One last kiss
Author: bassair
My Treat Challenge: Papaya #21: on second thought [Mikey goes back for one last kiss]
Challenge: Rum Raisin #8: friend, Flavour of the Day: trepidation
Toppings: Chopped Nuts.
Extras: None.
Title: A Choice
Rating: R
Warning(s): Not much.
Pairings/Characters: Mikey, Law, Dustin. (Mikey/Sam, Mikey/Dustin, kinda Mikey/Law)
AU/Canon: Mostly AU
Story: Runners
Summary: Law’s asked Mikey to stay, but he can’t. And Mikey wants one last laugh. --- Counts for Back to School challenge - 1k+. Friday.
“Sam needs you. She’s self-destructing without you and I can’t watch it anymore. I just can’t.”
That was his life once. Long ago, he was that boy; Mikey Brown, best friend to Samantha Hughs, the bubbly blonde he’d loved for... God, how long had he loved her? He knows she loved him too. He remembers conversations when they were little and naïve about how they’d get married. What colour her flowers would be and how she’d walk up the aisle and look so pretty.
But that’s gone now. Over and done with along with his life from back there. He’s not that boy anymore. He’s Michael now. He’s Michael when Dustin whispers, when he presses his lips to the space above his ear and breathes, “Mine.” When Dustin’s fingers skim over his skin, when his breath ghosts over flesh and brings out goose bumps. The good kind. The kind that scream more is to come.
He left Mikey behind when he kissed Dustin and they fell together like pieces long since separated. It felt right; better than it had with Sam. When he kissed Sam it felt right, yes, like something he should do, like something he’d always meant to do but never got around to. When they had sex it was good, very good, neither of them experienced but loving each other enough for it to feel good.
When Dustin touches him fireworks explode in his mind. When they come together it feels amazing. Inevitable. As though whatever was going to happen in his life... this was a definite. This was always going to happen, always coming. Whether Mikey had fallen through that first portal... whether he’d died in battle or whether he’d lost both arms. Somehow, somewhere, sometime... they’d find each other.
Which is why when Mikey agrees to Law’s request - when he says he’ll stay, return to Sam and hold her in his arms again - he means it. Sam is his best friend. That’s never going to change. But when he steps into Dustin’s hospital room and sees the King sat on the edge of the bed, flexing his muscles as though testing his limits, his heart pounds and he’s with him in an instant. Lips press, desperate, against lips and tongue flicks across teeth.
“Almost lost you,” he whispers.
Because when Dustin sinks into him, when he bites into his shoulder and whispers that Michael is his, he feels it. The connection, the love, the desire. Something - a flame - that will never die. Never extinguish because it was always meant to be.
“Never lose me,” Dustin whispers back and he believes him. He’ll always be in his heart. Even if he leaves today and never goes back with him; Dustin will always be inside of him. He could go back to Sam, live a life he always thought he’d end up with: husband, father to her children, grandfather and then die with her by his side, but he’d always wonder... What if?
What if he stayed? What if he kissed Dustin once more and promised he’d never leave him either? What if he pinned him to this bed right now and never let go? What if he broke his promise to Law because sometimes... sometimes you have to be selfish?
“Are you staying?” Dustin asks, the enquiry light even as the pain shines in his eyes.
“What’re you talking about?” Mikey says, with a smile.
“I heard you and that girl talking... She informed you of your friend... the friend you mention... You said you would stay.”
“I know I did,” Mikey says. “Would you be sad if I did?”
Dustin inclines his head. “I do not believe I would ever recover.”
Mikey swallows. This is his choice. Go back to the girl because it’ll be better for her or leave the man he loves more than anything in this world. More than he ever thought he could love another person. More than he thinks his heart could surely allow.
“I’m not leaving,” Mikey says, quietly. “How could I leave you? How could I leave the one man I truly love?”
And then they’re kissing again, like life and happiness and soul depend on it. Like every part of them aches when they’re apart.
When Mikey leaves the hospital room, it’s with his heart in his throat, fingers tingling as he anticipates this conversation. Law is outside, in the deserted corridor, setting up the portal, carefully drawing a circle on the wall and hoping not to be found. Magic crackles in the air, pulled from the other world; out of place and mixing, unhappily, with electricity in the air.
“Law.”
Law looks around. “Hey!” she says, finally throwing down the final ingredient. Light flashes and blue fills the white circle, swirling and casting shadows across the waiting room. “All done! You should tell Dustin he can go.”
Dustin steps out from behind Mikey and smiles slightly as he walks towards the portal. But he doesn’t step through. He stands and waits.
“Aren’t you going to say goodbye?” Law enquires, but Mikey can tell she already knows what’s happening.
“Law...” He steps towards her, takes her hands in his. “You know you’re my friend. So’s Sam. But I can’t... I can’t leave him. He needs me. There’s a war raging and I think we both know I’m better off on that side of the wall. If it weren’t for me, he’d be dead and... I love him.”
“You’re leaving again,” she says, quietly, tears in her eyes. “But this time you’re not coming back.”
He shakes his head. “I don’t think so, no.”
She nods, numbly. “I... I won’t tell Sam you were here. I think... I think it’d be better if she didn’t know.”
“I agree.” Mikey touches her chin gently and tilts her face up to look at him. “Law,” he says, quietly. “Wouldn’t you have gone with Bree?”
“Yes,” she whispers. “Oh god, yes. In a heartbeat. I’d leave you all behind for her.”
“Exactly.”
“Is he your Bree?” she says.
“He’s better.” He smiles at her and she smiles back. He kisses her gently on the forehead and steps towards the portal. “Don’t forget me, ‘kay?”
She grins, through the tears clinging to her cheeks and lips. “Course not. You’re unforgettable, Michael Brown!”
He pauses by the portal, shakes his head with a laugh and runs back towards her. “Always wanted to do this,” he says. He grabs her by the upper arms and kisses her. A proper kiss, not just a peck, one that makes her squeak in protest and wriggle a tiny bit. But she doesn’t fight. She kisses him back then pulls away with the most affronted look on her face that he’s ever seen.
He laughs. “I always wanted to see your face if I did that!” he exclaims.
“I have boy-germs now!” she shouts at him.
He’s still laughing as he runs through the portal, a giggling Dustin’s hand in his own.