AN: This was one long, long wait... so, thank you for everyone, who still follows my stories, and special thanks for those, who keep prompting me to continue with them!

Believe me, it was as long a wait for me - writing it literally a couple of paragraphs a day - for sheer lack of both time and strength (summer season in tourist business is a constant adrenaline rush - exciting, but at the end of the day you are drained dry), so let me lay out my further plan of action for you: this particular story is only one chapter short of its finish (I know I ended this one on... well... a cliffhanger of sorts, but frankly I couldn't bear it without feedback anymore); then there is "A Peculiarly Pureblood Problem" that has maybe another pair of chapters in it, and that I want to finish shortly as well; which will leave me with "Solitaire" that still has quite a long way to go, and after (or maybe even parallel to) finishing the former two stories I plan to update it regularly. Besides that, I have a plot bunny for a longish (or so it seems to me now) AU Kaname and Zero story that can be considered a preface for "Picture Perfect" and "A Peculiraly Pureblood Problem" (though it is darker and angstier than them) and will deal with how the boys got together in the first place. I even have a tentative title for it "In the Abscence of Something Vital" (which, as you can guess is Yuuki, and - no, she isn't dead, just, well, abscent), so I'm pretty firmly set on writing it - I only need more time. Many apologies for the three people still waiting for their prizes - but I hope I can somehow fit them in between other updates. Keep faith in me and eventually I will produce!

My deepest apologies to everyone I owe reviews or answers to their PMs or their reviews, I will try to work my way slowly through all the pile of "to do's" that has gathered by now (but unfortunately "slowly" is for now the operative word).

Many thanks to YenGirl for as usual promptly correcting the typos for this new chapter!

Warning: This chapter and the next are express lemon and yaoi. I somehow doubt that those, who dislike it do read this story at all - but still. You've been warned.

For disclaimer see earlier chapters.

Once again – Touga didn't know what kind of reaction he did expect from Cross – incomprehension or even indignation, maybe? What was he thinking, really - taking the friendly concern that the ex-hunter expressed as an invitation to… to… well, something it wasn't meant to provoke… And for a torturous moment, Touga's mind filled with apprehension and shame – lying there completely exposed like that…

What he didn't expect was a look of breathless wonder bordering on child-like delight that colored Kaien's cheeks with a soft pink blush, as the older man climbed completely onto the bed as well, kneeling at Touga's side. And that look alone was enough to make the hunter's nipples harden into tight nubs and the muscles of his stomach ripple and contract in pleasurable anticipation.

Ah… Kaien… see… one look is all that it takes…

"Li…like this?"

A hesitant yet oh so determined finger traced over Yagari's collarbone and down the midline of his toned chest to stop level with the nipples. The hunter couldn't stifle a rather shaky sigh as he pushed himself up on one elbow, his other hand taking the unresisting wrist and leading the finger towards the dark-brown nub that the other's gaze seemed already latched onto.

"Yes… yes, Kaien… exactly like this…"

The blue eye closed momentarily, and the hunter's neck stretched in another unsteady inhale, as the finger circled the nipple a few times before rubbing softly over the hardened core - Cross's face enraptured and his own breath quickening in kind at the way that Touga's body answered this simple caress.

"You can kiss the other one," Touga suggested huskily, the barest hint of amusement in his voice at a somewhat anxious glance that darted to his other, currently unattended to nipple.

"I… I may?"

No, really… the man was adorable – dismay mixing with fascinated eagerness on his all too expressive face, the lips opening again in that irresistible 'o' in preparation for the task…

It was a quick peck – rather than a kiss, and Cross looked up at Touga's face to check if he was doing it right, before he bent down again and the rosy tongue ran ever so lightly around and around again…

"Toooouga…" Cross breathed out, and his voice hitched sharply on the last 'a', as the hunter tugged at his forearm, bending him further forward and into a scorching, passionate lip lock…

Ow… oh… shiiiiiiit…

Yagari couldn't stifle a heartfelt moan, as – involuntarily of course – the hand that was working his nipple slid downward to rest flat against the hunter's abdomen, and his cock seemed to take it as a direct encouragement, stretching out as if presenting itself for an easy grasp.

Kaien, in his turn, jerked aside, when he felt something warm and living move outside of his vision and nudge against the inside of his wrist.

"Oi… ooow…" The ex-hunter's cheeks turned a most becoming shade of crimson as he stared transfixed at this hard evidence of Touga's arousal – rather like a reverse image of a fakir with his snake.

Seems things are escalating rather… rapidly… and I haven't even got him out of the damn rosy thing… never mind the boxers…

"Hey…" Touga teased the older man gently, pushing himself up further into a sitting position, and tenderly removing the blonde tresses that once again have fallen over the ex-hunter's face. "Don't look at it in such a manner… surely it's not much different from what you have yourself?"

"It's not that," if possible Cross's blush only darkened in answer to his teasing, "ah… I just… thought how better…" His hand clamped over the engorged rod, tugging on it somewhat awkwardly. "I… the… the angle is odd… ah… I… never did it for anyone but myself…" The ex-hunter hung his head low, mortified by having to admit to something like that… though it sort of came as a matter of course with him being a virgin...

"Ng-never mind then." It was an effort, you know, to try and sound soothing, when someone fisted you - even in such an inexperienced manner, yet Touga could not allow Kaien's insecurities to break the mood. From how they kissed earlier, it was clear to him that there was a wealth of pure, unbridled passion locked in there somewhere and in his book, it held much more value than pure skill ever could. After all – skill was something acquired… while passion… passion was a gift… it either was there… or not. And maybe… well, maybe it was time to prod Kaien a little in the right direction, even if it meant that Touga would have to steal the initiative for a while.

Cupping the ex-hunter's head, he brought it back up, placing a quick, gentle yet urgent kiss on that cutely pouting mouth. "Let me return the favor first…"

Ah… hmm… wish he wouldn't take it as a signal to stop immediately as if the thing was scalding hot to his hands…

Subtly frustrated, Touga still smiled softly into the hazel eyes that gazed up at him in confusion and infinite trust as he hooked his thumbs under the plushy collar and proceeded to move the robe downwards, slowly revealing the lightly tanned and surprisingly smooth shoulders.

No, really… the man's prowess as a hunter was legendary without doubt, but – scars were an occupational hazard, something that you just couldn't avoid, not altogether, not after ten plus years the man had spent in the field before wrapping his sword for safe storage and opening the Academy. Yet – there were none. No scars, not even a birthmark or a trace of former teenage acne – Kaien's skin was completely, absolutely blemishless… Not really surprising, if one considered it seriously, but mesmerizing in the extreme, and Touga paused to admire the newly revealed wonder of the ex-hunter's body, while Kaien fumbled nervously with the knot on the robe's sash.

He didn't mean to be caught staring, no… in fact, he was planning to go on and continue his sexual assault… eh… hmm… that is – to continue the prodding… almost at once… It was just the lousy timing that made the knot give in to Cross's efforts at this particular moment, that made the ex-hunter glance up to catch him still with this half-puzzled, half-transfixed expression all over his face…

"No scars, right?"

There was an abyss of self-loathing, no, self-disgust in the quietly spoken question, and Touga tried his best to concentrate and answer as calmly and matter-of-factly as he could.

"Any strong hunter can feel it in you, Kaien… the blood of a pureblood that you had once drunk… My guess would be that Juri gave it to you at some point... to heal you from some grave injury, most likely… I only didn't know that it could smooth out even the older scars…"

"Any strong hunter can feel it…" Cross repeated listlessly, "Aaah… Touga… if they knew… if you knew…" He closed his eyes for a moment to brace himself and continued with painful decisiveness of unloading it once and for all, "She was pregnant… and I tried to kill her… in a fit of insanity borne of all the hunters' prejudices and my own frustrated rage… her, the kindest person that I knew among humans and vampires alike…" Kaien's voice hitched and he wrapped his arms around himself, as if the blemishless expanse of his own chest was too much of condemning evidence. "I suppose… as a hunter… I should be flattered that she saw enough of a threat to her unborn baby in me to provoke her into violence… and then… she still said that she trusted me… and gave me her blood… and before I knew, I was as I am now… really, Touga… I'd rather still have my scars!.."

The gentle hazel eyes looking on Touga filled with tears of bitter remorse, and… ah!... it explained so much… like, why Cross was so relentless in his efforts towards the cause of co-existence and the success of this Academy that had been so dear to his pureblood princess's heart… Or like, why he worried so greatly for Zero, seeing his own history repeated with uncanny detail in the fate of Touga's unlucky apprentice… but, damn, this was not a time for ruminations like this…

Tenderly yet firmly, Touga gathered the trembling form into a close embrace, kissing the tears away before they had time to spill, "Ssshhh, Kaien… ssshhh… even if you were guilty before her once, you have long atoned for that guilt with all the care and protection you gave to her children… She would've been proud of you… eh… grateful to you, if she knew… And I… I'm glad that she has given you blood, because you are…"

…beautiful?... exquisite?… perfect?...

All the words sounded way too feminine for Touga's liking, and there was nothing feminine in the body he held in his arms… Usually hidden under decidedly womanish apparel, Kaien's body was in fact… well, boyish, maybe… narrow-hipped and light in build that it was, the undeniable muscles that enabled him to swing that long sword with such an easy grace being of unostentatious, sinewy quality… as if the vampire blood that he had drunk had not only removed his scars but also frozen him in the same twenty-something form he had been at that time… And yes, in Touga's eyes he seemed all the more beautiful, somewhat exotic and infinitely enticing… but being unable to utter either one of those words, Touga settled on showing the ex-hunter all that he felt, showering him with kisses, licking and nibbling, and sucking, and touching, and tickling his way down Cross's body, hoping that his open adoration would superimpose itself over the self-rejection of the older man and somehow wash it away…

If so – his tactic had certainly proved to be a success, for by the time his tongue delved into the hole of Cross's navel and his fingers found their path to graze up the inside of Kaien's thigh, the ex-hunter had most certainly forgotten all of the dark memories, his breath coming in audibly uneven gasps and his hands roaming around Touga's back in uncertain feverish circles, and when Touga finally cupped his sacs, running the heel of his hand up and down the fully extended length, he felt the older man's body buck right into his palm, with something that sounded midway between a moan and a breathless encouragement.

Kaien's fingers dug into Touga's shoulders, bringing him up and he complied eagerly, only for his mouth to be the target of an immediate and sweet assault, interspersed with urgently murmured pleas, "Do it… ah… do it again… ah… please, Touga…"

"Do what, Kaien?" Yagari asked teasingly, "this?" Wrapping his fingers around Cross's leaking cock, he started to stroke him in a slow, relentless rhythm, occasionally running his thumb across the super-sensitive ridge on the back of his arousal and relishing the way the ex-hunter's back arched and his head tossed helplessly from side to side with each provoking caress.

"Yes… yeeees… aaahh… yesssss…"

In the state he already was, it was oh so easy for Touga to drive Kaien on and on and over the edge to a blissful release, and a part of him was certainly cheering for this solution, urging him to either continue fisting the older man until he came, or bend back down and discover just what reaction he could reap if he added his mouth to where his hand was already pleasuring Cross quite successfully… and still it was not exactly what Touga had in mind for this day…

What he wanted was to also grant Kaien the sweet sensation of burying oneself in the other's flesh, to be, in a way, both a man and a woman for him and somehow make up for all the lost chances and bitter restraint the ex-hunter suffered from in a one mind-blowing go. Ambitious plan, yeah… but then Touga knew it about himself, this propinquity to never do things half-way – even to the detriment of himself…

Drawing Cross into another kiss that was intended to be tender and soothing but somehow ended in a passionate battle of tongues all the same, he stopped with his pumping and held the older man a little apart from himself, despite the whimpering protest and the other's attempt to buck and shift and squirm closer for a contact.

"Ssshhh, Kaien… ah… give me just a moment…" Touga bent over the edge of the bed to retrieve the box with violet-smelling whatever-it-was out of his jeans (lying there in a haphazard heap together with towels) and cringed at the musky stink of the darned flowers as he got a hefty dollop of it onto his index finger.

'Ow… crap…' Yagari cursed inwardly as the cream tried to smear itself in all the wrong places before he even brought it near to his own entrance… how had Kaien said it earlier?.. the angle was definitely odd. Besides, he once again felt like a complete idiot – gingerly inserting his own finger into his own ass – all under the somewhat glazed if decidedly interested stare of his highly aroused companion…

Ah… This is most certainly a first…

It didn't help that the watching blonde chuckled merrily at the sight of Touga bent over and prepping himself with an expression of utter concentration he could have borne when… say… readying his weapons for a difficult hunt… but got back serious pretty soon under the death glare that the dark-haired hunter shot in his direction. "What, Kaien, wanna help me do it? It's usually the one who's got to top, who prepares his partner…"

To his credit, Cross only looked taken aback for a moment, and then he nodded with eager readiness, "You'll have to tell me what to do, but I… uh… I hope it isn't that difficult…"

Well, yes… it wasn't… in fact, the hunter has lost count of how many times he'd done it himself, but now that he was on a receiving end, he couldn't help but be a little apprehensive about the whole experience… Yet – hell, it was Kaien's day and seeing as he would be entering in there with more than just a finger quite soon… Without anymore words, Touga simply stretched the box towards the older man and leaned back onto his elbows, bending his knees and spreading them as wide as he could for an easy access.

Cross turned the box in his hand, smelling the contents, "Why… it is mine!.." he proclaimed with surprise. "Yuuki borrowed it and never brought it back. Was it in the guest bathroom all this time?" A little hesitantly, he smeared the cream all over his finger liberally, and slowly pushed the very tip of it into the tight ring of muscles around Touga's entrance. "So… Like this?.."

Surprisingly – whether because Touga had already succeeded in stretching it somewhat, or maybe because the ex-hunter's finger was thinner and less callused, or – maybe again – because Touga himself was not bent over in a strange pose, but comfortably reclining, concentrating exclusively on making his body relax – the finger slid in much easier and Yagari sighed in relief when all he felt was just a vague discomfort like what you would feel… well, like you would feel if there was someone's finger within your ass… and deeply…

"Good," he commented, "now try to add another finger and scissor them like this…" He demonstrated the motion with his own hand, with Cross looking at him all the while, almost as an attentive student toward a lecturer in class, blissfully unaware of the distracting twitching of his own finger still buried in Touga's intestines.

Two fingers were… well… worse… and three – made Touga grit his teeth for a moment as his body tensed involuntarily, protesting the stretching, but he bore it stoically and gradually his insides relaxed, making room for the intrusion - especially after Cross had managed to touch upon that spot. It was unintended, of course, but in his painfully-stretched and almost-thinking-better-of-the-entire-idea state, the electric jolt of pure pleasure seemed to shoot from Touga's groin right to his head, leaving him thinking in disjointed wonder, 'So this is it… this is what I've been hearing all of them beg for…' and almost making his single eye water with the sheer relief.

"Eh… Touga?" Kaien looked a little jolted by the sudden arching and moaning and… well… not to mention that Touga's previously almost deflated member stood at attention again… It was something he did, he was sure, and he looked almost smug as, biting his lower lip in concentration, he tried to repeat exactly the same motion and was rewarded by the hunter once again thrashing and bucking deeper onto his hand… Yes, he thought he had figured it… And he seriously intended to do it again and again…

"Wa… wait…" Touga stammered unsteadily, sitting up and almost emptying the box onto his hand. "I… ah…" He wanted to kiss Kaien, but felt it hard to find the breath for it after the intense sensation of but a few moments ago, so he just leaned into the crook of Cross's shoulder, while his well-lubed hand gave the ex-hunter's length a few strong, rejuvenating strokes, quickly succeeding both in thoroughly covering it with cream and bringing the man himself back to the peak of arousal. "I… ah… think… that you can… try it now…"