When Gen wandered back from the waterwheel hut, the number of people around the fire had decreased conspicuously. Well, not that he didn't know that Ukyo-chan and Ryusui-chan were an item (Ryusui-chan was hardly subtle, after all), but he was sure Kohaku-chan and Luna-chan were not, yet they were both missing. Though, it didn't mean they had gone off together, or had gone off to have some adult fun time. Most people still at the fire were either dozing off or in full conversation, not paying much mind to Gen hovering in the darkness. They'd been through a lot, before being petrified that day seven years ago, and were living it up with the joy of being free and moving again, not stuck in that rible-ter darkness any more.

He watched Hyouga for a few moments, the subtle rise and fall of his firm shoulders, his drooping head, chin leaning toward his throat amidst the cloud of feathers on his cloak. ….He had really been totally gone, huh..... If the revival fluid had not been so freakishly powerful, Hyouga-chan wouldn't be sitting there with the rest of them, and they atmosphere would have been oh-so different from what it was in that moment.

He'd already sort of known, theorized it when Stanley refused to stop his assault on their fort to give them even a lungful of air, and still… When he understood it was true, with the tone in Tsukasa-chan's voice, the expression on his face, Gen had been shocked at how his stomach sank. He had been shocked at how, when Hyouga-chan woke up as if nothing had happened, like he hadn't actually died that day, his knees had felt weak in relief. Sure, they were on-again-off-again fuck buddies (with a heavy emphasis on 'fuck', and a very weak 'buddies'), but--…

...but those waves of emotions was something Gen was quite unfamiliar with, and had not at all expected.

Hyouga's steely gaze, mixed with sleep, met Gen's, and he felt a shiver run down his body, sending goosebumps in a wave across him, from the top of his scalp to the tips of his toes.

As if he hadn't been staring for the last few minutes from the deep shadows just outside the firelight, Gen traipsed up next to Hyouga, crouched down to sit next to him, and crooned, with large eyes and innocence, "Hyouga-chan, would you accompany ittle-li ail-fra Gen-chan to the toilets?"

Hyouga peered at him in a lack of understanding, giving Kaseki the opportunity to point out, "Didn't you just go to the toilet?" It made a little frown form on Hyouga's face, just slightly visible between his eyebrows. Gen waved a delicate hand, as if to say, 'yes, but.'

"I heard a wild animal, so I didn't get the chance to," he lied. In the first place, he hadn't left to go to the toilet, but to snoop. "Please, Hyouga-chan, won't you tect-pro this weak little magician?" As he clasped his hands together to look at Hyouga with exceedingly pleading eyes, he made a subtle motion with his fingers curved away from the rest of the group, which Hyouga-chan definitely caught. He had said, in the past, that Gen had clever fingers in a properly wicked way. The movement was telling Hyouga that Gen really did have some urgent business to deal with- just not the type of urgent business he was claiming to have.

Hyouga sighed, shoulders subtly shifting. "Very well, Gen-kun." He rose in one fluid motion, his cape fluttering around him. "Just this once." Gen beamed up at him, and bounced up on his feet.

Gen had already deduced which direction their dear sonar expert had gone off to, and because he didn't want him to hear them, he led Hyouga in the opposite direction. They landed deeper in the forest, Hyouga looking at him with an askance expression, until Gen stepped up right in front of him, and pushed.

He wouldn't have been able to, normally. But Hyouga-chan either was surprised enough by the attempt, or, most likely, allowed it, and Gen pushed Hyouga back against a tree trunk that was sturdy enough to support, but not wide enough to hide. Not the width of Hyouga-chan's powerful shoulders, or the fluffy feathers falling across them.

"How brazen, Gen-kun. You're acting quite out of sorts today."

Hyouga-chan's words were cool, and if he wasn't, well, Hyouga-chan, perhaps there might have been a hint of concern in that voice. Gen circled his arms around Hyouga, and with nimble fingers, he undid the leather holding mask and cape in place. The heavy sound of leather and feathers dropping to the ground swallowed the silence for a short, single moment. Gen splayed his fingers over Hyouga's steady back, and stretched up, reaching Hyouga's ear because Hyouga let him.

"It's been seven whole years since last time, after all. How about we have a private little bration-cele?"

Hyouga-chan's lips quirked, just a tiny bit, into a puzzling, amused expression. The full-body shiver coursing through Gen didn't stir just his arousal- it stirred something unfamiliar, too. Hyouga's hands slid onto Gen's legs, clasping just beneath his buttocks and held him with firm hands, and Gen whimpered. He already was sensitive there, for reasons he didn't understand, but the lack of feeling anyone's touch for several years was something else.

And then, the feelings tumbled, soared, sank, flew higher--- stacked, stacked, stacked.

He actually heard it, then. A surprised sound escaping Hyouga-chan, as Gen pressed his teeth into his bare shoulder. Hyouga stood still, as Gen bit down, not drawing any blood, but feeling the resistance of skin under his teeth and the warmth beneath his hands. Gen's hands explored, travelled across the plane of Hyouga's back, to his stomach, up his wiry, muscular torso, back down to his thighs. He felt wetness catch on his fingertips and smeared lines of Hyouga's arousal across his skin. He felt Hyouga's gaze on him, heard his breath hitch as he found the spots on Hyouga's tough exterior that were cracks and dips that had nothing to do with their petrification.

Or the wounds, that Gen was sure Hyouga-chan had had before being resurrected from the dead.

It wasn't just the need to fuck hard and fast and deep that drove Gen to touch Hyouga all over with such insistence. It was the need for confirmation that yes, Hyouga was warm, solid, breathing, whole, alive.

"You're eager," Hyouga finally pointed out, voice carrying just a slim shiver of arousal in it. His hands still cupped beneath Gen's ass, slowly stroking with thumbs and squeezing with fingers. Gen hummed, lapping at a forming bruise. "Because it's been seven years?"

Gen hummed again, acknowledgement that was false, but he couldn't say the truth. Not to Hyouga-chan, of all people.

It was the seven years, sure. But it was more than that. So, so much more.

Because it was the sudden flood of those emotions, a recognition that hadn't quite settled in when Tsukasa asked about Hyouga's petrification state, before they knew if he'd be able to be revived. The worry. The relief.

"Oh, Hyouga-chan, this is a~ad-bay..." he murmured against Hyouga's skin. He squeaked in surprise as Hyouga hoisted him up, so that they were eye to eye.

"What is, Gen-kun?" Hyouga asked. Gen wondered why he had let that slip. He had probably been letting his guard down a little too much around Hyouga-chan lately, after the whole ordeal in the Petrification Kingdom and the aftermath. And then on the run across South America, to top it off. Crossing those mountains had particularly showed a certain level of change in Hyouga-chan. The last ditch effort to stall Stanley-chan and his soldiers together with Tsukasa-chan and Kohaku-chan just cemented that change.

And then one thing had led to another and after fucking so much and gaining...something a bit similar to trust, kind of--...

"How needy a person can get after only seven years!" Gen said, cheerfully. He wasn't sure Hyouga-chan believed him, but he still played off the accidental slip, acting like he was fooling around, same as he usually would when it came to his emotions. He dipped back in, reach much better with Hyouga hoisting him up, drawing a line with his teeth just below Hyouga's ear. He felt a shudder transfer from Hyouga-chan's body to his own, for a very brief second.

…--kind of like he was actually sort of falling in love with Hyouga.

Or like he already had, and only in that moment understood it.

It was really, really bad.

But for the moment, he decided to push it away, to leave his self-evaluation for later, and nipped at Hyouga's earlobe. The plan for now was to distract not just Hyouga from the slip-up, but himself from his own feelings, too. Hyouga's hands on his rear sure did a nice job of adding to it, at the very least, as did the teeth on his lips.