Type: Novel Translation
Title: Back Stage!!
Series: Love Stage!!
Author/Circle: Eiki Eiki, Amano Kazuki
Rating: NC-17
Language: English
Notes: In light of the upcoming anime in July, we’ll be working hard to get the rest of Volume 1 out over the next few months, so please tune in! I (fencer_x) will be taking over the translation from our hard-working scanner amyused, who’d been handling it thus far. Hope you enjoy!
This time: Rei awakens to some very unwelcome feelings…and does something he regrets.
Feel free to check out the book in-progress on Pressbooks!
Chapter 2 (cont.)
The next morning came.
“Good morning, Rei-kun,” Seiya called as Rei wandered into the living room carrying the breakfast he’d helped the housekeeper prepare to the dining room table, and Rei’s shoulders twitched in surprise.
“…Good morning,” he managed to reply, but he couldn’t bring himself to face Seiya head-on, his mind still replaying his fanciful imaginings of Seiya from the night before. It felt like if their eyes met, Seiya would see right through him and be devastated with disappointment in him.
And yet…
“Rei-kun? You’re not looking so good…are you feeling all right?” Seiya drew closer to the dining table, calling out to Rei suddenly and lifting a hand to his head, as if to take his temperature.
Rei froze stiff as a board at the unexpected brush of flesh, eyes going wide with shock.
“Hmm, doesn’t feel like you have a fever…” As he mumbled to himself, though, Seiya’s breath brushed over Rei’s cheek—and that was it.
“…!!” He felt the blood in his veins begin to boil, and his heart was pounding a thudding tattoo in his chest, setting his entire body to shivering.
‘…Oh no…’
“I—I’m sorry, I’m not feeling well. I’ll be resting in my room today!” And with that, he fled the living room, confining himself within the walls of his own room and flinging himself onto his bed, just as he’d done the night before. “Why…?!”
His heart wouldn’t stop its pounding, and his whole body felt so hot. He wanted to weep. “I can’t do this… This is wrong…!” And yet all the same, his hand crept down to his groin, unsnapping the buttons to his pants and sliding down the zipper.
“Ah…” Somewhere along the way, he’d already started to stiffen. “You’ve gotta be kidding me…!” He couldn’t believe himself. It had been nothing more than a brush of breath over his cheek—for that to make him like this was just… And to make matters worse, it was over Seiya, the man he revered beyond anyone else. The man he wanted to be happy more than anyone else. That beautiful, angelic man.
And here he’d gone and imagined that person in all manner of sexual situations, feeling these sorts of dirty desires for him…it was sacrilege!
Yet all the same, his body rebuffed the desires of his heart as his hand slipped under the hem of his underwear. “Haa-ah…”
Seiya’s hand against his forehead…his breath along Rei’s cheek… It was hardly the first time Rei had experienced either, but the moment they overlapped with the image of Seiya he had in his mind, an almost violent pleasure began to bloom.
“No…no….!” he whimpered softly, but he couldn’t stop his hand from groping between his legs. It felt amazing, better than any sexual experience he’d yet had. “Why…why is this…”
His squeezed softly at his shaft, already glistening with precum, and began to massage the hard length up and down. In the back of his mind rose images of those strangely-colored eyes and the sound of that lovely voice calling his name. “Aah—nn…nngh…!”
He climaxed in short order, but with his release came fat, wet tears dripping from his eyes. “‘m…so…rry, Seiya-san…so sorry…”
It was here that he finally realized…that he loved Seiya. And not love in the sense of a son towards a father—but romantic, sexual love. “How did this…why…?”
He had no clue when he’d started to see Seiya that way, but…maybe it had been from the moment he’d heard the man sing. Maybe all this time, he’d just been trying to convince himself it was love for a father from a child.
‘…I didn’t want to realize it…’
After all, Seiya already had Nagisa, and more so, Rei was a man.
But the biggest problem now…was that if Seiya ever found out how Rei felt about him—Rei would no longer be able to live here together with him.
“No…I don’t want that. I want to be by his side forever…!” He didn’t care if Seiya didn’t love him in a romantic sense; he just wanted to be needed, to help Seiya. He wanted to pour his whole heart into making Seiya happy. Even if it was wrong to feel the things he did for Seiya, the vow he’d made that day he’d stepped through the door had been true.
“I…will keep this secret, at all costs.” If that was what it took for him to stay by Seiya’s side, then so be it, and vowing to tamp down for the rest of his life these feelings he’d only just begun to recognize, he slipped off the bed to wash the hands he’d dirtied with his passion.
Two months passed, and then one August day, Rei found himself at the airport, bidding, “Well, I’m off now!”
Except he wasn’t the one boarding a plane; he’d only come here to see off Seiya, Nagisa, and Izumi, who were using their summer vacation time to head to Fukuoka to visit Nagisa’s family and do some grave tending. Rei had been invited along as well, initially, but he’d instead promised to watch over the house and stayed behind alone. With the housekeeper for SenaPro also taking her summer vacation now, the house would be otherwise unoccupied.
Ever since that day, Rei had worked to keep a calm, relaxed exterior while consoling himself with thoughts of Seiya when he found himself alone at night. His desire to stay by Seiya’s side for always hadn’t changed—but having to hide his feelings for the man was starting to take an emotional toll. It helped nothing that this was something he couldn’t even discuss with the one person he trusted more than anyone else.
As such, when the opportunity presented itself for him to be alone for a while, he leapt, thinking that it might not be such a bad thing, spending some quality time with himself.
“Have a nice flight; do take care.” He waved the trio off in the departure lobby before exiting the building and heading back to the Sena home in the car alone.
Stepping into the quiet, empty genkan and locking the door behind him, Rei felt as if a great weight had finally been lifted from his shoulders. “Guess it’s good to let the air out of the tires now and then huh…” With these words, he soothed the guilty knot lodged in his chest and headed for the living room.
It was empty—which wasn’t abnormal; about this time on most weekdays when Seiya and Nagisa were working and Izumi was at school, Rei often found himself alone here. So it shouldn’t have feelt strange, and yet…
“…Something…feels kind of ‘off’…” Thinking about how no one would be back for a long while made the space feel…so empty. But Rei had spent 18 years with that sense of loneliness before he ccame here. It was the past 8 months which had been out of the ordinary, when he stopped to think about it.
“Maybe Seiya-san felt the same way…” His easy approval of Rei’s suggestion that he stay behind may have been founded on the belief that if this was what Rei truly wanted, then he should have it. He’d taken into consideration the fact that Rei had been alone all this time and understood that he needed some time to himself now and then.
This was Seiya, so that was a more than logical explanation; Seiya always had a knack for giving Rei just what he wanted. Though unfortunately…he couldn’t give Rei the one thing he desired more than anything else…
Rei gave a wry smile at these thoughts. Even so far away from Seiya, his thoughts never seemed to leave the man. After all, the very reason he was here, alive right now, was all thanks to Seiya, so it was only natural.
But he finally had some time to himself, so he ought to take it easy and not worry about anything—so he headed to the kitchen to make himself an iced coffee.
To be continued…