Disclaimer: This is a work of fiction. The authors claim no ownership of the characters within, nor received any compensation for this work.
Waking came, as it did most often these days, without the harsh notes of an alarm. Instead, sunlight streaming through an open window was enough to gently rouse Cye. He stretched and rolled over, pressing close to the redhead lying next to him.
Such a difference a little time can make, he thought, slipping an arm around Aya's waist and nuzzling his hair. A few days after that traumatic morning, Cye'd awakened to find Aya in his bed, sleeping quietly. He still rose early and went back to his own room now and then but Cye found himself with company more often than not. They got up when they wished now; Cye couldn't remember the last time he'd set his alarm. With nowhere to go, no schedule to keep, it seemed silly to wake up at the crack of dawn. He'd slept in more often recently then he had in years.
He smiled as Aya shifted. He'd turned a little in Cye's arms, curling closer and letting Cye see his face. He only really snuggled like that in his sleep and Cye loved watching him. So different from the waking Aya, this was his Ran. The pain and worry lines drained away from his face, leaving the boy he should have been.
Cye ran a fingertip over Aya's lips, smiling as they twitched. He could stay like this forever... he paused, turning that thought over in his mind. It was true that it was just them, true that he still missed the others desperately but he was... happy?
He worried at it a bit more. The anxiousness to return was almost gone and while he still felt incomplete, the bond he was building with Aya was slowly replacing the ache. Did he even want to go back? Feeling a little guilty he shoved the thought to the back of his mind.
No, better to turn his attention to the lovely just starting to stir in his arms. He settled back, knowing that it made Aya uncomfortable to be watched while he slept. Instead, Cye tightened his hold a little, breathing the scent of Aya's hair.
"Good morning," he said softly.
A sleepy blink was his response, Aya wasn't the most social at the best of times and being half asleep was hardly a best time. He did accept the kiss that Cye offered however, brushing against the other boy's lips with a soft sigh.
Cye smoothed the bright red bangs back carefully, seeing that Aya was waking. "I'm getting up and grabbing a shower. You're welcome to come along." It was the same offer he made every morning that Aya woke in his bed and every time it was refused. He kept asking though, just in case.
And was quite startled this time to see the shy nod in answer. Grinning, Cye unwrapped himself from the blankets and wriggled out of bed. He held a hand out, waiting for Aya to join him.
~*~*~*~
It concerned him terribly that he was going down the hall with nothing on. Though he knew it was foolish, he still watched those closed doors with narrowed eyes, suspicious that one would open and someone besides Cye would see him naked. No possibility existed that could make that fear come to be, but still he was careful to keep one hand over himself, careful not to actually look down and prove to himself the truth of his nudity in the hallway.
Still, better to worry about impossibilities than wonder over the very real fact that he had agreed to shower with Cye.
They went to the larger bathroom, the one that had appeared -- to his eyes at least -- on the morning of their first bath together, and the one that Cye always used. The room was ostentatious, he thought, with far more space than one truly needed to get clean. Those candle sconces on the wall were absolutely unnecessary, and who in the world needed five different kinds of shampoo and five different kinds of conditioner to choose from?
One did not argue with Cye over matters of cleanliness, however. If he decided that you ought to use the strawberry and watermelon shampoo, then you damn well smelled like a fruit patch all day and did not complain.
Having Cye, unconcernedly naked, trotting back and forth to turn on the water and get towels was not such a hardship, though. Aya could stand back out of the way and watch his completely unselfconscious way of moving about, his utter carelessness about his own nudity. When had he begun to envy that freedom? He almost wished now that he might be as beautifully carefree as Cye someday, that the easy chatter and quick smiles might come as naturally to him as they did to his pretty lover.
Perhaps eventually, yes, there might be the time, Aya thought as Cye opened the sliding door to the massive shower, beckoning him with a wave of one hand, pronouncing it all ready and just the right temperature. There would be time to learn how to soften his eyes when he looked at Cye, as Cye's did when looking at him. He would have time to learn how to smile, perhaps even to laugh. Cye would make it easy. Cye made everything easy and pleasurable and almost fun.
Standing under the warm spray, Cye's hands brushing his skin here and there, Aya understood why he had accepted the invitation today. It had become too difficult to leave Cye's presence. Everything was cool and quiet when Cye was not nearby, and the silence that stretched for miles around the house was oppressive when he was alone. When he was alone, he frowned more often, became distracted, dawdled and stared off into space. When Cye was not beside him, all he thought of was the next time they would share time again, what they would do, what he might say to bring that bright sunlit grin to the pretty boy's face.
Aya wondered when this had become his world: soft words, gentle touches, his own hesitant answering murmurs. Cye folded Aya into his arms and they stood under the shower together for a while, bare and wet and pressed against each other. Those familiar warm stirrings felt natural now, no longer as frightening as they once had been. The answering warmth in his lover's body was a calm comfort instead of an urgent assault.
This was all that was important in life now. He no longer wondered what the night would bring, how he would spend his long stretch of afternoon, or what occupation might make the day turn faster into the next. They could do nothing, like this moment, and Aya felt content. He had long since realized that it was Cye's closeness that made him feel that way.
Never let go...
Never?
No, never. At last he had found something, someone, who brought peace to his turbulent heart and faced the dark as well as the light within him with calm determination. This was everything he had ever sought, a reason... a reason to keep going.
"Let me get your hair?" Cye was asking in that quiet, kind voice. Aya agreed by turning and tilting his head back, so that the warm watery caress ran down his scalp and down his back. He pushed his fingers through the dampening locks, making sure that all of his hair was completely wet.
"Ran? Which shampoo would you like?"
He cracked one eye open, just enough to see Cye's questioning lifted eyebrows and the careless smile that insinuated nothing past this very moment. "You decide."
An answering smile and a moment's perusal of the shelf resulted in a bit of amber shampoo in Cye's hands and the warm smell of vanilla drifted through the air. Aya's hair was washed with great thoroughness, strong fingers sliding through the bright red silk, massaging as they moved. Cye slid his hands down the back of Aya's neck and over his shoulders, gliding over the bubble-covered skin and working out any tension he found.
An almost purring sigh slipped free and Aya leaned forward, bracing against the shower wall as his muscles melted. The rest of him was washed with that same care, bath sponge covering every inch of his skin. And before he could voice the tentative offer of return service, Cye pressed against him and slid his fingertips down Aya's stomach.
"You really didn't have anything important to do, did you?" He breathed, teasing his fingers through bubble frosted curls. Aya could feel him, warm, slippery and hard, sliding over the curve of his ass. He sagged back against the form behind him, all thoughts of anything else sliding away. No, certainly, nothing else was that important...
A gentle rinse and drying, just enough that they wouldn't drip, and Cye led him back down the hall again. This time Cye was pressed close, touching where he could as they walked back down to their room.
Their room. The thought tripped a moment of surprise in Aya's mind, yet it felt right. There was really no need to keep up a pretense of separate lives, not any longer. After all, this was the only room he wanted to be in. This was where Cye was, where all the warm and comfortable and good things in the world were.
Aya wasn't quite sure how he got from the hallway to the bed, as it was all a blur of hands and limbs and soft sheets. A few feet, a tumble and a pounce saw Aya on his back in bed, Cye looking down at him with a smile.
"Mmmm, look what I caught," Cye purred, dipping down to graze his teeth over one pink earlobe. "I can play with the pretty kitten, I hope?" He nibbled down Aya's neck, pausing to lick at the hollow of his throat. "What would you like?" he whispered hotly. "Do you want me to touch you, lick you? Do you want me to sink my mouth over you, taste as you scream? Or..." His voice dropped again, moving back up to murmur in Aya's ear. "Do you want me to turn you on your stomach... spread you wide... tease and lick at that one little spot..."
Nothing ever lit the fires in his body more quickly and more completely than Cye whispering the litany of devastating things he could do to Aya. He heard his own soft moan and felt his face grow flaming hot, as the wickedest little thought seeped into his mind. Cye gave him so much. Wasn't it time that Aya returned that generosity? He struggled to form the words, whispered so soft that Cye had to bend nearer to catch them. "Do... do you want me to do... what you said?"
The shiver that went through Cye, and the helpless drop of his head to Aya's shoulder gave him the answer before the boy's breathless gasps could resolve into any words. His heart's rhythm fluttered in anticipation of what he was about to do, the familiar surge of self-doubt pricking at his insides. The old fear that he would do something wrong and disappoint this person that he wanted nothing more than to please was hard to ignore.
However, Cye was moving off of him, trembling with excitement, and settling onto his stomach beside Aya. Both of them were breathing hard, and Aya found some comfort in the fact that Cye seemed just as shaky as he felt at the moment. "You might have to hold me down," the boy admitted with a stain of pink in his cheeks, one of the few times Aya had ever seen embarrassment cross his face. "I can get rather... well..."
Aya shifted onto his side, hesitantly petting long strokes down his lover's back. His shy hand slowly found its way to the soft swell of Cye's bottom, and rested there for a few heart-pounding moments. Much to his surprise, those long golden legs parted, and Cye shut his eyes tight. Then, Aya understood. "This excites you," he whispered, voice quiet with wonder. "As much as it does for me. Perhaps even more."
Gulping, Cye nodded against the pillow, his blush spreading further. He didn't say anything more, but his embarrassment was so intriguing that Aya had to discover just what it was that made Cye squirm like that. Moving down and over Cye's leg, he settled in behind him, admiring the tensing and trembling flesh waiting for him. What could he make Cye do, what moans and cries could he pull from those coral lips? The temptation was too great to wait any longer. Having Cye like this, almost at his mercy, could become addictive.
Cye's legs were spread wide enough that the small dark-rose bud was completely exposed, clenching away from him. Delicately, Aya bent down and lapped at the tightly-drawn skin.
The sharpness and suddenness of Cye's cry had Aya jerking his head back, surprised and a little afraid that he had done something painful. But when he looked up, Cye was clutching the pillow and panting, his pretty face slack with pleasure. The entire sight was breathtaking: Cye's lovely face, the long arch of his slim, bare back, the slight lift of his hips silently asking for more. Aya could never deny him anything. He bent down again, relishing the taste and feel of hot skin under his tongue.
It surprised him, how good it was to lick and taste, spreading cool wetness all over Cye's skin. This felt almost as good as when Cye did it to him, and now, Aya understood just why he took such pleasure in it. His lover was nearly screaming, arching up at every other moment. Aya had to grasp his hips and pin him down to the bed in order to hold him still, which only made Cye's moans louder and rougher.
He wanted more. He was hard and throbbing, pressed against Cye's leg but not moving enough to give him any relief. That was not what he wanted right now, but what it actually was seemed to elude him. But when Cye's hips slipped free of his grasp and lifted up and back, Aya knew. Inside. Spearing his tongue, he plunged into the warm, tight pucker.
Cye screamed, collapsing down again and writhing so much that Aya had to press his hips firmly down onto the bed, so that he could slide the tip of his tongue in and out. He was dizzy with it, knowing that he had never really been inside of Cye before, that this was what it felt like to join with someone else. Eyes closed, he pushed further in, relishing the tight clamp all around his tongue. It felt heavenly to only be doing that, feeling how hot Cye was inside and how the pleasure coursed through his body in helpless shivers. Oh, he wanted more... wanted it so much, his body was aching with want...
~*~*~*~
Cye was breathing so hard and fast he was getting dizzy. It had been so long since someone had done this. He was so comfortable with taking the lead with Aya, in part because he so enjoyed showing his lover new things, that he'd almost forgotten how good the reverse could be. And was seized by a sudden, burning need for just that. He wriggled, trying to get Aya's attention. If the redhead didn't stop what he was doing it wouldn't matter in a few minutes anyway.
"Aya," he gasped, when the motion only made the redhead pin him harder, "Stop... please... going to..."
He withdrew immediately, nuzzling against the back of Cye's thigh. "My mouth?" he asked quietly, ever a considerate lover. Just as Cye had taught him to be.
Cye shook his head, trying to catch his breath. "Want you." He shook his head again as Aya slid up next to him, starting to turn on his back. "No, love," he said, reaching down to capture Aya's length in his hand. "Want you..." He carressed the silky skin slowly, leaning close to purr in one ear. "Take me? Please?"
He heard a gasp and pulled back enough to see violet eyes gone huge. "I... but I don't, I haven't... Cye," he looked down, whispering around the flaming blush. "I don't want to hurt you, I won't, I can't."
Cye however was not about to be stopped. "Please," he murmured, flicking his tongue over Aya's lips. His voice had taken on that gentle, coaxing purr from their first intimate times and he was almost shaking with excitement though he tried to conceal it as best he could. "Please, love... you won't hurt me, you can't. I promise..."
Aya's face had taken on that stubborn look, the one that said he'd be more pig-headed than usual about something. "I can't," he insisted again, but still in that distant soft whisper. "I will hurt you again... I do not know what I'm doing, I'll... I'll hurt you." It was fear that Cye heard tingeing the firm tone. But violet eyes slid down the length of Cye's body, and Aya arched toward him just a little bit. Some part of him wanted to, that was clear. Aya would need coaxing and leading, though.
Sighing, Cye draped himself next to the redhead, still caressing slowly. "What if I know a way that I promise nothing can happen? That I'll still be doing things, showing you, and I swear that nothing bad can happen?" Thankfully, a little of the upset leeched out of Aya's expression.
"Promise?" Aya regarded him with nervous eyes, but his trust in Cye was complete.
"Promise," Cye said, leaning over for a kiss. "Just do what I show you." He straddled Aya's hips then, reaching for the nightstand. After a brief, nibbling kiss to the slender pale fingers, he coated two with a thick layer of lubricant. "Now, you know how I get you ready. Go ahead and try, one at a time." He leaned back a little to give Aya better access and shuddered as he was touched with one slick fingertip.
"Cye!" Aya's voice was both startled and worried. "I can't! It's... it's too small... I..."
"Shhhh..." Cye wriggled a bit, trying to get more of the touch. "Trust me, love, you're doing perfectly." He reached down, taking Aya's hand, coaxing the fingers further in with a small gasp. He watched Aya's face intently, squirming and moaning quietly though making sure he knew it was only in pleasure.
"Enough," he finally rasped, "It's enough..." A moment's pause to ready his redhead and Cye moved back, relaxing to slide down on him smoothly.
The anxiety had solidified in Aya's body into a rigid disbelief, and his lover lay tense and unmoving underneath him. He was barely even breathing, staring at Cye, as if waiting for an inevitable moment that would shatter everything. Convinced he could not do this without causing pain, still so sure, deep inside, that hurting was all he could do.
And watched in amazed disbelief as Cye's eyes lidded shut blissfully. Well, watched for the moment before a blazing spike of pleasure washed over him.
Cye's eyes flew open at the gasp, worried that something had gone wrong. Instead, he saw Aya, back arched and eyes screwed tightly shut, trembling with the effort of staying still. He stopped moving, completely seated on his beautiful redhead. Biting back his own moans, he said softly, "Ran, sweetheart, open your eyes. Look at me, love..." A frantic headshake was his only answer. He knew how good this was making Aya feel but there was still far too much worry mixed in. With deliberate mischief he clenched down around him hard.
"Cye!" Aya's hands reached to clutch at Cye's thighs, panting hard. "Don't..."
"Mmmm..." Cye reached down, covering Aya's hands with his own, gripping them lightly. "Just lovely..." He looked down, meeting Aya's eyes and letting him see that there was nothing there but pleasure. "Going to move, Ran. Watch me..." and began to ride in long, slow, smooth motions.
Aya was gasping now, clinging to Cye's hands, "Cye... so..."
"Feel good, kitten?" Cye asked with another squeeze and a twist of his hips that left Aya breathless. "I can feel all of you, every perfect bit, so hot and hard inside. He pulled one of Aya's hands over, wrapping it around his own aching erection. "Touch, pretty. Take everything..."
His eyes half-closed again, open just enough to still see the pale boy underneath him. A long, shuddering gasp broke free as Aya hesitantly stroked his length. He worked himself faster, between the hand on him and the hard cock buried inside.
Warm pleasure was flooding through Aya now, Cye knew, overwhelming him enough to loosen tight muscles. Just enough to allow him to relax and accept the pleasure, so he could fully enjoy this very important first. As he moved, Cye could begin to feel the slight answering roll of slim hips underneath him, and the wet sliding of Aya's sex inside started to intensify.
Bare gasping moans slipped free of Aya's lips, chopped off again in an instant by a tight hiss. The tenseness couldn't last for long, though. The stroking hand around him became tighter, more determined as powerful hips lifted up, pushing into him. Aya was trembling with the intensity of it all, flushed and glistening pale with sweat, as beautiful giving pleasure as he was receiving it.
"Yesss..." Cye hissed, rocking down on him harder. "God Ran, just perfect..." Moving faster, thrusting up into his hand, impaling himself on the downstroke. It was just so good. He threw his head back, moans spilling loose freely and wrapped his fingers around Aya's hand again.
Faster, everything was moving faster, and Aya had given into the pleasure, gripping a hip with his free hand and driving up hard. The hotter and quicker he moved, the more Cye writhed and gasped. The more Cye moved, the harder Aya bucked inside.
Cye froze then, muscles locked tight in a rigid arc. Before the redhead could think to question, his lover near shrieked, spilling in a hot, white rush over Aya's fingers. And bore down in ravaging, clenching spasms.
A shocked cry met his ears through the haze of orgasm, and he was abruptly filled with a surging heat and Aya buried himself as deep inside as he could thrust. Again and again, his lover's body was seized with tight little spasms, unable to contain the momentous pleasure of a first time.
Cye collapsed forward, just barely catching himself on his elbows and rested his head on Aya's chest. "Oh Ran... that was..." He squirmed his arms around Aya's back, clasping him in a tight hug. "Perfect," he said softly. "Just perfect..."
Breathless panting was all that Aya was able to do for a few moments. "You were..." he barely whispered after an endless moment, "so... so... good." Usually more eloquent, his sweet kitten's loss for words made Cye smile. Aya would not have any more qualms about doing that again, of this Cye was quite certain.
After time to catch their breath and a little tidying, they nestled close, Cye holding Aya securely. "I was wondering," Cye murmured, kissing the top of Aya's head, "if you want to go diving with me."
Violet eyes blinked open. "We have no gear," he pointed out, "and I wouldn't know how if there was."
Torrent smiled, giving him another kiss. "I don't mean that way, horrid, clumsy things anyway. I mean with me, like I do."
Another blink. "Can you do that?"
"Mmm... certainly." Aya had the softest hair, just perfect for nuzzling. "How about at sunrise? The view is amazing far enough out." He tipped Aya's chin up for a brief, sweet kiss. "I love you, Ran. I'd never suggest something that could hurt you..."
Under those words and that kiss Aya very nearly melted, sliding more completely and securely into Cye's arms. "At sunrise," he agreed.
Silence settled over them for a few moments, so complete and comfortable that Cye wasn't quite sure that he had heard Aya whisper, "Tell me again?" And it took more than a moment to register what the redhead was asking for.
"I love you, Ran."
And the day stretched out before them, and there was nothing else in the whole entire world.
[ on to chapter 16 ]