Saitoh closed his hands around the scarred ones tightly.  He knew he was hurting Ao but he didn't care.  

    "Is this some trick of yours to bring me here?"

    An innocent look came over Ao's face.

    "A trick? Dear sir, you came here on your own," Ao said.  "No doubt spurred by the same kind of unclean arousal that made you a dishonorable man ten years ago."

    The remark earned Ao a hard slap across his face.  The blow would have sent Ao to the floor if Saitoh had not still clung onto Ao's captured hands.

    "Does it annoy you to be told the truth?" Ao said as he turned his face back to look at Saitoh with hate filled eyes.  "To know you are an arrogant, vile man?"

    Saitoh stood up, his anger evident but he controlled it.

    "Who was it that was pleasuring a foreign devil just a moment ago?" Saitoh said as he half walked, half dragged Ao along behind him toward the bed.  "It would appear that you have always been a whore.  Quite a good one also, from the expert manner you displayed with your hands and mouth.  I think you should thank me from bringing your true talents forth."

    Saitoh threw Ao onto the bed.  A brocade of red and green caught his eyes.  Saitoh turned Ao over on his belly again to look at his back when Ao tried to sit up.

    "Indeed...you are decorated like a whore," Saitoh said and ran his hand along the tattoo of peonies in its full bloom.  The picture had taken up most of his back -- from his shoulder blade down to the tail of the spine. 

    Ao looked over his shoulder at Saitoh.

    "After I returned to my home, I was judged and punished by my okashira," Ao said, his voice dripped venom as he spoke.  "Not because I had failed my mission but because I had let a man rape me."

    "So he marked you with this..." Saitoh said, a corner of his mouth curled up in a smile.  "How appropriate."

    "Then expelled me from the clan.  You should have killed me that night."

    "You could have allowed yourself to die that night," Saitoh said and turned Ao over on his back.  "You could have just as easily asked for death from your kin."

    "I was not allowed death until I take my revenge on the man who had soiled me."

    Saitoh laughed and knelt over Ao, locking the slim body between his knees.

    "How do you think you could?" Saitoh said as he untied the obi from around his waist.  "It would seem that you were just as disadvantaged as you were ten years ago.  Of course, you could scream and summon your apprentices and swordsman...but the moment you cry out, I will snap your neck in half and make my escape from the window.  It would be difficult for your estate to pursue me in law.  I am, after all, a police for the government.  It would be unlike me to kill a prostitute."

    Ao's eyes thinned until they were just slivers of ice.  

    "I can give you pleasure, just as you had given it to the foreign devil," Saitoh said as he slipped the long obi sash around Ao's chest and back, gathering his arms to his body.  "In some way, this is quite romantic, wouldn't you say? I robbed you of your virginity and after all this years of waiting for me, I would be the first to re-take you again."

    Saitoh looped the sash around Ao three times -- twice above the nipples and once below.  Ao winced when he was turned over on his belly again.  A knot was made at the gathered obi at his upper back, and the sash passed down to tie the wrists that had been crossed and pinned against the spine.  Saitoh had bound him in an Emono  -- the way prisoners were held when they were captured.  If he had enough length to the obi, Saitoh would have drawn the wrists up and held by another loop around his neck.

    After the last knot was made to secure his wrists in place, Saitoh turned Ao onto his back again and studied his work with an approving nod.

    "I think you look more attractive now than you could ever be on that stage," Saitoh said and moved to pull down the zipper on Ao's pants.  "I dare say that if you present yourself like this, the men would pay even more money to see you."

    Ao clenched his teeth, refusing to offer an argument.  Saitoh pulled the pants off and spread the pale thighs.

    "Another one...?" Saitoh said as he ran his calloused fingers over a blue and gold butterfly imprinted in the inside of Ao's right thigh.  

    "I gave this one to myself as a promise to myself that I would kill you," Ao said.  "And I will kill you."

    Saitoh laughed and pushed himself off the bed.  He shrugged the kimono from his shoulders and loosened his white under-robe he had beneath.

    "I am flattered that you have marked yourself for me...and in such an intimate place," Saitoh said.  "It is unlikely you could kill me, little whore.  You should consider yourself fortunate if I let you live again."

    "You will not kill me..." Ao said it in the way he said a fact.

    "Perhaps not," Saitoh said.  He shed the white cotton under-robe and left it in the same unkempt pile with his kimono.  "But when this ends, you would beg for me to kill you like that night."

    Saitoh grasped Ao by his knees and held them apart, licking and kissing the blue and gold tattoo until he heard a sigh from Ao.  He nipped his way up, until he reached the sensitive junction between his thigh and pelvis.  He sucked at the tender flesh, biting it lightly between his teeth.  Ao's body quivered and his legs instinctively wanted to close.  Saitoh held them apart even further and licked a trail up to the hip bone.  Ao sobbed and bit back a cry when Saitoh dipped his tongue into the belly button as one of his coarse fingers was pressed into him.

    "What did you have in mind for me after you sent away that Englishman?" Saitoh whispered, his finger twisted cruelly inside the velvet warmth.  

    "To kill you..." Ao answered.  

    "You should have asked the old swordsman to do it for you," Saitoh said.  His mouth moved to draw on the nipples with the peaked points.  He bit and nipped on them with his teeth until they were sore even to the lightest touch.

    "How would you kill me?" Saitoh whispered and kissed away the droplets of tears that were trickling out of Ao's eyes.

    Ao said nothing and glanced over the linen covered tray.  Saitoh looked to it and snatched the cloth from it.  It was a small clay jar with a cork stopped on top.  Another thing laid beside it.  Saitoh picked it up and nearly laughed out loud.  He raised a dildo that had been carved from wood and finished with a clear polish.  The length of it was impressive although it was only three fingers wide.  It did not have a crown and the shaft was covered with small grooves.  

    "With this thing?" Saitoh said and draw the rounded tip across Ao's lower lip.  "Or would you kill me with anticipation as you play with yourself with this thing and not allow me my release?  Open your mouth.  Wet it while I give you a chance to.  I don't think you would like for me to push this into you dry."

    With hesitation, Ao's lips parted and Saitoh thrust the wooden cock inside, filling the mouth.  

    "Keep it in your mouth.  Suckle it like you did for the Englishman," Saitoh said and moved to pick up the corked jar.  As soon as he removed the top, a fragrant scent of herbs and flowers wafted out.  The smell made Saitoh a little faint at first but he dismissed it.  It must be his mounting arousal that had been prevented from reaching its peak for some time.

    Saitoh gathered Ao's knees into one arm and lifted it slightly.  With two fingers, Saitoh scraped a chunk of soft wax from the jar and pressed it into Ao's hole.  Ao's body tensed and tried to buck off the invasive fingers from going further inside.  Saitoh leaned in, using his weight to hold Ao down until he finished thrashing.

    "You bring out a full meal for a man after keeping him hungry, then you would deny him the food?" Saitoh said and moved his fingers to spread the soft wax that was beginning to melt into oil in the heat.  "Terrible, terrible host."

    Saitoh stabbed at the tight passage hard with his fingers, pushing in up to his knuckles.  Slowly at first, then quicker and quicker until the wet sound of his fingers raping Ao was the only sound heard.  Trickles of oil dripped out from the rim and formed small yellow dots on the white sheet.  The floral scent became stronger and it made Saitoh dizzy with arousal.

    "You are dripping wet like a woman," Saitoh whispered and took the carved phallus from Ao's mouth.  Ao screamed into the mattress when Saitoh jabbed it into the oiled orifice.

    "Please..."

    "Please what?"

    "Let me...have your cock in my mouth..."

    The request was not what Saitoh had expected.  At his heightened arousal state, Saitoh was only glad to oblige.  He shifted Ao's body to spoon around his lap.  As soon as he could, Ao took Saitoh's cock deep into his throat and milked it with his tongue .  Saitoh was cautious at first but all of the care left him slowly when Ao's teeth did not bite down.  He could not even feel Ao's teeth scrape against his shaft.  Saitoh let out a long sigh and closed his eyes for a moment to savor the sensation that was spiraling throughout his body.

    Saitoh grasped the end of the wooden cock that still impaled Ao and moved it in long, careful strokes.  Ao's hips moved to match the rhythm as his mouth still busily worked the erection in a feverish pace.  Saitoh grimaced and pulled out of Ao's mouth just a moment before he peaked.  Ao licked at his wet lips that looked a little bruised as Saitoh fought off his climax with a hard squeeze at the root of his cock.

    "Do you want this back in your mouth or your other mouth?"

    Ao licked at the hardened tip of the cock and took in the trickle of come that had leaked out from it with his tongue.

    "I want you to rape me....just like the way you did ten years ago..." Ao said with a wicked smile. 

    "Once a whore, always a whore," Saitoh said and replaced the dildo with his own cock.  He pushed in with one hard stroke.  Ao gasped, his chest rose off the bed and stayed there as Saitoh drove in and out of Ao -- in the same furious pace he had used long ago to strip Ao of his virginity.  

    "Yes...I am a whore..." Ao whispered hoarsely.  

    Saitoh slowed down then stopped.  His head was spinning and his vision had become hazy. He could feel his climax reaching its peak again and he refuse to allow this to end so quickly.  Ao shut his eyes and moved his hips, wanting Saitoh to continue.  

    "A sign of old age, Saitoh-san..." Ao said mockingly.  "To lose your stamina so easily."

   The words flickered an anger in Saitoh.  He picked up the wet dildo and nudged at the stretched mouth of Ao's entrance.  Ao's eyes widened with pain. 

   "And a pity that you would be opened so wide that it will take two men to satisfy you," Saitoh said.  The tip of the phallus ripped the delicate rim and continued to give way as Saitoh pressed it in further and deeper.  Saitoh anticipated Ao's screams and clamped a hand over his mouth.  Blood coated both cocks and the tears made the hole wider to accept both into the filled passage.  The white sheet below was wet with blood.

   "I wonder what your admirers would say about you now," Saitoh said.  "My drunken friend thinks you are a refined little thing, to be admired and worshipped.  What do you think he would say if he saw you for what you really are?"

   The tightness and increased heat finally made Saitoh come.  His thick, hot seed spilled deeply inside Ao and he stayed inside the impossibly taut orifice until he was completely spent.  Saitoh withdrew himself and shoved the bloodied dildo back into the dilated orifice.  The wooden cock leaned on the bottom of the over-stretched cavern with blood and come seeping past it.  Ao's legs were still wide apart as Saitoh left him, the porcelain pale face was wet with tears.  The once lively eyes now stared up into the canopy.  His breaths were shallow and pain-filled. 

   Saitoh wrinkled his nose and slid off the bed.  He walked to the pan of water on the floor and cleaned himself off there.

   "I could have been nice to you," Saitoh said and dipped the blood-stained wash cloth back into the water.  The water turned into a shade of pink.  "You could have enjoyed this if you would learn to keep snide remarks to yourself."

   Ao said nothing but writhed slowly.  Saitoh had thought Ao's body was reacting to an after shock of sort.  Then to his surprise, Ao had untied himself at some point and was merely shrugging the obi that was wrapped around him.  Ao slid out the bloodied dildo and cast it to the side, smearing blood on the white pillow where it landed.

   "No," Ao said, his voice turned to silk again.  "I have enjoyed this."

   Saitoh stood up and instantly the room felt as if someone had tilted it.  He sank down his knees and braced himself against the floor with the flats of his hands.

   Ao got up. He sat at the edge of the bed for a few moments to collect his strength before he stepped off to walked to the doorway.  As he walked, a trail of blood was left behind him.  More blood continued to coil down his thighs in thin ribbons.  Ao didn't seem to feel the pain, the way he moved.

   "What have you done to me...?" Saitoh whispered.  Sweat beaded at this forehead and he could scarcely draw enough breath into his lungs that felt smaller and smaller. 

   "Your dagger has been poisoned by its sheath," Ao said with a curt smile that spread over the un-naturally serene face.  

   Saitoh's head snapped up and stared at Ao.

   "Poison?"

   "Quite potent," Ao said as he nodded at the jar on the small table.  "You should be dead in another hour.  First, you would lose your voice then your vision then your hearing.  Then you would not be able to breathe at all."

   "Why aren't you -- "

   "Not affected?" Ao said for him when Saitoh didn't finish the sentence.  "I have taken small doses of this drug with the carved phallus since the day I was expelled from my clan.  Since then, I have known how I would kill you.  For five years, my body had grown immune to this drug although I am sad to say that I could never take a male lover.  Not the ones that I would not like to have killed.  My body now secretes so much of this drug that even if you only pressed your fingers inside, your skin would absorb enough of it to kill you over a few days."

    "You...whore..." 

   Ao laughed softly.

   "Maybe so," Ao said.  "But a whore that has bested a former captain of Shinsengumi.  It is quite unfortunate that your drunken friend would learn your death when he wakes.  His friend who was not quite so young and barely old enough to have his heart give out in midst of passion."

   Ao gave Saitoh a bow and slid open the shoji door.  The old swordsman had been standing guard outside all this time.  His face remained stone-like even as Ao stepped out, naked and covered with blood.

   "Thank you for a memorable visit to my garden party, Saitoh-san," Ao said bowed again before he slid the shoji door close.  "As much as I would like to be with you at your final moments, I feel rather...unclean and desire a bath much more than see you die."

   Saitoh wanted to shout a curse at Ao but his voice was gone completely.  Nothing came out.  After a struggle to stand up but his limbs simply failed to find enough strength to do so, Saitoh lied down and he laughed soundlessly as he waited for death to claim him.

 

  ~End Winter Moon  20012003

 

An apology to the Saitoh fans.  Sorry, I need to get even for Aoshi after too many Aoshi-abuse or Aoshi gets saved by Saitoh stories.