Walking
Barefoot
The
ZERO System was still ringing in his ears as he sat down at the cafeteria
table. The entire room seemed unreal,
as though it were a hologram that his body happened to be placed within, the
weight of his own legs, shoulders, and head an anchor in a sea of insubstantial
illusion. He knew he had conquered it
finally, used it to their advantage; it still ripped his mind open and filled
his ears with a furious roar. It was
like seeing a tsunami coming at you, dumbly watching the wave of destruction
without moving; you had to turn around, let it hit your back, and run in its
direction to survive. Not get caught up
and drown as it overtook you, sinking to the bottom with your ravaged, broken
body still struggling for purchase somewhere in the mire.
Quatre
felt that he was still at the head of the wave, rushing with it, and then it
had finally ceased in its driving force.
He had been deposited like a wasted wanderer from an accident on some
high bank, and as the water subsided, the calm that followed was filled with the
imaginary sound of birds calling overhead and a lazy warm sun that tingled
where his body had stopped bleeding and stinging. In this small span of time, it felt safe to close his eyes and
wander in and out of sleep, unaccountable for whatever drifted through his
head.
But
he knew it would happen again. So he
tried to slowly pick himself up, clutch at the solid realness of the physical
objects around him: the flat metal table, the circular stool he was sitting on,
the cold, wet soda can his fingers were clutched around hard enough to leave
indentations. He would relax them when
he realized that the tension was mounting in his body all over again, and the
aluminum would pop back into place after a moment. He needed to relax, to maintain control over the sensation. It wasn’t painful, but made him very dizzy,
as if he had been spinning around staring up into a blank sky and then passing
out because his brain didn’t know which way was up or down anymore.
The
condensation from the can dripped over his index finger; he absentmindedly took
a small sip and choked the sweet taste of orange down his throat. He thought sugar might do him some good,
kickstart his body again.
“Sugar
probably won’t do you much good,” Heero said from where he had been standing
across from Quatre, leaning against the wall with his arms crossed.
“Can’t
hurt to see what happens,” Quatre replied sheepishly, and then just lowered his
gaze again to stare into the mouth of the open can again. It was still almost full. “Besides, I like orange soda.”
“Hn,”
Heero said as if he were musing on the statement, “I don’t.” Then added, “How does it feel not to have it
drive you...” he let his sentence trail off.
He always was economical with words.
“Tiring.” Perhaps it wasn’t the most accurate description,
but Quatre didn’t feel like attempting to verbalize the dizzy feeling on top of
his efforts to escape the mental space he was currently trapped within. The imaginary seagulls cried woefully in his
ears.
“This
is almost over,” Heero replied in a resolute tone. He sounded as if he were wedded to the statement, not so much due
to the fact that he hoped it would end, but more that he knew it would. No speculation needed. Quatre, who by the courtesy of his mental
tidal wave had the opportunity to possess a slightly more comprehensive vision
into the future, agreed with him.
He
took another sip. It went down more
easily than the last.
“How
do you feel about dying?” he asked conversationally, and he could feel Heero’s
eyes trained on him carefully as the words were uttered. Quatre’s disinterested voice caught his
attention, the complete lack of regret or fear.
“Now
that we have a strategy,” Heero replied in an unperturbed tone of voice, “I
think that it’s more unlikely.”
Maybe
he was right; maybe discussing death versus motivation to live versus the
ambivalent meaning of being a Gundam pilot was a tired topic of
conversation. But Heero tacked on a
question.
“Is
there something you know that we don’t?” he asked.
“Not
really,” Quatre replied. “But I’m still
a little afraid of dying...” he hesitated momentarily, and then finished, “And
I think you are too.”
The
words hung in the air precariously as the tension in the room, which hadn’t
formerly been there, increased tenfold, as if a buzzing light bulb was on the
verge of burning out, though Heero showed nothing of it in his outward
appearance. Quatre shrugged.
“Or
maybe not,” he said in a tired voice that sounded indifferent. He shifted in his seat as Heero uncrossed
his arms slowly, dropped them to his sides, and moved forward to sit down
across from Quatre. He settled on the
stool and looked at him quizzically, interested in the unexpected comment.
“Why
did you say that?” Heero asked. His
voice was cautious, possibly even defensive, and laced with a dark note.
Quatre
knew he was right about Heero. What did
he have to lose by saying it? If they
all died in the final battle, there was no point in holding back his thoughts
in conversations with the more taciturn members of their group. He admitted, he was interested in the
others, the more time they spent together, these other pilots that had been
near-strangers until their occasional meetings with one another, usually
following a highly tragic or dramatic event.
He was interested in the smaller machinations of every day conversation;
it made him feel normal. Even if Heero
Yuy didn’t like small talk.
“Because
I see it,” he replied simply. The
statement held no judgment or conclusive opinions about Heero’s motives. The way he said it was an admission that he
could have been completely wrong, but he didn’t seem too concerned. It was just what he saw. And he liked Heero. In fact, he liked all of them. Despite himself, he wanted to know them
after the war; he felt a kinship with them, regardless of all of their vast
differences.
He
shot a sincere look Heero’s way, and was faced with a confused, searching
gaze. Heero’s interest latched him into
the conversation like a barbed fish hook that was then unable to disengage.
“How
did you know I could handle it?” Quatre asked.
“I
didn’t,” Heero immediately replied. “But we had no other choice, and you’re not
weak.”
He
had certainly acted confident that Quatre could handle it, though more
important was why the Sandrock pilot
had found that confidence reassuring and made him believe that it would work
out. Some part of Heero’s faith in his ability
to master the ZERO System was probably the result of a lot of training, the
grooming of a skill to convince other people of things they may not believe
themselves. But there was something
else as well; Quatre didn’t respond to blind strategy from other people. He always recognized it, knew that their
intentions weren’t sincere so much as a ploy to make things work out in their
favor, or in a way that they believed to be best.
Heero
had believed, on a very unreliable, human level, that he could depend on
Quatre. And even though it was crystal
clear that Heero was in it for the long haul to win for the colonies, for
humanity, and to fulfill his role as soldier to the fullest extent, it led
Quatre to realize that he also wanted to win for himself, and survive. Heero had found hope. There were people that mattered to him, and
Quatre assumed that it hadn’t always been that way. He knew that something had changed.
Now
the entire concept of Heero dying seemed very unfair – that his one shot at the
experience of being human was for a very short time, on a war ship in the middle
of space, with only the company of four others just like him whom had all had
the opportunity to at least find someone they wanted to protect. Even Trowa, who had a similar history to the
Wing pilot’s. But Heero’s transition
had been late, even in his relationship with Relena whom he had still
considered assassinating when she was a puppet as the “Queen of the World”.
Quatre
thought that such a difficult change must have hurt in very a fundamental
way. He would have assumed that
something inside of the other pilot would have been irreparably damaged by
then; but with or without his training, maybe Heero was inherently stronger
than the forces that tried to bend and break him. Maybe in the long run, if he had never been trained to act solely
as a weapon, it would have been a similar identity he discovered due to his own
innate nature: that he was strong, and kind.
“Heero,”
he said, emerging from his thoughts, “have you ever been with someone?”
The
other pilot faced him with a surprised, guarded expression. It seemed like the last thing he had
expected to be asked; part of Quatre wondered if Heero even knew what he meant.
“No,”
was the firm response. He said it in a
flat tone which provided no insight into his thoughts on the subject, and
Quatre wondered if it was because he was ashamed, or if he simply didn’t care
because it had never been a priority.
“Or
with a guy?” Quatre added slowly. “Do you know what you like?”
Heero
suddenly looked very lost, caught off guard by the impromptu conversation, and
just raised his eyebrows for a minute.
Quatre realized that he was probably the only person who had ever
broached the topic with Heero; he could have been wrong, but he didn’t think so
judging from Heero’s reaction. He didn’t
seem to be hiding anything; instead, he looked thoughtful, as if waiting for
the full magnitude of the conversation to strike him square in the face.
“No,”
he repeated, and now he appeared more curious than cautious.
They
looked at each other for a moment until Heero felt Quatre’s hand under the
table catch his own. Their hands
linked, and the blond pilot looked at him seriously.
“Tell
me to stop if you don’t like it,” he said, and then slid under the table out of
sight. Heero found him again very
quickly as he felt silky hair brush against his knees. Then there was a strong, firm touch that ran
over the backs of his calves, up his legs and stopped at his thighs. He shifted a little, unsure of how to react.
Quatre
paused in his ministrations under the table for a moment, and then both of his
hands were pushing Heero’s legs apart.
The other man let him do it as something hot twisted in his stomach and
then dropped lower into his body as Quatre pushed his palm against where
Heero’s cock was.
Heero
let out a sharp hiss of air and then a burst of sound that seemed lodged in the
back of his throat, unable to fully emerge.
He had never felt anything like this, had never been touched by another
person for any other reason than cleaning wounds or mending bones. He felt hot breath between his legs and
something that sounded like a trapped whine come out of his mouth. He heard the crunch of metal as he curled a
fist around the half-full soda can, his hands seeking out the nearest thing
they could find to grip as hard as he could.
Quatre
heard the crunch and constrained whimper too; he didn’t know whether it was a
good or bad sign, but since Heero hadn’t said anything, he didn’t stop.
Instead
he leaned forward again, this time lightly biting the inside of Heero’s thigh,
very close to that one crucial point which had brought about the death of a
soda can. The texture of the spandex in
his mouth made him feel as if he were biting into some strange fruit that possessed
an unbreakable skin; the fabric was warm from Heero’s body. He bit at it again, this time a little
harder, and then hooked his hands around the backs of Heero’s knees.
Another
sound, and then the shifting of legs and feet which were rooted firmly to the floor
like a stubborn tree afraid of tumbling over in a strong wind. Quatre caught view of Heero’s beat up shoes
in his peripheral vision, and they seemed to tell Heero’s tale more effectively
than any explanation ever could. It was
a long, sad story; it was a meaningful, and had a lot of significant points to
it, and realizations, and people. But
they still said: We’ve come a long way.
And he wondered if there would ever be a time when Heero could untie those
worn laces, tuck the threadbare sneakers away, and stop running. He hoped so.
He
slipped his fingers under the edge of Heero’s shorts and ran them up his leg
until they were bunched enough that he couldn’t go any farther, and he brought
his face very close to the same place and breathed hotly again. It was time to figure out exactly where this
was going; it was Heero’s choice.
He
drew away, but Heero’s legs stayed where they were, even when the heat had
disappeared, and the smooth, cool texture of Quatre’s hair had retreated back
to the other side of the table, and Heero met his eyes as he re-appeared. They faced each other for a long time.
Quatre
half-smiled at him, raised his eyebrows in a look that was a cross between coy
and earnest, maybe even hesitant, belying the audacity of his actions. It wasn’t a sad, long-suffering smile, but
seemed easy and genuine. Heero was not
put at ease however; something inside of him was resisting, and he recognized
the uncomfortable sensation of vulnerability.
This was something he had learned to avoid long ago.
He
tried to reason it out, but failed. It
just couldn’t be that simple. His body
was saying yes, yes, yes, his thoughts and emotions were swirling wildly
inside his head, and he felt like a violent tornado without any intended path,
slowly growing larger and larger. It all
happened right in the center of his chest, a storm no one could see, as if the
only way to alleviate the pressure was to simply explode into very small
pieces. In fact, he knew the feeling
all too well; he had already been blown up a few times, literally as well as
metaphorically.
“It’s
not that complicated.”
He
was wrenched out of his conflicted thoughts. “What?”
Quatre
shrugged a little. “I said it’s not that complicated,” he repeated. But it was complicated, at least in the emotional
terrain, but for the purposes of the then and there, it was relatively
simple.
“Do
you like it, or not?”
It
seemed like such a straightforward question, and it was. Deceptively simple – yes or no? Pain/pleasure, joy/fear, desire/repulsion,
friend/foe. It all seemed simple, but
it never was. To be a weapon which was
incidentally constructed of biological parts would have worked perfectly in a
world programmed with 1=true, 2=false.
But the world was complex, and agonizingly imperfect. The fact that he was made up of human parts
was not incidental, and it was not something he could ignore; inside, he wasn’t
a set of cogs, and springs, and artificial intelligence. He wasn’t something designed to respond to a
light source simply because the program informing his actions told him to. Once a machine ceased to function on “yes”
and “no” answers and moved on to “maybe” or “I don’t know”, things got a little
hazy. But Heero liked hazy, because he
wasn’t a machine, and no amount of re-training could ever change that.
Maybe
the answer to Quatre’s question wasn’t a simple yes, but he knew it certainly
wasn’t no. He realized right then that
he felt an ache between his legs, still spread open under the table as if
anticipating something that had never arrived.
He also felt a flutter somewhere else, somewhere deeper.
So
he said, “I think so.”
Quatre
broke their gaze and stood up. The
sound of his footsteps were soft and unobtrusive as he came to stand next to
Heero, and put a hand on the back of the other pilot’s neck. His fingers were calloused, but his palm was
very soft, and Heero felt something gentle for the first time. It made him feel empty, and something in his
throat tightened.
“Come
with me,” Quatre said in a tone as gentle as his touch. It lacked condescension or pity. In fact, his voice was very careful, and
kind, but also infused with lust.
He
went with him. They ended up in Quatre’s
quarters, identical to Heero’s, four metal walls, a ceiling, and floor wrapped
around a small bed and shelf. Just the
two of them. Heero found it difficult
to breathe under the weight of Quatre’s intent look as they stood there after
the door had been closed. They hadn’t
passed anyone on their way in, and for some reason, Heero was relieved. He didn’t want anyone to know what was
happening, didn’t even want to know himself on some level; it would force him
to process the repercussions all at once, so instead he just stood there,
staring.
They
were almost the same height, give or take an inch, but Quatre seemed much
taller than he actually was as he moved closer to Heero. His eyes were very clear and blue, and
reflected fragments of different emotions: worry, desire, and resolve. His eyebrows rose and he offered Heero a
questioning look. It asked what he
wanted.
“I...” Heero heard himself stutter. He didn’t know if he had ever stuttered
before. He had certainly felt
indecision, but this was different.
Before he could figure out how to fix it, Quatre closed the distance
between them effortlessly with two steps and a strong hand which pulled Heero’s
body against his own.
“Like
I said before,” he repeated as two of his fingers stroked a short line along
Heero’s spine and seemed to make an indiscernible promise, “if you don’t like
something, tell me.”
“Okay.” Heero’s mouth went dry.
Quatre
kissed him; it felt odd. Heero
immediately made a strange noise and the other pilot drew away to look at him
in surprise. Then he laughed a little
when he saw Heero’s expression, and the tension which had built up in his body
completely dissipated. He looked at him
warmly, and something pleasant curled in Heero’s chest. For a moment he actually felt comfortable.
“Maybe
kissing should always be last,” he said. “Maybe just as a general rule for
everyone.”
“You’ve...”
Heero searched for the words, “done this a lot?”
Quatre
shrugged a little. “I wouldn’t say a lot.”
But
it remained a fact that he certainly had done it at some point, though with
whom or what gender was a mystery. Not
that Heero felt any particular need to know; the importance of his own sexual
orientation hadn’t even occurred to him until about half an hour ago. At least not in the form of a full-fledged
question that took center stage in his thought process.
Quatre
leaned forward again before Heero could finish his thought and kissed him a
little differently, a little more urgently, and Heero didn’t have time to try
and see whether it felt odd. It just
felt wet, and hot, and his mouth was opening and he felt his fingers stiffen,
but fought the urge to curl them into fists.
Even
when Quatre’s hands, still in the form of a light, careful touch, found their
way to his back and down to his ass, he just tried to relax. It did feel good when he stopped thinking
about it so much. He found that he
actually wanted Quatre to touch him, and something began to build inside of him
in a very pleasing, desperate, wanton way.
Not even piloting a Gundam had held quite the same experience of feeling
like his body was making its own decisions, that his mind was somewhere far
behind, trying to keep up with what was going on.
Quatre
was behind him now, his own hips pushed up against Heero’s ass, and his hands
were splayed across the Wing pilot’s chest.
He bit his shoulder hard, but when Heero opened his mouth nothing came
out. There was another bite, and
another, in different places, and he felt like his skin had burst into flame,
and that every part of him wanted to burn very brightly.
His
voice found air and he moaned. Then
breathlessly said, “Do it again.”
Quatre
did it again, and then his fingers pinched one of Heero’s nipples tightly
enough to hurt. The pain wasn’t the same
kind of pain that Heero was used to, and in a way it was more alarming. Quatre’s hands were warm where they had come
to rub against his skin under the fabric of his shirt and attack his chest, and
he found the warmth strangely soothing.
Another person was touching him because they wanted to. It still didn’t seem to compute.
“You
know... you’re very attractive, Heero,” Quatre’s voice said quietly into his
ear. It was one of those statements
that was designed to inform, as if the Sandrock pilot knew that no one had ever
told him.
“Hn,”
he replied syllabically, but the sound was meditative. He had never stopped to consider the
aesthetic qualities of the world around him, neither of people nor places. He thought about Quatre, what they were
doing, and put the ideas together than people did this kind of thing with other
people that they found attractive. But
maybe there was more to it than that, like wanting to live while being ready to
die. These things that existed in the
ambivalent world Heero had come to know, and begun to participate in.
There
would be more time to think later, after Quatre was no longer there to pinch
and bite him, and take away any semblance of order in his mind. His shirt had come off and he felt Quatre
licking and nipping at the small of his back where the other pilot had bent
down behind him, slowly making his way back up toward Heero’s neck, and then
grabbed at his hips tightly and jerked them in small movements back against his
own body. Heero could feel Quatre’s cock
behind him, hard and real, very much there.
The world was centered on that point of contact for a moment until the
blond pilot stepped away to face him.
He
was flushed, and his light hair was falling into his eyes which were normally
an equally light shade of blue, but now they had darkened slightly. He bit his lip a little, and took one of
Heero’s hands in his own, wrapped it around his body, and stepped in close.
Heero
didn’t know exactly what to do with his hand which was now pressed against
Quatre’s back, the cool fabric of his shirt touching the inside of Heero’s
arm. He knew what bones felt like, and
they took on a new meaning as the palm of his hand drifted over Quatre’s spine,
up to his shoulder blades, and then down again to the edges of his hips. It felt familiar, and he found himself
waiting to smell blood or hear snapping, but chased the expectation away by
focusing on Quatre’s whispery, short breaths against his cheek where the other
man had leaned into him. His body was
very, very still save for the measured breathing, as if any sudden movements
would result in some kind of calamity.
Heero
tested his own mouth on Quatre’s shoulder.
There was fabric. His fingers
remedied that problem before he even knew what he was doing, and then stopped
half-way through the process of unbuttoning the shirt, looking for all the
world as if he had been sleepwalking as he stared into Quatre’s face which was
now made up of half-lidded eyes and a lower lip swollen from being bitten. Heero’s hands disappeared as he took a
hurried step backward and almost tripped.
His sneakers skidded against the floor.
Quatre
didn’t try to persuade him to come closer again, or tell him it was okay or assuage
his unease. Instead, he finished
unbuttoning his own shirt in a slow, efficient action that lacked hesitation,
and dropped it to the floor. He looked
at Heero calmly, and Heero looked back at him with a panicked gaze. Quatre had gone into this without any
expectations, so if Heero chose to leave, he might feel a little bad about it
and even disappointed; it came back to the same basic fact that being there
with him was solely Heero’s decision.
But he had certainly been enjoying himself.
He
could feel Heero’s gaze focused on him in rapt concentration, and it hit on
something he had always personally enjoyed.
Something that had gotten him in trouble in the past, though not as much
trouble as the fact that he liked guys, but none of that had ever quite
deterred him. So he slipped his own
hand between his legs and squeezed, and closed his eyes. He knew Heero was still watching at him; it
just made him bite his lip again, and this time he almost tasted blood. But he stopped before the acrid, metallic
taste could consume his senses.
You discovered a lot of things about people when they were taking off their clothes, Heero found himself musing. He couldn’t remember seeing the expression plastered across Quatre’s features that was there now, his eyes closed and looking for all the world as if he was expecting to ascend into heaven at any given moment. But he also found something more tense there, the first sign that Quatre was hesitating. He didn’t know why, and he knew that he shouldn’t ask. But interpersonal decorum was never something he had felt the need to follow.
“You
like being watched,” he said, his voice holding none of the panic that his face
had a few minutes before.
Quatre’s
eyes opened and he stopped what he was doing.
He looked for the judgment in Heero’s voice.
“I
like being watched by men,” he corrected.
Then added, almost unnecessarily, “I like guys.” There was an edge of shame, perhaps not for
his own preference since he had so willingly gone into this, and perhaps not an
apology for himself, but for some other reason. A protective, self-preserving reason.
Heero
just shrugged. “Does it make a difference?”
Quatre
looked at him with a hardened expression for a moment, a look Heero had only
ever seen him make when he was trying very hard to overcome something powerful
or was losing his mind. Then it melted
back into his regular features, and he looked a little tired. His eyes flashed with emotion.
“To
some people it does,” he replied.
Heero
didn’t seem to completely grasp the complexity of what was being laid out
before him. He was capable of getting
it, of pondering over the reasons that Quatre was protecting himself and edging
away from him, but he chose not to.
“Well,”
he shrugged a little, “maybe I do too.”
He had liked being with Quatre thus far, who was male, regardless of
everything else.
This
actually elicited an unexpected, slight grin from the other pilot. Quatre considered his own vulnerability for
the first time, hadn’t even realized its presence until that moment. Heero’s backward tripping away from him, the
sharp breath; he suddenly identified with it.
His bold, forward action hadn’t been quite as confident or controlled as
he had first thought.
So
he put his trust in Heero’s straightforward thinking for the time being, and
unzipped his pants. They too were
deposited on the floor in a pile of twisted clothing, until the only thing left
between them was Heero’s scruffy shoes and that same, inaccessible spandex
protecting his modesty. Quatre knew
that modesty wasn’t the thing keeping Heero at a distance, however.
He
stroked himself and kept his eyes open, looking at Heero; it was intense, and
unexpectedly emotional. Heero was
certainly not hard on the eyes, and his dark blue gaze was very nice to look
at. He stopped for a moment to turn
around and retrieve a container from nearby the bed, and then got on his hands
and knees after squeezing some of its contents onto his fingers. Heero watched curiously.
Watching
was very easy. It didn’t involve the
awkward skimming of bones and skin with hesitant hands, the threat of falling
headfirst into a deep, dangerous gulch of embarrassment. He was a witness to Quatre’s prone form on
the ground, pushing into his own ass and fucking himself with his fingers, and
the loud noises he made as he pushed in and out of himself. They were long and drawn out, and
unexpectedly Heero caught his own name in the barrage of sound. Maybe watching wasn’t as easy as he thought;
he was still trapped in the experience, but it was with looser bindings than
the demands of touching. He found that
he didn’t mind quite as much as before, and when Quatre climbed onto the bed,
he followed.
He
laid behind him, Quatre’s back pressed to his chest, his body arched slightly
against Heero’s. Then he did let his
hands wander over Quatre’s exposed skin and trace across his ribs that felt
more like a delicate relief drawing than bones, the hips that seemed much more
likely to flex and jerk than break, with pliable, strong joints. He felt Quatre’s hair and skin, both sweaty
and damp. There was a sense of
exhausted conversation and possibilities, and it was a very agreeable sensation
to stop thinking so hard and just feel.
Heero
squeezed some of the lube onto his own fingers and stroked himself behind
Quatre; that was something he knew how to do.
They rocked together and Heero managed a moan that wasn’t caught by the
trap of his throat, and didn’t come out as a small desperate cry. It was a languid, drawn out sigh, loud
enough to elicit a sound in counterpoint from the person lying against
him. He finally felt like he was in the
same room, on the same bed, engaged in the same act as Quatre for the first
time.
“Do
you want me to do what you did before?” he asked quietly, though it was a frank
question. Quatre’s hips stopped rocking
against him for a moment, and he shivered a little.
“Only
if you want to,” he replied.
A
slight, “Okay,” was accompanied by Heero’s hand sliding downward between them,
and then his fingers hesitantly seeking out their goal.
Quatre
moved, and for a moment Heero was frozen with the possibility he may have done
something wrong, but the other pilot just readjusted himself so he was on his
hands and knees again.
“It’s
easier,” he said simply. “And I like doing it this way,” he added, and his
voice was as quiet as Heero’s had been.
When
Heero first pushed his fingers into him, Quatre let out a harsh sound and
pushed his hips back. They fell into a
jerky rhythm, and Heero watched Quatre’s head fall forward between his arms,
eyes closed. His face was upside down
from where Heero could see it from his vantage point behind the other’s body,
and it held a distinct tension that was very similar to crying, but it wasn’t
the same. In the calm reserved part of
his brain, Heero was fascinated.
Quatre
came with a slump and a cry that turned quickly into a ragged sigh, and Heero
retreated. He stayed on his hands and
knees for a moment, then fell to his side with his back to Heero, breathing
heavily. For a moment, Heero didn’t
know what to do as Quatre laid there without moving, trying to catch his
breath. He sat up and hung his legs
over the side of the bed, and the chilly, re-circulated air in the room made his
naked skin feel cold.
“Come
here,” Quatre said in a raspy voice after a few minutes. He could feel his face
flush at the gentle note it held in it, and the distinct throbbing he was very
much aware of in his own cock.
Heero
pulled his legs back up onto the mattress and moved to sit near Quatre,
studying the blond hair that was matted in places and wildly sticking up in
others, the sheen of sweat on his back.
He finally turned over to face Heero, as if he had been gathering his
composure.
He
pushed him onto his back without asking, sidled up next to him and lightly
touched his chest again. The action
seemed to promise much more than it had before with the initial tentative
exploratory touch. Heero could feel the
way his shorts restricted him uncomfortably, but didn’t want to look down for
some reason.
“Can
I take these off?” Quatre asked.
There
was a small silence. “Yes,” came Heero’s voice, usually so resolute, decisive,
knowing, now reduced to a soft sound.
He felt them slip down his body, even let Quatre untie his shoes and
drop them on the ground with a decisive thump.
Then
he wasn’t wearing anything, his legs bent up and back. Everything was visible, exposed, and Quatre
looked, and Heero shut his eyes. Unlike
Quatre, he didn’t like being watched, but he also didn’t want to do anything
else except what he was doing right then.
Quatre’s
gentle fingers, slick, rubbed a little at his entrance but didn’t push in. Instead, he bent down and took Heero’s cock
into his mouth. As if possessing a mind
of their own, Heero’s hips moved forward and his short breath and cries echoed
off of the walls in the small room. He
couldn’t ever remember crying; he thought it must feel like this. Uninhibited. Free.
Then
he did tear into a million little pieces as he came, but it wasn’t like
self-destructing, or a tornado, or a strong wind trying to knock him over. It was being ripped apart and completed at
the same time; two things that didn’t go together at all. It fit perfectly into the imperfect,
indecisive, painful, repulsive world that he had grown to hope for.
Then
he laid still with Quatre for a long time.
The hand on his hip was tender, and it was no longer a surprising,
foreign sensation.
“You
can stay here tonight if you want,” he said.
Heero
nodded. He didn’t feel like putting his
shoes back on yet.