firstly 2 announcements:
1. I will be away from today until Friday. you can carry on sending me fics, but don't panic when they're not posted immediately. All fics recievedn this week will be posted on Friday/Saturday when I return.
2. I'm putting back the deadline by 10 days. So instead of ending on Sunday 7th September, it will instead end on Wednesday 17th.
Currently, the fic tally stands thus:
AU Fantasy: 4
AU Historic: 2
Childhood: 1
Photograph: 1
Out of Town: 5
secondly, the fic!
Title: Flick
Category: AU Fantasy
Rating: PG-ish
Words: 2,106
Pic:
Flickering movement by the hedgerow caught Takashi’s eye but he studiously ignored it for a whole ten minutes because, for one thing, it was still early and, for another, he was meant to be pissed off.
“Meant to be” because Tuti had flittered off last night with that bird-brained excuse for a best friend, one Moriyama Eiji, when Takashi had been trying to get him to stay with him.
“Meant to be” because Tuti had excused himself with a grin Takashi had had to fight not to return despite his irritation.
“Meant to be” because Takashi knew full well that if Tuti had stayed then they’d both have missed sunrise anyway, and even if Takashi had managed to wake himself up for it, Tuti would probably have snored through it all the same and thereby ruined the atmosphere.
Inconsiderate, predictable, noisy - continued Takashi’s trickling list of half-serious insults aimed at his other half, insults he was so wrapped up in that he forgot all about the movement he’d seen earlier until with a sudden rush of warm air Tuti burst into sight.
Takashi’s view of distant countryside framed by warm, green leaves that he’d been so enjoying from his perch on the topmost rosebud of the bush was lost almost entirely behind Tuti. Buttercup-yellow wings were suddenly all he could see, wings that stretched up above Tuti’s hair that was so dark a shade of green it was almost black, wings that curled at the edges where they were so thin the membrane was practically transparent, wings covered in no pattern save for that made by veins as dark as daffodils that snaked across the vibrating surface. Tuti must have launched himself up from below with some force because he was spinning like a child’s toy, Takashi seeing only flashes of the other creature’s grin as he turned and turned again, bare feet pulled up and arms invisible as he spun.
Inaudible was, however, something Tuti could never manage under any circumstances. The creature was laughing, whether just at himself or at Takashi or because spinning in circles amused him, Takashi didn’t know, but that was certainly the sound Tuti was making and it brought a reluctant grin to Takashi’s face all the same.
Wings unfurling to their full span, Tuti slowed and finally stopped, hands on his cloth-covered hips and that laugh still firmly in place.
‘Show off,’ Takashi couldn’t resist reprimanding him, the two words only succeeding in making Tuti’s laugh morph into a wide grin.
‘Morning to you too,’ Tuti stretched his arms up above his head, weaving fingers together and arching his back enough to thoroughly exaggerate the stretch. When Tuti let his arms drop back with an accompanying roll of his head, he was still smiling broadly, ‘You not going to ask me about what Eiji and I got up to last night?’
Takashi shrugged, the reminder of the previous night making him drop his gaze to his own rose-coloured shorts and tug on them a little in a feigned act of disinterest. ‘Won’t it just be the same as what I’ve heard before?’
‘Okay so Eiji is lacking in the originality department,’ Tuti conceded. ‘But I was expecting you to tick me off all the same.’
Takashi could feel his good humour slipping away and he couldn’t stop the slight bite of annoyance in his voice as he asked, ‘Won’t stop you doing it next time, will it?’
‘Ouch, Takashi, that’s harsh!’
Takashi glanced up; Tuti was still hovering no more than a wingspan from the edge of the rose’s outermost petal, arms now crossed across his bare chest that was mottled the same shade of green as the beach leaves in the next garden. Tuti was frowning, the disgruntled expression directed solely at Takashi because it always did annoy Tuti when someone refused to indulge his good moods.
‘What do you want me to say?’ Takashi snapped back, bristling under that glare when it had been Tuti who’d been the one to bail out last night rather than him.
‘I want you to forgive a guy for not being able to read your mind. Come on Takashi,’ Tuti’s voice turned pleading. ‘You know I’m an idiot whose easily distracted and, admit it, sometimes you prefer not having me around.’
‘Wasn’t like that last night,’ Takashi muttered, gaze dropping back to the warm flush of the petal beneath him, willing himself not to pout because this was all so stupid... and yet...
So what if Tuti had made him smile even as he’d waved him off to go clown around with Eiji somewhere? So what if Takashi had, in the past, pushed Tuti aside so that he could spend some time on his own? So what if they did occasionally miscommunicate and (unintentionally, of course) hurt each other’s feelings and screw up and have to apologise and... and why on earth hadn’t Tuti come out with a some kind of apology yet?
Takashi was on the verge of putting this thought into words when he was struck by something heavy and blunt so abruptly that he was suddenly sprawled on his back on the rose petal before he knew what was happening. Tuti’s hands were on his shoulders, pinning him down, crushing his wings beneath their combined weight, his nose mere inches from Takashi’s so that he couldn’t miss the mingling scents of wood-smoke and honey. Takashi’s own hands had reacted instinctively, bracing themselves against Tuti’s naked chest and he gave the other creature a half-hearted shove as he attempted to sound disgruntled, ‘You’re heavy.’
The rebuke brought forth no verbal response from Tuti, in fact he was grinning so broadly that Takashi wondered if the idiot had already forgotten about their little spat. Takashi didn’t have to wonder for long, Tuti lifted one hand off Takashi’s shoulder just enough to get his fingertips under Takashi’s chin, forcing him to tilt his head back so that when Tuti ducked down his mouth easily found the sensitive skin of Takashi’s throat.
The kiss was warm, good enough to be bestowed on any willing mouth and Takashi felt the corners of his own twitch a little in response, frown forgotten as his eyelids flickered closed. Tuti’s nose bumped against Takashi’s jaw as he repeated the kiss, mouth moving a fraction higher, lips parting against Takashi’s skin so that his tongue could slide over the rising goosebumps.
‘Tuti,’ it was no more than a murmur, a breath that barely managed to form itself into two syllables and yet it was enough to make Tuti press closer, his weight heavy on Takashi’s chest now that Takashi’s hands had been forced to slip aside. For his part, Takashi, no longer allowed to push Tuti back, settled for drawing the other creature closer, grabbing fistfuls of the loose shorts Tuti wore to haul them into the kind of contact that made Tuti break contact to look up.
The grin Takashi could see on Tuti’s face was made up of equal parts mischief and amusement, combining to send a shiver down Takashi’s spine despite the uncomfortable way his wings were being squashed. Leaving one hand to hold Tuti against him, Takashi grabbed a fistful of Tuti’s stupidly untidy hair with the other, determined to wipe the grin from Tuti’s mouth. His chance was lost though when Tuti opened his mouth and said, ‘I am sorry you know.’
Those few words were enough to make Takashi pause, lick his lips and ask, ‘What?’
‘Last night,’ Tuti clarified, almost going cross-eyed in his attempt to look at Takashi because with Takashi’s hand buried in his hair Tuti couldn’t move further back. ‘I’m sorry I didn’t realise you wanted to spend time with me. Next time... next time just kick Eiji out the garden and tell him to make more friends so that he doesn’t have to be such a clingy old man.’
‘You’re apologising?’ Takashi couldn’t help himself; as a rule Tuti didn’t apologise, sure he’d do something to make amends, usually something stupid, or stupidly thoughtful, or stupidly amusing and it’d still result in Takashi forgiving him wholeheartedly. But the guy didn’t do verbal apologies that began “I’m sorry” and for all that Takashi occasionally craved them, he’d always known what to expect.
Always thought he’d known what to expect from Tuti.
‘Yeah,’ Tuti’s smile was sheepish for a second before the mischief returned in an even greater quantity than before. ‘So, you gonna forgive me?’ and he rocked his hips forward as though Takashi needed any reminder.
‘Idiot. So I’m supposed to accept an apology while you half suffocate me and cut off the circulation to my wings, am I?’
‘Oops,’ Tuti’s grin widened, and for a second time he used his advantage in weight and height to outmanoeuvre and manipulate Takashi. Hands fastening tight round Takashi’s arms, Tuti hauled him suddenly forward and up, flicking his wings out wide in one, two, three sweeps so that for a second they were hovering above the rose before dropping back down. This time though their positions were reversed, with Tuti being the one sprawled beneath Takashi, somehow managing to stay sitting more or less upright while Takashi was on his hands and knees on top of him.
‘Better?’ was all Tuti had time to ask before Takashi took the opportunity to pounce. It was a clumsy attack, but Tuti had been so distracted by his own clever turnabout that his guard was down, making it so very easy for Takashi to get his arms round Tuti’s neck and crush his mouth against that smug grin.
With a shudder that ran through him from forehead to toes, Tuti melted against Takashi, his confidence and amusement driven away by a hunger that wrapped his arms around Takashi’s waist and opened his mouth to Takashi’s entreaties. The warmth of Tuti’s body pressed against him, the need in every movement of his tongue and the incoherent groans of pleasure that never managed to form words, swirled together into a delicious concoction that shattered whatever thoughts had been filling Takashi’s mind. All that mattered to him now was getting as close to Tuti as he could manage, flattening himself against Tuti, straddling him, burying one hand in his hair while the other slid down between his wings that were vibrating with so much barely contained energy that it was a minor miracle they weren’t airborne. Takashi’s own wings were stretching and fluttering behind him, flushed a darker shade of pink than usual and adding to the gusts of air that were being encouraged to circle round the entwined pair of fairies.
Breathless and gasping, Tuti slurred a few words into the air between them when he finally leaned back. ‘So, am I forgiven?’
The grin that spread across Takashi’s mouth was unstoppable, unfiltered and was accompanied by a lightness in his chest that made him feel as insubstantial as a dandelion seed. Whether it was the grin or something else that stopped him from answering Tuti properly, Takashi wasn’t sure, but in that one moment he felt genuinely speechless.
Not that it mattered, not that anything could matter when Tuti was pulling him in again, hands having moved up Takashi’s back, past his shoulder blades to curve long fingers over Takashi’s shoulders proper. They were kissing again, melded together from thigh to nose, invisible to any outsider as their insubstantial wings fluttered this way and that, making the air shimmer and shiver.
But as lost as he was, some part of Takashi realised that this was what he’d been wanting, even if the flicker of realisation was so fleeting it slipped beyond him a moment later. He hadn’t been craving a kiss or any rush of physical contact, no matter how delicious and arousing. He hadn’t been needing reassurance or an apology, though he wasn’t going to turn them down if they were offered. He hadn’t been waiting for the other fairy to make up for the previous night’s failure with some gesture because what Takashi had wanted was simply this, this one thing in the his life... just Tuti.
Just a Tuti who was, once again, slipping free of Takashi’s kiss to grin mischief at him, saying with a possessive squeeze, ‘Think you could put up with me for long enough for us watch the sunset tonight?’
‘Probably,’ Takashi answered. ‘Provided you don’t go off with Eiji again.’
‘I promise, doesn’t matter what bizarre thing Daiki’s found by the pond, tonight I’m staying right here.’
And, with so much certainty it scared him, Takashi knew that was all he needed to hear.