The latest battle had been a close one, and Ryusei found himself exhausted when he made it out of the cockpit and away from his mech. It didn't help that he had made a slightly wrong move and the enemy had managed to land a direct hit on the R-1 - or rather, the enemy had almost managed as Rai had just happened to show up at the last second to throw the R-2 in the way. Ryusei was sure he could have taken that one himself and outside being tired, he was also quite pissed off.

It was certain that Major Ingram was going to reprimand him for that near-hit. Ryusei removed his helmet as he sulked on his way through the hangar, ignoring the rest of the pilots heading towards the locker rooms. The major had called for a briefing later about mission related matters, and everyone seemed to want to hit the showers before that. Ryusei couldn't have cared less; that was, after all, where he would get to hear what Major Ingram thought about his performance, and their commander liked making it clear that they had no room for mistakes.

He was deep in thought when he caught the sight of another pilot ahead, one in a familiar blue pilot suit with a matching helmet in his left hand, and the tiredness went away to be replaced by anger. If he was going to get reprimanded later, he might just as well make his teammate shut up beforehand. "Wait up, you bastard!" He yelled as he strode towards the blond pilot. Rai turned around with another of those perfectly calm expressions on his face, and Ryusei wanted to punch him. He didn't do so as he knew better; Rai would've just stepped out of the way.

"Save your chivalry acts for princesses," Ryusei snarled at the older pilot's face. "You didn't have to that, the R-1 could've taken the hit!"

Rai stared down at him in a cold, conceited way which made Ryusei's blood boil. Somewhere in the background, Rob's voice on the loudspeakers called the mechanics team in for a meeting, but he paid no mind to it as he glared back at Rai. "That would be your opinion," the blond man replied in an indifferent tone of voice. "Unless you've completely forgotten, Rob mentioned the armor adjustments in the meeting this morning and told you to avoid being hit. You took damage from a missile earlier in the battle, so I judged it necessary."

"I could've taken it, damn it!" Ryusei snapped then caught the sight of a random mechanic across the hangar looking at them oddly. He glared at the man then turned back to his teammate. "You," he started to say, then forced himself to calm down for a second. He dropped his helmet, grabbed Rai by the arm with both hands then dragged him to the other side of the hangar, behind the feet of a Gespenst. "You don't need to be showing off all the damn time. There was enough time, I could've dodged it-"

"No, you couldn't have," the older man cut him off, now with irritation in his voice. "You were not in a position to dodge with your rifle out, and the hit was coming from an angle you couldn't have shielded." Rai glanced around in the hangar, bothered by the fact that someone could have seen them. The mechanic from before was gone, and all the other pilots had left already. "I should also remind you of the fact that the captain-"

The usual better-than-you explanation was too much for Ryusei, and he went for the attempt to hit his teammate, not that the result had been anything other than what he expected. "You didn't need to!" He yelled while attempting the punch. Rai stepped to the side and Ryusei's fist met empty air in the space where the blond's face had been a second earlier. "What the hell does it matter what Rob or Aya said, I could've! Ack...!"

He got cut off again as Rai went for another one of the special moves he used whenever Ryusei tried to punch him. Namely, he dropped his helmet, then caught Ryusei's wrist while dodging and pulled it down behind Ryusei's back in a move that made the younger man grit his teeth from pain. Rai didn't stop there; he pushed Ryusei against the Gespenst's foot and turned him around, then grabbed him by the jaw with his left hand.

"And it doesn't matter to me in the least," Rai snarled close to Ryusei's face. "What does it matter if you could've taken the shot or not? I don't give a damn about the R-1's armor or your skills at dodging, what matters is... That you're safe." He pulled away and let his hand fall, and his expression softened as well, turning into something - what was it, worried? "It's not about your mech, and it's not about showing off. I just needed to..." He trailed off, appearing bothered.

Ryusei blinked and tilted his head as he studied the other man. It was unusual to see Rai show this much feeling, Ryusei had to admit he had been in a lot of situations where Rai could've been showing a lot more than this, including instances of the older man being in his room late at night... He frowned as he caught himself; now was not the time to be thinking about that. "You just. What?" He muttered, defeated.

"Wanted to protect you," Rai finished. There was a gentle look in his eyes for a fleeting moment before his expression went serious again. "And if you're not man enough for that," he continued with his usual cool tone of voice. "That is hardly my fault."

"Bastard," Ryusei mumbled, although there was no anger in his words anymore. How could he be angry when Rai was being... Whatever the hell was he being, Ryusei didn't know. It mattered, somehow, and it frustrated him that he didn't know why it mattered so much. "You, oh screw you, I'm gonna," he grabbed Rai by the collar and shifted their positions, spinning them around so that his teammate ended up being the one against the Gespenst's foot. "Why me anyway? I'll get you, you..."

At that point Ryusei couldn't figure what else he was supposed to say, and he just settled to holding his teammate against the Gespenst. "You..." He mumbled then stared at the older pilot for a second before kissing him. Rai's eyes widened but he didn't object, although the blond did glance around the area, worried that somebody saw them. He gave in after a moment as he couldn't see much, and since he couldn't hear anyone being in the immediate vicinity of the Gespenst, and he just let the younger man do whatever.

What Rai didn't stop to think about was that he might have wanted to think that one over more carefully, since it was his rather unpredictable teammate taking the lead. Ryusei broke the kiss then peeked to the hangar area, quickly checking if anyone was nearby. The hangar looked empty, and the brown-haired pilot mumbled something and started removing the armor bits of his partner's pilot suit. This had to be the worst idea ever, but after everything earlier, Ryusei had just decided he needed to do something to get himself to relax before that inevitable post-battle meeting.

"What are you doing?" Rai asked, frowning a little. He wasn't really objecting, but he had no clue what his partner had gotten into his head this time. He sighed; the battle before had been bad enough, and now the argument had drained him of any energy to resist. "Ryusei," he said with a soft voice. "If you want to talk about this, we can do that after the meeting. Come to my room, I can..." That was about as far as he got, because by then Ryusei had managed to rid the blond of the armor and was undoing the front of Rai's suit. "Ryusei!?"

"Damn it would you shut up for once, just let me," the younger pilot muttered. He got the suit open and grinned at his teammate, then dropped to his knees. He slipped his left hand into the suit and stroked over the front of Rai's underwear while at the same time pressing his right hand between the blond's legs, caressing him through the pilot suit. A moment was quite enough to get the desired reaction out of the older pilot, and Ryusei pulled the half-erect organ outside the suit and took the tip inside his mouth after pushing Rai's underwear out of the way.

There was another, more expected reaction which came a second later. Rai grabbed a hold of the messy brown hair and stared at his partner with a surprised expression mixed with a frown on his face. "Ryusei. What the hell are you doing?" He asked in a demanding tone of voice, even if the answer was quite obvious. He glanced around, feeling paranoid, then looked at his teammate again. "We're on duty, Ryusei, are you out of your mind?! Major Ingram's expecting us to show up into the meeting in-" The attempt to pull the younger man away was half-hearted at best, and Ryusei ignored his partner's fingers tugging his hair as he took more of the length into his mouth and sucked on it carefully.

"Damn it, we're on duty," Rai repeated, not sure if it was to convince himself or Ryusei about the fact. "We can't do this here." He stopped there and slapped his left hand over his mouth to keep himself quiet. What he was saying was right, and they couldn't do it there, but he lacked the strength to push the younger man away. Or perhaps it was that he had the strength, but he lacked the willpower to do so?

The younger pilot wrapped his right arm around Rai's waist to keep him still and continued on the task, taking more of the organ into his mouth and sucking on it. The only problem with doing this was he couldn't say anything about the matter, and he could only hope Rai wasn't trying to hold back. Ryusei suddenly found himself realizing the truth in the older pilot's words, and he feared they would get caught. He couldn't admit that Rai was right, though, and he couldn't exactly stop - not when he had his always cool partner in such a humiliating position. Besides, all this excited him on some strange level.

"Ryusei," Rai whispered as he made another weak attempt to push the younger pilot away, not that there had been much effort in it and instead he ended up taking a better hold of the younger man's hair and pulling Ryusei closer. He closed his eyes and sincerely hoped nobody walked into the hangar right now, because if they got caught, they would be in serious trouble. Ryusei at least seemed to agree, and his partner appeared to be determined to get it over as soon as possible.

Of course, the fact that they needed to be quick about it seemed to make everything slow and like it was taking forever. Ryusei felt his heart beating fast and he tried to hurry up, afraid that they didn't have more than half a minute left, but he wasn't about to stop when he had his partner in this position. Rai was leaning his back against the Gespenst's foot with his left hand pressed tight over his mouth to make sure no sound gave them away. For a moment there was complete silence in the hangar, only broken by air conditioning devices somewhere further away, although the quiet sounds that Ryusei ended up making sounded so loud that he was sure anyone walking close to them would hear.

He glanced up at the older pilot and noticed Rai had closed his eyes. It made the blond look quite desirable, but Ryusei pushed away the urge to start doing anything beyond what he was currently doing as they were at high enough risk already. He could get whatever else he wanted after that cursed meeting which they were probably late from already, and Rai sure owed him one after this.

Another ten seconds passed, feeling more like minutes, and Ryusei slipped the fingers of his left hand between his partner's legs and stroked gently but firmly, hoping he could get Rai to react more. He got a muffled sound out of the older pilot and a half-annoyed half-surprised glare, but it was having the desired effect. Rai strained under his caresses and failed to look annoyed, and Ryusei was sure he felt the older man shaking.

Rai's hand fell as he had to let go for a moment to be able to breathe, but his breathing turned into heavy panting and he silenced himself again, afraid of the sound he made. Ryusei took as much of the length into his mouth as he could, and his partner pulled his hair hard, half-forcing him to continue and half trying to pull him away. This caused the younger pilot to pull away for a second to catch his breath before he continued, picking up his pace as much as he could to get it over with.

It didn't take him long - a moment later Rai tensed, leaning heavily against the metal surface behind his back. "Ghh, Ryu...sei..." He muttered against his glove then slumped back, hitting his head slightly against the Gespenst's foot but he wasn't about to care as he came. Ryusei almost pulled away then realized that they had nothing to clean the mess with, so he stayed where he was for a few more seconds before finally moving away and swallowing.

"You owe me one," he said cheerfully as he wiped his mouth with the back of his glove and looked up at Rai. The older pilot looked somehow adorable at the moment, and Ryusei got up and was about to comment on the matter when they both froze at the call of a very familiar voice.

"Ryusei? Rai. You're late," Ingram called from somewhere. The voice didn't come from too far away and there was a set of footsteps echoing in the hangar, and the two pilots looked at each other for a split second before Rai started to get his suit in order. He got it more or less done and grabbed his helmet and armor bits while Ryusei looked around for his own helmet, only realizing it wasn't there as he stepped out from behind the Gespenst and saw as Major Ingram picked it up from where it lay.

Rai stepped into view as well, pulling off his casual calm expression quite well considering the circumstances. "What are you two still doing here?" Ingram asked. "I wanted you in the meeting five minutes ago. No excuses," he added as Ryusei opened his mouth to come up with something. Ingram tossed the helmet to him and he caught it. "Get going. Now."

"Yes sir," Rai replied and waited a moment for Ryusei to join him before making past their commanding officer. "I," he continued, lowering his voice so only Ryusei heard. "I suppose I better keep that offer about inviting you to my room after the meeting."

"You better," Ryusei said with a grin as they made it out of the hangar. He could only feel relieved they had not been caught, not properly at least.

Behind them, Ingram Prisken looked after the two and smirked.

Author's notes:

SRW porn, I blame it on MarsDragon as always. It's also clear we like Rai/Ryusei pairing or something since I write this so much. Ingram is all keikaku doori, but that's Ingram.

- Lady Harken (July 2009)