20. Internal Politics

TWENTY

Mouse had askedCharis to wake him up, but he wakes himself with a start before Charis even gets back from his appointment.

He wakes up with his heart pounding, eyes flying open with lashes fluttering. He wakes to the sensation of falling, his body jerking itself awake. Mouse leans up on one elbow, pushing his hair out of his face before glancing at the clock on the side table.

They don't have schedules until tomorrow.

Mouse dicks around on his phone for a little while, but he isn't in the mood. He isn't in the mood to be alone either, so he grabs his phone and texts Kiki, who actually responds.

A short while later, they meet at the gym.

They're hardly the buffest among their group members. Still, they need strength and flexibility in order to do what they do onstage. It isn't a surprise that the Gleam facilities come with a gym attached. It takes a short walk through the biting cold to get to the building where the gym facilities are housed.

Kiki was surprised to get a text from Mouse.

He bit his lip, checking out the phone screen. It was lucky timing. Kiki was starting to feel claustrophobic in their room. As close as they were, even he could sometimes need a break from Xiao Yu. They knew each other well enough that it felt safe for Kiki to assume that the feeling was mutual.

Kiki doesn't like the facilities here as much as the ones at their company. The dance studio at the company building is bigger, and the gym they usually use just seems somehow more friendly. The bright overhead lights here feel somehow exhausting, casting nearly star-shaped patterns down over the floor below.

Mouse and Kiki stretch together with their legs stretched out and their arms reaching forward to meet in the middle, grasping each other's fingers to provide a counterweight to each other as they lean back. It's faster this way. More efficient. Kiki and Mouse always have worked well together.

"What do you think our odds are?" Mouse asks conversationally.

Kiki huffs out of the feeling of his obliques being stretched into spaghetti, tugging at Mouse's lean, firm hands. His reddish hair is pulled back in a short, stubby ponytail, swept up and away from his face.

"Honestly? Not good, but I'll take those odds and stomp on them." He blows upward at an errant piece of hair that's worked its way out of its tie. "Since when do you give a shit about odds anyway?"

"Never hurts to know thy enemy."

"Hmm."

Now it's Mouse's turn, and Kiki sits up as Mouse leans back, muscle stretching deliciously, lean tendon pulling on tendon.

"Ah."

Mouse lets out a deep sigh as something in his back pops, flooding him with delicious relief.

Kiki, himself as pretty as a snowy peach blossom, purses his lips a little as he looks at Mouse's face. Slightly slack-eyed with pleasure, eyelids with their heavy fringe of lashes hanging low, he looks seductive.

Mouse shakes his arms out as soon as Kiki releases his hands and springs up from the yoga mat, rolling his neck from side to side and ready to get started.

They do weights and cardio. Mouse finds himself staring out the window as something from his conversation with Charis bothers him, but he can't quite put his fingers on what.

It's late now, and Charis is probably back in their room sleeping.

"Move your ass if you're done. I want a chance at the squat rack."

There's Kiki.

He's a little annoyed that Mouse is spacing out and ignoring him, after he'd gone to the trouble of calling Kiki.

Mouse blinks off his reverie, shaking it off a little more forcefully as he steps to the side so Kiki can get into his space. He mops some dripping sweat off his brow and squirts some water into his mouth.

They wrap up with some light floorwork. Mouse holds down Kiki's shoes by the toes, leaning his weight onto them while Kiki starts working on his abs.

They don't talk much. The air outside the window is dark with night. One of the nice things about late-night workouts is that there's no one there to bother you.

Kiki grunts with the effort of the last few sit-ups, pushing himself past the point where his body starts screaming for him to stop. He's not going to be a pussy. He's not going to be the weak link.

When he's done, he collapses back against the floor, breathing hard, with his entire midsection burning. He gasps in breaths until the burning sensation fades.

"Fuck."

"Where'd you pick up such language?" Mouse asks blithely.

"From you, probably." Kiki flips him off.

After he's flipped him the bird, he lets his arm fall back to the smooth, neatly polished blond wood of the gym floor. Mouse starts doing his cool-down stretches by the time Kiki finally stops being lazy and levers himself back into an upright position.

Kiki chews aimlessly at the inside of his lip, wondering if he should bring it up.

"So you've been attached at the ass to Charis lately," he finally says bluntly, using the starchy white towel hung around his own neck to mop the sweat from his brow. His hair is all sweaty, and his tanktop is drenched through in the front and the back.

Mouse pauses for a moment. "Have I?"

"Uh, yeah, dude."

"Do you think Soohyun's going to find out?"

There's something a little dangerous dancing in Mouse's seemingly nonchalant tone. What he thinks about it, Mouse only knows. Kiki doesn't really care.

Kiki shrugs, totally immune. "Fearless leader is fearless leader. I'd be really surprised if Soohyun doesn't already know."

"Hmm." Mouse chews on that.

Of course, he doesn't really care what Soohyun thinks. Mouse likes the guy well enough, but Mouse's business is Mouse's business.

He looks at himself in the mirror, using the edge of his pinkie finger to fix the way his bangs lay. He's barefaced and looks a little more masculine this way. Without any dark eyeshadow to darken the skin around his eyes, he thinks he looks a little sick in the mirror.

Kiki props his hand on his hip and waits for Mouse to be done.

They both toss their used towels in the laundry receptacle on their way out the door, and pass a group of three idols they don't know and don't bother to greet outside of a set of exchanged, polite nods from both parties.

Mouse shrugs. "So Pocky needs a little extra TLC lately. So what?" He says once they're out in the hall. He grins, wide and shitty. "Why—you jealous?"

Kiki wrinkles his nose and stuffs his splayed palm in Mouse's face. "Hardly. Don't flatter yourself."

"You and Xiao Yu are good?"

Kiki shrugs. "Me and Xiao Yu are me and Xiao Yu."

They're going the same way, so they walk each other back to the dorms.

Mouse doesn't feel the need to tell Kiki to be careful around First Love, to stay with their group, and he doesn't think anything of it. Doesn't even stop to wonder why that might be.

The corridor is quiet after Mouse goes his separate way.

Kiki doesn't know why it feels so much like they're cut off from the outside world here. They still have their phones, tablets—laptops, if they cared to bring them. They can still communicate with their Charms and surf the internet, which Kiki does a little bit of. He's not completely averse to fanservice.

As complicated of a relationship as he has with his face in their industry—for all the ways he's been called a flower vase—his fans feel like a safe place he can go to, a place where he can be buoyed up and held gently aloft on the lulling tide of their praise, when he needs it.

He takes a post-workout selfie in the hallway and posts it to his FanApp.

Late-night workout,he says.

Have you eaten?

He washes his face first thing with his foaming charcoal face wash as soon as he gets in the door, then sits on the bed peeling off his socks.

"How was your workout with Mouse?" Xiao Yu asks.

"Mm, it was fine. Sore now, though. Good sore."

He can feel it in his tummy, the burning lassitude of tired muscles.

In some lights, Xiao Yu looks like a wolf. Kiki's little wolf, with baleful eyes. He slants a gaze at Kiki from their separate beds, as if wondering if he'll be welcomed. So handsome.

Kiki tilts his head to the side, inclining it in an unspoken invitation.

Xiao Yu comes over to him and slips in between his legs, which Kiki parts for him. There's the sound of rustling fabric as Xiao Yu climbs onto the bed. Kiki's legs are long and limber. Beneath his shorts, his kneecaps are prominent, the slivers of his calves curved like sickles, lean and white.

Kiki tilts his face up toward Xiao Yu's fierce, wolflike features. It makes him tingle all over to be this close. He can smell the mint off Xiao Yu's breath from the toothpaste in the bathroom. His own skin looks like glass, clean and pale and poreless without a trace of makeup on it.

Even without the makeup, Xiao Yu thinks, Kiki is still so pretty. Even prettier, like this.

They hold like that for a moment, tantalizing each other with their nearness. Though they've done this often, there's still the prickle of anticipation.

"I'm sweaty," Kiki warns him, eyes falling low as he looks at Xiao Yu's plush lips.

It doesn't sound at all like Kiki is trying to discourage him.

"Good," Xiao Yu says.

Kiki smirks, one corner of his mouth quirking up.

Their mouths meet with a slick heat, tongues sliding together. Kiki instinctively moans into Xiao Yu's mouth, a sweet, hungry, muffled sound. He's willing. He loves when Xiao Yu takes care of his body like this, even when it's tired and sore—maybe especially then.

Xiao Yu slips a hand beneath Kiki's shirt, dragging his fingers lightly back and forth across Kiki's abdomen, across the keys of his ribs. The light touch makes Kiki shiver as it makes all of his muscles quiver.

He urges closer and slips his arms around the back of Xiao Yu's head, kissing even more hungrily.

He doesn't have patience now, in a hurry to get down to skin. Xiao Yu can read him—is so good at reading him. He has his fiery redhead in his lap, biting at his lips and clawing his way toward Xiao Yu's bare skin.

Xiao Yu chokes on a low, throaty gasp as Kiki shoves his hand in Xiao Yu's sweatpants and wraps his small fist around the already-hard length of Xiao Yu's erection.

"Fuck," Xiao Yu swears in between frantic kisses.

"Need you, want you," Kiki pants. He presses kisses and a beautiful, closemouthed smile against Xiao Yu's face. "C'mon, gonna give it to me?"

"Yeah, fuck yeah."

Xiao Yu wraps one arm around Kiki's slender back and the other behind his head and in one swift motion flips them so Kiki is flat on his back on the bed, and Xiao Yu is looming above him. Kiki's back connects with the mattress with a solid thump that pushes the air out of his lungs. It seems more forceful than it is—Xiao Yu is so careful with him, always, that Kiki never feels anything but safe.

Careful that Kiki doesn't hit his head or hurt his back.

Still, it's exciting to be manhandled, and Kiki's eyes glitter as he moans and squirms a little beneath Xiao Yu; both of them enjoying the momentary sense of him being caught like prey.

Xiao Yu strips his tight exercise joggers off him in one swift motion, making Kiki gasp again as his lower body is suddenly bared to the touch of the hotel-like dormitory's cool air conditioning. He kicks one foot a few times to help Xiao Yu dislodge the last of the fabric, and then his pants and underwear are unceremoniously flung to some corner of the room. Whatever.

Xiao Yu doesn't even bother to take off his own pants. He only pushes them down far enough that he can pull his hard cock out. Kiki spreads his legs wider to give him room to work, hissing out a low, satisfied breath that has his back arching off the bed, closer to Xiao Yu, as Xiao Yu rubs the head of his cock against Kiki's entrance. The movement paints slick, sticky precum over it, making the space deliciously slick, and Kiki mewls and goes a little wild, making delirious, hungry sounds and pushing himself down closer, closer to the sensation.

"I need it," Kiki chokes out, able to be perfectly vulnerable here, clutching at Xiao Yu. His hands snatch handfuls of his loose, billowing shirt. "C'mon, c'mon. Need you."

He squirms, threatening to breach himself with Xiao Yu's cock. The tip of the head slips inside just a little bit, and Xiao Yu curses again.

"Fuck. Gonna fuck you so good, baby."

Kiki moans in agreement.

Xiao Yu fumbles for the lube on the side table, grabbing it and coating himself in the slick. He pushes himself inside immediately, and they both hiss and groan at the sensation. Kiki's back arches off the bed as he processes the feeling of being suddenly, completely filled.

It barely hurts at all past the initial sting. He likes it like this—fast and rough. And he's experienced enough to know how to relax his body to ward off the pain.

"Fuck, you feel so good filling me up. Fuck me good, yeah?" He clenches a little around Xiao Yu, his muscles rippling. "C'mon, fuck me, baby."

Xiao Yu growls and does what he asks. It feels so good to plow into Kiki this way. He ruts into him fast and hard, knowing what Kiki likes, knowing that Kiki can take it. It feels good for him, too. He can feel his scalp starting to prickle, pleasure pooling low in his gut. The stinging, bright shocks of pain from Kiki raking his blunt nails down Xiao Yu's back does it for him, as does Kiki's heels digging into his ass, pressing him deeper, impossibly closer.

Kiki moans for him, and Xiao Yu holds him close, raining kisses on his lips, cheeks, neck, and temples. They go a first round on the bed moving as one, quick and intense, just to feel each other's bodies. To Kiki, it feels like coming home.

It isn't quite jealousy, but Kiki nevertheless feels a small fit of pique. What does Mouse want with that virgin, anyway?

He can't imagine Charis in bed, ice cold and frigid.

He and Xiao Yu are generous with each other's bodies. They take care of each other, bringing one another heaps upon heaps of pleasure. They have more fun in bed together than Charis and Mouse ever could, Kiki is sure of it.