Work Text:
i.
Ukyou’s introduction to the Stone World isn’t exactly a pleasant one. Tsukasa is nice enough—on the surface, though his ideology leaves much to be desired—and there are clothes and food and a task to focus on, at least. But there’s also no plumbing, no electricity, no air conditioning or heat.
No fucking earplugs.
At first, he doesn’t think it’ll be too much of a problem. There’s a certain relief in how quiet the Stone World is compared to their old world: no honking cars or squealing trains, no loud TV seeping through the thin walls of his apartment, no music blasting at three in the morning. No massive cities with their deafening noise.
But there are still people.
Tsukasa’s brutes argue among themselves constantly. They might not question his leadership or cause any serious problems in the chain of command, and so they tend to fall beneath the higher ups’ notice. Ukyou hears them, though. Bickering over the last of the roast duck. Complaining about finding leeches stuck to their ass cheeks. Talking crudely about other members of the Empire of Might when they assume they won’t be overheard.
And then there’s the sex. It’s not like he’s a prude or anything, and he doesn’t begrudge people the need to get off. Most of the people in Tsukasa’s Empire are in their late teens and early twenties. It would be unrealistic to expect all of them to be celibate. So he gets it, he really does, but that doesn’t change the fact that it’s awkward to overhear…certain things. There are just some things he doesn’t need to know.
He volunteers for late-night guard duty for the sake of his peace of mind. These fuckers are keeping him up anyway, and at least on guard duty, he can stick to the perimeters, away from the caves where most people sleep. The idea was that he’d be less likely to overhear anything he shouldn’t—or, at the very least, that the distance would muffle the sounds a little bit—but ultimately that only works if everyone is having sex where they’re sleeping and not somewhere else.
Like here. At the edge of the woods. Near the tree that Ukyou is perched in.
He can’t see them—his vision isn’t particularly sharp in the first place, and as far as he can tell, they’re a couple meters off from his location—but he can hear every word, every breathy moan.
“You like that, kitten?” someone says, and Ukyou tries not to identify the voice.
(He fails. It’s become habit over the years to memorize someone by their voice rather than their face. He’s never, ever going to be able to look this man in the eyes again. He can only be grateful it’s not someone he has to spend much time with, like Tsukasa or Hyouga.)
“Meoooow.”
Ukyou blinks. That is…not what he expected. What the fuck?
“Gonna be good for yer master, huh?” the man continues, blissfully unaware that his kinks are being unwillingly overheard—and judged. “Look so pretty when you’re in heat—”
A fake purring noise fills the air, and that’s the last straw.
Nope. Absolutely not. Ukyou slings his roughshod bow over his shoulder and silently hops across the branches until he’s far enough away that the only thing he can make out is the sound of crickets chirping in the night air, birds rustling in the trees.
ii.
He learns about Senkuu and the scientist’s precarious past with Tsukasa in bits and pieces over the first few months. For all Tsukasa’s bluntness, he can be dodgy at times. Slow to trust, Ukyou thinks, or maybe he just doesn’t want to be tainted by bad history.
And it is bad history. Apparently Senkuu was the first to awaken in the Stone World, and he revived Tsukasa as well as a few others, but there was a falling out over conflicting ideologies. Senkuu is a man of science and innovation, progress and peace. It’s easy to see how that sort of forward thinking might clash with Tsukasa’s absolute control and tendency towards brutality.
Ukyou can’t say for sure what Tsukasa expects him to get out of the story once he has it in full. Does he want my sympathy? Does he think this will solidify my allegiance? It’s unclear. All Ukyou knows for sure is that Tsukasa had unhesitatingly killed someone who was once his ally and perhaps even a close friend.
(You’d have to be an idiot to miss the way Tsukasa talks about Senkuu: some mix of admiration and regret and a wariness that lends a mythic air to the scientist. Like he’s some sort of legendary figure.
It’s obvious there was affection there, once. Tsukasa killed him anyway.)
Maybe that’s the real message, Ukyou thinks. It’s a warning. ‘Don’t become a threat, and I won’t have to kill you.’
Despite that turbulent history, or maybe because of it, Tsukasa seems intent on tracking Senkuu down and making sure he’s really dead. Why he has any reason to think his killing blow didn’t do its job is anyone’s guess—just another part of the mythification of Senkuu the Scientist. The intensity of Tsukasa’s motivation borders uncomfortably on obsession, but while Hyouga and Gen seem to think it’s a sign of unreasonable paranoia, Ukyou isn’t so sure.
It's the hints of regret, the lingering admiration. He wants Senkuu to still be alive, no matter how detrimental that would be to his own plans.
Regardless, Ukyou hopes for Senkuu’s sake that if the guy really is still alive, Tsukasa never finds him. He’s not sure what, exactly, Tsukasa’s plans for Senkuu are if he’s able to get his hands on him again, but it can’t possibly be good. There are things worse than death, and Tsukasa is just unpredictable enough that there’s no telling how far he’s willing to go.
And then Gen turns traitor, simultaneously revealing Senkuu’s existence while helping to cripple some of Hyouga’s best fighters, and whatever thread of restraint Tsukasa had been holding onto snaps.
Not in an obvious way. No. Sure, he becomes more eager to send out scouting parties, starts letting Hyouga send his little lap-dog acrobat girlfriend out to spy on the scientist and his village, starts preparing for what will in all likelihood become a war. To everyone else, he’s a competent leader trying his best to prepare for the most dangerous adversary he knows.
But the way Ukyou knows he snaps—really, truly, loses his hold on self-control and possibly his sanity—is when he’s standing guard outside of Tsukasa’s cave. It’s a precaution more than anything, in case Senkuu’s faction decides to send someone to assassinate Tsukasa. Frankly, it doesn’t seem like the scientist’s style, but Ukyou has never met the guy, so what does he know?
The important thing is that he’s standing outside Tsukasa’s cave at what he thought was a good distance. He miscalculated.
The thing is. The thing is that Tsukasa gives the impression, often, of someone untouchable, like he’s above it all. He’s stoic and there’s a regal air to him, and he never gets too comfortable with people. Unlike many of the meatheads in the Empire of Might, Tsukasa isn’t crude, isn’t disrespectful, and as far as Ukyou is aware, has never even once indicated any sort of sexual interest in anyone.
Ukyou thought Tsukasa was safe in this sense. That guarding him would be a reprieve from all the horny bastards who can’t seem to grasp that having Ukyou around means they should at least try to be quiet.
But of course, good things don’t happen to Ukyou. Not since he woke up in this accursed world.
It starts out innocuous. Tsukasa’s breathing gets uneven, a little heavier, and he shifts around enough that Ukyou wonders if he’s having a nightmare. Ukyou knows they all have them—there are so many ways to die out here, so many ways to be hurt. He might even like Tsukasa better if the man is human enough to fear like the rest of them.
There’s a sound, bitten off and barely discernible, and a low grunt. And even that Ukyou might pass off as part of a dream, but—
Ukyou squeezes his eyes shut as if that will help somehow dull his hearing.
Nope. He wasn’t wrong. It’s faint, but loud enough that he can still make out the all-too-familiar sound of a slick hand moving against a cock.
God dammit.
He can’t even leave his post. Sure, the chances of someone actually being sent to kill Tsukasa are slim—and the chances of anyone succeeding are even slimmer. But Ukyou’s been assigned to here, and if anyone finds out he didn’t stand guard like he was supposed to, it’ll be his head on the chopping block. With Gen’s recent betrayal and Senkuu’s return, it would be all too easy to see Ukyou disobeying orders as further treachery.
He’d give just about anything to not have to listen to his leader jack off right now, but he’s not willing to die just for it. All he can do is hope this is short lived.
Tsukasa must be pent up. It probably won’t even take very long.
Ukyou is, mercifully, right about that.
It only takes three, maybe four minutes before Tsukasa’s breathing shifts again. Ukyou’s not trying to listen, he just can’t help it. He can’t listen for threats and not listen to Tsukasa’s masturbation—it’s both or neither.
His breaths come faster, shallower, and the glide of his hand speeds up too to match. Ukyou has a split second to acknowledge Tsukasa must be getting close—and then it will all, finally, be over—and then the damning word spills out, little more than a whisper but still plenty clear for Ukyou to hear.
“Senkuu.”
Well, shit.
iii.
It’s not like Ukyou wants to know what certain people sound like in bed. In his defense, the only reason he’s ever thought about what Hyouga would be like during sex is because Ukyou already had the misfortune of overhearing Tsukasa and several other top figures in the Empire of Might.
Tsukasa, all stoic right up until he murmurs his greatest enemy’s name. Gen’s hitching, breathy whines. Minami’s low groan when she reaches climax.
He’s never heard Hyouga though, and after a certain point you just start wondering. It’s an errant thought, recurring and unwanted, but when everyone else seems to be getting off semi-regularly, Ukyou finds it a bit odd that he’s never overheard so much as a whisper from the other guy. And while this knowledge is mostly arbitrary, not knowing only contributes to Hyouga’s general unreadability. Based on vibes alone, Ukyou’s pretty sure Hyouga is either the kinkiest motherfucker alive or else he thinks jacking off is a waste of time, but he doesn’t know which it is.
(It shouldn’t bother him so much. Again, it’s not like he particularly wants to be thinking about anyone’s masturbatory habits.
But the truth is that Ukyou knows a lot of things about a lot of people due to the nature of his hearing ability, and yet somehow he doesn’t know much of anything about Hyouga at all. Whatever secrets he has are locked up tighter than a high-clearance military facility.)
It could just be that Hyouga is much more discreet than everyone else—plausible, because he does seem extremely private. Or maybe he just doesn’t get the urge. Ukyou’s old bunkmate on the submarine was asexual, which had been a blessing given the lack of personal space onboard and Ukyou’s sensitive hearing.
Or maybe he’s a very private, very discreet, fucking sociopath instead, Ukyou thinks from his hiding place in the branches, stomach churning.
He had followed the spearman after that stint at the waterfall where Hyouga had flung that naïve villager kid straight off the cliffside without an ounce of hesitation. There had been something off about him just then—a flicker of something a touch too dark, too vicious to be ignored—and Ukyou had felt a gut-deep urge to track the second-in-command then. Gut-urges are not to be ignored, he’s learned, especially not around anyone as dangerous as Hyouga is.
But fuck, I wish I’d ignored this one.
Ukyou was expecting to find some sign of hidden treachery, maybe, or Hyouga’s frustration at not truly being allowed to kill the village boy. Not this.
Not Hyouga braced against a tree, hand wrapped firmly around his dick, gasping into his own elbow to muffle the sounds—not well enough—as he groans with every stroke. Every motion is a furious, harsh thing, the sort of touch that can’t be pleasant, and yet Hyouga seems to like it just fine.
More than fine, really, if the dark flush of his cheeks is anything to go by. Ukyou tears his gaze away because he really, truly doesn’t need to see this.
Or hear it, he thinks, but it’s too late for that.
Hyouga goes mute with his orgasm, but that’s not much of a blessing when Ukyou can hear his cum splatter against the tree trunk.
Nope. Nope, nope, nope, he thinks as he sprints away as fast as possible. I need to get the fuck out of here.
iv.
Ukyou has never truly hated anyone. It’s just not how he’s wired. The Stone World has put that to the test again and again between Tsukasa’s suffocating need for control and Hyouga’s unhinged sadism, but ultimately, by the time the Empire of Might and the Kingdom of Science merge together, Ukyou is feeling forgiving enough to settle on moderate dislike and leave it at that. Everything worked out in the end, and there’s no time for petty grudges in the world Senkuu is building.
But here and now, at three in the goddamn morning after a long day of heavy labor, Ukyou is the closest to hating someone as he’s ever been. Because Nanami Ryuusui happens to be inhabiting the tent adjacent to Ukyou’s. And maybe it shouldn’t be surprising by now. After all, Ryuusui did profess to desire everyone and everything.
But a fucking orgy? At three in the goddamn morning? If Ukyou had the energy to get out of bed after all the running around and heavy lifting he did for nearly twelve hours straight today, he’d fucking strangle Ryuusui.
Tsukasa never had an orgy, Ukyou thinks, uncharacteristically nostalgic for his former leader. The Empire of Might had more than its fair share of problems, but at least this wasn’t one of them.
No, just the murder and insistence on living in the dark ages, the sensible part of his brain reminds him dryly. And the threats of torture. And never being able to feel safe. And—
“Yes. Ah! Just like that!” It probably also shouldn’t be a surprise that Ryuusui is very vocal.
It’s almost surprising how novel of an experience this is, Ukyou decides after a solid hour of suffering through grunts and moans, expletives and the wet slap of people mashing their bodies together. He’s heard threesomes before, and foursomes—the couple in the apartment above his back in the old world used to swing all the time—but by the sound of things, this is definitely a more-some.
As in, there are at least twelve people in Ryuusui’s tent of a variety of vocal pitches and presumed genders.
It’s not that the number is unbelievable. Ryuusui is handsome and charismatic, and he has a way of talking to people that makes them feel important just by being near him. And not that Ukyou’s noticed or anything, but the way Ryuusui snaps his fingers…well, it just makes him seem like he’d be good with his hands.
But twelve people all at once? It just sounds exhausting.
How the hell does he have room for all of them? Ukyou wonders, eying his own modest tent, before shaking his head. That’s so not the important part. He has put off making any requests of Senkuu so far, but he can’t live like this anymore. First thing tomorrow, he’s asking for a pair of ear-plugs. Surely if the crafting team can put together a fucking camera, they can whip together some ear-plugs in a pinch.
(When Ukyou drags himself out of bed at dawn with only a meager three hours of sleep under his belt, he opens his tent flap in time to see Ryuusui sending off the last of his dozen lovers. If Ukyou was any less tired and pissed, he’d probably quietly retreat back into his tent for another few minutes to give the illusion of privacy—as has been said again and again, he doesn’t want to be up in other people’s business—but right now he’s exhausted to the point where he feels a vague nausea churning his gut and an oncoming headache, and playing nice is the absolute last thing he wants to do.
Instead, he gives Ryuusui his most vicious death glare. The man smiles back at him, bold and unashamed.
“Keep it down next time,” he bites out.
Ryuusui’s smile turns sly. “Join us next time.”
And then he ducks back into his own tent as if that’s a perfectly reasonable thing to say. Ukyou stares after him for a long moment, torn between being flabbergasted at the audacity and an unwelcome spike of arousal.
He takes a deep, steadying breath. Ear-plugs. I just need ear-plugs, and I won’t have this problem anymore.)
v.
Senkuu is a workaholic insomniac and Gen is the most dramatic, petty asshole alive. You wouldn’t think they’d make for good neighbors. Ukyou certainly doesn’t expect for them to be when he realizes their rooms are right beside each other’s on the ship.
(He’s trying to ignore the fact that Senkuu and Gen share a room. It’s probably a good thing Tsukasa is literally in a coma in a makeshift freezer right now, because given his outright obsession with Senkuu, Ukyou does not think he’d be taking this well.)
The point. The point is that Senkuu makes explosions—purposeful and accidental—on a regular basis and Gen’s personality is an explosion, so Ukyou doesn’t have much hope for getting a good night’s sleep. The only plus side is that he’s not rooming next to—or god forbid, with—Ryusui, so whatever orgies he’s somehow managing to have onboard will be a dull murmur at most at this distance.
But several days into their journey, Ukyou has to admit he was wrong. Gen has mellowed out a lot since meeting Senkuu—still dramatic, yes, but more prone to be dramatic in Senkuu’s direction than anyone else’s—and the scientist himself has a lab on the ship to occupy his time. Which means that for the first four nights, it’s blissfully quiet.
It’s genuinely the best sleep he’s had since waking up in the Stone World. A fucking miracle. He’s not ashamed to admit he cries the first time he wakes up after seven hours of undisturbed, restful sleep.
Of course it couldn’t last.
On the fifth night, there’s a faint murmuring coming from Senkuu and Gen’s room when Ukyou makes his way to his room for the night. It’s not overly loud—they have the most awareness of volume moderation out of anyone onboard—but Ukyou’s hearing is exceptional.
Too exceptional.
“Quantum superposition,” Gen says, smug. Ukyou raises a brow; Gen is smart, incredibly clever in his own way, and a master in manipulative psychology, but he’s repeatedly said that he’s not one for complex science the way that Senkuu is.
Senkuu, apparently, is equally surprised.
“Do you even know what that means?” he asks, voice strained a bit.
“Senkuu-chan!” Gen gasps in mock offense. “Of course I do.”
There’s a small sound, like someone’s having the air punched out of them, and Ukyou briefly wonders if that’s what Senkuu sounds like when he’s trying to hold in a laugh, or if Gen has just flopped over his back again as he’s prone to, and Senkuu’s struggling to hold them both upright.
“Tell me, then.” The words are all but groaned out.
Gen’s definitely throwing his weight around, Ukyou thinks, huffing quietly to himself. It’s sometimes strange, how Senkuu—who is the least touchy person Ukyou knows—just lets Gen be as tactile as he wants. Then again, Gen doesn’t really get touchy with anyone else, so maybe they really are a match made in heaven.
“Superposition is the ability of a quantum system—” Gen’s voice wavers here, not much by anyone else’s standards, but odd for him “—to be in multiple states at the same time until it is measured.”
Ukyou’s brows go up again. He can’t say he knows enough about physics to confirm that Gen’s definition is right, but it certainly sounds more science-y than anything he’d expect Gen to know—especially outside of psychology.
There’s also something about Gen’s voice right now that’s tickling at the back of his mind. Something it reminds him of that he can’t quite put his finger on—
“Of course you know Schrodinger’s cat,” Senkuu rasps out, and Gen laughs, light, airy.
“Actually, I was thinking of Young’s double slit experiment—”
“Ahh.” It could pass for an agreement, but right then, Senkuu almost sounded like he was…moaning?
No, Ukyou brushes off the thought. They’re having an intellectual discussion. Not—
“—to demonstrate light waves, which is now used to explain how electrons create interference patterns,” Gen says, and his voice has gone a slightly higher pitch, breathier, and yeah, actually it reminds Ukyou of the one time he heard Gen getting himself off back in Tsukasa’s empire, except that would be crazy—
Is it really that surprising that Senkuu likes to talk science in bed? Ukyou asks himself. No. Not really.
And Gen does, kind of, seem like the type to get off on making their partner feel good, so, yeah, Ukyou doesn’t need to hear how this ends. Like at all.
The earplugs the science and crafts team put together before the voyage are tucked safely under Ukyou’s pillow and he pulls them out now, tucking them securely into his ears as fast as possible. He’s not quite fast enough to block out hearing one last, soft whine, but soon the sound around him is cut off nearly entirely.
It’s just him in his room. The sound of his own heartbeat and nothing else.
Peace.
At last.