Title: The Grey Agency, chapter five: Mattresses and Magic
Author: Icka! M. Chif
Rating: Mature-ish for frank discussion of kink.
Word Count: 1,552
Summary: Kaito agreed whole heartily with Saguru's bit off curse as the blond tugged on the mattress they were trying to haul up to the first floor.

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Culture Note: House levels listed in UK order instead of American. So it's 'Ground Floor, First Floor, Second Floor' instead of 'First Floor, Second Floor and Third Floor'

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"Dammit..." Kaito agreed whole heartily with Saguru's bit off curse as the blond tugged on the mattress they were trying to haul up to the first floor. The mattress was taking gleeful vengeance in attempting to dissuade them by being as difficult as possible.

"I think it's stuck on something." Kaito sighed, looking at the banister that ran along the inner wall of the stairs. He debated removing the handrail, he was was going to have to eventually to strip and re-varnish the wood, but decided at this point it wasn't worth the effort. They only had a few more steps to go before wrangling it through the doorway into the living quarters.

The re-supporting the surprisingly few weakened structural areas was done, as was the roofing, the building was as solid as it was going to get. Replacing the plumbing was next on the list, but none of that really affected the bedroom on the first floor. And Great-Aunt Rose's original huge antique bed-frame was still there just waiting to be used, it just needed a mattress.

And once they got the mattress replaced, Kaito could partially move in, saving him from having to commute home everyday. The water wasn't on here yet, but having the option of crashing here over night was a welcome one. Especially with summer now in full force, the humid heat draining all his energy as soon as he stepped outside. Not that it was much cooler inside, but enough to make a difference.

Saguru muttered something darkly --in German, from the guttural sound of it-- and kicked the mattress. It shifted slightly, but remained stubbornly stuck. Kaito sighed, leaning against the soft mass as he fanned himself with his hat. Time for a mini break.

"Couldn't you teleport it up there?" Saguru asked, shoving his glasses up on his nose from where they had slid down. "Pull out a cape or something, swish, poof, it's gone?"

Kaito shot Saguru a dirty look. "Maybe when it was still on the ground floor, but not now." Magic couldn't solve all their problems.

Saguru leaned against the mattress as well, looking slightly confused. "Why not?"

"Because I thought about it." Kaito turned sideways, draping an arm across the mattress' cooler fabric. "Now it won't work."

"... I don't get it."

"It's like... like... catching a ball." Kaito waved a hand around and suddenly there was a soft squishy red ball in his hand. "If you concentrate on catching a ball, focus on calculating the ball's air speed, trajectory, velocity and then on which limbs you need to move to get you in the optimum place, the muscles that need to be flexed to get those limbs to the correct place, how to place your fingers so they don't get damaged, what happens?"

Saguru paused, thinking about it. There was a thoughtful expression on his face as he pondered Kaito's words, not just the picture that he had painted, but what he was trying to convey with them. Saguru didn't understand how Kaito did magic, he was a person of science. Magic took Saguru's scientific rules and turned them on its ear. And Kaito had a hard time explaining how he did it, --it was sort of like trying to describe colours to a blind person-- so discussions on Kaito's abilities were generally serious ones, the two of them fumbling around trying to make the pieces fit.

-Bit like the rest of their life, really.

And Kaito privately liked the thoughtful look Saguru got when they were talking by themselves. The blond's lower lip jutted out just slightly when he concentrated, almost a pout. One of these days he was going to distract the detective by nibbling on it or something.

But not while there was half a flight of stairs and a mattress between them.

"You overcompensate." Saguru finally concluded. "Caught up in the little details. And you don't catch the ball."

"And if you don't think about out? Catch." Kaito tossed the ball at Saguru. Without thinking, the blond reached a hand up and open, the ball smacking into his palm.

"You react instinctively." Saguru stated, smiling slightly. "Bypass the conscious level. And catch the ball."

"You got it." Kaito grinned back. "If I tried to now, now that I've consciously thought about it, we'd probably get one of two responses. One, nothing would happen. Two, the mattress -would- disappear, but-"

"-It wouldn't go where you wanted it to go." Saguru nodded, his eyes distant as he pondered the possibilities. "It'd end up on the roof-"

"-Or another country or dimension or something." Kaito grinned. "Accidentally squishing someone with a mattress falling from the sky would probably play havoc with my karmic debt."

The blond chuckled in return. It was a fairly funny mental picture. A little super-deformed character with huge panicked eyes looking up at the sky, arms flapping as a mattress appeared out of no where and flattened them.

Kaito patted the mattress. "Maybe if it'd struck me while we were on the ground floor that it needed to be 'moved' upstairs and I'd done it without thinking then, it would have worked. But even then with something this size, I'd probably need a nap after."

"The energy to displace that much mass has to come from somewhere after all." Saguru agreed. The physics law of the conversation of energy remained stable at least. Although Kaito still was uncertain -where- the energy came from, it was from himself or if he was a channel for the energy, drawing it from the environment around them, like Saguru once suggested.

"But still." Saguru sighed, leaning against the mattress. "It would have been easier."

"Tell ya what." Kaito smirked back. "As soon as we get this thing on the bed, I'll use the energy I didn't use teleporting it to tie you down and screw -you- through the mattress."

He'd meant it as a joke. Just something to distract Saguru from the heavy lifting and moving they were doing. But the dark-eyed look he got in return made his mouth go dry from pure lust.

Kaito had to force himself to swallow a few times, to get the moisture back in his mouth again as he gaped. "Saguru?"

Saguru turned faintly pink as he turned his head slightly, looking at the wall instead of Kaito. "It is -not- that I enjoy getting caught and tied up and playing the blond damsel in distress." The blond finally muttered. He was still embarrassed about getting grabbed as Kaitou-bait on their trip. "But sometimes I do not want to be the one in control of everything."

Between Saguru's father's sudden insistence on knowing every aspect of Saguru's life, who he was associating with and why, the pressure of being shoved into the higher societies' --and thus to some extent, the gossip rags-- limelight as a potential new Viscount and random people tracking him down to tell him sob stories in an effort to gain attention or money, Saguru was under quite a bit of stress at the moment.

Which was why Saguru was spending as much time as possible here lately, despite the fact that there really wasn't much else for him to do other than keep Kaito company and occasionally move heavy stuff. Saguru wasn't hiding precisely, it was more a matter of taking the opportunity to regroup his wits before the next barrage.

"Okay." Kaito said, finally getting his brain out of his pants long enough to think this out. He still had some silk scarves on him that he could tie loops into the ends of, tie the other end the bed-frame. The frame certainly was sturdy enough to withstand some pressure on it. And if Kaito made the loops big enough, they would still hold Saguru, but the blond would be able to slip his hands free if he wanted or needed to.

Sometimes the illusion of something was preferable over the reality. Much safer in this case, anyway.

Saguru blinked owlishly at him, as if he wasn't quite sure if he'd heard Kaito correctly, his cheeks still faintly pink from embarrassment. "Okay?" He echoed hesitantly.

Kaito thought about Saguru, all that golden skin spread out on the bed, just begging to be caressed, petted and tasted. To see what kind of sounds he could get Saguru would make, discover what new sweet spots would drive the blond crazy.

Kaito shrugged in return. "Okay." He didn't have a problem with it if Saguru didn't. They hadn't quite gotten that far in their physical relationship yet, but he wasn't adverse to the idea. Hell, he'd be happy if all they did was roll around on the bed and neck a bit without clothes once they got upstairs, just as long as he got to spend some quality time with his boyfriend.

Not that just hanging out and moving furniture wasn't quality time, but there were was 'quality time' and 'Quality Time'.

Saguru grinned in return, a low predatory smile that warmed Kaito's belly and made it do somersaults. In a very good way. Oh, yeah.

"Come on." Saguru pulled on the mattress with a lot more enthusiasm than he had a few minutes ago. "What are you waiting for? Let's get this upstairs!"

+ Fin +