smut overtones. Akira's sleepy "Akira?" and all his observations... their relationship is just so "normal" but yet quirky.
And the horizontal tsuke! *bounces* I envy all the HnG authors who know how to write Go *and* play it. I'm a hopeless cause and your fic made me so warm and fuzzy inside.
P.S. I always forget to mention this-- but I love your icon.
no subject
Date: 2005-12-15 03:09 am (UTC)ohh now i want a hot bath of my own ^^
no subject
Date: 2005-12-15 09:31 am (UTC)Most people have already commented upon my favorite parts, so I won't go over them again except briefly ('Karu, sluicing water, cents, good flow, bleach, defiled gobans), and let's not forget badly-made plushies and ten pounds from ramen. Akira badly needed some normal silliness in his life and I'm glad your Hikaru gave it to him.
I also loved, "If Touya's life before Shindou hadn't only been in right angles of black and white, it wouldn't make him laugh every time he found a bright yellow jersey mixed in with his suits." Hopefully Hikaru fixed Akira's wardrobe somewhat.
Thanks again for writing this beautiful ficcy... it's going into my memories.
no subject
Date: 2005-12-16 05:16 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-01-03 09:24 pm (UTC)*laughs* How does that defile anything? For Touya and Shindou, go and sex aren't all that different anyway.
no subject
Date: 2006-01-03 10:08 pm (UTC)Also, because I am an extreme dork, I actually got the horizontal tsuke thing before your note. I seriously burst out laughing at that. Heh, so YOU are the person that made me obsessed with tsuke! XD; Ever since I read one of your fics with that mention in it, whenever I play Go and a tsuke gets played, I burst into giggling. It rather disturbs my friends, I'm sure you don't care, but I still felt the burning need to tell you anyway. :D
But yes, I love your fic, and this is certainly no exception.