astrangestorm: (jun)
[personal profile] astrangestorm
Title: Just Keeps Rolling, He Keeps Rolling Along
Rating: NC-17
Characters/Pairings: Matsumoto Jun/Sakurai Sho
Summary: “Oh? So you were counting cards and playing your head games with my dealers for entertainment only?”
Notes/Warnings: FML this was supposed to be a drabble. Anyhow, [livejournal.com profile] katmillia wanted Sho/Jun set in the universe she created where Nino and Kame are con men on riverboats in late 19th century America. You can find that here at her journal (also NC-17). This ended up being a companion piece to her story, although I don't think you need to know hers to understand this (although I think hers is pretty damn hot, yo). KATY. I BLAME YOU.



So maybe his card counting was a little rusty, Jun mused as the burly men deposited him on the floor of the cabin at the rear of the steamboat. He would have had a royal flush, too, but it just wasn’t his night. Or else the house itself was full of cheats. Either way, he was in trouble.

“Shouldn’t we just chuck him in the river, boss man?” one of the men asked, giving Jun a sharp kick in the ribs as the paddle wheel creaked its way along.

The boss man looked up from his desk where he was counting piles of greenbacks. He didn’t even look surprised to see him. What a shame. “You can leave him.”

“But boss man, he was counting…”

Sho stood and checked his pocket watch. “I know what he was doing here. I said you can leave him. Go back and keep an eye out. I don’t want anyone else trying to cheat me tonight.”

The thugs exchanged a glance and departed, shutting the owner’s door. Sho sat back down in his chair, slipping his watch into his pocket. Jun knew the man’s watch alone could probably pay for a few hundred acres of land out west.

It wasn’t Jun’s first time aboard the Keio Queen. The last time, Sho hadn’t toughened up yet, and Jun had gotten away with plenty. Enough to buy himself a legitimate ticket to board this time instead of having to smuggle himself on with the band. Sho’s estate had gone up in flames during the war, but his fortune had been left intact. Instead of rebuilding, he took to the river, ferrying passengers and freight legitimately. The gaming was just an added bonus for passengers and a fine target for confidence men like Jun.

Although he now found himself on the floor of Sho’s cabin with the wind kicked out of him and his wallet empty, so there wasn’t much confidence left.

Sho was scribbling in his account ledgers. “What am I to do with you?”

He sat up, wincing. Nothing broken, but there’d be a bruise for sure. There was the slightest quirk to Sho’s lips, one Jun hadn’t seen since they were growing up. Things hadn’t been much different then – Sho with his big plans for the future, Jun working for Sho’s father just to keep food in his belly.

“I don’t know. Your rather menacing looking acquaintances want to feed me to the gators.”

Sho snorted. “Too far north for gators.” He tapped his pen against the ledger and frowned. “Be glad you decided to board and steal from me in Memphis.”

“I’m not stealing from you,” Jun complained.

Sho looked up. “Oh? So you were counting cards and playing your head games with my dealers for entertainment only?”

Jun got to his feet, shuffling across Sho’s fancy pants rug to perch on the side of his desk. “That gentleman from Cape Girardeau’s the real crook. I was fixing to take some of his earnings. Wasn’t your money I was after.”

The ledger closed, and Sho picked up his piles of cash that he’d counted and crouched down by his safe. It wouldn’t be so hard to take the paper weight from the desk and brain him, abscond with the money. If it was anyone else, Jun wouldn’t think twice.

“Wasn’t my money you were after this time,” Sho corrected him, adding the stacks of bills to the safe and slamming it shut.

Jun sighed. He’d only taken from Sho last time on account of desperation. “Thought it would be kind of rude, on account of our long and cherished friendship.”

“Do you listen to the words you say?” Sho asked, moving to stand in front of him. “What kind of friend have you been to me? Tried to give you employment here, you got bored. Tried to find work for you on one of my high rollers’ estates, you say you’re done with farm work. Does swindling really make you happy?”

He snorted. Sho liked to lecture – he’d liked to lecture since they were young. Especially when he was taking a break from his busy day reading some philosophy books, and Jun was in between weeding the tomato patch and baling hay. Sho had never known hardship, had never known what it was like to sleep on a dirt floor or without some nice cotton pajamas.

“I don’t want your handouts, and I never have. I want something I can control. Something I can do on my own terms. We can’t all be born into wealth, can we? We have to find a way to get by if we don’t have ourselves a nice paddle steamer.”

Sho came dangerously close. Jun could smell the aftershave on the man’s clean, wealthy skin. “So robbing folks blind is control? Getting close to people who earned their money the right way and stealing it from them is who you are now?”

He wasn’t the only one who swindled along the Mississippi. He was just the only one who couldn’t bear to see the disappointment in Sho’s face about it. “Why don’t you just call your boys back? If you’ve got time to judge who I am, you’ve got time to toss me off your boat.”

Sho laughed. “And watch you come back in a few months to try and rob me again with no remorse at all? Because your friend Sho’s an easy mark when you’re the one running the game?”

“I didn’t steal from you, Sho, and I never will again.” He caught Sho’s hand, his fingers smooth as they’d always been. “That’s a promise, for all it’s worth.”

Jun was almost surprised when Sho squeezed his hand back, fingers of his other hand moving to brush some hair away from Jun’s forehead. “Wish I could believe you.”

No matter how much Sho’s arrogance angered him and no matter how much Jun’s pride forbid it, it was hard to stay disgruntled with Sho for very long. They were different people, always had been and would be, but they had needs that were all too similar.

He missed him. Missed him every day his cons took him further and further away from the riverbank. He leaned forward, wanting to replace memory with reality, but Sho turned away, leaving Jun’s mouth to just graze the side of his face. “What?” he asked, struggling to breathe.

The other man let his fingers go, instead settling a hand on each of Jun’s thighs. “As long as you’re here, I have a proposition for you. A way for you to make me trust you again, as it were.”

He wanted to move off the desk and jump into the muddy river himself, but Sho’s hands and voice were keeping him in place. The last thing he needed was another offer to work on board Sho’s boat. There was no thrill in tossing more wood in to keep the steam engine running, no joy in moving cargo from the hold onto a dock. But Sho’s proximity was always a dangerous thing. He put his hands over Sho’s, forced them up higher, warmth stirring through him from the contact.

“You never have to proposition me for this,” Jun whispered. “This has always been a free service.”

Sho shook his head, probably remembering the hours passed under the willow tree on his father’s estate, hiding in the dark. He moaned when Jun finally claimed his mouth, reaching for the shiny buttons that kept his suit jacket together. “Not what I was asking,” Sho protested. “A job. I have a job for you.”

“I’m listening,” Jun insisted, wincing when Sho’s hands slid under his shirt where his ribs were still tender from his rough treatment.

“You’re not listening,” Sho complained, their lips parting with a noisy pop.

“I am,” he replied with a laugh, trying to tug Sho’s mouth back to his.

“There’s a friend, runs up the Ohio from time to time,” Sho tried explaining, gasping when Jun’s hand moved between them to palm him through his linen trousers. “Jun…”

“I said I’m listening.”

He moved his hands back up, encouraging Sho to divest himself of the jacket, already fumbling with the buttons of Sho’s waistcoat. The more wealth a man had, the more elaborate his wardrobe, Jun thought in irritation.

Sho backed away, running a hand through his hair. He licked his lips, dabbing his thumb to the corner of his mouth. “Bit me already.”

Jun listened to the paddle wheel turn, listened to the fiddlers out on the deck below, listened to the ticking of the fancy clock. Sho could have proposed they ride the Keio Queen to Siam, and Jun would have agreed. His urge to be independent, to make his own way by any means necessary – it was still not enough to stamp out the urge to hear his childhood friend cry his name when their bodies went from two to one. This…this was why he needed to stop swindling up and down the great river. This was why he needed to stop letting the lights of the Keio Queen entice him from the shore.

His friend draped his coat over a small couch, turning the lock on the cabin door. “As I said, I have a friend who runs up and down the Ohio. Two particular troublemakers have been thieving regularly from his casino, a pair of card counters. Your types.”

Jun nodded, trying to ignore the burning need between his legs. “My types?”

Thankfully, Sho returned, his elegant fingers undoing the buttons of his waistcoat far more successfully than in Jun’s attempt. Jun’s fingers replaced Sho’s then, working on the man’s shirt buttons. Sho’s breath was at his ear, more intoxicating than any stack of money or fancy cigar his swindling could earn him. “Ninomiya. Kamenashi. They’re sharp. You bring them here, say you need their help to swindle me.”

He liked where Sho’s mind was going. He also liked where Sho’s hands were going, reaching for the buttons of Jun’s trousers. He wondered if Sho would get to divulge his entire proposal before they gave in to one another. “Con the cons?” Jun asked.

“So long as you bring them here, I’ll have them arrested. They won’t be bothering my friend again.” Sho tugged Jun by the collar of his shirt, smiling. “You’ll have your usual fun. You’ll pull your little tricks and my friend will pay you handsomely.”

He had to admit that it was an enticing offer. Sho would give him the freedom to track the other swindlers down his own way. He could come up with a handful of lies and a handful of truths to get the men on board the Keio Queen. There was no honor among his types, and this bargain wouldn’t put him in Sho’s debt either.

“I’ll keep your most generous offer in mind,” he answered, allowing Sho to turn him around to face the man’s desk. There were fingers tugging at his trousers now, and he could feel Sho’s insistent erection at his backside. “Mind the ribs!”

“Man was just doing his job,” Sho pointed out, and Jun heard fabric land at Sho’s ankles behind him. “I’ll be gentle…”

Jun closed his eyes, bare legs shaking, hardly able to deal with Sho still not being close enough. “Better not be.”

It was almost as slow and leisurely as the Keio Queen’s progress south down the river. He’d missed the feeling of Sho all around him, Sho within him. When they were together like this, there was only building need and hot breaths exhaled against flesh. They weren’t rich and poor, landowner’s son and servant boy, riverboat proprietor and lowly con man. They were just two people, two opposites that seemed to make sense from time to time.

Sho’s nails dug into the flesh at his hips. “Jun,” he was whispering, “Jesus, Jun.” Don’t run away from me again, Sho was really begging him each time their bodies moved together. Don’t stray too far.

The throb in his ribs dulled and was easily ignored when Sho’s hand found him, jerking far more desperately than he had under the stars during those nights under the boughs of the willow tree. All he could do was gulp in air when he could, at last giving up the control he usually craved so much.

He let go first, gasping, and Sho followed soon after. He was offered one of Sho’s own monogrammed handkerchiefs moments later, and all he could do was smile. Sho was shakily tugging his trousers back up his hips and frowning at the state of his desk.

“Was this…” Sho looked embarrassed, face flushed. “Was this your tacit acceptance of my proposition?”

Sho always seemed to be in such a state of disbelief, never thinking that Jun wanted him for anything more than the occasional verbal war and resulting fuck. Sho was always wrong.

He wouldn’t be able to leave if he gave Sho any indication that yes, he would in fact be tracking down Kamenashi and Ninomiya. It scared him how easily he’d let Sho rule him. He had to leave.

“Won’t be troubling you any more tonight,” he told Sho, hoping his eyes could convey the depth of his feelings better than the words he wouldn’t dare utter.

Jun unlocked Sho’s door and left the man to his ledgers and his money.

Date: 2010-02-19 10:35 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] statr.livejournal.com
why am i first? again, i'm about to go to school and you write porn. AMAZING JAMIE. JUST AMAZING.

Date: 2010-02-19 10:47 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] astrangerenters.livejournal.com
LOL you only replied 10 minutes after I posted this you knooooow :)

BLAME KATY. I ALWAYS DO.

Date: 2010-02-20 01:51 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] katmillia.livejournal.com
BWAHAHAHAHA. I am so glad that my prompt resulted in THIS THIS THIS THIS THIS. And you effed up my story- YEEESSSSSS. oommgggg now I want go back and write the rest of that. Would Nino and Kame eventually figure out that something was wrong? Would something else go down on the Keio Queen that forced the four to work together? WHY IS THIS FIC SO DAMN HOT?! I'm all flustered now... sheesh...

In short (haha not), A+++. Let's be friends forever!

Date: 2010-02-20 01:54 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] astrangerenters.livejournal.com
YOU ARE THE ONE WHO WANTED MORE RIVERBOAT-VERSE SO SUCK IT

It's hot because Sho has a waistcoat. HE HAS A WAISTCOAT.

Date: 2010-02-20 02:28 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] jackie.livejournal.com
I can't even brain how hot and angsty and sghalskhgaslkfhaslkhgasfd this is. I CAN'T EVEN BRAIN.

Date: 2010-02-20 02:33 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] astrangerenters.livejournal.com
MAMA LOVES HER SOME HISTORICAL AU

Date: 2010-02-20 02:35 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] jackie.livejournal.com
I BELIEVE YOU ARE ALREADY FAMILIAR WITH MY FEELINGS ON RIVERBOAT FIC.

ADD SOME SAKUMOTO SMUT AND BRB, DYING.

Date: 2010-02-20 02:36 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] astrangerenters.livejournal.com
SO YOU ARE ACTUALLY TO BLAME FOR THIS. SINCE I BLAME KATY AND YOU TOLD HER TO GO RIVERBOATIN' IN THE FIRST PLACE.

THIS SMUT IS YOUR FAULT ENTIRELY. JUN AND SHO BANGING ON A RIVERBOAT IN THE 1870'S IS YOUR FAULT. I HOPE YOU ARE SATISFIED WITH YOURSELF.

Date: 2010-02-20 02:42 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] jackie.livejournal.com
YES, YES I AM. 8D BWAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHAAAAAAAAAAA.

YOU HAVE NO CLUE HOW SATISFIED I AM WITH MYSELF RIGHT NOW. 8D 8D 8D

Date: 2010-02-20 10:05 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] miquilis.livejournal.com
wawawawawawa rich Sho and servent Jun always make me feel that happy fuzzy feeling. If I wasn't a fan of the riverboat Au (still in denial of my Kame/Nino feelings) then I am converted now ♥ this was kinds of good ^^

With all those mentions of the Willow tree I really want a past fic of Jun and Sho down on the farm >__<

p.s. how come recently even in AUs you're aren't letting Sakumoto be happy ever after? realistic unspoken feelings make kitten cry.

Date: 2010-02-20 05:55 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] astrangerenters.livejournal.com
Because I am a horrible person and enjoy writing angst? ;)

Date: 2010-02-20 06:49 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] miquilis.livejournal.com
And I'm obviously a masochist because I love reading your angst - you got anything happy in the works?

Date: 2010-02-21 02:40 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] astrangerenters.livejournal.com
I'm M too, for what it's worth :)

There is nothing in the works right now - I tend to just write at the spur of the moment when I get an idea that works. I think I've written a lot of non-angsty Sakumoto though!!

Date: 2010-02-21 12:14 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] daisuki-dkzen.livejournal.com
*ugh* why does the angst hurt so good??? the denail! the longing!

god...i love my otp.

Date: 2010-02-21 02:41 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] astrangerenters.livejournal.com
Because Sakumoto angst works better than angst for other pairings? Because angst makes more sense for them? IDK but I can't stop myself ;)

Date: 2010-02-21 02:54 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] r-1-ss-a.livejournal.com
sakumoto angst = LOVE. i am turning into a masochist.

and ok, ok. historical au is awesome. i have succumbed.

Date: 2010-02-21 02:41 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] astrangerenters.livejournal.com
It IS awesome, so long as the historical details mostly establish setting and don't overwhelm the actual plot (and let me know if it ever does - I have too much fun putting in little tiny details)

Date: 2010-02-21 08:20 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] hiro-chan.livejournal.com
amaaaaze.

<3.

got me at "keio queen" XD, and i love how easily you build the AU around their characters and i love how i can still identify with the characters despite the AU version of themselves here <333.

and the way the pinned and longed for each other, and how they wished that the other would know the extent of which he love and need the other...

uwah! nothing less than perfect as usual :D:D!

Date: 2010-02-21 02:42 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] astrangerenters.livejournal.com
Keio Queen was the only anachronism I allowed myself because I honestly could not think of another name for Sho's boat ;)

Date: 2010-02-21 05:18 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] xanderave.livejournal.com
Come back soon Jun.

Date: 2010-03-04 09:10 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] foxymulder42.livejournal.com
Ummm, you guys are writing a follow-up collab right? Because if you don't, I will do something drastic-like and so on and so forth.

Hott buttseks is hott.

Date: 2010-04-18 11:53 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] darkilk.livejournal.com
Argh. So love that they're so cool and confident one moment, and yet the little peaks of subtle vulnerability that SO screams for more angsty moments. Kudos to you for never failing to make my heart go doki doki, sexy or emotional-wise. Kya! :) :) :)

Date: 2010-04-25 11:27 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] anya131986.livejournal.com
I like this story,thank you!

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