[VF fic] Love Talker
Happy birthday to Asami. I thought I'd give him a present.
Title: Love Talker
Pairing: Asami x Takaba
Rating: PG-13
Spoilers: None
Warnings: A mix of dark and fluff, just like a dark chocolate Snickers; AU
Disclaimers: They belong to Yamane-sensei
Summary: Asami attends a dark birthday party in his honor. No one who attends gets what they expected.
A/N - I have no idea where this came from, though the myth of the love-talker is one I always found intriguing.
It was a glittering assemblage-at least that's what they'd like him to think, but to him it stank of decay and desperation. He strolled through the glade among them but as always apart, just one reason he'd left some seven sevens of years ago. Not a number that was lucky for him. He fully expected some trouble tonight, and watched for it. They had come out in force for him, fae of all type, a few good but most bad, the kind who stuck to dark ways and habits. As he used to. As he still did, though in a very different way.
They were all here, those that used to play at being his friends. Some pretended not to notice him, but the way they shifted casually from his path showed him they did. Others walked purposefully in front of him, holding their jeweled hands and heads just so, light flickering across them into his eyes to say "I'm here. Notice me not noticing you." They too moved when he refused to acknowledge them, the occasional hiss betraying their irritation.
Only one stopped him, the crest mark on its forehead showing it came from the one he had come to see.
"My lord." The exotic creature bowed elaborately, its leg kicked out just so, its forearm tilted precisely, its tail cured tight with respect. "The Lady is waiting. If you would follow me..."
It wasn't a request. It also wasn't an order they could force him to obey. It was, however, his wish so he turned and followed behind the tail that unfurled and began to glow at the end, lighting their way as he moved among them. Now the party-goers didn't just shift from his path, but scuttled backwards and bowed, reminding him of the trained fighting beetles he had kept as a child. They too would clean the bones of the defeated.
A tree rose up from the darkness, like no tree ever seen on the earth. It was lush with fruits of all kind, including those made of the flesh of many creatures, ripe and putrifying. Half-eaten bodies dangled from above, some still dripping. He was considered ruthless in the human world, one who could stand in rivers of blood unaffected, and perhaps it was even true if the deaths were deserved. But this.... he concentrated on warm soup made by agile hands and his stomach settled. Soon he would be home, and this business done for another year.
From the roots of the tree grew a throne, the wood rising up and twisting unnaturally to form a chair of sorts. It didn't look comfortable, but from experience he knew that thrones never were.
There was a small gathering around it, some of the eldest. The air shimmered with their ancient powers. It had never impressed him before, and even now, with his own powers sealed away by his own volition, he was not awed. His gaze moved from face to unchanged face, eyes gleaming coldly in the flickering glow of the soul lights hanging from above. How could he ever have seen friendship in any of them? At most they had shared common goals. And even those goals had been meaningless, cruel pranks without consequences to them, nights of endless pleasures that faded from memory with the dawns, completion without progress, experiences without growth.
And at the center, on the throne... her beauty still stunned him, though it no longer held him in thrall, now that he had come to despise what it covered. Now that he knew what true beauty was. She held out her hand.
"We were not sure if you would attend your party." The we only included her. No one else ever mattered.
He watched her realize that he had no intention of bowing, no intention of touching the skin that she held out toward him, skin filled with stolen youth.
"I've always kept the conditions of my oath." If there was one thing his kind could be counted upon to do, it was keep a promise.
"You've changed so much, we were not sure that mattered to you anymore." She examined his face. "You've aged."
"You have not."
She preened, while her eyes were dissecting him.
He watched her carefully, the lids on his eyes sliding down to shutter them from easy view. It was so easy to fall back into his old habits. "That was not a compliment."
"But it was, however unintentional." Her eyes dropped, mimicking him slipping back into his guarded ways, mimicking flirting. He knew she had always wanted him; they all had. There were no such things as familial feelings here, among them. When her eyes rose again though, they were filled with command. "You're looking more human every time we meet. It is disgusting. Tonight your freedom comes to an end."
"My life. My choice. You no longer hold sway over me." Save this one night, when he had promised to return each year.
"Do you know why I chose your birthday for your day of homage?"
"Irony? My birth meant nothing to you." Conversations with her were like walking through shards of glass, trying to step where one would be cut least.
"It meant everything. When one can only have one child, one makes it count."
"Ah, so this is an expression of motherly love. "
She sat up straighter, smiling. "Just so. And on this night, the ties between us are strongest."
"You're beginning to bore me," he bluffed, as alarms began to go off in his mind. He had no idea what she was planning, and his powers were no longer at his beck and call.
"Seven sevens. An auspicious number."
Not for me.
The same hand that he'd refused turned and beckoned to someone off in the darkness. Her eyes sharpened and cut at him with their cruelty. He thought of warm brown eyes waiting for him and the daggers attacking him were blunted, the pain made bearable.
"Your birthday, when our ties are strongest."
A small party approached in the shadows.
She rose, a frightening smile showing her sharp teeth. "You have a new name, but it's time to remember the old one."
"A-Asami....? What's going on? What is this place?" He shut his eyes. How in the seven hells had Akihito found his way here?
"A cutting of these new ties is in order, my Ganconagh, my son. Take his life as you used to and return to your place here."
He felt the compulsion to obey deep in his bones. He had been made of her. She still had some power over him. His old name pulled up memories he'd laid to rest, men and women who'd died by the hundreds, pining for his voice, their desires fueling his youth and sating his hunger. Love Talker. It had only taken the sound of his voice to take their lives, but he'd enjoyed playing with the beautiful ones, the lively ones, closely, personally, with all his senses.
It was what he'd turned and walked away from. In taking of them, some of what they were had seeped into what he was, and it came to the point where he could no longer go on. He had wanted something more. But being who he was with his touch of poison, it was something he couldn't have. So he had sealed it and stepped into the mortal world.
That world had been harsh in its own way for one used to having everything fall at his feet. But his hunger and training had paid off and he'd found a different kind of power. His voice was still seductive, just not deadly. And he had sought, that whole time, for one such as Akihito.
He turned and took in the slight form being escorted toward him. The lithe body glowed with vitality, his emotions viable things that shaped beautiful colors about him, some darting in Asami's direction leaving glowing trails that his escorts were careful not to touch. He had always seen him this way, this shimmering being that drew his eye and lit whatever surrounded him.
Everything cracked apart a moment later when something, his mother he supposed, reached into him and tore at the seal he'd placed there. He felt the old heat and hunger roar through him. He wanted to devour the young man in front of him. But then, he always had.
"Akihito." He let warmth suffuse his voice, enjoying how they all flinched at the sound. All but the one he called, and who called, came running. The boy had no idea that he might be running to his death, but if he had, he wouldn't care. There was an ache in his chest he could not stop.
"Asami, what the hell? That's your mother-?"
"Shhhhh." He moved toward his mortal lover, letting his hunger show.
"... Asami? Are you high?"
He heard laughter about him, that and quickening breaths. "In a way. Are you afraid?"
"No."
No. Of course he wasn't. He reached out and pulled his young love toward him, wrapping him in his arms, letting the emotions rising from his small one wash over his skin, caressing him. He moaned softly.
"Akihito. Do you trust me?"
He bit back a groan as the colors surrounding them turned a deep blue.
"Y-yes." It was hesitant, but there.
"Good. Take off your clothes."
"Here? Are you nuts?" Akihito was looking up at him now, uncertain but still held by faith. Why? He couldn't do this. And he couldn't stop.
"Yes, here. Take them off."
Akihito looked around at all the leering faces, skeptical, then searched Asami's eyes. Then that spark of defiance and guts that set him above all others took hold and his eyes flashed with his own kind of power. He had no idea he was setting the air around them on fire. "Sure. Why not? They're just looking at something they can't have."
Asami knew that they'd fall on him if his mother gave the word. But she wasn't about to let Asami escape this. She'd hold them back and leave it to him to drain Akihito dry.
Akihito thought it was a game and started removing his clothes in a slow striptease, unbuttoning his shirt and letting it slip from his shoulders, unzipping his jeans and rotating his hips until they fell, hooking his thumbs into his camo briefs and slowly tugging them past his jutting erection. Asami was every bit as hard. He felt the old power flow through him easily now and his clothes vanished.
He lifted Akihito and centered him and closed his eyes. "Wrap your legs around me." And when he felt the thighs circling his waist, squeezing him rhythmically, egging him on, he let Akihito's body slide down until their cocks lay against one another. Their skin was dry at first, tugging on each other's as they played at teasing, but precum soon coated their heads and eased the friction. It wasn't enough though. A practiced lover now, Akihito licked his palm and reached between them, coating them with a slickness that made the sensation turn unbearably good.
He watched then, as always, the face of his lover as it turned from defiant, to hesitant, to needy, and as Asami gave in and served up what he wanted, to rapturous. Akihito's head soon fell back in pleasure and his emotions soared, rising above them and swirling hurricane-like, the eye centering on Asami.
"Now, my son."
Yes, now, after all this time, now. He'd never been able to set it free. Love Talker. How could he speak of something when it would kill what he loved? All the emotions he'd ignored for years spun around him, and he tilted his head back, opened his mouth and let them in.
Akihito began shuddering, not just from pleasure but from the pain of having his feelings ripped from his soul. The crowd around him moaned in a cold ecstasy, his mother's voice the loudest.
"Akihito, look at me."
"Yes, watch him as he dies," they whispered from all sides, their bodies beginning to writhe against one another. "Watch his face as he realizes the betrayal."
Akihito struggled to open his eyes. Though his strength was waning, he still looked up at Asami with complete trust.
The trust hung there golden between them, a thing so rare and beautiful that even the darkest creatures around them pulled back. Asami froze, his eyes widening.
Akihito... Everything within Asami stilled, everything he was had pined for this one moment. He had never expected it to happen.
"Are you finally giving it to me, your complete trust?"
Akihito managed a single word between gasps. "Yes."
"Even though you've felt what I've taken?"
He pulled Asami close with weakening arms. "You didn't take anything I didn't want you to have."
They were perilous, these emotions. He was so filled with them they were starting to spill over. With a sigh, Asami took the last in, pulling that golden light deep inside, down into his core, finally taking Akihito all the way down into his abyss. And something changed.
It wouldn't be enough to say his heart was touched. It would be more honest to say it was reforged. With a roar of triumph he felt the bonds that had been tying him to the darkness break and reach out in a new direction, to this light.
He'd known something like this could happen. His whole life had been a warning sign. With the right person he could have it all. But the risk was huge, to both of them. Asami didn't care about himself, but this one for whom he'd waited so long... His craving hadn't been worth the potential loss.
But here, now, driven to it...
The thing about freely given gifts to the fae is that their power triples that which is offered.
"Akihito. " he said softly to the young man dying in his arms. "Look at me."
Then holding his gaze, he kissed him. And everything he'd been freely given, he freely returned. Akihito's back arched in ecstasy as everything he'd yearned for from Asami came to him in full, the pleasure, the acknowledgment, the love. They came together, standing there naked before each other and the host, their physical completion the least of it.
Akihito stirred under him, lifting his face to him like a flower to the sun. Asami raised his mouth for a moment to speak gently, for he could do that now. "I promised you, didn't I, that I would give you all that you needed?" Akihito tried tugging him back down, but he didn't let him, not yet. He had to finish what he needed to say. "What I didn't know is that you would do the same for me."
The large brown eyes staring into his widened, and the lips below them spoke only his name, but said volumes before they again kissed.
He heard his mother scream in rage and throw herself against them, claws and teeth scritching furtively against the cocoon that now held the two of them separate from all others in the clearing. They were wrapped in a power that no evil could break through.
Akihito's legs were steady as he slipped out of Asami's grasp to stand beside him on the grass. To those with the Sight, they were still joined, the emotions of both now flirting above their heads, and every so often zinging down into their chests leaving a glow there. Asami reached over and took Akihito's hand, intertwining their fingers and a burst of pink shot straight out of Akihito's heart.
He could teach Akihito to control that, but he thought it rather cute, and few could see the display but him and those it would warn off. And a few of the smaller pixies and flower fairies who flitted over to perch on Akihito's head and shoulders, chirping at the lights. He smiled at the sight.
His mother had drawn back into the shadows of the great tree, the lights poison to her. "Asami Ryuichi," she growled beast-like, "your mortal name is now your true name and you are no son of mine. The contract is null. Leave and die as a human."
"That's really not your decision to make. Though if it's to be my fate, it's not one I'm afraid of."
Akihito snorted, always irreverent. "Great. I literally have the mother-in-law from hell." A small brown pixie poked out from behind Akihito's ear and blew a raspberry toward the queen.
A bolt of flame flew toward it, and Akihito instinctively put up his palm to block it.
"Akihito, no!" But Asami's shout died on his lips as he saw the bolt bounce harmlessly off and strike a nearby ogre who caught fire and ran zigzagged across the lawn in search of a stream.
"Oh my god." Akihito stared at his hand, then with playful eyes formed his fingers into a gun and aimed. "Bang," he said softly, and all the dark fae scurried into the shadows, leaving no one but the two men and some lesser creatures that seemed more friendly.
"You can see that..." Asami hadn't realized that the changes would work both ways. This could be trouble. But what involving Akihito wasn't?
"I can see a lot that I wish I didn't."
"I'm sorry. I didn't know..."
"That I'd end up seeing auras that finally give me a clue as to what's going on in your head? That's OK. I really don’t mind. Maybe now I'll be able to tell you don't like horror movies instead of having to guess it. Though I guess you lived worse than anything I've ever seen in movies. I can see why you didn't want to dredge up memories." The mischievous glint was back in those eyes. " Let's get out of here. I'm done being put on display for the night. But I'm not done with you."
Asami smiled down at him and slipped an arm around his waist. Akihito looked above his head and smiled back. "Ah, me too."
Funny, he could say all he wanted to now, and now there was less of a need than ever.
As they walked toward the car, some small friends following behind them, the lights in the field slowly went out. The party was over, the lesson was learned, though not the one the party-goers had expected to be taught. A few of the tiny fairies went from flower to flower, cleaning up the mess so the glade would be spotless come morning. One by one they finished their jobs and chose, most trailing after the glowing couple, until there was only one light visible, bouncing through the woods. Then it too went out as the ogre finally found his stream and sank into it with a sigh.
~end~
Title: Love Talker
Pairing: Asami x Takaba
Rating: PG-13
Spoilers: None
Warnings: A mix of dark and fluff, just like a dark chocolate Snickers; AU
Disclaimers: They belong to Yamane-sensei
Summary: Asami attends a dark birthday party in his honor. No one who attends gets what they expected.
A/N - I have no idea where this came from, though the myth of the love-talker is one I always found intriguing.
It was a glittering assemblage-at least that's what they'd like him to think, but to him it stank of decay and desperation. He strolled through the glade among them but as always apart, just one reason he'd left some seven sevens of years ago. Not a number that was lucky for him. He fully expected some trouble tonight, and watched for it. They had come out in force for him, fae of all type, a few good but most bad, the kind who stuck to dark ways and habits. As he used to. As he still did, though in a very different way.
They were all here, those that used to play at being his friends. Some pretended not to notice him, but the way they shifted casually from his path showed him they did. Others walked purposefully in front of him, holding their jeweled hands and heads just so, light flickering across them into his eyes to say "I'm here. Notice me not noticing you." They too moved when he refused to acknowledge them, the occasional hiss betraying their irritation.
Only one stopped him, the crest mark on its forehead showing it came from the one he had come to see.
"My lord." The exotic creature bowed elaborately, its leg kicked out just so, its forearm tilted precisely, its tail cured tight with respect. "The Lady is waiting. If you would follow me..."
It wasn't a request. It also wasn't an order they could force him to obey. It was, however, his wish so he turned and followed behind the tail that unfurled and began to glow at the end, lighting their way as he moved among them. Now the party-goers didn't just shift from his path, but scuttled backwards and bowed, reminding him of the trained fighting beetles he had kept as a child. They too would clean the bones of the defeated.
A tree rose up from the darkness, like no tree ever seen on the earth. It was lush with fruits of all kind, including those made of the flesh of many creatures, ripe and putrifying. Half-eaten bodies dangled from above, some still dripping. He was considered ruthless in the human world, one who could stand in rivers of blood unaffected, and perhaps it was even true if the deaths were deserved. But this.... he concentrated on warm soup made by agile hands and his stomach settled. Soon he would be home, and this business done for another year.
From the roots of the tree grew a throne, the wood rising up and twisting unnaturally to form a chair of sorts. It didn't look comfortable, but from experience he knew that thrones never were.
There was a small gathering around it, some of the eldest. The air shimmered with their ancient powers. It had never impressed him before, and even now, with his own powers sealed away by his own volition, he was not awed. His gaze moved from face to unchanged face, eyes gleaming coldly in the flickering glow of the soul lights hanging from above. How could he ever have seen friendship in any of them? At most they had shared common goals. And even those goals had been meaningless, cruel pranks without consequences to them, nights of endless pleasures that faded from memory with the dawns, completion without progress, experiences without growth.
And at the center, on the throne... her beauty still stunned him, though it no longer held him in thrall, now that he had come to despise what it covered. Now that he knew what true beauty was. She held out her hand.
"We were not sure if you would attend your party." The we only included her. No one else ever mattered.
He watched her realize that he had no intention of bowing, no intention of touching the skin that she held out toward him, skin filled with stolen youth.
"I've always kept the conditions of my oath." If there was one thing his kind could be counted upon to do, it was keep a promise.
"You've changed so much, we were not sure that mattered to you anymore." She examined his face. "You've aged."
"You have not."
She preened, while her eyes were dissecting him.
He watched her carefully, the lids on his eyes sliding down to shutter them from easy view. It was so easy to fall back into his old habits. "That was not a compliment."
"But it was, however unintentional." Her eyes dropped, mimicking him slipping back into his guarded ways, mimicking flirting. He knew she had always wanted him; they all had. There were no such things as familial feelings here, among them. When her eyes rose again though, they were filled with command. "You're looking more human every time we meet. It is disgusting. Tonight your freedom comes to an end."
"My life. My choice. You no longer hold sway over me." Save this one night, when he had promised to return each year.
"Do you know why I chose your birthday for your day of homage?"
"Irony? My birth meant nothing to you." Conversations with her were like walking through shards of glass, trying to step where one would be cut least.
"It meant everything. When one can only have one child, one makes it count."
"Ah, so this is an expression of motherly love. "
She sat up straighter, smiling. "Just so. And on this night, the ties between us are strongest."
"You're beginning to bore me," he bluffed, as alarms began to go off in his mind. He had no idea what she was planning, and his powers were no longer at his beck and call.
"Seven sevens. An auspicious number."
Not for me.
The same hand that he'd refused turned and beckoned to someone off in the darkness. Her eyes sharpened and cut at him with their cruelty. He thought of warm brown eyes waiting for him and the daggers attacking him were blunted, the pain made bearable.
"Your birthday, when our ties are strongest."
A small party approached in the shadows.
She rose, a frightening smile showing her sharp teeth. "You have a new name, but it's time to remember the old one."
"A-Asami....? What's going on? What is this place?" He shut his eyes. How in the seven hells had Akihito found his way here?
"A cutting of these new ties is in order, my Ganconagh, my son. Take his life as you used to and return to your place here."
He felt the compulsion to obey deep in his bones. He had been made of her. She still had some power over him. His old name pulled up memories he'd laid to rest, men and women who'd died by the hundreds, pining for his voice, their desires fueling his youth and sating his hunger. Love Talker. It had only taken the sound of his voice to take their lives, but he'd enjoyed playing with the beautiful ones, the lively ones, closely, personally, with all his senses.
It was what he'd turned and walked away from. In taking of them, some of what they were had seeped into what he was, and it came to the point where he could no longer go on. He had wanted something more. But being who he was with his touch of poison, it was something he couldn't have. So he had sealed it and stepped into the mortal world.
That world had been harsh in its own way for one used to having everything fall at his feet. But his hunger and training had paid off and he'd found a different kind of power. His voice was still seductive, just not deadly. And he had sought, that whole time, for one such as Akihito.
He turned and took in the slight form being escorted toward him. The lithe body glowed with vitality, his emotions viable things that shaped beautiful colors about him, some darting in Asami's direction leaving glowing trails that his escorts were careful not to touch. He had always seen him this way, this shimmering being that drew his eye and lit whatever surrounded him.
Everything cracked apart a moment later when something, his mother he supposed, reached into him and tore at the seal he'd placed there. He felt the old heat and hunger roar through him. He wanted to devour the young man in front of him. But then, he always had.
"Akihito." He let warmth suffuse his voice, enjoying how they all flinched at the sound. All but the one he called, and who called, came running. The boy had no idea that he might be running to his death, but if he had, he wouldn't care. There was an ache in his chest he could not stop.
"Asami, what the hell? That's your mother-?"
"Shhhhh." He moved toward his mortal lover, letting his hunger show.
"... Asami? Are you high?"
He heard laughter about him, that and quickening breaths. "In a way. Are you afraid?"
"No."
No. Of course he wasn't. He reached out and pulled his young love toward him, wrapping him in his arms, letting the emotions rising from his small one wash over his skin, caressing him. He moaned softly.
"Akihito. Do you trust me?"
He bit back a groan as the colors surrounding them turned a deep blue.
"Y-yes." It was hesitant, but there.
"Good. Take off your clothes."
"Here? Are you nuts?" Akihito was looking up at him now, uncertain but still held by faith. Why? He couldn't do this. And he couldn't stop.
"Yes, here. Take them off."
Akihito looked around at all the leering faces, skeptical, then searched Asami's eyes. Then that spark of defiance and guts that set him above all others took hold and his eyes flashed with his own kind of power. He had no idea he was setting the air around them on fire. "Sure. Why not? They're just looking at something they can't have."
Asami knew that they'd fall on him if his mother gave the word. But she wasn't about to let Asami escape this. She'd hold them back and leave it to him to drain Akihito dry.
Akihito thought it was a game and started removing his clothes in a slow striptease, unbuttoning his shirt and letting it slip from his shoulders, unzipping his jeans and rotating his hips until they fell, hooking his thumbs into his camo briefs and slowly tugging them past his jutting erection. Asami was every bit as hard. He felt the old power flow through him easily now and his clothes vanished.
He lifted Akihito and centered him and closed his eyes. "Wrap your legs around me." And when he felt the thighs circling his waist, squeezing him rhythmically, egging him on, he let Akihito's body slide down until their cocks lay against one another. Their skin was dry at first, tugging on each other's as they played at teasing, but precum soon coated their heads and eased the friction. It wasn't enough though. A practiced lover now, Akihito licked his palm and reached between them, coating them with a slickness that made the sensation turn unbearably good.
He watched then, as always, the face of his lover as it turned from defiant, to hesitant, to needy, and as Asami gave in and served up what he wanted, to rapturous. Akihito's head soon fell back in pleasure and his emotions soared, rising above them and swirling hurricane-like, the eye centering on Asami.
"Now, my son."
Yes, now, after all this time, now. He'd never been able to set it free. Love Talker. How could he speak of something when it would kill what he loved? All the emotions he'd ignored for years spun around him, and he tilted his head back, opened his mouth and let them in.
Akihito began shuddering, not just from pleasure but from the pain of having his feelings ripped from his soul. The crowd around him moaned in a cold ecstasy, his mother's voice the loudest.
"Akihito, look at me."
"Yes, watch him as he dies," they whispered from all sides, their bodies beginning to writhe against one another. "Watch his face as he realizes the betrayal."
Akihito struggled to open his eyes. Though his strength was waning, he still looked up at Asami with complete trust.
The trust hung there golden between them, a thing so rare and beautiful that even the darkest creatures around them pulled back. Asami froze, his eyes widening.
Akihito... Everything within Asami stilled, everything he was had pined for this one moment. He had never expected it to happen.
"Are you finally giving it to me, your complete trust?"
Akihito managed a single word between gasps. "Yes."
"Even though you've felt what I've taken?"
He pulled Asami close with weakening arms. "You didn't take anything I didn't want you to have."
They were perilous, these emotions. He was so filled with them they were starting to spill over. With a sigh, Asami took the last in, pulling that golden light deep inside, down into his core, finally taking Akihito all the way down into his abyss. And something changed.
It wouldn't be enough to say his heart was touched. It would be more honest to say it was reforged. With a roar of triumph he felt the bonds that had been tying him to the darkness break and reach out in a new direction, to this light.
He'd known something like this could happen. His whole life had been a warning sign. With the right person he could have it all. But the risk was huge, to both of them. Asami didn't care about himself, but this one for whom he'd waited so long... His craving hadn't been worth the potential loss.
But here, now, driven to it...
The thing about freely given gifts to the fae is that their power triples that which is offered.
"Akihito. " he said softly to the young man dying in his arms. "Look at me."
Then holding his gaze, he kissed him. And everything he'd been freely given, he freely returned. Akihito's back arched in ecstasy as everything he'd yearned for from Asami came to him in full, the pleasure, the acknowledgment, the love. They came together, standing there naked before each other and the host, their physical completion the least of it.
Akihito stirred under him, lifting his face to him like a flower to the sun. Asami raised his mouth for a moment to speak gently, for he could do that now. "I promised you, didn't I, that I would give you all that you needed?" Akihito tried tugging him back down, but he didn't let him, not yet. He had to finish what he needed to say. "What I didn't know is that you would do the same for me."
The large brown eyes staring into his widened, and the lips below them spoke only his name, but said volumes before they again kissed.
He heard his mother scream in rage and throw herself against them, claws and teeth scritching furtively against the cocoon that now held the two of them separate from all others in the clearing. They were wrapped in a power that no evil could break through.
Akihito's legs were steady as he slipped out of Asami's grasp to stand beside him on the grass. To those with the Sight, they were still joined, the emotions of both now flirting above their heads, and every so often zinging down into their chests leaving a glow there. Asami reached over and took Akihito's hand, intertwining their fingers and a burst of pink shot straight out of Akihito's heart.
He could teach Akihito to control that, but he thought it rather cute, and few could see the display but him and those it would warn off. And a few of the smaller pixies and flower fairies who flitted over to perch on Akihito's head and shoulders, chirping at the lights. He smiled at the sight.
His mother had drawn back into the shadows of the great tree, the lights poison to her. "Asami Ryuichi," she growled beast-like, "your mortal name is now your true name and you are no son of mine. The contract is null. Leave and die as a human."
"That's really not your decision to make. Though if it's to be my fate, it's not one I'm afraid of."
Akihito snorted, always irreverent. "Great. I literally have the mother-in-law from hell." A small brown pixie poked out from behind Akihito's ear and blew a raspberry toward the queen.
A bolt of flame flew toward it, and Akihito instinctively put up his palm to block it.
"Akihito, no!" But Asami's shout died on his lips as he saw the bolt bounce harmlessly off and strike a nearby ogre who caught fire and ran zigzagged across the lawn in search of a stream.
"Oh my god." Akihito stared at his hand, then with playful eyes formed his fingers into a gun and aimed. "Bang," he said softly, and all the dark fae scurried into the shadows, leaving no one but the two men and some lesser creatures that seemed more friendly.
"You can see that..." Asami hadn't realized that the changes would work both ways. This could be trouble. But what involving Akihito wasn't?
"I can see a lot that I wish I didn't."
"I'm sorry. I didn't know..."
"That I'd end up seeing auras that finally give me a clue as to what's going on in your head? That's OK. I really don’t mind. Maybe now I'll be able to tell you don't like horror movies instead of having to guess it. Though I guess you lived worse than anything I've ever seen in movies. I can see why you didn't want to dredge up memories." The mischievous glint was back in those eyes. " Let's get out of here. I'm done being put on display for the night. But I'm not done with you."
Asami smiled down at him and slipped an arm around his waist. Akihito looked above his head and smiled back. "Ah, me too."
Funny, he could say all he wanted to now, and now there was less of a need than ever.
As they walked toward the car, some small friends following behind them, the lights in the field slowly went out. The party was over, the lesson was learned, though not the one the party-goers had expected to be taught. A few of the tiny fairies went from flower to flower, cleaning up the mess so the glade would be spotless come morning. One by one they finished their jobs and chose, most trailing after the glowing couple, until there was only one light visible, bouncing through the woods. Then it too went out as the ogre finally found his stream and sank into it with a sigh.
~end~