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He had been staying with Shin only a couple of days, and already Akako had adjusted to his new way of life. It was wonderful; every minute of it felt like being on holiday. The house was beautiful, his every need was taken care of (with joy by Shin and with reluctance by Moriko), he had time to himself again, to calm down and find the centre he felt he had been sorely lacking, in recent weeks. There were no rehearsals at the moment: the theatre season had not yet begun for the new year, although it was due to do so the following week. Shin had been to the theatre to pick up the list of productions and audition dates today, and Akako eagerly awaited the news of them. He had missed working, even if he pretended to complain about being in rehearsals day in day out. The theatre was something almost inescapable - it got into his very soul and chimed out warning bells. It was where he belonged.

But without the theatre, Akako's priorities were very much at home. He didn't feel like himself unless he had something to dress up for, some occasdion to prepare for, some excitement in the works. There was no performance, and there were no clients either - he had decided that he was on an indefinite break from seeing men he didn't like, and nothing or nobody was going to persuade him otherwise. The only thing he currently had to think about was his host. Shin.

Shin had given him so much - so much comfort and love and selfless care - Akako owed him something in return. So today, while Shin was out visiting the theatre and running various other errands, he had made preparations, feeling the familiar bubble of excitement that he did when he had decided to make an occasion out of anything. And so he had prepared tea, a special blend which he had brought from home, and ordered the servants to prepare a few little dishes which he had read about in the latest issue of the Cherry Basket - little gourmet confections which ought to appeal to any tastes - Akako was still learning Shin's tastes. He was just about managing to bully Moriko into doing what he wanted, even though she hated him. It was for Shin's sake, after all. They ought to be able to come to some sort of agreement, between them, if it was for Shin's happiness. Surely she could see that it made Shin happy to be with Akako? But perhaps she hadn't quite realised that yet.

He awaited Shin's return in the parlour. The fire was lit, and the beautiful scent of flower tea filled the room, which was lit dimly with candles and oil lamps. The tea and dishes (best set, which Akako had forced Moriko to dig out), and the few delicate plates of food, were laid out on the low table. Akako was arranged gracefully near it, in a new deep blue silk kimono he had been sent, rather bewilderingly, by Lady Tamakazura. He didn't know what he had done to merit her giving him gifts, but he certainly wasn't going to refuse them. His dark hair was half caught up in a jewelled clip, and he wore a little, subtle eye makeup - nothing like he would have worn for clients or the theatre, but something a lot more simple.

He rose when he heard the front door, and went into the foyer. "Shin," he greeted, from a little distance, attempting to stay refined rather than impetuous. The lights in the foyer were low too, catching the pretty painting on the hem and shoulder of his new kimono. He was happy to see Shin, but he let that shine in his eyes rather than running to him like a child. It was important to retain elegance.

It was working, Akako was amazed to discover. Really working. He was unused to Shin behaving like this - even in the three weeks they had shared, his new lover had been cautious. Not now; it was as though he had been able to open some kind of door to passions Akako had not known existed, now he knew he had a perfect right to display them. It was wonderful - he could not have dreamed this of Shin in a thousand years. He had thought that a more mature sort of seduction might be the thing Shin went for, rather than a host of the exotic tricks he usually tried, and he had been astoundingly right. It felt exciting, too. Seduction was not usually like this - the slow build up was not something Akako was especially used to. His clients were usually under time pressure, or wanted him too badly to wait. Minekura hadn't been the most patient man in the world. But Shin - Shin was completely different. A slow, glamorous seduction, like people in ancient love poems - it brought back the element of enjoyment. It was fun, but it was grown up at the same time, not like being a child rushing into someone's arms with all the eagerness of youth. It was different. And he liked it.

So he didn't rip the packaging off the gift Shin handed to him straight away, but took his lover's hand and led him into the parlour, where the tea and the sweet-scented little dishes of food were waiting. "You didn't have to," he murmured, taking the little wrapped package in his hand. That really was the act, however, because Akako loved presents and always would. "I ordered tea, and a few little things I thought you might like," he said, in a brief phrase dismissing the effort he had gone to in making Moriko put together the recipes from the magazine. "How was your day?"

The touch and sudden contact was unexpected, and the fact that it was Shin taking the initiative even more so - although far from unwelcome. Akako had thought that being given a free rein with him had brought out more of Shin's hidden depths, and he had not been wrong. It proved that his lover was a real gentleman, to the very last - until he was absolutely certain that Akako was his, he had not let go of his self-control. Shin was the kind of man who would never rent someone for half an hour - he had to wait until he truly had the right of possession before he moved in and claimed it. When he did, it was so gentle and perfect that Akako was amazed at what he had been missing out on before.

However, he was playing a game tonight, a game which Shin was fully invited to participate in, as long as he was willing to play along. Although his lover's lips against his neck quickened his blood and imbued him with a new sense of urgency and passion, it made him all the more determined to push his little experiment further until he discovered its boiling point. And so he pulled away, ever so slightly. It wasn't because he didn't want - far from it. It was the element of the tease. He was making seduction into an art this evening, a pure performance which Shin, as an actor, could not fail to appreciate.

"Now, now," he chided gently, smiling at Shin over his only-just-bared shoulder. "Don't expect me to actually believe it was uninteresting - didn't you go to the theatre to pick up the new season's list of plays? Are you going to keep me-" Akako exhaled softly, turning his face so that his hot breath passed over Shin's fingers, "-hanging in suspense?"

He picked up the tea pot. It was supposedly the art of the geisha, to pour tea in a way which spoke volumes in perfect silence, to turn an apparently mundane activity into a sexual hint of the most obvious kind. But Akako took it and made it his own. It was far, far more obvious than a simple flash of pale wrist against the dark silk of a sleeve, although that was certainly incorporated into it too. He kept his eyes on Shin all the way, supposedly interested in what the theatre had in store for them for the coming year. He was interested, actually. Just not as interested as he was in Shin.

Shin was talking about the other plays lined up for them on the season's bill, but Akako couldn't help but focus on the fact that they seemed to be doing the White Fox again - a reprise of that old role? It had been his first major part, at the old theatre - he was surprised to see it resurfacing. However, he wasn't complaining - The Monkey King was an old classic which had skyrocketed his popularity. The rest he hadn't heard of, and he guessed that they were all new, and from the titles, either actually translated Western plays, or copies of them. They all sounded tragic, which was good (Akako preferred playing in tragedy), apart from Romeo and Juliet, which was probably some sort of romantic comedy, the kind of which he couldn't stand. No good, in Akako's book. A nice death, preferably his own, was what he liked. And the audience loved it.

Still, he was looking forward to the new season beginning. He was feeling happy and content in himself in the moment, not worrying about money or anything much else, and he was thinking about working on his actual skills as an actor with anticipation. It should be a good year. He nodded with satisfaction.

It was time for him to open his present, which he had decorously put aside but really couldn't wait any longer for. He picked it up and delicately removed the wrapping. Inside there was a box, which he soon had open, and inside that a beautiful comb was displayed against dark material. Akako drew it out, exclaiming in surprise and pleasure. "Mmm - lovely!"

On a whim, he reached up and released his caught up hair from the clip he had styled it into, letting it fall down his back in a long perfumed cascade. Laying the clip aside, he drew the comb through it, liking how smooth it was. "Thank you!"

Akako didn't like to be reminded of all that - he was practically illiterate and he knew it, but he didn't really like to boast about it. Reading and writing were difficult, incredibly difficult, and he had not been taught as a child, so they were unnatural to him now. It was true that he changed the subject whenever the matter was brought up, and there was a reason for that - it made him feel uncomofrtable and inadequate. However, he intended to change it now, too. A discussion about Akako's not-very-great intelligence was no way to begin an evening devoted to pleasures.

"But I like you teaching me," he protested softly, smiling beguilingly. Kneeling up, he kissed Shin's cheek twice, then moved close to whisper in his ear. "I like tracing the characters with your finger on mine...I like repeating the lines after you. They have more meaning to me, that way. Anyway," he added, kissing Shin's ear lobe, "there are other areas in which I excel."

He smiled and pulled back, gesturing towards the dishes on the table and displaying the long line of his pale wrist as the dark sleeve fell back. "Won't you try some of the food? They're new recipes, all of them. I ordered them especially for tonight."

"Oh, Shin..."

The fire was warm, and the man was close, and wanted him, and Akako had the taste of flower tea in his mouth and the scent of his own perfumed hair surrounding him, and he couldn't have cared less about the food either, although he did want Shin to try it. He wasn't too sure about new things himself - he liked to eat very plain. But he was sure that it would wait, too, and he was far more delighted by Shin's wonderful interest in him, no longer tentative but almost possessive, and he felt very much in the mood too.

He wrapped his arms around Shin's neck and kissed him properly, feeling himself melt inside - was this, then, what he had been waiting for all day, the event which the inexplicable case of butterflies which had been assailing him all day had caused? He was excited about this, this burgeoning love affair which was a love affair for real now, and it was a wonderful feeling.

"They can certainly wait," he murmured. "Upstairs, or..?" He left the sentence deliberately unfinished, but he cast his eyes around the room, taking in the clean tatami, the soft scattered cushions, the warm and brightly blazing fire. He was perfectly happy to stay downstairs, but he didn't know if Shin was ready for that yet.

And he definitely didn't know if Moriko and her too-sharp ears was.