Fifty Shades of EraserMic (Shades of EraserMic #1)

Tie Me Up

Shouta wasn't a nosey person. He wasn't the type to put himself in a situation that didn't involve him personally and he didn't go out of his way to remedy certain situations if they didn't call for his presence. He did not put himself in other people's business; if someone wanted to go off and do something that didn't involve him then what did it matter to him? If he was to be involved, then he knew he would have been involved. If he was meant to know then he would have been told about it.

It was these little things that he was raised with during his childhood and youth by his mother and stepfather, hours spent telling him that he did not need to put himself out there to be nosey. He appreciated it, in a mangled and twisted way. However, no matter how many years he was raised not to be nosey and raised not to put himself in other people's business he couldn't help but find himself suspicious when Hizashi started leaving every night.

From six o'clock, right after dinner, he was flying out the door with a happy kiss on the head followed by a cheek rub for Eri, a ruffling of hair for Hitoshi, and a gentle kiss for him, then he was then out of the house until ten o'clock. Where the hell was Hizashi going that required him to be gone for four hours every night for the past week? Shouta didn't want to put himself in the blonde's business, didn't want to make him feel like he was smothering him or being annoyingly present over what he was doing but what else could he do?

He knew he should wait; knew he should just keep his head and wait until Hizashi was able to tell him. Wait, wait, wait. He had to wait. But he also didn't want to. He wanted to know NOW what he was running off to do every night and that resulted in him coming home with a heady, thick scent of incense on him. Especially when he knew damn well that Tensei, Nemuri nor Yagi used incense, so he clearly wasn't going to their places.

He hated that he felt suspicious, that he was pacing the floor most nights when the man left fighting the urge to fly after their car just to see where he was going. He wanted to let Hizashi go about his business, whatever it was, on his own and yet it was driving him crazy. His husband had secrets that he didn't divulge most of the time; everyone did. Every single person had a secret they would rather die than let out into the world and Shouta was no better.

He didn't want to make Hizashi angry or upset again, however. Not when they were finally falling back into what he hoped was their normal routine again. They had talked for hours that following weekend after the degradation, about the choking gone wrong incident, and even if they rehashed the elements of that day, they still talked about it. Talked until they decided to research, even take classes before they indulged in a kink if that's what it required.

So, this led to their normal sex routine as well; something that strangely enough felt- well, not bland but certainly not as interesting as the kinky sex they'd been having. He's sure he would be in a strait jacket if they didn't do even that while the blonde was leaving for four hours every night, but it still screamed for the question he wasn't asking. Where was Hizashi going every day at six only to return at ten?

It was the biggest, unspoken question between them, but Shouta really didn't want to come across as suspicious or paranoid, so he held his tongue and didn't ask. He instead focused on their adoptive children, focused on his class of literal problem children, and he focused on his grading, the afterschool tutoring he sometimes offered to his children and the patrols he took at night. Anything and everything to keep from asking the question.

Yet he wanted to know. This is where it led in present time; Shouta in the bedroom, pacing the floor in front of their TV so quickly and with such force did his feet strike the floor that the TV screen wobbled lightly but he hardly cared. Couldn't care. He had had enough. He was done waiting, done holding his tongue, done with not questioning his husband as he should have when he started disappearing like that after dinner.