Paired With Fate

Chapter Eight

Ichiro woke sprawled out upon his mattress and within a messy tangle. But unfortunately, he thought with an inward sigh, he was not tangled up with a woman. On the same note, yet a happier one, he was not interwoven with a man either.  Just his bed sheets, indicating that he had had yet another restless night. He was also suffering from a familiar affliction that had resumed its morning routine in the past couple of days, but was one that he was aware would not be easily resolved by hand; damn, he was beginning to miss those days where a few pumps using his right appendage would cause a somewhat premature response, but happy smiles all around.

A little reluctantly, he reached beneath his bed for one of those precious magazines from that point of his life, where things were simpler and he was just an ordinary teenaged boy with teenaged needs. The corners of it were bent and a little worn, indicating just how much it had been flicked through and a watermark marred a page or two from when he was careless and the liquid from his cup missed his mouth wetting him and the magazine. He'd been much more careful not to stain it with other ambiguous substances.

And now he echoed those days, where his eyes scanned each model in her full glory, with full curves and perfectly groomed features, but unlike then, his thing no longer saluted them. In fact, it peacefully deflated and became dormant. Ichiro tossed the magazine aside in frustration, lamenting once more; "Why me?"

He'd always been straight, always only eyed women from those first days when he had noticed that they were different. He favoured those who were soft and fragrant, with sparkling eyes and pretty lips. He'd assumed that he'd grow up to marry an understanding one in the future and if their luck was great, they'd even have a small child. He never considered that his gender would be an obstacle, so what if he could carry a man's child, he still had the ability to impregnate... even if chances were really small. But they weren't any poorer than an average Beta's chances!

But...

A tall ebony specimen muscled his way into the forefront of his mind once more. That chest was not in the least bit soft and those eyes didn't so much sparkle as smoulder. Sure he was fragrant enough, the deep tones of the forest seemed to exude from his skin and wrap around Ichiro's senses whenever he was nearby, but he wasn't what Ichiro wanted! His lower body felt otherwise and peaked in attention, undoing the only good those magazines could do for him now. He smacked his pillow a few times in frustration before heading for the shower.

Through the thin wall that divided them, the brothers upon the other side glanced at each other as they listened to Ichiro's muffled curses before he stomped out of the room towards the shower.  The noisy extractor fan began to hum loudly inside the small room before the hot water tank groaned as the water began to drain from it into the pipes and finally out of the shower head.

"Do you think that Ichiro is upset about something?" Saburo asked his older brother.

"Who knows," the other replied apathetically.

"But don't you think he's been like this since he stopped going out on dates?" Saburo questioned insistently.  "My girlfriends say that a man can get awfully frustrated when he's 'no longer getting any'."

"What is that supposed to mean?" Jiro asked with a slight frown.  He could deduce in what context the phrase 'no longer getting any' meant, however, he had never 'had any' to begin with and so he felt that the statement was nonsensical.

"I have no idea!" Saburo replied cheerfully.  "I thought you might know, seeing as you go to a private all boys school!"

"Isn't that like implying that because the school caters only to males that we are completely isolated from the opposite sex and therefore suffering mentally and physically from deprivation of romantic entanglements?" Jiro shook his head slightly.  He often wondered what sort of thoughts played within his younger brother's head... actually he'd thought that about Ichiro as well...  "A fair few of the student body have girlfriends you know.  Not to mention that there are likely a percentage of them in a relationship with the same sex. But I cannot say that they discuss the details of those relationships with me."