kinkfest | Soul Mates (Kyo Kara Maou, Daikenja/Jeneus/Murata, NC17) (Reply)

Title: Soul Mates

Author: Tsutsuji

Rating: NC17

Warnings: yaoi threesome, spoilers for ending of KKM S3

Prompt: November 16 - Kyou Kara Maou, Murata/Daikenja/Jeneus: threesome - it seemed wrong but it felt right

Word count: 6200+ (one of my typical overdone smut epics, in other words)

Summary: Murata wants to understand Jeneus better, but in a world made of memories, it's Daikenja who reveals hidden knowledge to both of them.

A/N: ridiculously late and ridiculously long, but done at last. I might not be completely done with the Jeneus-lovin' yet, though. ^^ (Might be a bit ooc for Daikenja, I'm giving him a heck of a lot of credit as a master schemer!) Sorry if it looks weird ; lj and openoffice seem to be arguing over formatting -_-

---

Who doesn't long for someone to hold,

Who knows how to love you without being told...

Soulmate - Natasha Bedingfield

~~~ Murata had started to discover that Jeneus' soul still had a mind of its own.

He wasn't entirely surprised, really. Thanks to Yuuri, he had finally realized that Jeneus was much more than just an artificial copy of one of his former selves. In fact, he'd accepted the soul Yuuri had saved partly out of curiosity, hoping he could learn the truth of Jeneus' life from any lingering memories.

He'd expected to sense some of Jeneus' personality and memories through having the soul inside him, but since Yuuri had brought back the pure soul, he thought the former puppet would be at peace now. He had not expected to have his dreams invaded by lingering desires and longings, or to find stray thoughts that were not his own wandering into his mind, or to catch a glimpse of his own reflection in a glass and feel like it was someone else looking back at him. It was almost as if Jeneus was curious about him, too.

"We have to talk," he said to himself, or rather to the soul inside himself, after yet another one of those moments when he had glanced in a mirror and suddenly felt as if he was outside himself, looking at his own body through someone else's eyes.

But even though Jeneus had become such a disconcerting presence in his mind, it wasn't as if they could just have a casual conversation. Murata thought there must be a better way to sort through the memories of the other soul inside him. But if there was, he knew it could only be done in Shin Makoku.

So he casually suggested to Yuuri that it was time for another trip back to the other world, and then, as soon as it was possible without attracting unwanted attention, he headed for the maze of treasure rooms in the depths of Blood Pledge Castle. He rummaged around until he found a couple of familiar items, and then locked himself inside one of the deepest rooms, alone with the Demon King's Mirror and a particular scarf that legend said had been woven by Daikenja himself.

"You know how this magic is supposed to work, I'm sure," he said, speaking out loud to the other spirit inside. He could never tell if Jeneus' soul actually heard him, but he had the feeling that someone was attentively watching over his shoulder as he quietly activated the Sage's latent magic.

"Of course I know how it works," said a mildly amused voice a moment later, "as I'm the one who created it!"

Murata blinked up at the man who had suddenly appeared standing in front of him. It was the face from a portrait in the hall upstairs, a pale, narrow face framed by jet-black hair, and black eyes that he had only seen before in mirrors thousands of years ago. But this face did not have the violet markings he expected to see. The original Sage, the source of all of his and Jeneus' bothersome memories, stood before him.

Murata looked around. They were in Daikenja's chambers in the oldest part of the castle. The room was vivid in his memory, looking just as it had been in the final days of Shinou's reign, around the time their plan had been set in motion. Of course, Daikenja had created this scarf, woven of memories and secrets, around that same time. Murata remembered making it and imbuing it with some kind of magic, even though he couldn't seem to remember exactly why he'd created it in the first place. In fact, it seemed to him now that it had not even been his own idea to use this magic after all.

"Jeneus?" he said, frowning suspiciously.

It was not my intention that has led us here to this world of memory, Jeneus' voice said, making Murata jump. It was the first time he'd heard that voice since Jeneus had been overtaken by rage and madness, but now it sounded calm, and as puzzled as he felt. I do not even remember this particular magic, Jeneus continued.

"It was my doing, I'm afraid," Daikenja said calmly. "I apologize for the confusion. Please come forth, soul of Jeneus. It was to meet you that I wove that spell, and now at last the time has come."

Murata frowned at those words. While he had not been entirely surprised to find out that the copy of Jeneus existed, he certainly hadn't expected it, and he most definitely had not predicted this encounter. Yet it sounded as if Daikenja had been waiting for this to happen. Murata stared up at his placidly smiling former self. How could he be so surprised by something Daikenja had planned for?

Daikenja stepped up to him, bent down and placed his hand over Murata's heart. A warm glow emanated from the touch, a softer energy than that of the Maou when he had transferred the soul into Murata. In a rush of light and warmth, Murata felt the other soul melt away from him, and a second later, Jeneus himself stood next to him, facing Daikenja.

Murata's heart suddenly felt a little empty, and he winced with regret when he saw the grief and anger on Jeneus' face as he faced the original Sage, the source of all his painful longings.

Daikenja smiled, as calmly as ever. Murata remembered that sense of calm, and also the turmoil that had often lurked beneath it. The sage lifted his hand to touch the markings on Jeneus' face. Murata gasped as if he felt the touch himself, and with a rush like a cold wind, all of Jeneus' sense of loneliness and loss swept through him.

He heard Jeneus' sharp intake of breath as well. Suddenly he remembered Daikenja's own isolation, and he knew Jeneus felt it too. Caught up in idealized memories and blinded by obsession and jealousy for his past and future selves, Jeneus had forgotten that even Daikenja had ended up alone.

Daikenja closed his eyes, though, as if in relief, and he stepped closer to both of them, cupping Jeneus' face in one hand and reaching out to Murata with the other.

"I have waited all this time, my other souls, until I can finally tell you: you are not alone."

There was so much warmth in the words, so much longing, as much as Murata had sensed in Jeneus, and all that he kept hidden inside himself. He was startled to feel the soft touch of Daikenja's fingertips on his cheek, and he found himself turning his head to press his face against that warm touch.

Jeneus did the same, but then frowned and drew back out of reach.

"This cannot be right," he said, shaking his head. The dark strands of his hair fluttered around his face. He raised his hand to push Daikenja away, but the sage caught his wrist and pulled Jeneus' hand to his smiling lips.

Jeneus froze in place. Murata's mouth fell open in surprise when Daikenja gently kissed Jeneus' fingers; the sight sent a rush of heat down his spine, like something from a half-forgotten erotic dream.

Ah, but it wasn't entirely forgotten, and it wasn't entirely a dream. He remembered, suddenly, sharply, how much he - when he'd been Daikenja - had been aroused by this same gesture, by warm lips parting around his fingertips, just as Daikenja's lips did now to Jeneus.

He turned his head and opened his own lips, and took in the tips of Daikenja's fingers that still rested against his face. Daikenja's eyes closed, a blissful smile on his face. Jeneus groaned, softly, and Murata, remembering and suddenly understanding, did too.

Daikenja took a step closer to both of them, drawing them in. Jeneus still hesitated, but Murata sidled closer to him as well, and smiled up at him when he looked down, startled.

"I take it you were the one who called to both of us, then," Murata said to Daikenja. He'd been certain all those old longings and desires had come from Jeneus' soul, but somehow Daikenja had prodded his mind to use the magical items and bring them to this memory world together. "Interesting. Well, I suppose I shouldn't be surprised that my original self could out-plan both of us! But I guess we both forgot what a sensualist you could be."

"Ah," Jeneus said, still drawing back a little and frowning at Daikenja suspiciously. "I remember... those thoughts, those desires... they could be so distracting when there was work to be done!"

"The memory of desire was meant to be a relief from thought and study; I'm sorry they caused you more pain than pleasure," Daikenja said, clasping Jeneus' hand in his. He turned to Murata. "And for you, who has had the burden of carrying out the final strategy of our plan; it is a shame that you have felt the need to separate yourself from these remembered desires in order to focus on planning and strategy."

Murata sighed. "I haven't actually sorted that out very well," he admitted. He'd spent the last lifetime, and several others, indulging in those sensual desires, after all, and so far in this life time, very little opportunity had come along to put those memories to any good use.

Now, though, the memories came back to him like a physical force rushing through Murata Ken's body; sensations of arousal and pleasure that Daikenja had felt so strongly. But now he was outside that body, looking at his former self, startled by the desire to both see and feel all of that again.

Jeneus must have felt it too; he shuddered and made a little strangled sound, but he jerked back from Daikenja, much less willing to give in to those urges. Murata was sure he would have slipped back out of reach, if they'd let him, but Daikenja pulled him closer instead.

With one hand still on Murata's face, he lifted Jeneus' chin with a graceful fingertip. He kissed the triangular tear-drop markings on the face that was so much like his own, and then brushed his lips over Jeneus' own parted lips.

Murata saw Jeneus shudder again, and saw him wince, but he didn't pull away this time. Daikenja smiled, although Jeneus still watched him doubtfully and glanced down at Murata with almost a frightened look. Murata smiled back at the copy, reassuringly, and suggestively. He may not have ever expected this, but he knew the original sage's plan was perfect - naturally.

Jeneus knew it too, of course. He didn't resist when Murata and Daikenja put their arms around him, and pulled him over to fall with them onto Daikenja's bed.

After being so long denied and crushed, Jeneus' longing to be touched like this was so strong that it was almost painful. It didn't seem possible that Daikenja, whom he'd hated for so long for having those memories that he could never live again, was now offering him this - insisting on it, in fact, with Murata Ken joining in just as gleefully as if he'd planned this himself all along.

He was certain that Murata Ken was just as surprised by it as he was, though. He stared at the young sage's mischievous, welcoming grin, astonished to see that it was aimed at him. It made so much more sense that he and Murata Ken should hate each other, as they had instinctively from the moment they met. He was still surprised that the present incarnation of the great sage had accepted his soul - more than he had ever been able to accept himself, either his own artificial life or the memories that he'd been forced to live with. It simply did not seem right that both the original sage and his present incarnation should suddenly seem to want him, and even more startling to find himself feeling this desire for them, as well.

But when they all fell onto Daikenja's well-remembered bed together, touching each other with a mixture of familiarity and surprise, bodies familiar and yet unexpected, it all felt perfectly right.

Present sensation mingled with memories from Daikenja's past and glimpses of pleasure in other lives from Murata Ken's mind, but slowly, Jeneus' own desire rose to the surface, as their hands and mouths and bodies tangled together, their touches both experienced and exploratory. Jeneus remembered, little by little, each way that Daikenja had loved to be touched, but he was surprised to find the same actions just as arousing on his own body, and made even more acutely arousing by the lifetime of denied pleasure. Murata's young body responded to everything eagerly, both memory and new.

Having only seen the present through a veil of memory during all of his short, artificial life, Jeneus was startled to realize that he had hardly looked at the real Murata Ken in all their past encounters. He had become fascinated by the soul that had embraced his, and now he was just as fascinated by Murata's body, so different from his own and Daikenja's, yet strangely familiar. But it was still so strange to be with them that he didn't know what to do; somehow, his other selves lacked inhibitions that he had taken for granted, so he could do nothing but let them lead the way.

They laid Jeneus out between them on the bed, removed his clothing with sensual caresses, combing fingers through silky black hair, and trailing fingertips and tongues over every inch of skin as it was revealed to them. Daikenja kissed the marks on his face, and the others that were revealed on his shoulders and arms and torso. Jeneus twisted around beneath him, but he wasn't trying to get away from this anymore. It felt as if the marks burned with sweet fire that was cooled by Daikenja's touch.

"I'm sorry that you had to wait so long," Daikenja murmured as his lips roamed over Jeneus' face and throat. "I'm sorry that you were left doubting your own existence. You were always meant to be real..."

The words didn't make sense, but they didn't need to. Daikenja's voice washed over Jeneus like the waves of sweet arousal, the heat rising up inside his body. The only thing that was real at the moment, all that he needed to be real, was their touch on his skin, and his body stretched out between theirs, Daikenja's hair falling across his chest like warm silk, and Murata's hands caressing him in every sensitive place they could find, and their hot breath on his skin.

Jeneus knew it was only a dream in the world of their combined memories, but it seemed like the first time he had ever felt alive.

---

At first, they were all hands and arms and legs around each other, tasting each other. Murata licked salty, warm skin in the hollow below Jeneus' breast, and then tasted the same place on Daikenja, curiously, delighted to find that the feel of it was a little different but the reaction from each of them was pretty much the same.

Jeneus was the most surprised, and the most in need of touch; Daikenja's memories of intimacy were more recent and so less urgent, and to Murata everything was new and yet familiar. So Murata and Daikenja centered their attention on Jeneus, and soon he was writhing between them, eyes shut and mouth open, letting out bewildered, grateful gasps with every touch of their hands and lips and bodies on his own.

Murata sidled down on the bed, finding every sensitive place on Jeneus' body that he remembered - from Daikenja's lifetime - and comparing his own memory of being touched there with Jeneus' reactions. At the same time, his own body throbbed with fresh arousal, memories of desire in other bodies overlaying his present desires.

Jeneus' body appeared to be almost identical to the original sage's, but it was not Daikenja's body, nor was it the body of the Jeneus he remembered. Even though he responded to most of the same touches and stimulation that Murata knew Daikenja loved, there were intriguing differences as well. For a moment, he managed to ignore his adolescent body's own rather urgent state of arousal in favor of exploration. It wasn't often that one had the chance to make love to one's own selves, after all.

Daikenja, he remembered, had not always thought himself attractive. In fact he'd been terribly self-conscious of his unusual appearance, until Shinou's insistent courtship had released the sensuality pent up inside of him. After that, the sage had made up for lost time by indulging in as much sensual pleasure as possible in the time he'd had with the original king.

On the other hand, the real Jeneus that Murata had been in a past life had thought nothing of his own body, turning all of his energy to study in his obsessive quest to save Shinou. Murata had spent a lot of lifetimes since then learning to love whatever body he found himself in, and trying to balance Daikenja's sensual nature with Jeneus' denial. This copy of Jeneus had denied himself in much the same way, for different reasons - reasons that had more to do with impossible longings and the puppet strings that bound him to the Shinzoku queen.

Now Murata felt like the balance point between them, as if his present life was a line that connected his own body, mind and spirit. However, at the same time, Murata Ken was still a teenager, with the most remembered experience among all of them, but with an inexperienced and over-eager body. He felt every touch as something new and overwhelmingly erotic.

Daikenja settled to Jeneus' left, Murata to his right, but Murata had moved down Jeneus' body, laying kisses and caresses over his ribs and stomach, tasting all of his skin with eager curiosity. Jeneus tasted surprisingly hot, and so human; the scent of his arousal was strong and achingly familiar. Jeneus gasped when Murata pressed his lips to the tender skin at the junction of his hip, and brushed his hand lightly over his erection. Above him, Daikenja hummed with pleasure, with his lips pressed to Jeneus' arched throat.

Murata's gaze met that of the Sage, the wise, dark eyes of his own past self. This other man between them, twitching and squirming with need under their touch, was connected to them through stolen memories, but he was not the same as either of them. Murata was only beginning to understand Jeneus, but he understood the sage's thought nearly as well as he knew his own mind. He was still surprised by this encounter that his past self had apparently planned all along, but he knew what he wanted to do with Jeneus, now that they were together like this, and he could see that Daikenja had the same thought in mind.

Daikenja nudged Jeneus to roll over to his side, and wrapped his arms around him from behind. He reached down and coaxed Jeneus to raise one leg so that Murata could settle in between his open thighs.

Murata looked up for a second to see Jeneus staring down at him, scowling in surprise and lingering doubt as Murata pressed a kiss to the top of his inner thigh. It wasn't so long ago that they'd been deadly enemies, after all. Murata smiled up at him reassuringly. The last of his hatred for this unnatural copy of his troublesome former self had completely dissolved by now, but he couldn't blame Jeneus for still harboring some of the same jealousy and mistrust he'd had before.

"I think I owe you this," Murata said, with a sheepish grin. Jeneus looked even more surprised and puzzled at that. Murata couldn't watch his face, but he imagined his expression changing to something quite different when he finally took Jeneus' half-erect cock into his mouth.

He used his own memories of what had aroused Daikenja as a guide - his own more recent lives' experience not being quite as relevant, and the original Jeneus having subsumed all of his physical desires under the obsession for knowledge. From the sounds and movements Jeneus made, and the way his cock swelled eagerly inside Murata's mouth, he could only assume he was getting it right. Then again, all those sweet, startled moans might have something to do with whatever Daikenja was doing behind him, too. Soothing the base of Jeneus' cock and his balls in one hand, Murata's fingers brushed against Daikenja's hand fondling the same area, with his fingers slick and warm. A second later, Daikenja gently pushed the first finger inside Jeneus.

Jeneus whined as if in protest at the careful invasion, but he didn't try to squirm away from it. Daikenja hummed reassuringly, and slowly - as Murata watched from his close vantage point - the sage added another finger, and pressed in deeper. A second later, Jeneus let out a moan that seemed to tremble through his entire body, and Murata felt his cock jump against the roof of his mouth.

Smiling and swirling his tongue around Jeneus' twitching erection, Murata reached back between Jeneus' legs a little further and wrapped his hand around Daikenja's erection. That elicited a slightly startled moan from the original sage. Murata chuckled, pleased that he'd managed to surprise his past self at least a little bit.

The hot breath of his laughter made Jeneus jerk and gasp, his cock poking Murata's throat as if to remind him this was no laughing matter for him. Murata smiled and took pity on the overwhelmed soul. He drew back a little and gently cupped Jeneus' erection in one hand, decreasing the stimulation to give him a break. But a moment later, his fingers tangled with Daikenja's again, and together they guided the sage's cock into Jeneus.

Daikenja sighed, his face pressed against Jeneus' shoulder and his body trembling with suppressed urgency. Murata looked up to see him, pressed up tight against Jeneus' back, with his other arm looped around under the copy's body, idly fondling his parted lips. Jeneus moaned, eyes half closed, as Daikenja slowly moved deeper into him.

Murata watched, fascinated, as the two almost-twin bodies began to move together. The sight of them - of himself, in a way, and yet not himself - both so thoroughly aroused, of gleaming pale skin gliding against skin, made him achingly hard. He suddenly remembered his own neglected erection. For a while, he lay there next to them, slowly stroking himself while he watched.

Jeneus groaned with every move, and his fingers curled, one hand clutching the bed cover and the other threading through Murata's hair, to his surprise. He had a feeling Jeneus would not have touched him that way if he realized what he was doing, but clearly, he was beyond noticing at the moment. It felt nice, though, so Murata pressed back against his hand, and let his cheek rub against Jeneus' erection at the same time. Jeneus whimpered and stiffened, and his hand in Murata's hair grasped more tightly. Murata realized that Jeneus might actually be trying to hold him off, overwhelmed by too much stimulation. He was already close to coming.

Daikenja wasn't ready for that yet, though, apparently. He made soft, calming sounds in Jeneus' ear, leaning over his shoulder to kiss him and whisper to him, and then he reached down and between them to close his hand around the base of Jeneus' cock.

Murata drew back a little more, and Daikenja caught his eye. Murata noticed that he wasn't only stroking Jeneus; his hand was slick, dripping with whatever oil he'd used to prepare Jeneus for himself. Once again, Murata understood the sage's intention as clearly as if it was his own, even though he had not thought of this before. He would have been content to watch them and to help bring Jeneus to the sweetest climax they could manage, and then take care of himself on his own - something he was used to doing with his adolescent hormones in full force, after all. But as soon as he realized what Daikenja intended, his whole body throbbed with the need for it.

"You carry all of us inside of you now, Murata Ken," Daikenja said, speaking to him over Jeneus' shoulder. "You took Jeneus' soul inside of yours. Now, won't you take his body inside of yours as well?"

Jeneus' eyes widened as the words sank in, as he realized what Daikenja was asking of him - what Murata was offering to him, as Murata met his gaze and nodded, grinning.

"Yes, I'll take him!" Murata said, already squirming around to get into a better position. He scooted up the bed and took Jeneus' surprised face in his hands, and kissed him.

"I never expected this to happen between us, the first time we met," he said.

"Nor did I," Jeneus said, his voice strained and breathless. "But... " His eyes shifted to glance back at Daikenja over his shoulder. The sage was beaming at the two of them with that calm, all-knowing smile.

"Yes, it seems that we did expect it on another level," Murata said, raising an eyebrow at his original self. "We just didn't know it at the time!"

He still wasn't sure how that could have happened, but this was not the time to ponder the strangeness of passing time and memory.

Without another word, Daikenja reached across Jeneus and handed Murata the bottle of oil he'd been using. Murata took it and, with Jeneus watching as if spell-charmed, Murata crawled up onto his hands and knees, spread his legs, and made himself ready.

Jeneus thought he would stop breathing - long past wondering how he could be here in a body that was breathing in the first place. He'd had too many dreams that were heart-heartrendingly real in the past, only to awaken and find himself in cold reality after all, but those memory-laden dreams were always vague in the end, sensual details blurred by time, intense with remembered emotions. This was real in every detail, as if his soul and Murata's had somehow been taken back to Daikenja's time and given real bodies.

Now it was all he could do to think and breathe, as he watched Murata prepare himself, while Daikenja helped him up onto his knees behind the young sage. Jeneus could not help but stare at this body he'd so recently shared. It was as if he'd never really seen Murata Ken before, only the reflection of the original sage whom he'd come to hate - and whose own body was now wrapped around his, so hot against his skin, and whose cock inside of him sent sparks of melting pleasure up his spine with every movement.

He let himself remember these moves from Daikenja's life. The original Jeneus, who had preserved these memories along with the rest of Daikenja's knowledge, had certainly never acted on them, and neither had he in his relatively short life as Alazon's puppet.

If he'd had enough wit left to think about it, it might have been too strange to lean over Murata like this, and to let Daikenja's hands and Murata's both guide him into place. He was nearly beyond coherent thought, though. All he knew was that the heat and pressure of Murata's body was near blinding pleasure, and the sense of welcome and offering from both of them was even more overwhelming than that.

With a groan of sheer pleasure that seemed to well up from his soul, he pushed into Murata, with Daikenja still inside him. Shuddering, he draped himself over the smaller body underneath him, clasping Murata's arched back up against his chest. He pressed his face into the boy's neck and nuzzled the curled ends of his dark hair.

"Daikenja," he moaned through gritted teeth, for both of them. The name that he had only been able to howl in hatred before was like a mantra of bliss now, a chant in rhythm with their movement together. "Dai - ken - jaaaa...!"

If they were somewhere in a dream, or in the past, outside of normal time, this could go on forever, he thought. Desperate for the resolution that his body was starting to demand with ever greater urgency, he was equally reluctant to let this ever end, this blissful connection with his older and newer self. But time seemed to be just as real as his body felt, after all. At least, it was clear enough, from the way Murata was panting and thrusting back against him, that this would not last forever.

Daikenja's hands were firm and gentle on him, caressing him, threading through the curtain of their hair that fell all around them; his mouth was hot and sweet on Jeneus' skin. Their bodies, so similar, moved together in perfect rhythm, and of course Daikenja knew exactly how to move and which spot to hit with every thrust inside of him.

It was Murata's body that held him entranced, though. He ran his own hands over Murata's skin, exploring, fascinated; he licked the back of the boy's neck, his shoulder, kissed the panting face that twisted around to meet his lips, tasting skin that was almost, but not quite, familiar to him. Murata panted underneath him, shifting his hips and clenching around his cock as if to pull every bit of sensation from him, and his breath came out in increasingly sharp moans. Beautiful sounds, Jeneus found himself thinking, and he called on Daikenja's memories of lovemaking to find ways to get more of those sounds from Murata's throat.

He realized he was groaning, too, nearly as loudly, as their three bodies rocked together, skin slapping on skin, faster and harder. Even Daikenja's calm was finally broken; he clung to Jeneus' back and muffled his own sharp breaths against Jeneus' hair. But Daikenja had enough presence of mind, still, to reach around and guide their hands together to Murata's erection.

Murata cried out and jerked up under him, and threw his head back, and came hard, until his legs were trembling beneath all of them. That started a chain reaction, and with Daikenja letting out a long sigh of beautiful release in his ear, Jeneus felt himself let go as well.

He almost thought it would never end, and when it did, he was amazed to find that they were still all there together. Daikenja slid to the side and pulled him over with him, holding both of his other selves in his arms. Murata sighed long and deep, and snuggled back against his chest, his face half turned around toward him. His eyes were closed, dark lashes falling onto his flushed cheeks, and a smile of contentment on his young face. Jeneus stared at him through the haze of orgasmic bliss; he tried to remember that this was the same boy whom he had tried to destroy the first time they had faced each other, in that stadium in Greater Shimaron, but all he could remember seeing then was the face of Daikenja, and even that was distorted by his own despair. He was startled to find himself thinking that Murata Ken was actually beautiful after all.

But the dark eyes opened and caught his, Murata's eyebrows dipped as if he was puzzled. Jeneus realized what he was wondering. Together, they both turned to face Daikenja.

"This magic," Jeneus said, voicing the question he knew Murata was thinking of as well. "You planned all of this?"

He knew Murata had not been surprised by his existence, just as he had been able to predict the actions of his young future self, but he certainly hadn't hadn't planned for it, and neither of them had expected this. But Daikenja, clearly, had planned for this moment all along.

"What else have I forgotten?" Murata wondered, visibly perturbed.

He looked, Jeneus thought suddenly, even more appealing with that pout on his face, with his hair more mussed than usual, and dark eyes not hidden by the glasses that had been set aside long ago. Murata's young face was usually entirely too serious in the reflections he'd seen when he'd looked out through those eyes, even beneath the facade of his smile. In fact, in spite of that smile, Murata was just as terribly serious as the original Jeneus' was, and just as he himself had always, always been. What they had both somehow forgotten was how often and easily Daikenja had been able to smile.

Which the original sage did again, now. He reached over to stroke Murata's hair, fingers tugging lightly at the curled ends. This did nothing to ease Murata's suspicious frown.

"That, I'm afraid, is the paradox of prediction," Daikenja said. "In order to assure the peaceful future I envisioned, there are things that I needed to keep secret, even from my future selves. Even from myself!"

Murata sighed and nodded, conceding the point, but obviously still not happy about the it.

"Are there going to be more surprises like this, then?" Jeneus asked. More bad surprises like me, regret prompted him to think, but he didn't say it.

Murata turned to him, suddenly smiling again - smiling at him, and Jeneus almost felt his breath catch from having those dark eyes look up at him, seeing him with so much acceptance.

"Well, it doesn't matter if there are," Murata said cheerfully. "Whatever comes along after this, we'll deal with it together!"

"We..." Jeneus echoed in wonder. The two of us... or was it the three of us, he wondered? Was this why Daikenja had engineered this whole encounter, to make them aware of each other so that they could combine their accumulated knowledge in service of the Maou? Or did it only happen through the force of their desires?

"You said before," he remembered, as his mind cleared somewhat from the fog of lust, "that I was...I am meant to be...?"

He tried to remember any part of Daikenja's plan that had included creating such a being as himself, but thoughts seemed to slip into shadows as he tried to look at them. Murata scowled and made a querulous sound in his throat, finding the same veiled memories in his own mind. Daikenja smiled at both of them benevolently, or rather, indulgently, as if they were merely his young students rather than his own selves.

"Did we ever do anything without a good reason?" Daikenja said.

"Then there was a reason for all of this?" Murata said, twisting around to scowl even harder at his original self, who only smiled back, calm and innocent. "Hm, but you're still not letting us know what it is? Why is that, I wonder?"

Then Murata met Jeneus' gaze, and it was as if their thoughts touched. The veil of shadows seemed to shift, forgotten memories almost coming to light - almost, but still not quite within reach. That hardly mattered, though; the sense of connection with Murata, with another person, after lifetimes alone - it felt like all Jeneus had ever desired in the world.

Murata blinked, apparently startled by it as well. Then he smiled, and settled back against Jeneus again, with both of his other selves' arms around him, the dark veil of their hair falling over his shoulder. Jeneus' breath suddenly released in a sigh of contentment, deeper than he had ever known in his life.

With a purr like a contented cat, Murata closed his eyes and wiggled deeper into Jeneus' embrace. The seemingly innocent movement caused a startling surge of new arousal to well up inside of Jeneus. Much more of that from the boy, and this body would start to respond again, whether it was all a dream or not! He frowned at Murata, who seemed to sense his thought; without looking back at Jeneus, he grinned. Daikenja seemed to be of the same mind, as his hands started to roam over both of them again, and he pressed warm lips to the back of Jeneus' shoulder, triggering another surge of reawakened desire.

Jeneus knew as well as he knew anything that there was no point in protesting - just as they knew, perfectly well, that he didn't really want to, anyway.

It seemed that he and Murata would have to discover Daikenja's purpose for them on their own, now that their thoughts were open to each other; maybe that would be revealed when they left this world of memory and returned to the present. For now, he decided, simply having someone to hold was enough of a reason to exist, after all.

~~ the end ~~

(omg I'm thinking of sequels. Jeneus needs so much more love. *flails*)