"Never in my dreams could I have guessed this is how a successful actor lived," Nitta whispered as his eyes darted from one part of the lavish courtyard to another like a wide-eyed country boy looking at the city for the first time.

    They had arrived a little early, although they were not the first ones to be at Ao's home.  The yellow-haired foreigners had been the first to come, their marked carriages with a foreign driver left just outside the front gates.  A young, pretty apprentice in a bright kimono had let them in after reading the invitation carefully.  The boy had asked the men to cross through the vast courtyard and enter the waiting room before he scurried off to someone calling out his name.  Instead, the men stood in the middle of the yard and admired the home that had wrapped around it.

    "It's a travesty," Saitoh said sourly.  "A commoner like that could live like a lord."

    Nitta patted his friend on his back and laughed.

    "You have to stop thinking like a samurai trapped in yester-years," Nitta said.  "It's a sign of great changes, for someone like him or you or me to be able to have something like this."

    "No, he has something like this because imbeciles like you continue to give him your wages simply because he is beautiful."

    "And I am glad that I could afford just a glimpse.  To think, ten years ago only the Emperor could see him."

    Saitoh shook his head and sighed.  

    "Honored sirs," a soft voice interrupted them.  The boy who had let them through the front gate glared at them with a small smile.  He carried a sealed jar of sake in his arms.  "Come into the waiting room so we may serve you drinks."

    They followed the boy, with Nitta's eyes still looking this way and that.  

    "What is the purpose of your master's gathering?" Saitoh asked the boy suddenly.  The boy was slightly startled.  He had not expect a guest to speak to him, much less ask him that kind of question.  It made him stop in his step for a moment.

    "What do you mean, honored sir?" The boy asked as he looked over to him.

    "He has been doing this for years and yet he has never taken a lover.  So what has he been searching for that he could not seem to find?"

    The boy thought for a moment then began to walk again.

    "I can't say I know for certain," the boy said.  "He never made his intentions clear -- to the apprentices or to the ones who courted him.  Once he said, 'I will know when it is found.'  I think that was the closest to an answer he gave."

    "And no one seemed to care that they are being led here like a herd of mindless cattle in hope they would be the one chosen?"

    The boy giggled, his laugh soft and petit.  

    "Honored sir, you make it sound as if you come expecting to be taken to a slaughterhouse," he said.  "I assure you, Ao-sama's intentions are not dangerous.  The men come because they found his presence soothing, they tell me.  They look at him and they feel wanted.  They hear his voice and they feel peace."

    "Is he that good?" Saitoh said, a crooked smile appearing over his thin lips.  

    "Don't mind his sarcasm, boy," Nitta interrupted.  "He is from Kyoto and not used to the way people are here in Tokyo."

    The boy merely nodded, offering no more words.  The boy called out two names when they reached the steps to the waiting room.  Two more young apprentices appeared with wooden pans of water and cloth with seat cushions beneath their arms.  Quickly they scurried down the steps and placed the cushions on the bottom-most step for Nitta and Saitoh.  After the men seated, the boys removed their sandals and washed their feet carefully.

    The boy with the sake jar disappeared into the waiting room after bowing to the men.

    "How many men usually come to this?" Nitta bent down and asked the boy who was washing his feet.

    "The number is different each time.  Sometimes there is a dozen or more.  Sometimes there is only three or four."

    Nitta's eyes brightened at the perspective of an intimate gathering.

    "How many were invited this time?"

    The boy looked up at him and smiled.  "I do not know, honored sir.  Often, Ao-sama dispatch the invitations through more than one of us."

    The boys finished their task and opened the shoji doors for the men.  As soon as the men stepped through the doors and into the polished floor, the shoji doors were drawn close and the boys could be heard hurrying off to change the water for the next guests.  Saitoh and Nitta found themselves being stared at by two yellow-haired ambassadors who had worn their decorated uniforms to the Ao's home.  Vain attempts to impress Ao with the rank that meant little in Japan, Saitoh guessed.  

    The men offered each other nods but nothing more.  The awkwardness of the silence was broken when the boy with the sake carried it on a lacquered tray with several porcelain cups came in to the room.

    "Ao-sama will be ready shortly," the boy explained as he poured the sake into the cups for the waiting men.  "He offers his apologies."

    The filled sake cups were presented to the Englishmen who took them quickly off the tray, and drank if they needed it.  Although he was in no mood to drink, Saitoh took one cup and quickly drained it.  A sense of uncertainty came over him then and he wanted to quell it with the drink.  Suddenly, he felt silly being talk into watching a ridiculous play by Nitta  and then being invited to a wealthy actor's home like one of the suitors.  The idea of being in that very room, drinking sake offered by a boy in an expensive kimono made him uncomfortable.  He was no longer curious about the actor and thought about the work he had been dispatched to do in Tokyo.  He pulled Nitta to the side and told him he wanted to leave.  Nitta stared at him, wide-eyed with shock and nearly dropped the cup that was in his hand.

    "You were so undeservingly fortunate that you had roused enough curiosity from Ao that you were offered this chance to meet him in person...and you want to throw it all away? It is also rude to come and leave even before the host arrives to greet his guests."

    "I don't care," Saitoh said and placed his empty sake cup into Nitta's hand.  "You can stay."

    Nitta grabbed Saitoh by the hem of his sleeve.

    "You can't leave me alone here..."

    "Wasn't it your lifetime dream to forsake your family and meet this wonderful person you babbled about? You should be glad that there would be one less man here to compete for his time and attention."

    "That's not what I meant," Nitta said.  His voice rose above a whisper and it made the two foreigners stare at them even harder.

    "Good-bye," Saitoh said and pulled his arm away from Nitta's grasp.  However, before Saitoh had slid open the shoji doors to let himself out, a crystalline voice spoke his name.  Saitoh turned to the speaker and found Ao had stepped into the room.

    "I hope you are not already leaving," Ao said, his voice was silk and perfumed incense.  Saitoh found himself momentarily mesmerized by him.

    "He is not," Nitta said and pulled Saitoh away from the doors.

    Ao had dressed in western wear which made him even more unusual than the elaborate dress he wore on stage.  The white shirt he wore was plain but unbuttoned enough to see the entire span of his throat and a little of his chest.  A black ribbon closed around the slim neck, giving the white shirt and pale skin a little color.  The shirt was tucked neatly into the narrow waist band of the dark pants he wore.  Over his hands, he wore a pair of black gloves that was thin enough show the delicate form of his fingers.  Ao's hair was long -- trimmed neatly just below the shoulder blade and bound with a white braided piece of cord with tassels at the ends.  His unusual eyes -- a splash of green and gray, were shaded by wisps of bangs.

    "I would be sad if you left so early," Ao said.  With a slight motion of his hand, Ao signaled for the boy bearing the tray to refill the cups in Nitta's hands.  "Before I have the honor of entertaining you."

    "No need to be," Saitoh said.  "I had just remembered I had duties to attend to.  The fault was entirely mine for forgetting it before I accepted the invitation."

    Ao came forward, his bare feet made no sound on the polished floor as he walked.  

    "Then perhaps only spare a few minutes?" Ao said, his voice turned silkier and softer.  "Let me entertain you for just a few minutes..."

    Ao lifted one of the sake cups from Nitta's hand and offered it to Saitoh.  After a brief consideration, Saitoh took it from Ao's gloved hands and drank it.

    "Only for a few minutes," Saitoh said.  "Or until more of your guests arrive so my absence will not be so...noticed."

    Ao smiled.

    "All of my guests have already arrived," Ao said.  He turned and walked to greet the yellow-haired men.  He spoke to them softly, in the same velvety tone that no other purpose but to seduce.  Saitoh felt the effects of it and it made him even more uneasy staying there.  The sensation of being played with by Ao only grew.  Saitoh drank another cup of sake and tried to dismiss it.  He finally succeeded after the fourth cup of sake.

    Nitta was nervous and had not stopped drinking since Ao came into the room.  The serving boy looked at him, full of concern as a red-faced Nitta continued to urge the boy to fill and refill his cup.  The sake did very little to calm his nerves.  He drank until he felt the floor being pulled from under his feet.  Until he sank into one of the seat cushions along the side of the room.  Saitoh became annoyed and had decided to leave Nitta there to stumble his own home later.

    One of the yellow-haired men had presented Ao with a small red velvet box and opened it.  The man drew out a silver strand and moved to clasp it around Ao's wrist.

    "You don't need to give me a gift each time we meet, Andrew-sama," Ao said and held up his wrist to his eye level to admire his new present.

    "It gives me pleasure when I give you gifts," Andrew said and took the raised wrist into his hand and kissed it. 

    Ao's smile grew as he ran a finger along the side of Andrew's face, following the raised cheekbone down to the chin.  The motion seemed to have surprised the Englishman.  Saitoh guessed it must have been the first time Ao had shown him any hints of affection.

    "Ao--" 

    Ao pressed his finger over Andrew's lips and quieted him.  Ao looked over to Saitoh before he said another name.  A moment later, another boy carrying a tray full of violet-colored flowers stepped into the room.  Ao plucked one from the silver tray and dismissed the boy from the room.  Nitta's eyes were staring but unfocused, too drunk to notice what was happening.  

    Ao plucked two petals from the flower, and thoughtfully, he dropped one in Andrew's sake cup.  As the Englishman stared at the petal in his cup in shock, Ao walked up to Saitoh.

    "Perhaps I would like more than a moment of your time tonight, Saitoh-sama.  If you would give me a little of it," Ao said as he placed the other petal carefully into the empty sake cup in Saitoh's hand.  Saitoh looked down at it then up at Ao with a peculiar smile.

    "So for your first time, you would have two men at once?" Saitoh asked.  "Although I am still curious how it would be decided on who should be the first one to leave their mark in you."

    Ao laughed softly and stepped back toward the door way where he had come from.

    "You were not given the entire flower," Ao said to both of them.  "A small taste, should I say? You were not offered a banquet."

    "Do you understand the consequences of offering a starving man only a bite when he has a full piece of meat placed before him?"

    Ao slid open the shoji and stepped through it.

    "I will take my chances," Ao said then closed the door.

    For a few moments, there were no movements made and no words spoken in the room.  Nitta fell to his side, asleep in his drunkenness and the thump of his body hitting the floor jarred Saitoh and the Englishman from their thoughts.  The boy who had served them sake set the bottle down on the floor then asked the chosen men to follow. 

    "Sir, this is...inappropriate," Andrew's companion said to him.  "To share a lover with another man..."

    "Wait in the carriage for me," Andrew answered, and walked after the boy who had already stepped through the doorway.

    Saitoh looked at the petal in his sake cup again and it was purely from his ego that he decided to go, only to prevent the Englishman from having Ao for himself.  He will be damned if a prize with Japanese blood in him would be taken by a foreigner first if he had an opportunity to prevent it.

 

    Saitoh had expected Ao's room to be sparse and conservative yet elegant, as he had always presented himself.  Instead, the room was filled with western furniture.  Dark metal twisted into strange shapes that was distinctly from overseas.  A large bed with a high canopy, raised from off the polished wooden floor occupied nearly half the room.  Two chairs made from the same metal and with similar curved designs were pushed against the wall, facing the bed.  A small dark metal table without the pattern was next to the bed, an unlit candle in a small clay dish was set to the corner of it.    There was a set of crossed, unsheathed kodachi mounted to a wall, its plain scabbards with small tassels at the tips lined up on either side of the swords.  The only window to the bedroom looked out over a stream that passed by beneath.

    "Lovely room..." Saitoh said sardonically.  

    "I do not sleep here," Ao said as he gestured for men to sit.  They sat down on the uncomfortable chairs.  "I only entertain here."

    A young man, obviously another actor-in-training but he was considerably older than most of the boys who had been serving the guests entered the room carrying a tray covered with a white linen cloth.  The cover tray was set on the small table then the young man knelt by the bed and waited for further instruction.  Another man, an old man with an sheathed katana anchored through his kimono sash also came in.  There were no expressions on his face as he closed the shoji door and moved the stand behind the seated men.

    "In what means do you entertain?" Saitoh said.  "So you had not been as pure as your reputation claimed you to be?"

    Ao laughed softly and unbuckled the belt that was looped around his waist.

    "Well, I must admit my reputation has been greatly exaggerated," Ao said.  "It is true that I had never taken a lover after I came to the stage.  However, I am not a virgin."

    "So is this armed man standing behind us there to safeguard your nearly unspoiled virtue?" Saitoh said.

    Ao slid the belt out from his loop and let it drop on the floor.  The metal buckle made an ungraceful clank as it fell on the floor.

    "You can say that," Ao said as he walked in closer.  "He is there to make sure you do not bite off more than you are offered."

    "Ao," the Englishman said.  Concern came over his face.  "This is not what I expect..."

    Ao undid the button that held the waist band of his pants together and closed the distance between himself and Andrew.  Ao bent down and kissed him on the mouth -- softly at first, then harder, as he slipped his tongue inside.  When the kiss broke, Andrew was a little out of breath.

    "What did you expect, dear Ambassador?" Ao whispered over the wet lips.  "You have chased me for many years, buying my affection with your jewels...isn't this what you had pictured in your mind?"

    "Yes...but..."

    Ao sank down to his knees, positioning himself between the Englishman's thighs.  An audible gasp was issued from the bottom of Andrew's throat when Ao traced the aroused bulk that had formed in his groin with his fingers.  

    "I would like to see your pretty little snake," Ao said, his finger kneaded at the restrained erection to fill it with even more blood.  "I would like to kiss it and taste the skin of it..."

    Saitoh coughed uncomfortably, feeling his own arousal stirring.  He moved to get up, intending to leave before the heat between his own legs becomes unbearable.  The sound of the sword cut through the air and the blade paused short of slicing into his neck stopped his movement.

    "Please do sit back down, Saitoh-sama," Ao said.  "I will attend to your needs as soon as I take care of Andrew's."

    Saitoh eased back down on his chair, the blade still precariously close to his throat.

    "You do have two mouths," Saitoh said bitterly, uncomfortable in the growing arousal that was building in his groin.

    Ao undid the button to Andrew's pants and slowly drew down the zipper.

    "Ah yes, but I did say this is only a small sample of the feast," Ao said.  His gloved hands freed the engorged shaft that had wept wetness at the tip.  "Or rather, I would like to sample a little bit of my men before I devour them."

    His tongue snaked forward and caressed the swollen tip in slow circles.  Andrew hissed as if he had been burned.  His hands clutched to the arms of the chair to stave off the climax he could feel rising too soon.  

    "I could not have guessed the delicate little mouth of yours would be capable of this kind of thing," Saitoh said.  "Makes me wonder what your other mouth could do..."

    Ao only gave Saitoh a secret, mysterious smile then continued to bathe the length of the cock from its base up to its crown with slow stokes of his tongue.  Andrew let out unsteady breaths, his body quivering from the shocks of pleasure that rippled through him.  Ao took the entire root into his mouth and held it as his fingers moved to unbutton his own shirt.  Saitoh shifted uncomfortably in his seat, his own arousal had been prevented from reaching its peak with the awareness of a sharp sword tip still near his neck.  

    When Ao's mouth released the length from his mouth, the wet cock stood straight and achingly hard.  Saitoh could almost feel the excruciating need the Englishman must have felt when the his sex was taken from the warmth of the mouth.

    "Would you like a taste of me as well?" Ao whispered as he stood up to sit on Andrew's lap, facing him.  

    Unable to find his voice, Andrew only nodded like an eager boy being offered a piece of candy.  

    Ao guided Andrew's head down until his mouth found the skin beneath the unbuttoned shirt.  A sharp intake of breath told Andrew he had found a weakness, and he worked his tongue and teeth on it.  His teeth captured a burgundy-colored nipple and held it as his tongue lashed against it.  Ao let out a pleasure-filled whimper and rewarded Andrew by wrapping one gloved hand around the erection pressed against his belly and began to pump it in the tight hollow of his hand.  Andrew's breathing quickened, the speed of it matched the pace of Ao's hand.

    "Please let me be inside you when I come..." Andrew said, then worked the tip of his tongue over the other nipple until he felt Ao's body writhe against him, like an intimate dance.

    "Not this time, love," Ao said and straightened to pull his chest away from Andrew's mouth.  Ao's hand still worked at the shaft, pulling at the hard length that pulsated with heat.  He slid down into half crouching position and pressed the sensitive veins that ran beneath the crown of the cock against his chest.  The hard nipples Andrew had teased into their full hardness rubbed against the little bit of sensitive fold of flesh and that did it.  With a yell, Andrew came -- pearl-like hot fluid spilled out of the small slit on top of the cock and dripped down Ao's chest.  It continue to spurt out the thick strands as Ao's hand stroked the shaft, until the cock stopped quivering and lost its hard shape.  With strength suddenly sapped from him, Andrew slumped in his seat as he took in deep breaths.

    Ao smeared the opalescent seed around until his chest glistened with it.  His fingers made deliberate circles around his nipples, as if he was massaging the fluid into the skin.  He watched Andrew's face intently and waited for the closed eyes open again.

    "You have been very good, Andrew-sama," Ao said then rose.  "I will see you in the theatre in two weeks."

    Ao rose and signaled for the young man to fetch water for him.  The young man stood up where he had knelt and left the room swiftly.

    "Ao -- " Andrew said.  

    "I will see you in the theatre in two weeks," Ao said again.  "Do not ask for anything more."

    The sword that had held Saitoh hostage was withdrawn and re-sheathed.  Andrew looked a confused as he tucked his flaccid, wet cock back into his pants and allowed himself to be escorted out by the old man without another word or another look at Ao.  

    "Impressive show," Saitoh said.  "So now you would take care of my needs?"

    Ao dipped his head cordially.

    "Of course," Ao said and stripped out of his shirt.  "But I could not offer you a body that has been stained with another man's seed."

    "No, of course not."

    The young man returned with a pan of water and a wash cloth draped at the rim of it.

    "What do you hope to accomplish with this?"

    "What do you mean?" Ao said.  The young man dipped the cloth into the pan and wrung it dry.  Carefully, he wiped at Ao's chest.  

    "Unlike your English friend, I can offer you nothing.  You know nothing about me.  What if I could not or will not give you sponsorship?"

    Ao laughed.

    "Is that what you think I did this for? To bait in a wealthy man to take care of me?" Ao said and shook his head.  "If that is the case, then I would have had already many sponsors years ago."

    "Then why?"

    Ao told the boy to leave.  The young man bowed to Ao and Saitoh first before leaving them alone.  Ao lowered the wash cloth into the pan of water and swirled it a couple of times before he wrung it half dry and continue to clean his chest again.

    "All I need to do is show you one thing," Ao said.  "Then all of your memory will come back to you, as well as an understanding why you are here."

    "So I was right, I do know you."

    Ao dropped the wash cloth into the pan and left it there.  Ao unfolded his legs and stood up.

    "Yes," Ao said as he walked toward Saitoh in measured steps.  "Someone you do not know by name, but you knew in the most personal sense."

    Ao stopped a step away from where Saitoh sat and stripped away the black gloves.  The stained gloves fell to the floor with a slight wet sound.

    "Someone you have violated in the worst way..." Ao said as he held up his hands.  In the center of the palms, there were identical crescent-shaped scars.  

    "You are..." Saitoh said and seized the hands to look at them.  He turned the scarred hands over and saw the same scars in the back of them as well.

    "That boy you raped that Autumn night."

~End Part 2   19012002