Solitary Men

by Seishuku Skuld (skuldchan@gmail.com)

Series: Dynasty Warriors/Three Kingdoms

Pairing: Cao Cao/Xiahou Dun

Warnings: yaoi lemon

Date: December 2005

Author’s Note: For those who are unfamiliar with the style of Ancient Chinese names, there is a "ming" (name) and a "zi" (style name). A style name is the equivalent of a nickname, which all your close friends call you. A "ming" is very formal, and isn't usually used in casual situations. Nowadays the "ming" and the "zi" are the same thing, but there are some very traditional families who still give their children two separate names (my father has both a "ming" and a "zi," for example). "Zi" are also traditionally only given to men.

Cao Cao's style name is "Meng De" and Xiahou Dun's style name is "Yuan Rang."

*~*~*~*~*

The moon was still hanging over the sky when Xiahou Dun woke, seemingly for no reason at all save for a lingering feeling of disquiet. Shafts of silver light slipped into the room from the cracks in the window. The fall was beginning and summer was fading, taking with it the comfortable warmth of the night. Xiahou Dun shivered as he sat up, despite the heat of the body sharing his bed. The blanket slipped down to his lap and pooled around his hips as he gazed at his cousin the dim light. It would be a few hours yet until morning when Cao Cao would leave wordlessly, picking his clothes up from the floor and putting them on, and then walking out his door as if nothing had transpired the previous night, or the countless nights before that.

During the day Cao Cao would go about his business--his political maneuvering with the last remnants of what had once been the Han--raiding through the ashes of a fallen kingdom in order to build a new one. Xiahou Dun had no mind for the subtlety involved in court politics--he was a straightforward, honest sort of man though few would have been able to tell by his appearance.

Cao Cao turned in his sleep just as Xiahou Dun had reached a hand to brush a stray lock of hair from his cousin's forehead, and suddenly found himself staring into a pair of dark eyes, dully reflecting the moonlight filtering into the room. Surprised, Xiahou Dun jerked his hand back with a start and for a moment his cousin regarded him with suspicion. Xiahou Dun gazed back silently, and the sudden spark of emotion within Cao Cao faded to something more familiar.

Wordlessly Xiahou Dun bent down and Cao Cao shifted closer to his cousin, their lips meeting in a slow kiss. They touched gently and languidly, tongues tracing lazy curves across each others mouths, the sharp hairs of their moustaches tickling their lips. Xiahou Dun opened first and let Cao Cao draw him down, one hand coming up to wrap about the back of his neck, the weight bringing the two of them closer together. They lay for many moments in soft caresses and quiet, hungry kisses before Xiahou Dun moved down, shifting himself on the bed and pulling the covers off Cao Cao. His cousin's skin prickled against the chill of the nascent autumn air, but he did not complain as Xiahou Dun ran his warm tongue against Cao Cao's rapidly hardening shaft.

From there the silence was broken with Cao Cao's deep voice rumbling his name.

"Yuan Rang..." It rolled off his tongue and lingered in the space between them, dissipating quickly as it was followed by another moan, this one more throaty, more needy. Cao Cao had already come once that night, but that did not seem to quell his desire any as he reached down, wrapping slender fingers in Xiahou Dun's hair, digging into scalp as he grabbed a handful of long raven threads, enjoying the soft feeling of it between his fingers.

Xiahou Dun merely moaned in his reponse, one hand wrapped about the base of Cao Cao's erection, the other tugging jerky strokes around his own. Cao Cao stopped him before they both came. Cao Cao sat up and Xiahou Dun lifted his head, one line of saliva running from his mouth to Cao Cao's cock. A rare smile graced Cao Cao's face as he brought a hand to his cousin's chin, caressing the long hairs there, surprisingly smooth and soft. There passed between them only a look before Xiahou Dun went back down on his knees as Cao Cao positioned himself behind his ass, rubbing his arousal in his counsin's cleft.

Xiahou Dun grunted in anticipation as he shifted uncomfortably. "Meng De," he said quietly so as not to shatter the moment between them, "hurry up." But Cao Cao took his sweet time, sucking on his fingers and inserting them into Xiahou Dun, stretching him before entering him in one short, confident stroke. Cao Cao buried himself to the hilt and didn't bother to pause, didn't let his cousin adjust before he began his rhythm, pulling out quickly and slamming back in harder, sending shudders throughout all of Xiahou Dun's body, quivers that ended in a resounding groan coming from somewhere deep inside his chest, rattling the very breath from him.

The wooden bed squeaked a little every time they moved, another sound that added to the quake of their joining bodies. Neither of them remembered how many times they'd used this bed, they'd long since stopped counting. Their breathing filled the room, harsh and desperate as they found in each other what they could find in no other--bonds of trust, a loyalty that could not be broken. Cao Cao was one of few men who understood his solitary cousin, who could see beyond the stoic expression and the eyepatch to unearth something no one else had bothered to even try to discover.

It ended all too soon for Xiahou Dun, and he came with one hand around his own arousal, the other clutching the bed sheets, his ass in the air, his hips in Cao Cao's hands which held him steady as he breathed out a long sigh, his cheek pressed to the bed, body still rocking weakly with Cao Cao's motions as he waited for the other man to finish. Cao Cao came long moments after, his entirely body tensing from his orgasm before slowly folding around his cousin's form, pressing his cheek against Xiahou Dun's shoulder as they both rested.

Shortly before sunrise and after Xiahou Dun had fallen asleep, Cao Cao dressed and headed back to his courtyard of the palace, closing the door softly behind him. It was early morning when Xiahou Dun awoke again, to the warm smells of breakfast being laid out in the adjacent room. The food came with a small note, bearing a poem Cao Cao had apparently scribbled out in the early morning hours. Xiahou Dun admired his cousin's way with words, at how effortlessly he seemed to be able to assemble, yet another thing that he showed little talent for himself. Xiahou Dun took a meatbun off a porcelain plate and bit into it thoughtfully, the morning's earlier unease dissipating entirely as the sun shone through a cluster of grey clouds and revealed to him just a shadow of greater things to come.

end