Chapter 19: Connect It Together (6)
He felt like the train stopped, so he cracked open his eyes, but the movement of the train pulling out of the station roused him fully from his sleep.
“…Where are we?”
“We just left Shinagawa.”
“You should have woken me up.”
Sakae had slept deeply, a near blackout, due to the alcohol and exhaustion.
“Since we’re here, let’s take the train all the way to Tokyo Station. I’ve reserved a hotel room for us.”
“That’s a pain in the ass.”
“There was the option of getting off at Shinagawa and going for a massage though?”
“No way, just go home.”
It didn’t take long to arrive in Tokyo Station, and in between the buildings more stuffy and crowded than in Hiroshima, they could see the Tokyo Tower.
“…It sure feels like we’re back,” Shitara murmured.
Normally Sakae never thought of it as a radio tower, but today he felt relieved to see its red lights. Due to the large number of high-rise buildings that surrounded the tower, its height of over 300 meters could no longer provide complete broadcast coverage to the region. Would the day come when the Skytree at 600 meters tall would no longer reach the households again? Or would radio towers become obsolete before that ever happened?
The PA system on the train announced, “We will be arriving at the final stop shortly—Tokyo Station,” and Sakae offered Shitara a few words.
“Great work.”
“…Great work to you too.”
It had been a long work trip that went by in a flash. He didn’t think that everything was executed perfectly, but they each probably did everything that they could in their own ways.
The hotel was directly connected to the train station (seriously Shitara never let any oversights slip past him when it came to these sorts of things), so they immediately checked in and went to wash up. The days of taking a quick shower at the station were over, and it felt amazing to immerse his body into a tub full of hot water.
It had also been six days since he had lain in a bed. As Sakae enjoyed the soft pillow against his cheek, the silky linens, the give of the mattress supporting his entire body—he was struck with another bout of drowsiness. He was dozing off when Shitara came out of the bathroom and hugged him from behind as he lay on his side. Even with the bathrobes between them, the body warmth fresh from the bath gently heated his back and made his consciousness even more perilous, but he wasn’t likely to get any sleep as of yet.
“…You sure are energetic even though you didn’t get any sleep on the train.”
“Because I napped whenever important things were happening.”
Shitara’s hand undid the loosely-tied belt of the bathrobe and stroked the bare skin.
“Liar.”
“I’m just good at looking like I do work.”
“Quit pretending like you know how to navigate the world. It makes me laugh.”
“I’m not as catastrophically horrible at it like you though.”
The tip of Shitara’s nose tickled the back of Sakae’s neck, which wasn’t fully dry yet. It traced a path upwards, and when it reached the back of his ear, Shitara used the tip of his tongue to trace the curve, shaped like a Magatama bead. It was neither hot nor cold, but he wondered why the warm body fluid made him feel so aroused. Sakae could feel his breaths become damper against the pillow.
“Nnhhh…”
“And yet somehow we were able to survive as long as this.”
“You’ve got it wrong.”
“Hmm?”
“You were the one who made me live as long as this.”
At the time, Sakae couldn’t forgive Shitara for sacrificing himself for him. Shitara had been the one to reach out and grab Sakae, but then he shook Sakae off and tied a different thread between them. Sakae couldn’t forgive him, but he couldn’t completely cut things off between them either. That fragile connection between them was once again in Shitara’s hands. Sakae still felt frustrated about it, but at the same time, he also didn’t care to fight it anymore. If there was no way to break off this link between them, then fine, he would just give it all to him.
“My reason for living is to watch the things that Souma Sakae creates.”
“And if I stop making things?”
“I don’t think that it will happen, but I’m sure that it will make me sad,” Shitara replied, gently nibbling on an earlobe. “Especially since the person himself seems to deign to be with me.”
“You sure it won’t be pointless if I’m not working anymore?”
“Of course not.” Shitara tweaked a nipple. “It makes me angry to hear that.”
“Ahh.”
“I like your work because of you, Sakae, and there’s no one but you who can make works like that… It’s essentially the chicken or the egg. There may not be words that can convince you, but—I absolutely love you, Sakae.”
The confession poured directly into his ear made his drowsiness evaporate. Even though they had used the same body soap, Sakae felt like the scent of the air from Shitara was slightly different. The mild tingling from the fingertips that played with the little peak on his chest clearly turned to lust, and when pressed down and flattened, it swelled back up, tiny and sensitive as if inflated with air.
“Ahh… Nhh.”
It was modest compared to his arousal, but then Shitara used both hands to play with the pointed nubs that would discharge nothing. Rolled between the fingers, the motion seemed to generate a weak electricity. Maybe it would electrify him even to the ends of his hair. But it made him shudder just to have his belly stroked or to feel a hot breath at the back of his neck.
“Nnnh.”
While Shitara sucked at the soft skin behind his ear, he slid a hand down Sakae’s torso and seized his cock. At first Shitara wrapped just a thumb and index finger around the base, stroking it up to mid-shaft, and that was enough for his arousal to rear its head and make itself known. As the blood rushed down and Sakae hardened, the movements grew larger, stroking the full length up and down again.
“Ngh… Hah…”
Sakae curled in on himself without thinking, and Shitara sucked sharply at the bony spot at the back of his neck. The slight pain made the sensations in his lower body feel even more acute. It wasn’t like Sakae wanted to control Shitara’s ministrations, but he grabbed the arm around his waist and rubbed it—almost in encouragement, almost to restrain it.
“…This good?”
“Mnmmhh…”
It wasn’t clear to Sakae what he was asking—whether it felt good or whether Shitara could keep this up—but when Sakae nodded and exposed his throat, Shitara nuzzled at the back of the neck with his head. The sense of animalistic playfulness as an extension of their intimacy made the chandelier in the room sparkle quietly. Sakae thought that it was actually nice to occasionally pick up the faint sounds of the announcements from the train station.
“I guess it’s about time for the last trains,” Shitara chuckled.
Perhaps Shitara was thinking the same thing. They were having sex at a place that sucked people up and spit others out and brought them together.
“Ahh.”
A single finger covered in precome pushed into him from behind. It wasn’t enough to stretch him out fully, but the moisture was sufficient to pump the foreign extremity in and out of him—probing his insides and gauging his reactions.
“Nnhh— Ahh…”
Shitara stroked Sakae’s front with the same rhythm. He was like an overstretched string, and each time he was plucked, the pleasure overwhelmed him. The ring of fingers wrapped around his cock tightened up, and Sakae’s hole clamped down on the finger inside him. There was no end to the pleasure as it repeated itself, but there was a limit to how much his body could take. Whether it was through his blood vessels, his muscles, or even his internal organs—he could feel the trembling beat of his pulse. When Shitara deliberately traced the part directly connected to his physiology as a man, his toes twitched around like a fish.
“Ah, aaahh.”
Sakae accepted the onslaught of caresses aimed specifically at the very sensitive tip, all while deep back-and-forth motions took him from behind. There was no stopping this train as it sped towards its final destination. There was no way to catch up to it. The road was cut off in front of him, and he tasted a climax like he was thrust into midair.
“Aaah…!”
The gravity disappeared from Sakae’s surroundings for just a brief moment. After that, the first thing that he noticed was the sensation of his spent cock. However, this was not the end at all. For Sakae, sex was not an act where he ejaculated and called it a day.
“Turn and face me.”
Sakae was turned onto his back, and Shitara spread his legs apart and leaned into him. Sakae pushed Shitara’s shoulder to hold him off and ripped away the half-disheveled bathrobe that he wore.
“What’s wrong?”
“It’s in the way.”
Sakae urged Shitara to take his off too, so Shitara removed his bathrobe, pressed their naked bodies together, and brought his lips down to Sakae’s.
“…I can finally have my fun now,” Shitara whispered, so close that Sakae could feel the movements of his mouth before Shitara kissed him hot and heavy. He devoured Sakae’s mouth with an intensity that could be called merciless. Shitara didn’t seem to care if saliva got all over themselves; he just ignored it and stole Sakae’s breath away. They tangled their tongues together, sucking at each other, their teeth sometimes clashing as if biting each other. Sakae felt a hunger-like urgency in both what he wanted and what he could give.
It wasn’t enough. More. Faster. Faster. He wanted to sink in this forever.
“Nnhh—”
Shitara circled his tongue inside Sakae’s mouth as if he was sweeping the place for intruders. He seemed to be satisfied for the time being and went to suck at his throat and collarbones before kissing the nipples that he had thoroughly teased.
“Ah.”
The caresses dyed them into a color different from the fingers. Did Shitara plan to use his eyes and mouth to inspect the hardened little buds that he had groped? Every time he flicked each of them willfully with his tongue, pleasure squirmed deeper within Sakae’s body than it did on the surface of his skin. The arousal that grew within him heated up his lower body again, and when Shitara took him into his mouth, Sakae nearly boiled over all at once.
“Nnh, aaahhh!”
Shitara licked him slowly upward as if to show Sakae the precise form of his strained arousal before sucking down on the blood-engorged tip. If it had been a simple act of stimulation to get him hard, Sakae would be able to hold out since he had just come, but with Shitara tracing his hole with a dollop of saliva, Sakae immediately became a puddled mess.
“Ahhh… nhh, ahh, ahh.”
Maybe Shitara had noticed the state of Sakae’s cock, strained and trembling, but he interrupted the blow job and slipped his tongue deeper into him.
“…Nnnh!”
Shitara took meticulous care to slicken the back while he touched the front with leisurely strokes. Sakae shuddered as he was licked directly inside, but it could have easily disguised itself as pleasure had Shitara used his fingers to unravel his weak spot. The natural rejection of his body was quickly placated, and the tight little space melted. The squelching sounds of his hole squeezing down was a more vivid description of Sakae’s lust than any words or moans that he could make.
“Aaah… Nhh, hurry up… and put it in… dammit…”
“Yeah?”
Shitara played dumb as he continued to use his fingers to tease the place that had long been stretched out to accept him.
“Fuck you.”
“But I’ve been holding out longer than you.”
“So what, ngh…”
Sexual denial is your own damn fetish.
“Men with an overfixation on foreplay are the worst.”
“It’s better than being rough though. Everyone has their individual differences when it comes to the degree of pleasure that they feel.”
“If you don’t hurry it up, I’ll get myself off and sleep.”
“Liar.”
Shitara twisted his fingers, sudden and deep. With a motion that knew very well that Sakae would feel no pain from it.
“Aaah!”
“It’s not enough for you to just get off, right?”
“Shut up.”
There was no strength in his legs, but Sakae tried to raise one and kick him, but Shitara easily caught it by the ankle.
“Hey, behave yourself, dammit,” Sakae complained.
“Uh, that’s supposed to be my line.”
But Shitara finally pulled his fingers out and positioned himself to put it in. As he clutched the sheets and looked down at Sakae, a bead of sweat dropped from the tip of his nose, and Shitara was probably seriously on the edge of bursting. Sakae quelled his irritation a little and decided he would align his hips to make it easier for Shitara.
“Thank you for your cooperation.”
“Quit running your mouth.”
“I’m just preventing myself from shooting off too early.”
It was like his hole was spiked with a weak poison. It tingled with a numbing paralysis, penetrated by the hardened shaft. Sakae didn’t need to see Shitara’s cock to know that it was so swollen that it couldn’t take another drop of blood.
“Ahh…”
It’s coming, he thought. Like he would just go off somewhere. They formed a pair together—the place that bloomed open from lust and the lust that filled him up—and Sakae felt like every speck of his body now belonged to Shitara. It didn’t make him pissed off or defiant, but at the same time, it didn’t fill him with rapt happiness about it. He basically just accepted it and thought, I guess that’s how it is. He started to realize that maybe it had always been that way from the beginning. Of course, it was nothing more than a side effect of this sex fever dream, and once his skin cooled, he would only remember the hazy remnants of a dream as if he had been tripping on something. But different from a dream was the fact that he could immerse into the same illusion over and over again. For as much as he wanted—as long as they tangled together like this.
“Sakae.”
“Ah, aaah!”
Shitara thrust up into Sakae without letting up, and Sakae lifted off from the sheets. Sakae wrapped both legs around Shitara’s waist, not to restrain him but to rock his hips more to the rhythm. And when he did so, the man’s heat, the pulsations rippled harder through his body.
“Hey, stop that.”
“Nnhh, ahh, don’t stop mee…”
“Quit goading me. I’m about to come.”
“Go ahead,” Sakae argued, grabbing Shitara’s upper arms, but Shitara complained that it was a waste as he rammed Sakae harder. Sakae held on tight with his legs that were almost like wet noodles and dug in his nails at the pleasure that poured continuously into him.
“Ahhh, aah, ah, aaah…”
Sakae threw out his chest, and in this position, his hardened little nipples seemed to beg for attention. Shitara used short quick strokes to pound his insides while the pads of his fingers rubbed at the spots. The cock raged even harder in the tightened clutch of his hole.
“Amazing, you can still squeeze down on me… I’m about to melt here.”
Sakae was the one about to melt here. With a heat, with a hardness that opened him up to his core and seduced him.
“Ahh—”
The involuntary pulses just before he exploded made goosebumps break out all over his skin. He wasn’t scared. He wasn’t cold. He was ecstatic. He was waiting for it. He wanted it so badly that it made his whole body boil.
Any moment now.
“Ahhh…!”
Shitara shoved his hips into Sakae greedily, to pour out every last drop into him, taking long breaths as he shuddered. He looked down at the body that he had poured all his heat into and placed his hand against Sakae’s cheek. Shitara brushed away the sweat, guiding the finger that tasted of salt into Sakae’s mouth
“Nnh.”
Sakae accepted the finger without a fight. He used teeth to nip at it lightly and tickled it with his tongue. When he sucked down on the finger, the warm flesh in his mouth, the finger pumped in and out with movements careful not to choke him. The sounds of intercourse seemed to fill the unfamiliar room once more. It was so quiet outside that it was unthinkable that they were in the middle of Tokyo. He almost suspected that they had been submerged underwater while they were preoccupied with sex. It was like they were in the eye of a storm, and it made Sakae happy to think that the two of them defiled the silence.
As Sakae sucked on the finger carefully, he could feel the cock still inside him gradually regain its heat and girth. Little by little, he was stretched open from the inside, and he felt a different sort of joy from the heated fierceness that overran his body.
“Ahh…”
Sakae thought that Shitara would probably start moving again, but instead, when Shitara was hard enough, he pulled out and flipped Sakae onto his stomach, ravishing the melted hole from behind.
“Ahh! …Ah, ahhhh.”
Shitara pressed his palm into Sakae’s lower back as if to check just how far he penetrated inside—all while he thrust into him with quick short strokes. He changed up the angles and rhythm, and Sakae’s body clamped down, greedy to capture the fresh pleasure wherever he could get it.
“Ah, aahh, ahh…”
Rocked and jostled around, Sakae started to lose his field of vision. But immediately after, Shitara stopped the movements lodged deep inside Sakae, ran his hands and fingers all over the curved arch of Sakae’s back, over the groove down the middle that resembled a rain spout, and showered kisses onto him like scattered raindrops. With every kiss, the site of their union became impatient and sucked harder at Shitara’s cock.
“Nnnh!”
A brief respite reached the depths that had been prodded and urged. Just when Sakae felt the sensation of precome surging from his cock, Shitara gripped his hips and rocked into him continuously, and Sakae had to grasp at the sheets.
“Break time’s over.”
“Ahhh… Take the break when we’ve actually finished, dammit…”
“Hey, it’s important to watch the pacing. Just like putting together a video.”
“Don’t bring up work at a time like this.”
“Because I never thought that you would ever say something like that to me, Sakae.”
“I can’t focus here— Nghh, nhhh!”
“Got it, I’ll pay attention now.”
“Aaah, aahhh…”
Under an onslaught of intense rubbing and pistoning motions, before Sakae realized it, he was at the center of a whirling storm. Every time Shitara thrust into him, he was plastered with another layer of arousal that grew more and more concentrated. He boiled over. He craved for more. His climax was right there, and it filled him from the top of his head to the tips of his toes like nothing was missing. A place where Sakae couldn’t go—not by himself, not with anyone other than Shitara. Connected by their heartbeats that seemed to scatter his soul throughout his body.
“Nnh…”
“Aaahhh…!”
Shitara pressed a hand on top of Sakae’s slackened one that made deep waves against the sheets. Sakae felt Shitara grip his hand tightly, and it all felt good—the weight on top of his body, the sweat that mingled together, the ragged breath that brushed against the back of his neck. He quietly stretched his neck down and pressed a kiss against the top of the hand. A mark of red bloomed between the rivers of blue veins.
When Sakae arrived at work, his personal documents box (which was basically a plastic case) was filled with six days worth of mail, documents, and newspapers. Just looking at the sight made him weary.
“I don’t want to return to reality.”
“We’ve been living in reality all along though.”
“It’s not like we went there to goof off,” Sakae said.
“That’s true,” Shitara laughed. “But when you look back at it afterwards, you realize what a valuable experience that desperate and extraordinary times can truly become.”
There was a brief pause between the statements. Probably because bitter memories still lingered in his head, and he couldn’t definitively say that it was true for everything. Of course, it was true for Sakae as well.
“I never want disasters to befall the country obviously, but I’m glad that we could be present for it at the time.”
“We don’t get paid for overtime or working on our days off.”
“Management positions do get a 10,000 yen allowance for business trips though.”1
“And if you convert it to an hourly rate, it’s well below 100 yen an hour. That’s even more exploitative than usual.”2
The staff members reported for work as they held their conversation.
“Good morning~ Oh! Welcome back.”
“Things must have been crazy over there. I’m glad to see you back.”
“I’m sure that it was crazy here too. Sorry that we had to leave you to fend for yourselves a few days. Was everything okay?”
“Yeah, it was pretty uneventful and quiet over here.”
“Oh, is that so?” Sakae commented. “I saw the broadcasts, you know. We’ll have a review meeting to cover the past 4 shows, so if any of you have anything on your minds, you better come up with your excuses now.”
“Eek…”
“So this is reality, hmm?” Strangely enough, Sakae reached the same opinion as Shitara. When he considered how the staff that they had left behind probably experienced their own extraordinary circumstances, it was pretty amusing to him.
“By the way, if you come up with an entertaining excuse, you’ll be forgiven.”
“What kind of system is that?”
“It’s humane, right?”
“But if it’s not entertaining, I feel like we’ll see a punishment that’s 3 times worse…”
“That sounds super high risk.”
Sakae ignored the concerns of the staff and started to sort through the documents in his box. He picked up the old newspapers first and saw stories about the torrential rains plastering the front pages when it had been at its peak. As he quickly skimmed through the ever-shifting headlines and contents, the flurry of events from the past few days replayed in a quick blur from the beginning.
It’s true. It’s valuable to experience desperation from time to time.
Sakae thought about voicing his agreement out loud, but Shitara’s profile appeared to be in exceedingly high spirits, so he changed his mind and thought, Forget about it. He was sure that something or another would happen again in the future.
And nothing would stop them then either.
“Sakae felt like every speck of his body now belonged to Shitara. It didn’t make him pissed off or defiant, but at the same time, it didn’t fill him with rapt happiness about it. He basically just accepted it and thought, I guess that’s how it is. He started to realize that maybe it had always been that way from the beginning.”
Sakae, you only now realized this???? Took you long enough!
LoL, Sakae forgiving the staff if they come up with an entertaining enough reason. He’s so weird!😂😂
There are two more extras included in this volume, and then a bunch of short extras posted online that I’ll also translate~
they’re really “connected” hm? in all senses of the verb XD
PRESSED ENTER AND THE COMMENT WAS SENT lol
I wrote this on Word… I don’t trust typing on pc anymore…
HHH the last chapters and extras 🥳
Sakae and Shitara had so much love from Author, you can see how much she loved writing about them (or maybe it’s because they ‘re my favorite couple :))
Ichiho-sensei writing is so eloquent I admire her AND YOU, gosh I always want to praise high up with your translation quality 🥰🥰
Thank you so much for the chapter!!
Oh, so Sakae and Shitara took the #1 spot in your heart out of the couples?? 😊😊😊
I’m so happy that you can sense Sensei’s beautiful writing through my translations. I am always admiring her prose in Japanese whenever I read her work, and very few authors compare to the depth of her writing style, imo. That is really the best praise that I can receive, so thank you~❤❤❤