No longer having a use for them, Maaya released Haku and Matt. He walked straight across the pool, the water turning to stone beneath his feet. Divya watched him approach, her small, plump lips having not yet decided whether to curve up in a smile or slip into a frown. Her eyes moved over his body and a tiny crease below her bindi showed up on her flawlessly smooth brow. Maybe he seemed unusual to her, dressed in modern clothing that seemed rather dated compared to her own timeless yet ancient appearance.
Maaya kneeled before her, the silence between them unbroken. He moved to take her hand and she pulled it away. “Divya,” he murmured.
The crease in her brow disappeared. She brought her fingertips to the side of his face and caressed the golden skin. A smile formed on her lips. “My love.”
“My priestess, my Guardian.” Maaya straightened and offered her his hand. “My Goddess.”
Divya closed her fingers around his and stepped toward his body. The glow that remained on her skin brightened as they drew into an embrace. The light swallowed them, burning in its fiery intensity. Then it was gone, and so were Maaya and Divya.
“Wow.” Matt let out a puff of air he’d been holding onto without noticing.
“Wow,” Haku repeated.
“Wow.” Rick plopped down between them. Matt and Haku both looked his way. Rick kept pressing the button on his camera, though the lens had snapped off and the piece with the flash was who knew where. The guy was on auto-pilot, face locked in an expression that was part shock, part terror, and part “here I come, Pulitzer Prize!” Haku reached over and eased the battered camera from Rick’s shaky hand.
“Does someone have a pocket knife or something? These ropes are chaffing,” Adler called out to them. “Hello? Boys?”
Epilogue
The new Widow Dannings’s money and influence guaranteed that the matter was kept as quiet as possible. When the campus police realized the artifacts had been stolen by Pearce Dannings, their silence was purchased with a six figure donation to the university. The newspapers reported her husband’s untimely demise as the result of a freak accident while exploring an uncharted island in the South Pacific. Anyone who actually knew the man realized the BS about Dannings having been an altruistic globe-trotting explorer was just that, but no one openly questioned it. Except for Rick, who devoted the front page of the student paper to what really happened that night.
Professor Beaglehole wanted Matt, Haku, and Adler drummed out of Santa Monica State ‑‑ out of every university in California for that matter ‑‑ but their newfound friend and self-appointed “team member” Rick was not without resources of his own. In fact, he was loaded and connected to a multimillion dollar educational foundation and trust fund. While the presiding school officials yawned their way through most the last BOR meeting of the semester, Rick already had signed enough money to over to the paranormal psychology program to make the matter moot.
“No one is happier than I am that Adler’s program is funded for the next ten years,” Haku said as he helped Matt unpack some state-of-the-art equipment in their newly opened lab. “But really, this thing Rick is working on with that cable network ‑‑ Ghost Web Live…” Haku stopped brushing aside foam packing peanuts and sighed. “Is this really something we want to get involved with? We’re scientists, Matt. Not sitcom stars.”
Matt beamed one of those smiles that never failed to sweep Haku’s irritation away. “We’re bringing science to the people. Hell, we’ll be helping people who are experiencing paranormal activity that disrupts their lives!”
“I suppose so.”
“I know so,” Matt said with a huge grin.
“You’re impossible.” Haku laughed and tossed a fistful of the packing peanuts at Matt.
“‘Impossible to resist,’ you mean.” Matt set their new headspace autosampler on the counter and rested his elbow on top of the boxy metal surface. He wiggled his eyebrows playfully. “We should really make sure these lab tables are strong enough for all this expensive new equipment.”
“I see what you mean.” Haku stroked his chin and nodded gravely. “We don’t know if they can support all that weight. What if they collapsed?”
“We’d lose everything.” Matt moved next to Haku and slipped an arm around his waist.
“That’s too big a risk to take without testing the tables first.” Haku pressed close, feeling the bulge at the front of Matt’s pants nudge against his abdomen.
Cupping Haku’s ass, Matt lifted him to sit on the edge of the table. “You read my mind, Haku-chan.” Matt kissed Haku on the mouth, his full lower lip gliding along the skin in a soft caress. He rubbed Haku’s hips, then stroked his hands down to the inside of Haku’s thighs, encouraging them to part.
Haku whimpered against Matt’s lips. He grabbed the back of his lover’s shirt, feeling the muscles in the broad shoulders underneath flex. Matt’s kisses wandered down Haku’s neck where he sucked on the exposed skin at the unbuttoned collar. He slowly worked open the next button on the shirt, taking forever to get an inch more of skin on Haku’s chest exposed.
“Forget the shirt,” Haku panted. “It’s these jeans that are starting to kill me.” His cock pulsed against the tight zipper, eager to get out into Matt’s hand or mouth or both.
“Oh.” Matt’s gaze dropped down. His eyes widened at the size of the erection visible under the indigo denim. “Ooohhhhhhh.”
“Don’t just gawk at it, man.” Haku grabbed the front of Matt’s T-shirt. “Do something about it!”
“Mr. Nishikawa? Mr. Gavin?” A woman knocked at the lab door.
Matt jerked away and shoved an empty box into Haku’s lap. At the last moment he noticed his own erection and dove for the nearest empty box. Packing peanuts flew into the air in a shower of foam bits.
The woman stepped into the room, a backpack hanging from her shoulder and some papers in hand. Two other students followed her in, and the group weaved through the tables to the front of the room.
“Hi,” Haku squeaked. He cleared his throat and tried again. “What can we, uh, do for you?”
“Since the semester’s over and we all passed, we know it’s not really important, but…” The woman held out the papers in her hand to Haku. “We were just curious about the grading system you used for the midterm.”
Haku made sure he had a good grip on the box with one hand before taking the paper.
“What does ‘O’ mean?” the student asked, her friends nodding.
Sure enough, a large, wobbly “O” was scrawled across the top of the page. Puzzled, Haku tried to figure out why he would write something like that. He had no memory at all of working on those midterms. But he had a really great memory of being worked on top of those exams, with Matt’s cock buried nice and deep in his ass…
“Mr. Nishikawa? You okay?” The woman blinked at him. A heated blush of pure mortification spread across Haku’s cheeks.
Matt interrupted with a huge grin plastered across his face, a shoebox-sized carton in front of his crotch. “It means you guys did ‘O’rgasmically good on your exams.”
The girls stared at them, then exchanged glances with each other. One of students shrugged. “You guys are really into being TAs, huh?”
“I’m telling you ‑‑ it’s an experience every time we grade something.” Matt nodded.
“Okay.” The girl snatched her exam back from Haku, and the group turned to leave.
“Have a nice summer.” Matt waved, then remembered about keeping the box in place and dropped his hand. As soon as the girls left, he dropped the box and slumped back against the counter, letting out a puff of air.
“‘Orgasmically good?’” Haku punched him on the arm.
“It’s the best I could think of.” Matt started to giggle.
Groaning, Haku tossed the empty box aside. “It almost makes sense, if you phrase it that way.” Matt burst out laughing, and Haku joined in. He leaned back on his hands and watched the way the afternoon sunlight from the windows picked up th
e highlights in Matt’s hair and shimmered in his crystal blue eyes. Haku’s laughter faded into a sigh, but his smile widened. “Seriously.” Haku poked him in the shoulder. “We’ve still got a problem, though.”
“Beetlemiser?” Matt grinned and waved it off. “There’s nothing he can do now. He’ll have to accept our orgasmic grading system or risk getting an overall ‘S’ rating, for shrinkage.”
“No, not Beaglehole.” Haku chuckled. He inched along the counter until his hip touched Matt’s. “We need to figure out how we’re going to get all my stuff to your place.”
It took a second for Matt to register Haku’s words. “You mean…?”
Haku looked down at the floor, his bangs falling into his eyes. “That is, if you still want me to move in,” he said.
“Are you kidding me?” Matt felt that stupid-happy grin spread across his face. He touched Haku’s cheek, encouraging his lover to look up. “I don’t want to spend another day or night living without you.”
Barbara Sheridan & Anne Cain
Barb and Anne started writing yaoi (m/m) fiction together in fall of 2005, and have been having a blast ever since. Both authors have a soft spot for history, vampire lore, and Japanese rock groups. Barb and Anne are also fascinated with Asian culture and mythology, from Chinese legends about chiang shih to Japanese samurai movies, anime and pop culture. They love their stories and characters and are always thrilled to know others enjoy them as well.
You can learn more at their website http://www.dragonsdisciple.com and look into their individual endeavors at Anne's DeviantArt Portfolio http://annecain.deviantart.com/ and Barb's website. http://www.barbarasheridan.net
For updates on new writing projects join them at their newsgroup. Sign up at http://groups.yahoo.com/group/dragonsdisciple/
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