[fic] feilong birthday fanfic contest 2012
Title: Precious
Characters: Fei Long, Mikhail, Tao, Yan.
Rating / Warnings: G
Disclaimer: Characters belong to Yamane sensei
Warning: This is totally cheesy, possibly lame, has no plot, and the cute/sweet factor may require puke bags. So be warned. I just thought, what the hell, it's Fei Long's birthday and he deserves a cotton candy ^_^
Beta: angel0399 Thank you so much for doing this in two hours!
My Words:
F-eline, E-legant, I-nk, L-ove, O-riental, N-ame, G-orgeous
L-aughing, I-ndependent, U-npredictable
It was the morning of his birthday, and as always, Tao was the first to surprise him with a gift. The boy handed him a large, red envelope after he'd finished serving Fei Long the most expensive tea in the house he'd reserved only for special occasions.
"Happy Birthday Fei-sama," Tao said, blushing as he waited eagerly to see the expression on Fei Long's face.
Fei Long pulled out the card from the envelope and smiled. It was a handmade card carefully drawn and inked to the best of the boy's ability. While it was no work of a master, Fei Long was impressed at the result of asking his Chinese ink lao shi to give Tao a lesson. The boy had drawn a beautiful dragon and accompanied it with a beautiful poem to show off his Mandarin skills.
"This is beautiful, Tao. Thank you," Fei Long complimented as he patted the boy's head affectionately. It was one of those gifts that cost so little and yet it gave him much happiness, knowing the amount of effort and care that went into it.
"I wanted to buy you something, but you already have everything you want," Tao said as his eyes lit up from seeing the gentle smile on the Baishe leader's face. Those smiles don't appear often, and when they do it made him feel as though everything would be all right, regardless of the fact that he had no idea what truly was happening in the organization. As long as Fei-sama can still smile like that, the leader of Baishe will find a way out of trouble.
You already have everything you want, those words echoed in his mind. Not really. There were many things he wanted but could not have. Too many things, in fact. Asami Ryuichi was definitely on the list. But that day the Chinese ink painting reminded him of a specific time in his life when he wanted something so bad that it made him lie to his father and defy Yan Tsui without a second thought. And the result was the same as the incident with the Japanese man - a disaster.
It was his eighth birthday and his father had thrown him a small party at home. Fei Long was experimenting with his new Chinese ink brush set his father had given him as a present when something brushed against his leg. He looked down under the table and saw a small black kitten. It looked back at him and let out a high-pitched meow as if it was talking to him. Afraid that his ink may go dry, he ignored the feline and went back to painting. A few minutes later, it jumped onto his lap and decided to stay. He'd never had a pet or touched one before and had no idea what to do with a kitten on his lap. Will it scratch him or bite him if he tries to move it? Will he be infected if it did? And since he could answer neither of those questions, Fei Long did not dare move until he could figure out the solution.
Strangely, every time he looked at it, the kitten would meow at him. Maybe it wants some food, Fei Long thought, not that he had any on him. When he decided to stroke its fur, the kitten rubbed its face against his hand. Pretty soon he realized it liked to be scratched under the chin and on the cheeks, and every time he did it made a strange noise that sounded like something vibrated inside its throat. What a strange animal, he thought.
For the next half an hour, he had found himself learning more and more about the kitten and growing fonder of it by the minute. It liked him and he felt what it was like, for the first time, to play with a friend who hadn't been warned by his parents how he should always be respectful when playing with the Liu children. The kitten would lash out at him the moment he touched it wrong, or show him intense pleasure when he did something right. It followed him around the house without fail and Fei Long had to shut the doors to keep it from entering the house when he was called in for his English lesson. He wasn't sure how everyone would react to him letting the kitten enter, and he did his best to ignore the occasional meows that came from the garden.
That evening when all his lessons were finished, he opened the door to the courtyard and found the black kitten lying under the same stone table where he was earlier. It rose to its feet and came to him, rubbing its neck against his ankle and gave him another sweet meow. It was then that Fei Long decided to pick it up and find his father to ask for permission to keep the kitten.
The answer was no. "We don't know where it came from and it might carry some diseases." His father also said that he didn't need such a distraction from his studies and that pets will mess up the house. Yan Tsui laughed and said it was just like him to want a dirty street cat.
Fei Long didn't want to disobey his father, and he did try to return the kitten to the street outside the house. Only the little black kitten somehow found a way to return daily to the courtyard, and soon enough he found himself sneaking a portion of his food out to feed it when he knew he shouldn't. He was secretly keeping the kitten even though he didn't dare give it a name, and at that age he thought some secrets could be kept.
He'd learned that lesson the hard way when he heard fire crackers go off one morning and found his black kitten lying dead in the courtyard with a string of fire crackers wrapped around its neck. That was one of the days when he cried without restraint, knowing fully well that such a display of weakness was forbidden in the Liu family. Yan Tsui appeared behind him and smirked at his handiwork, saying that he'd done Fei Long a favor by ending such an act of defiance for him before their father found out and whipped him for disobedience. Losing his control, Fei Long stood up from the corpse of his kitten and punched his brother in the face - the brother he was forbidden to even talk back to. He could still remember Yan Tsui's face that day when he was knocked down on the floor and cried for their father. He’d also remembered the sting on the back of his legs after his father had rectified his sense of respect with a bamboo stick.
He didn't dare think about having another pet since that day.
That afternoon Mikhail showed up with a bunch of gardenias and an invitation to dinner. Fei Long guessed it was probably at one of those high-end restaurants the man had closed down for the evening to give them privacy, until they arrived at a public park by the sea a couple of hours before sunset. As always, when he thought the man would do something so very like him, Mikhail would always come up with something else. The Russian seemed to possess endless surprises up his sleeves, or perhaps it was due to his unpredictable nature. Either way, boring was simply not the word to equate the man with.
They found a perfect spot under a large tree by the beach with not a single person in sight. Mikhail laid out a soft mat for them to lie on and opened a bottle of wine, beckoning Fei Long to join him when he realized the Baishe leader was still standing there looking too puzzled to move.
"What?" Mikhail asked with a hint of irritation in his tone, his brows knotted. He didn't expect to be criticized this time.
"Modesty doesn't become you," Fei Long said, still standing stiff with hands in his pockets. Not that he'd ever had a picnic in a public park or planned on having one, but between the two of them, Mikhail should be the last to find the idea appetizing.
"Aren't you bored with all those uptight restaurants already?"
Fei Long was, but those should be his words. "Yes, but I still like my privacy."
Mikhail's lips curled up into a cunning smile. "Your privacy is taken care of. Don't worry."
"It's a public park. You can't really close it down for an evening." Or the whole afternoon, for that matter. Strangely enough, the place did look like it was closed to the public when it was usually packed with people.
"I don't have to close the park, sweetheart, I just have to tell them to bugger off and go somewhere else. Now sit down, will you? "
Fei Long rolled his eyes. That was probably what his men were doing around the park entrance - paying people to not enter. Only Mikhail Arbatov would think of such a way to burn money. "You know, I would really like to see you without money one day," Fei Long sighed as he took a seat next to the Russian.
Mikhail laughed as he handed Fei Long a glass of wine. "Sure, if you promise to pick me up and keep me like Tao, I'll sell everything I own tomorrow and donate it all."
"You will make tea and serve me food?" Fei Long asked with a chuckle. Although, imagining the man in a maid get-up bringing him his drinks did make him a bit hard. Now, wouldn’t that be a sight?
The Russian smiled and leaned over towards him, running his large hand through Fei Long’s hair. "Well, I'll brush your hair," he paused and whispered, "help you shower and ..."
"Don't even think about it," Fei Long interrupted and laid himself down on the mat, closing his eyes to back up his words. If he'd let the man say more he'd start feeling awkward around Tao for sure and that was just not cool. Fortunately, Mikhail complied and dropped the subject. A few minutes later, he heard the sound of the other man's body lying down next to him and he was given what he yearned for - silence and a peace of mind. It made Fei Long smile as he lay there with his eyes still closed, listening to the sound of the waves and the rustling of the leaves above him. Apparently, Mikhail always seemed to understand every little gesture he made. Even though sometimes the man would still manipulate him into doing things against his will anyway. But one thing Fei Long knew for certain was that every minute of every day that they were together, Mikhail's attention was always on him and only him.
Fei Long had seen him as a shallow, spoiled brat when they first met. And a spoiled brat he may be, but a shallow man would not try to make him laugh when he felt down, or reach out to hold his hand when he needed the comfort without being told. Perhaps that is what it means to fall for someone, and there is no such thing as a shallow person in this world in the presence of his lover. Mikhail was, after all, still pretty much a reckless, spoiled, self-centered, cold-hearted, back-stabbing bastard to the world at large, just not with him. To Mikhail he was special - that message the Russian had always made crystal clear. Fei Long had never been special, not to his father or Yan or Asami. Perhaps maybe to Tao, but Tao was a child who will soon grow up to find someone special of his own. It was one of the reason why he had allowed the man to get so close, despite all their differences.
"What the...?" Mikhail suddenly yelped, prompting Fei Long to open his eyes.
Still lying on the mat next to him, Mikhail covered his head with both hands as a kitten, which appeared out of nowhere, was playing with his golden curls. It jumped back at the movements of his hands, stared at them for a few seconds, and pounced back on Mikhail's locks, capturing one between its paws and tugging at it with its teeth.
"Stop laughing and get this thing off me! Ow!" Mikhail yelped as the kitten yanked harder and bit his hand in the process.
Fei Long lifted the daring kitten up by the scruff and continued to laugh. He placed it on his lap and gave it a scratch under the chin. The little thing soon curled up into a ball and purred loudly. "Where on earth did you come from?" Fei Long said as he pet and examined the tiny feline. It was a male kitten with short, shiny coat as black as ebony, just like the one that found him on his eighth birthday only this one was a little younger. What a strange coincidence that he'd just thought of it earlier that day. Or was it even a coincidence at all?
"What?" Mikhail asked with a frown when Fei Long turned to look at him suspiciously.
No, it couldn't be. He'd never told anyone that story and everyone who knew is now dead or missing. "Nothing," Fei Long decided to drop the accusation and turned back to the kitten on his lap. He wasn't really in the mood to argue anyway.
It was one of those days when Mikhail's stomach went for a roller coaster ride due to something the Baishe leader does or says. Fei Long was laughing, really laughing just then and now he was smiling the most adorable smile he had ever seen. Those amethyst eyes lit up like a child's, and for the first time in his life Mikhail wished he was born a cat. What he wouldn't give if one day Fei Long would look at him that way.
"I didn't know you like cats." In fact he had no idea Fei Long had liked any pet since he never seemed to talk about any, nor does he ever look at other people's pets when they walk by him.
Fei Long smiled without moving his gaze from the kitten. "I used to... play with one as a child." He wanted to say “have”, but it wasn't really his kitten. It didn't even have a name.
"You should keep him," Mikhail said. "He looks like a purebred Oriental actually." While he was growing increasingly jealous of the cat, he figured anything that makes Fei Long smile that way had to be kept and pampered to heaven.
The idea made Fei Long's heart heavy with thoughts and memories that suddenly resurfaced. It wasn't that he still had to ask for permission, or that anyone would dare harm his cat now that he has become the head of the organization. But he didn't have a proper home to keep it. He practically lives in an office where too many people come and go on a regular basis. If the cat should slip out the door, he would not only trip the alarm but he could wander off to who knows where in the building. What if he was trapped somewhere? What if something happened to it while he was away? What if...
"I can't keep him," Fei Long said, his tone filled with regret. No, he couldn't take one more death due to his incompetence. He was in no shape or form to take care of another helpless being.
"Then I will," Mikhail said with a gentle smile as he picked up the kitten from Fei Long's lap and placed it on his own, rubbing the top of its head with his thumb. He could see the sadness in those eyes. Something must have happened in the past for Fei Long to decide so deliberately to not keep the kitten, considering the extreme rarity of things that could make him smile. There was no need to ask him why - from the look on that face an explanation would hurt too much to be given. But he wanted to give Fei Long this. He wanted to hear that laugh and see that smile over and over again.
Fei Long looked at him, surprised and a little shocked how easy that conclusion came. "Do you even know how to keep a cat? Where are you going to keep him?"
Mikhail snorted. "Sure I do. My father loves cats. I grew up with a few. I can keep him in my penthouse. My housekeeper will look after him while I'm not home and I can take him back to my villa when I go." He, of course, omitted the fact that his dogs chased down and killed two of those. Not that he urged them to, however. But cats and huskies don't generally do well together.
It wasn't a bad idea, Fi Long thought. Mikhail's penthouse was pretty secure and private and he does stay there many times a week. And if Mikhail knows how to keep a cat...
"And you can visit him as much as you like," the Russian added with a smile that showed off his sparkling white teeth.
Fei Long shot him a glare. He just knew there was an underlying reason to the decision and sometimes he hated being right. "Don't tell me this is one of your strategically planned birthday surprises that benefits you more than it does me."
"I don't give pets as presents. What kind of idiot do you think I am?" Mikhail protested, his expression showed him to be genuinely annoyed by the idea.
It struck Fei Long as a surprise to hear the excuse. He'd expected Mikhail to deny it whether or not it was the truth, but with something more like, "If it was my idea it would be a purebred with champion bloodline." Instead the man surprised him with a sense of morality Fei Long was sure didn't exist until a few seconds ago. "You kill people," he reminded, in case Mikhail forgot.
The man just shrugged. "Some people deserve to die. Pets are there to love you."
True enough. Still...
"Besides, if it was my idea he would be a purebred with champion bloodline," Mikhail added.
Fei Long nearly spilled his wine. He should have been proud of his intuition, but sometimes it freaked him out just how well he knew this man. Pretty soon they'd be holding hands, sharing ice cream and completing each other's sentences. Scary in his opinion, although he was sure Mikhail would feel otherwise.
"Do you even like cats?" he had to ask. The Russian struck him as a dog person, and he knew the man had several dogs at home.
"Why not? They're elegant, independent, fierce, proud and gorgeous just like you," Mikhail replied, lifting up the kitten to his face and kissed it on the forehead before he turned to the other man and added, "and I love you."
Just like that. "I love you," Mikhail said it as if it came naturally and freely to him, like saying how he loves cats or dogs or chocolate. From the look on his face it wasn't something he used lightly, only he was the kind of man who had no fear or shame in expressing his feelings. At that moment, the two of them, kitten and his new owner, stared at him with a pair of eyes that begged to be petted and adored and Fei Long inevitably lost the battle. How could he not? He wasn't that heartless. "Oh all right, you keep him. Just don't name him Fei Long." He was sure that, too, would soon come into the Russian's mind, if it hadn't already.
Mikhail laughed. "Pity. I'll call him Precious."
"It's a girl's name," Fei Long objected.
"Says who?"
"Everyone?" He can't be serious.
"I'm not everyone," he smirked. "And he's my cat. Anyone has a problem with his name he can try to tell me." And live.
He had a point. Mikhail was too rebellious to drive a sedan or name a cat anything traditional. It was inevitable that this poor kitten will have himself a weird name so long as he remains Arbatov's. Besides, Precious is a good name. "All right, Precious it is," Fei Long gave up and reached over to stroke Precious' soft ebony fur. "Now you can scratch him all you want, little Precious."
When Mikhail leaned over to kiss him, Precious jumped up and snatched the lock of golden hair that fell over his face, his claws dug into the left side of his cheek and left a red mark that would take a few days to heal. Mikhail yelped, grabbed him by the back of his neck and lifted the kitten up to face him. "Do that again, and the first thing I shall do when I get home is give you a bath!" he warned. "What do you have against my hair anyway?"
"It looks like a big yellow, fluffy yarn ball, that's why," Fei Long laughed again as he took Precious away and lay down on the mat, placing the kitten on his chest. The little black feline curled up into a ball, closed his eyes and purred.
Fei Long decided that day was one of the good days he hadn't had for years. He was glad Mikhail had taken him there. He was glad the kitten had found its way into his arms. There had always been a small hole in his heart since that day when he'd turned eight years old, and it was being filled by the warmth that now lays against his chest. Perhaps tomorrow another missing piece of his heart would also be mended. And maybe the thought of that possibility had a lot to do with this man who was lying right next to him.
As he was about to drift off into sleep, Mikhail lowered himself down and turned to the side, supporting his weight by his elbow. An affectionate smile appeared on the handsome face as he looked at Fei Long and his new kitten. There was no where else he wanted to be but here, and nothing else he desired more than this.
"My precious," Mikhail whispered as he planted a loving kiss on Fei Long’s forehead.
Fei Long opened his eyes and frowned. "You sound like Gollum."
The Russian laughed. "When it comes to you, I am Gollum and you are my ring," Mikhail replied before claiming the other man’s lips with his. He had never been more obsessed with anything or craved something as much.
Fei Long closed his eyes and returned the kiss. For once, and perhaps just on this day, he was beginning to think that Tao maybe right. Right here, right now, he does have everything he wants - money, power, a peace of mind, a fine wine in his hand, a kitten and perhaps a little something more.
"Happy birthday, Fei Long."
*****
Characters: Fei Long, Mikhail, Tao, Yan.
Rating / Warnings: G
Disclaimer: Characters belong to Yamane sensei
Warning: This is totally cheesy, possibly lame, has no plot, and the cute/sweet factor may require puke bags. So be warned. I just thought, what the hell, it's Fei Long's birthday and he deserves a cotton candy ^_^
Beta: angel0399 Thank you so much for doing this in two hours!
My Words:
F-eline, E-legant, I-nk, L-ove, O-riental, N-ame, G-orgeous
L-aughing, I-ndependent, U-npredictable
It was the morning of his birthday, and as always, Tao was the first to surprise him with a gift. The boy handed him a large, red envelope after he'd finished serving Fei Long the most expensive tea in the house he'd reserved only for special occasions.
"Happy Birthday Fei-sama," Tao said, blushing as he waited eagerly to see the expression on Fei Long's face.
Fei Long pulled out the card from the envelope and smiled. It was a handmade card carefully drawn and inked to the best of the boy's ability. While it was no work of a master, Fei Long was impressed at the result of asking his Chinese ink lao shi to give Tao a lesson. The boy had drawn a beautiful dragon and accompanied it with a beautiful poem to show off his Mandarin skills.
"This is beautiful, Tao. Thank you," Fei Long complimented as he patted the boy's head affectionately. It was one of those gifts that cost so little and yet it gave him much happiness, knowing the amount of effort and care that went into it.
"I wanted to buy you something, but you already have everything you want," Tao said as his eyes lit up from seeing the gentle smile on the Baishe leader's face. Those smiles don't appear often, and when they do it made him feel as though everything would be all right, regardless of the fact that he had no idea what truly was happening in the organization. As long as Fei-sama can still smile like that, the leader of Baishe will find a way out of trouble.
You already have everything you want, those words echoed in his mind. Not really. There were many things he wanted but could not have. Too many things, in fact. Asami Ryuichi was definitely on the list. But that day the Chinese ink painting reminded him of a specific time in his life when he wanted something so bad that it made him lie to his father and defy Yan Tsui without a second thought. And the result was the same as the incident with the Japanese man - a disaster.
It was his eighth birthday and his father had thrown him a small party at home. Fei Long was experimenting with his new Chinese ink brush set his father had given him as a present when something brushed against his leg. He looked down under the table and saw a small black kitten. It looked back at him and let out a high-pitched meow as if it was talking to him. Afraid that his ink may go dry, he ignored the feline and went back to painting. A few minutes later, it jumped onto his lap and decided to stay. He'd never had a pet or touched one before and had no idea what to do with a kitten on his lap. Will it scratch him or bite him if he tries to move it? Will he be infected if it did? And since he could answer neither of those questions, Fei Long did not dare move until he could figure out the solution.
Strangely, every time he looked at it, the kitten would meow at him. Maybe it wants some food, Fei Long thought, not that he had any on him. When he decided to stroke its fur, the kitten rubbed its face against his hand. Pretty soon he realized it liked to be scratched under the chin and on the cheeks, and every time he did it made a strange noise that sounded like something vibrated inside its throat. What a strange animal, he thought.
For the next half an hour, he had found himself learning more and more about the kitten and growing fonder of it by the minute. It liked him and he felt what it was like, for the first time, to play with a friend who hadn't been warned by his parents how he should always be respectful when playing with the Liu children. The kitten would lash out at him the moment he touched it wrong, or show him intense pleasure when he did something right. It followed him around the house without fail and Fei Long had to shut the doors to keep it from entering the house when he was called in for his English lesson. He wasn't sure how everyone would react to him letting the kitten enter, and he did his best to ignore the occasional meows that came from the garden.
That evening when all his lessons were finished, he opened the door to the courtyard and found the black kitten lying under the same stone table where he was earlier. It rose to its feet and came to him, rubbing its neck against his ankle and gave him another sweet meow. It was then that Fei Long decided to pick it up and find his father to ask for permission to keep the kitten.
The answer was no. "We don't know where it came from and it might carry some diseases." His father also said that he didn't need such a distraction from his studies and that pets will mess up the house. Yan Tsui laughed and said it was just like him to want a dirty street cat.
Fei Long didn't want to disobey his father, and he did try to return the kitten to the street outside the house. Only the little black kitten somehow found a way to return daily to the courtyard, and soon enough he found himself sneaking a portion of his food out to feed it when he knew he shouldn't. He was secretly keeping the kitten even though he didn't dare give it a name, and at that age he thought some secrets could be kept.
He'd learned that lesson the hard way when he heard fire crackers go off one morning and found his black kitten lying dead in the courtyard with a string of fire crackers wrapped around its neck. That was one of the days when he cried without restraint, knowing fully well that such a display of weakness was forbidden in the Liu family. Yan Tsui appeared behind him and smirked at his handiwork, saying that he'd done Fei Long a favor by ending such an act of defiance for him before their father found out and whipped him for disobedience. Losing his control, Fei Long stood up from the corpse of his kitten and punched his brother in the face - the brother he was forbidden to even talk back to. He could still remember Yan Tsui's face that day when he was knocked down on the floor and cried for their father. He’d also remembered the sting on the back of his legs after his father had rectified his sense of respect with a bamboo stick.
He didn't dare think about having another pet since that day.
That afternoon Mikhail showed up with a bunch of gardenias and an invitation to dinner. Fei Long guessed it was probably at one of those high-end restaurants the man had closed down for the evening to give them privacy, until they arrived at a public park by the sea a couple of hours before sunset. As always, when he thought the man would do something so very like him, Mikhail would always come up with something else. The Russian seemed to possess endless surprises up his sleeves, or perhaps it was due to his unpredictable nature. Either way, boring was simply not the word to equate the man with.
They found a perfect spot under a large tree by the beach with not a single person in sight. Mikhail laid out a soft mat for them to lie on and opened a bottle of wine, beckoning Fei Long to join him when he realized the Baishe leader was still standing there looking too puzzled to move.
"What?" Mikhail asked with a hint of irritation in his tone, his brows knotted. He didn't expect to be criticized this time.
"Modesty doesn't become you," Fei Long said, still standing stiff with hands in his pockets. Not that he'd ever had a picnic in a public park or planned on having one, but between the two of them, Mikhail should be the last to find the idea appetizing.
"Aren't you bored with all those uptight restaurants already?"
Fei Long was, but those should be his words. "Yes, but I still like my privacy."
Mikhail's lips curled up into a cunning smile. "Your privacy is taken care of. Don't worry."
"It's a public park. You can't really close it down for an evening." Or the whole afternoon, for that matter. Strangely enough, the place did look like it was closed to the public when it was usually packed with people.
"I don't have to close the park, sweetheart, I just have to tell them to bugger off and go somewhere else. Now sit down, will you? "
Fei Long rolled his eyes. That was probably what his men were doing around the park entrance - paying people to not enter. Only Mikhail Arbatov would think of such a way to burn money. "You know, I would really like to see you without money one day," Fei Long sighed as he took a seat next to the Russian.
Mikhail laughed as he handed Fei Long a glass of wine. "Sure, if you promise to pick me up and keep me like Tao, I'll sell everything I own tomorrow and donate it all."
"You will make tea and serve me food?" Fei Long asked with a chuckle. Although, imagining the man in a maid get-up bringing him his drinks did make him a bit hard. Now, wouldn’t that be a sight?
The Russian smiled and leaned over towards him, running his large hand through Fei Long’s hair. "Well, I'll brush your hair," he paused and whispered, "help you shower and ..."
"Don't even think about it," Fei Long interrupted and laid himself down on the mat, closing his eyes to back up his words. If he'd let the man say more he'd start feeling awkward around Tao for sure and that was just not cool. Fortunately, Mikhail complied and dropped the subject. A few minutes later, he heard the sound of the other man's body lying down next to him and he was given what he yearned for - silence and a peace of mind. It made Fei Long smile as he lay there with his eyes still closed, listening to the sound of the waves and the rustling of the leaves above him. Apparently, Mikhail always seemed to understand every little gesture he made. Even though sometimes the man would still manipulate him into doing things against his will anyway. But one thing Fei Long knew for certain was that every minute of every day that they were together, Mikhail's attention was always on him and only him.
Fei Long had seen him as a shallow, spoiled brat when they first met. And a spoiled brat he may be, but a shallow man would not try to make him laugh when he felt down, or reach out to hold his hand when he needed the comfort without being told. Perhaps that is what it means to fall for someone, and there is no such thing as a shallow person in this world in the presence of his lover. Mikhail was, after all, still pretty much a reckless, spoiled, self-centered, cold-hearted, back-stabbing bastard to the world at large, just not with him. To Mikhail he was special - that message the Russian had always made crystal clear. Fei Long had never been special, not to his father or Yan or Asami. Perhaps maybe to Tao, but Tao was a child who will soon grow up to find someone special of his own. It was one of the reason why he had allowed the man to get so close, despite all their differences.
"What the...?" Mikhail suddenly yelped, prompting Fei Long to open his eyes.
Still lying on the mat next to him, Mikhail covered his head with both hands as a kitten, which appeared out of nowhere, was playing with his golden curls. It jumped back at the movements of his hands, stared at them for a few seconds, and pounced back on Mikhail's locks, capturing one between its paws and tugging at it with its teeth.
"Stop laughing and get this thing off me! Ow!" Mikhail yelped as the kitten yanked harder and bit his hand in the process.
Fei Long lifted the daring kitten up by the scruff and continued to laugh. He placed it on his lap and gave it a scratch under the chin. The little thing soon curled up into a ball and purred loudly. "Where on earth did you come from?" Fei Long said as he pet and examined the tiny feline. It was a male kitten with short, shiny coat as black as ebony, just like the one that found him on his eighth birthday only this one was a little younger. What a strange coincidence that he'd just thought of it earlier that day. Or was it even a coincidence at all?
"What?" Mikhail asked with a frown when Fei Long turned to look at him suspiciously.
No, it couldn't be. He'd never told anyone that story and everyone who knew is now dead or missing. "Nothing," Fei Long decided to drop the accusation and turned back to the kitten on his lap. He wasn't really in the mood to argue anyway.
It was one of those days when Mikhail's stomach went for a roller coaster ride due to something the Baishe leader does or says. Fei Long was laughing, really laughing just then and now he was smiling the most adorable smile he had ever seen. Those amethyst eyes lit up like a child's, and for the first time in his life Mikhail wished he was born a cat. What he wouldn't give if one day Fei Long would look at him that way.
"I didn't know you like cats." In fact he had no idea Fei Long had liked any pet since he never seemed to talk about any, nor does he ever look at other people's pets when they walk by him.
Fei Long smiled without moving his gaze from the kitten. "I used to... play with one as a child." He wanted to say “have”, but it wasn't really his kitten. It didn't even have a name.
"You should keep him," Mikhail said. "He looks like a purebred Oriental actually." While he was growing increasingly jealous of the cat, he figured anything that makes Fei Long smile that way had to be kept and pampered to heaven.
The idea made Fei Long's heart heavy with thoughts and memories that suddenly resurfaced. It wasn't that he still had to ask for permission, or that anyone would dare harm his cat now that he has become the head of the organization. But he didn't have a proper home to keep it. He practically lives in an office where too many people come and go on a regular basis. If the cat should slip out the door, he would not only trip the alarm but he could wander off to who knows where in the building. What if he was trapped somewhere? What if something happened to it while he was away? What if...
"I can't keep him," Fei Long said, his tone filled with regret. No, he couldn't take one more death due to his incompetence. He was in no shape or form to take care of another helpless being.
"Then I will," Mikhail said with a gentle smile as he picked up the kitten from Fei Long's lap and placed it on his own, rubbing the top of its head with his thumb. He could see the sadness in those eyes. Something must have happened in the past for Fei Long to decide so deliberately to not keep the kitten, considering the extreme rarity of things that could make him smile. There was no need to ask him why - from the look on that face an explanation would hurt too much to be given. But he wanted to give Fei Long this. He wanted to hear that laugh and see that smile over and over again.
Fei Long looked at him, surprised and a little shocked how easy that conclusion came. "Do you even know how to keep a cat? Where are you going to keep him?"
Mikhail snorted. "Sure I do. My father loves cats. I grew up with a few. I can keep him in my penthouse. My housekeeper will look after him while I'm not home and I can take him back to my villa when I go." He, of course, omitted the fact that his dogs chased down and killed two of those. Not that he urged them to, however. But cats and huskies don't generally do well together.
It wasn't a bad idea, Fi Long thought. Mikhail's penthouse was pretty secure and private and he does stay there many times a week. And if Mikhail knows how to keep a cat...
"And you can visit him as much as you like," the Russian added with a smile that showed off his sparkling white teeth.
Fei Long shot him a glare. He just knew there was an underlying reason to the decision and sometimes he hated being right. "Don't tell me this is one of your strategically planned birthday surprises that benefits you more than it does me."
"I don't give pets as presents. What kind of idiot do you think I am?" Mikhail protested, his expression showed him to be genuinely annoyed by the idea.
It struck Fei Long as a surprise to hear the excuse. He'd expected Mikhail to deny it whether or not it was the truth, but with something more like, "If it was my idea it would be a purebred with champion bloodline." Instead the man surprised him with a sense of morality Fei Long was sure didn't exist until a few seconds ago. "You kill people," he reminded, in case Mikhail forgot.
The man just shrugged. "Some people deserve to die. Pets are there to love you."
True enough. Still...
"Besides, if it was my idea he would be a purebred with champion bloodline," Mikhail added.
Fei Long nearly spilled his wine. He should have been proud of his intuition, but sometimes it freaked him out just how well he knew this man. Pretty soon they'd be holding hands, sharing ice cream and completing each other's sentences. Scary in his opinion, although he was sure Mikhail would feel otherwise.
"Do you even like cats?" he had to ask. The Russian struck him as a dog person, and he knew the man had several dogs at home.
"Why not? They're elegant, independent, fierce, proud and gorgeous just like you," Mikhail replied, lifting up the kitten to his face and kissed it on the forehead before he turned to the other man and added, "and I love you."
Just like that. "I love you," Mikhail said it as if it came naturally and freely to him, like saying how he loves cats or dogs or chocolate. From the look on his face it wasn't something he used lightly, only he was the kind of man who had no fear or shame in expressing his feelings. At that moment, the two of them, kitten and his new owner, stared at him with a pair of eyes that begged to be petted and adored and Fei Long inevitably lost the battle. How could he not? He wasn't that heartless. "Oh all right, you keep him. Just don't name him Fei Long." He was sure that, too, would soon come into the Russian's mind, if it hadn't already.
Mikhail laughed. "Pity. I'll call him Precious."
"It's a girl's name," Fei Long objected.
"Says who?"
"Everyone?" He can't be serious.
"I'm not everyone," he smirked. "And he's my cat. Anyone has a problem with his name he can try to tell me." And live.
He had a point. Mikhail was too rebellious to drive a sedan or name a cat anything traditional. It was inevitable that this poor kitten will have himself a weird name so long as he remains Arbatov's. Besides, Precious is a good name. "All right, Precious it is," Fei Long gave up and reached over to stroke Precious' soft ebony fur. "Now you can scratch him all you want, little Precious."
When Mikhail leaned over to kiss him, Precious jumped up and snatched the lock of golden hair that fell over his face, his claws dug into the left side of his cheek and left a red mark that would take a few days to heal. Mikhail yelped, grabbed him by the back of his neck and lifted the kitten up to face him. "Do that again, and the first thing I shall do when I get home is give you a bath!" he warned. "What do you have against my hair anyway?"
"It looks like a big yellow, fluffy yarn ball, that's why," Fei Long laughed again as he took Precious away and lay down on the mat, placing the kitten on his chest. The little black feline curled up into a ball, closed his eyes and purred.
Fei Long decided that day was one of the good days he hadn't had for years. He was glad Mikhail had taken him there. He was glad the kitten had found its way into his arms. There had always been a small hole in his heart since that day when he'd turned eight years old, and it was being filled by the warmth that now lays against his chest. Perhaps tomorrow another missing piece of his heart would also be mended. And maybe the thought of that possibility had a lot to do with this man who was lying right next to him.
As he was about to drift off into sleep, Mikhail lowered himself down and turned to the side, supporting his weight by his elbow. An affectionate smile appeared on the handsome face as he looked at Fei Long and his new kitten. There was no where else he wanted to be but here, and nothing else he desired more than this.
"My precious," Mikhail whispered as he planted a loving kiss on Fei Long’s forehead.
Fei Long opened his eyes and frowned. "You sound like Gollum."
The Russian laughed. "When it comes to you, I am Gollum and you are my ring," Mikhail replied before claiming the other man’s lips with his. He had never been more obsessed with anything or craved something as much.
Fei Long closed his eyes and returned the kiss. For once, and perhaps just on this day, he was beginning to think that Tao maybe right. Right here, right now, he does have everything he wants - money, power, a peace of mind, a fine wine in his hand, a kitten and perhaps a little something more.
"Happy birthday, Fei Long."
*****