Archive of Our Own

It's him across the road of this one horse town, Tobio's sure of it. Like he conjured the brat straight out of his thoughts because, yes, Tobio had been thinking about him. Again.

Hinata Shouyou. The torment of his life. With a casual arm around a woman's waist, a careless, heartbreaker smile stretched across his handsome face, and fingers so quick, Tobio almost misses them snagging a small leather purse straight from the pocket of the woman's gingham dress. 

Just as sneaky as ever.

Now Tobio is a man with more than his fair share of steel, but the sight of Shouyou has him sitting stiffly on the porch of a saloon, cigarette half rolled between his fingers until the flash of bright hair disappears down the road of flat faced shops. 

Tobio breathes out slowly. Looks like he dodged a bullet this time. Shouyou didn't spot him.

The first time they met, Tobio had a bounty chained to the trunk of a willow on a shaded river embankment in Bluemont County. A lost lamb had wandered through the trees and directly into the water, quickly followed by its flustered owner—a young, adorable farm boy. 

Tobio helped him wrestle the lamb out of the river, of course, and after, Shouyou had been full of glowing gratitude, sweet on him as honey on the back of the tongue. Fluttering stares, bashful smiles, and lingering brushes of fingers when they passed a flask of stump water back and forth. 

Tobio should have noticed that. The way Shouyou swallowed down the foul liquor without so much as a grimace, holding his own like the hardest cowboys Tobio'd ever had the displeasure to drink with.

But he was distracted. Rapt with a curiosity he found reciprocated in wide, innocent eyes. In less than an hour, he had Shouyou in his lap, sighing pretty moans for him as Tobio slowly worked him open and fed his chaste, puckered asshole his hungry cock. 

Tobio had wholly forgotten about his bounty tied several trees down until he woke from a post fuck doze with his belt still unbuckled and no farm boy, sheep, or bounty insight.

That's when Tobio understood he'd been conned. Shouyou wasn't a farm boy at all. 

He was a thief. And a good one.

Now, licking the seam of his cigarette paper closed, Tobio finishes rolling it with the ease of a thing done a thousand times as he adjusts his plans to this new snarl. He'd hoped to hunt a bandit down and collect a few coins from the local sheriff, but no amount of silver is worth another run-in with Shouyou. He'll have to pack up his horse and move on tonight.

Dipping his head to touch the end of his cigarette to a match, some foolhardy townsperson scrapes the chair opposite him back and drops into the seat, never mind that Tobio's the sort of man most people run from.

Only, scowling up from the brim of his black hat, smoke curling from his nostrils, he doesn't find a townsperson.

"So," Shouyou says, grinning and tossing his freshly stolen purse between his hands. "What are we drinking?"

⍟

The barman shifts anxiously as he pours their gin, with half an eye squinted at Tobio like the gunslinger might pull a revolver on him any moment. Which is fair in part considering the one-shot one-kill reputation Tobio carries around next to the big iron on his hip. Except really, it should be Shouyou the barman is watching out for, guarding his purse against mischievous fingers. But Shouyou's cheerful, friendly act is too effective of a decoy.

Quickly, they're alone again, eyeing each other over the rims of their glasses.

"You're looking rougher than usual," Shouyou teases. "When's the last time you slept in a real bed?"

Tobio grunts. He's been headed west out toward the badlands, spending his days on horseback and his nights failing to sleep on the hard ground. Too hot this time of year to bother setting up his tent but too exposed without it under the open sky to catch more than a few winks.

Shouyou gives him a winsome smile. "I've set up in a cushy place for the night. You're welcome to half of it."

"What, so you can finger my pockets from the comfort of your own room?"

"Well…" Shouyou says with mock thoughtfulness. "I wouldn't be opposed to a few other kinds of fingering, but sure."

Tobio snorts. "Anybody ever tell you not to shit where you eat?"

"Anybody ever tell you not to compare brushes with a lover to shitting and eating?"

"Right," Tobio says sarcastically. "Because that's what we are."

If Tobio weren't a year past believing anything he sees on Shouyou's face, he might have taken the flash of hurt in his eyes for truth. But expectantly, it's gone in a second, replaced with the same coy playfulness Shouyou usually wears. "If you don't like it, why don't you tell me what we are then."

"Enemies, obviously." Two rival outlaws, unlucky enough to keep meeting.

Shouyou's lips purse. "Obviously," he parrots, lacing the word with malice.

"What, that it? Nothing clever to say?" Tobio prods, smirk stretching across his lips. "Have I finally managed to shut you up?"

Shouyou narrows his eyes, but that expression too is gone in a second before he leans back languidly in his chair, crossing his legs. "If all you wanted was to shut me up, I can think of much more entertaining ways to occupy my mouth."

Tobio can't hold back the chuckle.

It's been a hundred days since he's seen him, and it turns out that's just long enough to forget the full Shouyou effect. How natural it is to be around him. The way quips roll easily from his usually silent tongue. Shouyou teasing words out of him just as leisurely as everything else he draws from Tobio. It's all so familiar, there's a sort of irrational comfort in the exchange.

See, they've made a habit of this sort of thing. Chance meetings in backwater towns or on the roads between places.

"It must be fate," Shouyou once said, sprawled back, shirtless against his sleep roll, shaking his head with shared disbelief for Tobio having happened upon Shouyou's camp dead in the middle of the night.

A week earlier, he'd been wrangling a poacher for a desperate rancher only to find Shouyou sweet talking his way out from behind the same bars Tobio was tossing his bounty behind. And a month before that, he'd paid a visit to a whore house in Durango, the last big town before the edge of the frontier, but instead of finding a nice piece of no strings attached ass so he could end his accidental bout of abstinence, he found Shouyou impersonating a prostitute dressed scandalously in an over large shirt and nothing else, palming coins out of drunk patrons pants.

So maybe it was fate. But probably a better word for it would be a curse.

Nestled into a rocky outcrop, tongues of campfire light flashed over the stratified rock around Shouyou, flickering over the ridges of his bare chest and almost seeming to ignite his hair. It had felt like he was afire anyway. Like Shouyou was the flame, and Tobio was the moth lured in by its heat and light.

"Now hurry up and woo me again," Shouyou said with a sigh, pointing his foot up at Tobio to massage. "I've had a long day."

He'd looked it, too. Dark circles marring his bright eyes, and a bruise forming over his ribs. So Tobio strung up his horse and stretched out beside him, massaging the arches of Shouyou's feet and sharing idle banter, considering for the first time what it might be like to wake up with Shouyou next to him for once. How it might be to share a stretch of road for a while.

They spent the night together. Tobio stretched over Shouyou, driving into him until they fell together, too exhausted to go another round. But by sunrise, Tobio still woke alone and ten silver dollars lighter.

That's how things have always ended with them. A ridiculous cycle of mistakes on his part and a stream of riches on Shouyou's. And every time when he's left reeling in the morning, Tobio racks his mind for answers. Why. Why can't he just leave Shouyou be?

Now they're three fingers deep in gin at the saloon, and Shouyou's making eyes at him, grazing the toe of his boot up Tobio's calf, leaning closer over the table. And under all the flirtation and outright propositioning, there's that pull again. That heat and magnetism he can't resist.

He could say it's something about Shouyou himself. The way he looks like something out of a painting. His lithe masculine body, made beautiful too with his soft mouth and impish nose. But really, after all this time falling for his tricks, Tobio's learned that it's the two of them together and the strange flickering between them.

Tobio knows what comes next, though. He's been down this road before. He knows where it leads. A quick fuck so fiercely good he forgets, if only for a moment, about the other shoe dropping. But then it does. It always does. 

"Don't even try it," he says, catching Shouyou's boot before it can brush between his legs and throwing back another highball of gin.

"Whatever do you mean?" Shouyou's face is the picture of innocence, ruined only by a hand wandering under the table instead groping at the front of Tobio's trousers. He knows exactly what he's doing, stirring Tobio up to a frustrating hardness that only gets worse when Shouyou's fingers twitch, feeling the difference, and he licks his lips.

"You're wasting your time, dumbass.” A year or two before, he’d been more flush, plenty of criminals still trying their luck, but things have quieted down as his reputation spread. Low-lifes scattering like cockroaches when news of him riding into town comes. “I haven't got a bounty, and my pockets are stretched as your cunt right now."

Shouyou's eyebrows go up with a suppressed laugh. "I think we both know how very much not stretched my cunt really is," he says the word like he's graciously not taking offense to Tobio's choice of language for his sinfully tight asshole.

"Fucking, miracle, that is." 

Shouyou brushes the comment off easily. "I've gotta admit, though, I'm surprised to see you in these parts. You following me now, cowboy?" 

Tobio rolls his eyes. "What? So you can rob me blind again?"

"Steal," Shouyou clarifies with a chiding, swatting gesture. "Give me some credit, at least. I've never harmed a hair on your pretty head. Robbing is for other, uncivilized folk."

"Right," Tobio says dryly, "because you're so civilized."

"Well, of course." Shouyou's smile crooks up at the corner, tipping wickedly. "Why else would I be so smitten with you , hm? My wild vagabond, appearing like a dream out of road dust—" he makes a mock swoon "—here to seduce me and teach me all the pleasures a real man can give, only to be gone again tomorrow." He casts one hand tragically over his forehead and brings the other to his chest, jutting it out dramatically, and Tobio finds himself tonguing the inside of his cheek, remembering the feel of those tits in his mouth. The round, pink nubs rolling hotly against his tongue.

Yanking himself from the temptation, he finds Shouyou's dancing eyes. 

"Right, I've heard enough." Tobio stands, slapping the table.

"Little ole me scaring you away? I'm just having a piece of fun. No hard feelings."

Tobio ignores him, flagging down the nervous barman to pay for his drink. He counts the coins out directly into the man's shaky hands rather than leaving them on the table so nothing accidentally goes missing. Then he turns his back and walks away.

He's finally broken their cycle.

⍟

It's two days later when he's retiring for the night in a small camp he pitched a mile off the road to stay out of the way of any bandits when he hears a thunder of hooves chasing down the canyon toward him. 

He's barely got his revolver cocked when he spots Shouyou riding out front and mutters a curse. 

When Shouyou spots him, his eyes widen in astonishment, nearly falling when his horse rears up, but a snarled shout from behind sends him back into action, gripping his reins and spinning the horse around behind Tobio like he's Shouyou's own personal bulwark to stop whatever is coming next.

Two furious men, as it turns out. Dust kicks up around their horses' hooves as they scrape to a stop, rifles jerking around on their backs, glaring and growling at Shouyou, but stuck in place by the barrel of Tobio's gun.

"So," Tobio says in a steady voice about three shades calmer than anyone has a right to be when they're surrounded by armed men. But he's had enough practice with this sort of thing. "Mind explaining what's going on here." It's not a question.

One of the men, a dapper if not obviously drunk fellow, points a finger at Shouyou, slurring, "Tha-that little shit was creeping around our camp and nabbed our loot while we slept."

The other man, seeming to have a few more wits about him, nods along angrily.

And well… It's a familiar story, so Tobio doesn't doubt the truth of it. He tosses a look back at Shouyou. "Remember what I told you about shitting and eating?"

"Excuse me? What exactly are you implying?" Shouyou sneers, but he's cut off from further affronted huffing when the drunk barrels forward on his horse. 

"You hear that, Amos? They're together! I can't fucking believe it!"

"Hold it right there." Tobio sends a shot out directly next to the drunk's ear, and he freezes. "Now, why don't you both come on off your horses, and we'll settle this like we have half a brain."

They do as he says, Shouyou too coming down next to him and hiding just behind his shoulder.

"They're bandits, you know."

"Says the bandit."

Shouyou glares. "Hardly. Where's my gang of railroad robbers?"

Ignoring him, Tobio returns his attention to the men. "Well, how much did he nab from you?"

"I don't see how's that's any of yer business," says the drunk, taking a stumbling step forward, still having not learned his lesson.

“I’d back down if I were you,” Shouyou pipes up from behind Tobio’s shoulder, apparently feeling perfectly safe to trash talk now that he’s got a not-so-virtuous knight protecting him. “Don't you know who he is?" When Shouyou's met with nothing but blank stares and silence, he scoffs and gestures grandly. “Haven’t you heard the stories? Black on black. Grim and gorgeous. Fastest gun west of the Mississippi…”

Amos’s mouth falls open. “No. There’s no way…” He looks between Tobio and his gun. The grip carved distinctly out of ebony. The extra shotgun barrel mounted under the cylinder. Nine shots rather than the usual six. All that fire power, and still, they were eight shots more than Tobio would need to kill him. 

Amos falls silent, horror paling his complexion, the truth seeming to sink in. 

The drunk is less silent. "They say you killed a man out by the Black Hills for no reason." His voice is with awe and fear. "Shot him dead on a galloping horse from a hundred yards away."

"Not for no reason." Tobio frowns, remembering the nasty affair. 

The bandits eye him like they don't fully believe him, but it's not as if their pea brains would understand the heinous shit going down over there.

“So,” Tobio says again slowly, bringing their current dilemma back into focus. “How much did he take from you?”

Amos scowls bitterly, eyes on the dirt for a long moment before he grumbles a bitten off, "Fifty gold."

Tobio fights to keep the alarm from his face. Fifty gold is more money than most towns would see in a decade, let alone pile together in one place long enough for someone to steal. Maybe more than Tobio's earned in his entire year so far of bounties. 

It’s a mind boggling amount.

Murmuring quietly enough that only Shouyou can hear, he says, "Your usual sort of hell raising getting so boring you needed to jack up the stakes? Two men in one night and a whole fifty gold."

Shouyou kicks him in the ankle, and the sharp pain of it reminds him of the matter at hand.

He straightens his shoulders, shoving Shouyou further behind him, and eyes both men down. "Right, this is how it's gonna be. There are two of you. I figure you're worth about fifteen gold a piece for his trouble."

Shouyou stiffens behind him, and Tobio knows he's going to have a thing or two to say over the cost of a night with him. And truthfully, he'd be right. But this shit already isn't looking good, and Tobio's betting that if he gives these bastards nothing, the night will end with blood.

"The fuck he say, Amos?"

"Since you're clearly having trouble hearing, let me say it again." Tobio's voice is hard and non-negotiable. "I'm sure you had one hell of a time fucking him sideways before he stuck his fingers in your loot. He gets to take thirty outta your fifty, and you can be on your way."

The men gape at him, blustering over each other, "We didn't—" "Are you—" "How dare you—"

Tobio tightens his grip on his revolver to shut them up. Reaching back, he motions for Shouyou to count out his share from the whole and hand him the remains. When he's tossed the sack of gold over and has the men re-mount their horses, the drunk turns back one last time to spit at Tobio's boots, snarling, "Fucking faggots," before he tears away with his consolation prize.

Tobio blinks.

"I tried to tell you," Shouyou sing-songs, tucking his shiny new coins into his purse. "Why did you assume I'd just let any old outlaw have their way with me?"

Confusion swirls within Tobio. Because that's how Shouyou makes his money. Seducing and conning men and women left and right. Because that's obviously his entire grift. Right?

Shouyou tilts his chin, looking up at him knowingly from bright lashes. "Do you really think I have to sleep with people to get what I want from them?"

Have to wasn't exactly the impression Tobio'd gotten. More like Shouyou's always seemed to get his kicks from the game of seduction. Enjoyed the thrill of it even. "I've seen you dressed as a prostitute," Tobio says carefully.

"Dressing and being are entirely different things."

"Then why…" Tobio trails off, throat dry. The question hangs in the air between them. Why him? If Shouyou was so sure he could steal whatever he liked, why the allure? Why the flirtation? Why seduce him again and again and again… 

Shouyou brushes fingers over Tobio’s forearm, expression wistful. "Maybe you were just too good to resist."

Tobio's head spins, and Shouyou's word from the other day trickles back in. 

He'd called them lovers…

Disoriented, Tobio tries to sit back down on his bed roll, but fumbles slightly, only catching himself at the last second on his elbows, but it's already too late. 

Shouyou's set down his money and has climbed into his lap, straddling him. The leather of his chaps presses against Tobio's thighs warmly, and the buttons of his shirt tickle Tobio's collar as he leans in. Then there's that magnetism again. The flickering between them. Little prickling flames everywhere they touch. Fuck, it's not fair. 

It'd be so easy to sate his craving. He could pull Shouyou out of his clothes and kiss his way down his body. Spread his smooth cheeks and lick him open. 

Tobio could take him right here under the open sky. Shouyou would let him… 

He swallows. "I already told you the other day. My pockets are empty."

"I know," Shouyou says, leaning in further, undeterred. This close, he smells of heather and wilderness, and Tobio can taste the heat of his breath.

"I don't have anything worth taking," he protests weakly, even as his hands cup behind Shouyou's knees, pulling him closer.

"Yes, you do," Shouyou whispers against his lips, closing the distance between them. His mouth is softer than Tobio remembers, playful and pliant against Tobio's lips. Shouyou's always so much more of everything than his imagination can keep alive in the long, empty stretches between their meetings. His tongue is hot and quick, grazing over Tobio's lower lip, seeking entrance.

Tobio gives it to him. He's always given Shouyou whatever he wanted, and this is no different, even when all Shouyou wants is him. The thought is so new and unfamiliar it almost doesn't feel real, but there's no good explanation otherwise. Still, he's careful, gripping Shouyou along his jaw to hold him at bay, if only a little. Or maybe to hold himself at bay.

Shouyou whines at his restraint. "You don't want me?"

"You know that's not it."

"Then have me." Shouyou's fingers scrambled over the buttons of his shirt, yanking it over his head, revealing smooth, tanned skin that makes Tobio's palms itch to touch.

Things are different. He knows they are. He's broken their cycle, and it's true that he doesn't need to worry about his nonexistent funds, but maybe he's grown so used to caution around Shouyou, it's not so easy to simply put it down.

Frustrated, Shouyou grinds down into his groin, sucking bruising kisses into his throat. "C'mon now, Tobio, nobody fucks me the way you do."

That sparks a growl. A dark, possessive instinct buried deep. He has no right to feelings about who Shouyou should or shouldn't sleep with, but somehow knowing that those other partners weren't merely an ends to a means makes it that much more difficult of a pill to swallow.

And Shouyou catches on, quick as a whip. "Don't you want to make me forget all their names? Fill me with your big cock until I can't remember anything but the feel of you inside me?"

Tobio muzzles him to shut him up, twisting him around until Shouyou's trapped under him, face buried in Tobio's bed roll. "That's enough out of you," he grunts, giving a warning yank to Shouyou's hair in case he has any further urges to rile him up.

Taking control like this is addictive. A thrill pulses under his skin, and Tobio quickly casts a glance about for the mineral oil he uses to lubricate his revolver.

If Shouyou wants to be fucked, who is he not to comply?

Luckily, the mineral oil isn't far, and Tobio makes quick work of Shouyou's belt and trousers, stripping his squirming body down to his pert, naked ass and sliding two oiled fingers down the seam of his cheeks. 

Shouyou's breath catches at the first slick touch, and he grinds back into Tobio's fingers as if to catch them on the flushed rim of his entrance and pull them inside him.

Tobio yanks at his hair again. "I'll give you more when I decide to. Mouth off at me for more, and I just might decide to stop, got it?"

Shouyou nods fiercely, making a show of muzzling himself as Tobio spills another stream of oil down between his cheeks, soaking in the way it dribbles down Shouyou's smooth taint and curves over his puffy balls all the way down his twitching shaft, dripping from the tip of his cock with a pearl of pre cum.

A small pool of oil has gathered in Shouyou's clenching entrance, deepening and contracting with each of his labored breaths.

Tobio smiles at his obedience, thumbing circles into the pool and massaging it wider. 

Inside, Shouyou's bright red, a beacon of heat that has Tobio's cock straining. He palms himself through his trousers as he tortures Shouyou with massaging circles that press deeper then retreat.

And Shouyou puts on a show for him, breaking out in a flush that bleeds pinkly from the back of his neck down. Toes clenching and unclenching. And curling over his arms, biting into the meat of his thumb to keep himself quiet.

Briefly, Tobio entertains the thought of not fucking him at all. Simply jerking off over his writhing body, spilling his load over Shouyou's ass, and finger fucking it into him. The look on Shouyou's face alone would almost be worth not having him now.

But no. Another time perhaps.

So finally, Tobio sinks his fingers in, curling them as he goes and rubbing the pads of his fingers into Shouyou's prostate.

"Oh, fuck yes," he groans. "More, please. I wanna feel the stretch of your cock."

Tobio clicks his tongue. "Just for that, I'm going to make you cum on my fingers first."

The strangled sound that scrapes from Shouyou's throat has his lips sharpening up in a smirk. He eases his fingers further in, gently thrusting and scissoring them to adjust Shouyou to the intrusion, and just as he sees the tension between his shoulder blades loosen, he doubles down, setting a firm pace that has the oil squelching where the creases of his fingers mash against Shouyou's rim.

The night is silent save for that wet sound and Shouyou's half choked, stifled moans. He's trying so hard to keep quiet, cock already pulsing between his thighs, but Tobio decides Shouyou deserves to suffer a little more for all the shit he's put him through. So Tobio buries another finger inside him and catches Shouyou's cock at the base before he can shoot off.

His whole body spasms at the unexpected fullness, and something caught between a moan and cry garbles out between Shouyou's teeth, where he's still gnawing at his thumb.

Tobio smiles. 

He's not done yet, though. Working all three fingers in and out of Shouyou's clenching hole, Tobio works him back up to a quick rhythm, listening closely for when Shouyou's breathing evens out and he adjusts. 

Then, when he's settled into the new pace, Tobio gives his cock a slick pump, wringing his thumb and forefinger around the head.

Shouyou squeaks, chills rising up his trembling legs. Tobio can feel the blood jump in the thick vein that runs along the underside of his cock, and he gives it another squeeze, pumping it in time with his three fingers.

And that, it seems, is too much. Shouyou's voice breaks on a moan that tears out of him, and whatever lock he had on his control before breaks as he thrusts his hips back into Tobio's fingers, humping rabidly in the air.

"Fuck, Tobio!" he rasps. "Please, please, I need your cock. Please, give it to me already— I can't— I have to—"

But Tobio is a man of his word. He speeds his pace, jerking Shouyou's pulsing cock off in firm, fast strokes as he finger fucks him because he's already made up his mind over how this is going to go.

And Shouyou doesn't disappoint. 

Cum shoots from his cock in a spluttering rush, squeezing out into Tobio's wrung fingers and coating his hand thickly as he pumps him through each surge, kneading his prostate through the whole thing until Shouyou buckles forward, collapsing under him into his own mess with a mindless groan that's music to Tobio's ears.

This is his favorite. When Shouyou's so worn out and bleary from cumming that he lays splayed and unguarded before him. He brings his fingers to his lips and licks a splooge of Shouyou's cum off of them, relishing the salty tang.

Then, Tobio pulls off his jacket, folding it off to the side. He undoes the buttons of his shirt and trousers, adding them to the stack neatly, noting Shouyou's quiet breaths whistling in and out of his nose.

Asleep maybe, but Tobio's not concerned. He's had Shouyou like this before, fucked him after passing out on his cock, and stuffed him full of warm cum to discover on the road later. Shouyou returned the favor the next time they met, sneaking under his covers and deep throating him awake, feeding him his own release after.

So Tobio doesn't keep himself from pressing the head of his cock up against Shouyou's oiled asshole, grabbing the thief up by his hips and driving in. Shouyou is boneless under him, limbs soft and pliant as Tobio slowly rolls his hips forward, letting his insides adjust to his size.

Three fingers isn't quite enough to fully prep him, but the delicious squeeze around his cock when he first pushes in is too good to pass up.

Then, at last, when Tobio can't wait anymore, he jolts forward the way his cock is bursting for with a brutal surge.

Shouyou's whole body seizes with it, coming alive around Tobio's cock. But this is his time now, so he doesn't stop for Shouyou to gather his senses, lunging in again, smirk sharp as a blade between his lips as Shouyou scrambles with spazed, loopy limbs. "Mm-obio, mmmph."

Tobio doesn't stop, he's waited way too long to have this, and he can't slow down. Needs to stuff Shouyou full and mark his insides with cum. Maybe then he won't feel the need to seek anyone else out, and this ass can belong to him. 

Possessive thoughts churn hotly through his chest as he pounds Shouyou through sleep blurred moans into broken exclamations. "Needed this, needed you. Too long. Fuck—so good. You fill me up so good. Want you all the time."

The babble flares up Tobio's spine, egging him on even harder, and he laps up Shouyou's heightened cries, savoring every hysterical confession. 

"Ah, yes, just like that, don't stop. Never have— hnnng —enough. Take me, take me, take me—"

And this time when Shouyou cums, it's unexpected. Tobio's half mad with the edge of release, driving into Shouyou so deep his body jolts under each frenzied thrust. Then, his insides tighten impossibly more, strangling Tobio's cock in a clenching heat, and Shouyou wails, shaking through another orgasm as Tobio hammers into him unrelentingly.

He is done waiting and tormenting over Shouyou. Tobio is going to keep him right here, trapped under him, pumped with his seed, and claimed from the inside. 

But the brutal squeeze around his cock is too much, and with another two surges, he's bowing over, body coiling up around Shouyou's smaller form as he convulses, shooting into him with a relief unlike any he's felt before. 

Even fully spent, he refuses to let go of him, fearing that if gives Shouyou the chance, he’ll run off.

⍟

The sun is kissing the top of the canyon when Tobio speaks again. "Have you really thought of us as lovers?"

Shouyou's settled down, twice drained and now laying at Tobio's side with heavy lids. But at the questions, he nibbles his lip bashfully and hides his face in Tobio's shoulder.

"Lovers don't usually make a habit of skipping off at the crack of dawn with all your coin."

"Don't give me that." Shouyou prods him with his nose. "I've heard the stories about you too, you know? How many hearts have you stolen, only to ride out in the morning? Better I leave first then have you leave me behind forgotten." His voice is small and vulnerable.

Tobio pulls him closer at the waist. "As if forgetting you has ever been an option."

"Oh?" The teasing uptick in Shouyou's voice is faint, but Tobio latches onto it.

"Yes, oh , dumbass. Every time I scored a bit of coin for a bounty, I'd wonder if you'd show up around the next corner and unburden me of my heavy pockets." He chuckles darkly at the memory. "Then, if you didn't show up, I'd dream about you happening on my camp or whatever inn I was staying at. You'd pick the lock and climb into my bed. You'd ride me till I was so drunk on you, and out of my mind, I'd be throwing the money at you instead."

Shouyou grins wryly. "Glad to hear I was keeping your bed roll warm, but do you really have to make me out to be some kind of sex demon?"

"Still not convinced you aren't."

"Hm, that's a tad confusing," Shouyou murmurs in his ear, nipping the shell. "Here I thought you were the one luring me in. All your burning looks and hours with your face buried between my legs."

"No one in their right mind could resist this ass." Tobio gives it a firm squeeze for good measure that has Shouyou squirming against him.

"Don't tease me," he whines. "I'm so tired. There's no way I can go again."

Grudgingly Tobio relents, letting go of the firm curve of Shouyou's ass to cradle the small of his back instead. Dipping down he brushes a kiss over Shouyou's shoulder possessively. 

The events of the night hadn't quite fit the usual mold for their meetings so far, but a sour worry sits in the bottom of Tobio's stomach still.

"I don't get it, Shouyou. If everything you've said is true—" and Tobio had to admit, it truly did feel that way "—why steal from me?"

"Well, I am a thief, after all." Shouyou smiles wanly, kissing his cheek. "And maybe in the beginning, I thought you'd be a good bounty hunter and come catch me." He looks away shyly and adds, "That way, I could spend a little more time with you. Guess it just became habit after a while."

"And if I want to catch you now?"

"What will you do with me if you catch me? Sell me off to some hillbilly sheriff and collect your reward?"

Tobio frowns, gripping Shouyou by the chin and flipping him onto his back. "Maybe I'll just take you then," he says, hunched over him, skimming their lips together. "I'll make you my own."

Shouyou grins up devilishly, sunlight catching in his hair. "Now you're thinking like a thief."

Tobio can't think of a single thing more worth stealing.

And so, easy as that, Shouyou is still wrapped in his arms as morning washes over the canyon, and for once, they spend it together.