fic: Love Something
Title: Love Something
Author: windfallswest
Fandom: Marvel 616, the 2014 run of New Warriors
Pairing: Kaine Parker/Vance Astrovik
Rating: NC-17
Disclaimer: <----
Word Count: 3.9k
Notes: Also at AO3 and cross-posted to marvel_slash and allfandomfics. Follows In Spite of Ourselves.
Summary: Some end-of-summer fluff inspired by my recent beach vacation. And by fluff, I mean yelling.
"Kaine, Kaine! You have to come quick!"
"Aracely? What is it? Are you all right? Where are you?"
"The ocean is glowing Kaine!"
He'd known it was a mistake, getting her a phone.
"Look! I'm sending you a picture."
Big, big mistake.
"Kaaaaaaaaayyyyyyyne, come on," she whined.
"All right! I'm coming. Just stop doing that. And don't drop your phone in the water. Or touch it until we're sure it won't try and eat you."
But Kaine couldn't help smiling a little as he thumbed away a picture of Aracely touching the water and stuffed his phone into his pocket.
"I'm bored," Selah complained. "C'mon! It's Friday night! I've been in class all week; I've got a paper to write tomorrow. Gimme some crime to fight!"
A light started to flash on the comm panel. Robbie pointed excitedly. "Is that something coming in?"
Vance, protected from allergens by a low-level shield and daily doses of Claritin, reached past Jake Waffles to open the channel. "You should make an effort to learn some of this stuff, both of you."
"Guys, guys!"
"Hummingbird?" Vance asked.
"Hi, Justice! Everyone has to come to Houston, right now!"
"Awwright!" Selah and Robbie high-fived, sending him bouncing in the background.
Vance gestured at Jake Waffles, who was already moving. "We're coming; what's the situation?" he asked.
"The ocean is glowing!"
"Is it radioactive?" Mark asked.
"Ooh, or maybe chemical pollution?" Robbie suggested, coming to a rest.
Selah already had her phone out. "Half of Texas is tweeting about it."
Faira-not-Namorita leaned in to look over her shoulder. "It is nothing unusual. The smallest creatures of the sea often make themselves known so."
"It's awesome! Everybody bring your swimsuits," Aracely told them.
When they got to Texas, Kaine was standing on the beach next to a pile of take-out bags. Aracely splashed in the surf waving enthusiastically while Vance lowered everyone to the sand.
Faira had gone straight into the water as soon as they arrived, her wake traced in blue-green light. Vance had followed her in to shore.
"Now I know why Aracely wanted me to pick up so much food," Kaine said. "Never should have bought her that damn phone."
"You have a phone?" From what Aracely said, Kaine was pretty careful about staying off the grid.
"Aracely's been out of town a lot," he said in a tone that didn't invite any further commentary on the subject.
Vance let it slide. There was no point in badgering a man for doing a good thing. He could always get the number from Aracely if he really needed it. "So, what's for dinner?"
"Did you get my catfish?" Aracely called, and they were suddenly inundated.
Vance fought his way clear with a plate piled high. You had to eat defensively around super-heroes, and Sam had just blown in: nothing ate faster than a fifteen-year-old with super-powers.
He settled in on the packed sand a little below the high water line. The fried catfish was indeed excellent, plus some kind of crab samosa; and there had been an enormous pile of what looked like every empanada in Houston, right next to an even bigger pile of biscuits. They had better find some crime to fight this weekend, or Vance was going to get fat. He also made a mental note about Kaine's idea of a picnic.
Mark and Selah had claimed a tub of fried seafood between them and were eating it like popcorn. The smile that touched Vance's lips as he watched them was only a little bitter-sweet. He took another sip of sweet tea. Robbie had discovered sweet tea while shooting the...ill-advised reality show, and he'd been emphatic about introducing Vance to it during their recent travels. It was the small things.
Vance was amusing himself by zipping a little ball of force around underneath the waves while he mopped up the last of the gravy. He was just contemplating getting in the water himself when Kaine, carrying two plates, walked over and squatted down next to him. He held one out without looking.
"Tide's coming in. You're going to be underwater if you keep sitting here." The waves were already lapping at his feet, luminescing on contact. The water was warm.
"Thanks." It looked like cheesecake. "I'm definitely going to need to fight some crime."
"This isn't a date, you know."
"Whatever you say. This is amazing."
"Goat cheese. There wouldn't have been any left." Kaine ate about a third of his in one bite. "I'm serious."
"I believe you," Vance averred whole-heartedly. Goat cheese had no business not being disgusting; this was pretty much a miracle.
"Not about the fucking cheesecake," Kaine snarled. "I've got got things in my past...they're going to come back at me."
"You have a lot to learn about the people on this team."
"You really don't want me around; you'll figure it out sooner or later," insisted Kaine.
Vance put his fork down. "Is that what you came over here to say?"
"Yes. No. There are things that can't just be waved away because you want to."
"But you thought dessert would soften the blow?"
"Just because I'm not a fucking superhero doesn't mean I have to be an asshole all the time," Kaine snapped.
"Only most of it, apparently," Vance couldn't help but notice.
"I am not a good man."
"Do we have to have this conversation again? As far as I'm concerned, all that matters is what you're doing now. The more you're coming back from, the more that says about you."
"That's bullshit. All you heroes are the same. If I told you what I've done-"
"I've killed before," Vance said shortly.
Kaine snorted. "What, space invaders? I know you hero types. A super-villain got hit by a truck while you were fighting or somebody died because you couldn't bench press a burning high-rise fast enough and now you blame yourself. I was an assassin."
"I went to prison. For killing my father."
That actually stunned Kaine into silence for a moment.
"I keep trying to kill mine, but it won't stick."
Vance would have smacked himself in the forehead if he weren't still balancing the cheesecake. "Wow, you really are related to Spider-Man."
"...So, was you father a super-villain, too?" Kaine asked after a long beat.
Vance caught Kaine's gaze and held it, hiding nothing. "He was going to hit me. Again. I lost it and blasted him through the living room wall. They found me guilty, and they were right. I was more careful defending myself against strangers who were trying to kill me. You don't-do that to somebody if you don't want to hurt them on some level. Part of you has to want to hurt them back. It's not an easy thing to know about yourself."
Kaine stared back at him with something else behind the hardness in his eyes. Vance swore he'd never forget the look on his face right before the wave came crashing down.
There were shrieks from where the rest of the group was congregated; Robbie's howls of laughter in particular were easy to pick out.
"It's okay, I got it!" Vance shouted. Kaine was sputtering where he'd been knocked over, covered in little twinkling lights like the sand around them. Vance grinned at him. "I saved the cheesecake."
Kaine looked at him like he was crazy. Then his lips were curling back and he was tackling Vance to the sand for a salty kiss. The hoots and catcalls only made him smile.
The next wave almost drowned them. Kaine dragged him to his feet and they stumbled coughing past the tide-line, leaning on each other, sparkling from head to toe, with light trailing after them, the cheesecake hovering safely overhead.
Kaine's arm didn't slip from around his waist. Vance pulled him in. This time, they didn't have to stop for waves.
"Um, are they kissing?" Sam asked. His eyes were as wide as saucers, poor kid.
Selah made an appreciative noise. "I've got to wonder about his choice in men, but that is hot."
"It is?" Mark's tone was dubious. Well, he wasn't gay, then.
Faira, who had let them pry her out of the water for dessert, was also watching the show, head cocked to one side. At least somebody was with Selah on this. Actually, she'd thought Faira might have had a little thing for Kaine herself, what with their both being surly and excessively violent, but maybe not. And wasn't she supposed to be on some sort of quest? They should help her now that they'd saved the world and de-evolved the Lord High Teakettle. Or, if not now, then after finals.
"Wait, which one?" Robbie asked belatedly, ready to jump to his friend's defence.
"She means Justice. Hey! Kaine is totally a catch," objected Aracely.
That girl had more issues than Selah, whose father was a super-villain. Also, she might want to re-think her choice of role-models. And consider respecting a person's mental privacy, Selah thought loudly at her. Aracely stuck her tongue out.
"They are both formidable warriors. But Justice would do well to live up to his name," Faira said darkly.
Hah! Called it, thought Selah smugly.
"Is this making anyone else uncomfortable?" asked Mark.
"It's the twenty-first century; deal with it," Selah told him.
"I would also be uncomfortable if you were making out with your boyfriend."
Selah's head whipped around. "Oh? I'm not seeing anybody, actually," she said casually.
"Down, girl," Sil told her. "Team dating is a bad, bad, bad, bad idea."
Sam pointed. Damn; Selah wished she'd brought some light-gear. "Hey, tell that to them."
"You first, kid," said Mark.
"Oh, well, it's Vance; that's not really a problem." Sil shrugged.
"True; he and Firestar waited until waaaaay after they left the team to implode," Robbie agreed.
Firestar? Who was Firestar? "Who's Firestar?"
"What happened with them? Disappearing like that, I thought Stark's people got to her early in the War. But then I didn't see her for forever, even after the repeal."
Robbie looked trapped. "Ummmm-oh, hey, look, they're coming up for air."
Kaine's mouth kept drawing him like a magnet, even though everything, everything tasted like salt.
"Your place or mine?" Vance's voice came out low and rough to his own ears.
Kaine's breath caught. "Hotel'd be closer. Anywhere but a Four Seasons."
"And we wouldn't look a bit odd walking in soaking wet." Vance didn't even have a shirt, a fact which Kaine's wandering hands kept reminding him of.
"It's a beach. I've still got eight hundred dollars in my pocket. What do you want to bet we can get a room whether we're dry or not?"
Vance kissed him one last time and stepped back. "I think I have a better idea."
Selah intercepted him before he reached the others. They were grouped around the remnants of dinner and, Vance was afraid, had been staring at him going at it with Kaine this whole time. He felt heat start to prickle up the back of his neck. It wasn't that he minded people knowing; he was just a private person.
Selah bounced up to him and took his arm, her eyes shining. "I didn't know you were gay!"
And that was why.
Vance suppressed a wince. Selah had a lot of potential, but sometimes she was so naïve it was painful. "I'm not."
"Your tongue down Scarlet Spider's throat begs to differ."
They were approaching the others now.
"Sign up for a course on sexuality next semester. Sil will get you back to the base if you ask nicely."
"I will?" Sil asked.
Vance flashed her a grin. "Up to you; you can always make them swim for it. Don't forget to clean up," he added.
Vance crouched and sorted through the vanquished meal until he had a smallish takeout container with nothing in it but dry crumbs. The cheesecake, after all.
"I'll see most of you in the morning. Thanks for calling us in, Aracely; this was a good idea."
"I like it when you two have sex where I can't hear it. It makes Kaine happy and it's way less awkward for me," Aracely confided cheerfully.
Oh good god. "Maybe we can find someone to help you with that kind of thing."
Robbie held up his fist for him to bump. Vance rolled his eyes. "Later."
Kaine watched Vance walking over to the others. He almost felt bad about leaving Vance to deal with them on his own. Almost. Kaine didn't really feel like turning this into a thing tonight.
It looked like Vance didn't either: he was already heading back. Selah and Sil's heads bending together in his wake convinced Kaine he had made the right decision.
Then again, there was a lot of not-talking going on tonight. The scars Kaine had noticed before on Speedball's arms and face covered his entire body; there was an especially nasty one where something had clearly been aiming for his heart and a bullet-wound, gut-shot. Even more sobering was the mess of old scars across Silhouette's back and belly that the kids kept trying not to stare at. The way Kaine's eyes worked these days, he could count the bullet-wounds easily.
What did the kids make of it? Did they think it was inspiring? It should scare them shitless, the marks these people wore so casually. This is what happens to heroes.
Sometimes, Kaine thought he was a walking scar, the trauma left over from a shot someone had taken at Peter Parker. But his skin was clean, the only marks on it his own. For now.
Vance flew them not out to the mountain or in to town, but down the beach, out of even superhuman earshot. They landed at the edge of a stand of trees, one of those shoreline nature park things. Obviously cover. Kaine eyed Vance with growing approval.
"I'm liking this idea," Kaine told him, sliding his hands down the back of Vance's swim trunks and pulling him in.
The kiss Vance pressed to his lips was full of promise. "Just wait."
Vance's hands encountered the wet and clingy fabric of his shirt. Kaine stripped it off and threw it away. The night was so warm and close that there was barely a moment's chill as his wet skin hit the air.
"What if I don't want to wait?"
"Then take your pants off," Vance suggested, amusement in his voice.
He took Vance's pants off first, because that was more fun. Clever hands found Kaine's buckle and drew his belt off in a long, sensual slide. Damp jeans were uncomfortable, and he was glad to be rid of them, especially when this was the alternative, Vance stepping in so they were touching everywhere. Kaine wondered if that telekinetic mutant power of his could prevent them from getting sand in horrible places.
He flexed his toes only to find there was nothing under his feet. Not entirely certain he wanted to, Kaine opened his eyes and looked down.
They were already twenty feet in the air. When he looked up again, a shy smile was tugging at Vance's lips.
"You're insane," Kaine said reverently.
Anxiety tinged Vance's bashful expression. "Do you want to go back down?"
"No." Kaine really was used to heights; this was just...unexpected. "Just let me-"
Kaine webbed his jeans and reeled them in. The lube in the pocket was fine, but apparently condom wrappers weren't waterproof.
"Do we need it?" Vance asked hesitantly.
"Well, I guess not." The odds of Vance having an STD were basically hilarious, and Meland was convinced Kaine was going to get tetanus fighting werewolves or something, or maybe he was just trying to figure out how to give himself spider-powers; either way, he kept taking Kaine's blood and doing tests on it.
Vance waited while he flung the pants in the general direction of some shrubbery, only keeping the lube. He drew Kaine back in close and kissed him again, unhurriedly, as the world dropped away beneath them.
The wind of their ascent wasn't the only thing giving Kaine goosebumps. The warm lights of two cities sprawled below; and as they rose the sky opened up around them, the stars piercingly bright against the darkness.
It reminded Kaine of another sky, another night, another pair of arms holding him close. Vance shone so much more brightly than she had. Had Kaine really found this again, after he thought he'd murdered it long ago?
Louise had been like one of those dead stars whose rays kept travelling through space long after their source had gone dark, all her light a lie. Vance was unbroken; his heart was true. It blazed like a beacon in his darkness.
Kaine wanted to ask him how he'd done it, how he could be the kind of man he was after what he'd done. How he'd escaped the pit Kaine was clawing his way out of.
Maybe Vance actually had a reason to believe in him, and he really did know what he was talking about. It was even possible that Kaine didn't have to run away from this.
Right now, he didn't think he could even have let go if he tried. Vance's lips parted for him easily, luring him into deeper kisses, an embrace so tender it made him shake.
He still tasted of sea water, the scent sharp in Kaine's nose. Strands of Vance's damp hair brushed his face, and he honestly couldn't have said if the salt wetness on his cheeks was from that or tears.
"Kaine?" There was more concern than breath in Vance's voice.
"Just shut up and kiss me."
Vance brought a hand up to touch the tracks of moisture on his face; he closed his eyes, fighting to breathe as Vance leaned in to feather a kiss at the corner of first one, then the other. The sweetness of his lips on Kaine's would have been more than enough for them to lose themselves in, except that they were naked and pressed together all the way down to their tangled feet.
Their hips were two steps ahead of them, already engaged in an exquisite, grinding sway. Their erections slid against one another with a sensation like, Kaine imagined, the tautly-wound strings of bow on violin. Each stroke resonated through him, building up to a deafening scream of sensation.
He threaded his fingers through Vance's hair, and Vance let himself be tilted back, taking Kaine with him, until they had reached the horizontal. Kaine knelt over him on empty air, Vance's hands resting in the crooks of his knees lending more support than mere flesh and bone.
A flick of Kaine's fingers produced the lube; he squeezed some out and dropped the tube on Vance's stomach. A muscle jumped at the unexpected contact, accompanied by a sharp intake of breath. Vance's eyes were wide and dark.
Kaine ran a slick palm up his chest, biting teasingly at his lips before seguing into a serious kiss. It was so tempting just to stay there in that closeness, but Vance's short nails dragging up the backs of his thighs towards his ass reminded him what he really wanted.
Sitting back, Kaine let his hand linger on the way down. Vance's grip tightened as he widened his stance, reaching around behind himself, and with a grunt pushed two fingers into his body. Could use a bit more lube, probably, but Kaine really didn't want to take the time.
Good enough. He was more generous coating Vance's dick, partially for the little leaking noises Vance made while he did it. He was gasping by the time Kaine was done with him, flushed and looking almost as desperate as Kaine felt.
"I'm crazy," Vance choked while Kaine positioned himself.
"You just keep us steady; I've got this," Kaine reassured him.
Vance swallowed visibly, his hands resettling themselves on Kaine's thighs as he opened himself with Vance's cock and sank down. Kaine didn't try to stop the moan that escaped his lips; there was no one to hear it but themselves. It seemed like the world was spinning, but probably it was just them. The way Vance was watching him, he probably wouldn't have noticed if all the stars went out.
Kaine went slowly, testing their stability. Vance was a stretch but so well-greased there was barely any friction. Just the burn and a feeling of incredible fullness as he bottomed out. Far below, waves crested in blue-green flashes and the waters flickered with eerie light.
Stillness and motion; sky and sea. Searching for something to hold onto, he found Vance's hands on his thighs. They turned palm-up for him and their fingers caught and held.
It was amazing and terrifying and freeing. Kaine moved as slowly as he could stand, drawing out this moment like that might slow time and stop the morning from coming and searing away both their darkness and their light. He felt so much all at once, emotions and sensations crowding together so thickly that any minute they'd burst out through his skin.
Kaine didn't want to let any of it go. He hung on with everything in him as sweat pooled on Vance's chest and ran in rivulets down his face with the effort of concentration necessary to keep them aloft while Kaine worked himself on his dick.
Skirting so near the edge, one of them was bound to tip over. Kaine's back bowed and he gave a shout as orgasm tore up him like a string of firecrackers. He curled forward again over their joined hands, and when Vance came, they shot upwards through the air with the force of it, or maybe just his determination not to drop them into the bay.
Slowly, they sort of crumpled into one another, wobbling a little. Kaine switched his arms to a more secure hold.
"Vance?"
"I got it, I got it," Vance said a bit fuzzily.
There was a very un-Houston-like chill this far up that disappeared gradually as they descended. Vance tipped them upright and squinted at the poorly-lit shore.
"I have no idea where we left our stuff," he admitted after a moment.
Kaine pointed.
"I keep forgetting that you can see in the dark."
"Maybe I asked the spiders," he said.
Vance twitched. Ha.
Kaine was on the money, although it took a little longer to find his pants. They were still wet, but he pulled them on anyway.
As he finished buckling his belt, he saw Vance stand up with a styrofoam takeout container in his hand. "Dessert?"
Kaine laughed. It felt good.
They ate the cheesecake hovering low over the water, watching the blue-green glow of the waves as they broke. Or, Kaine was watching the waves go in and out; Vance was staring up at the sky again. He sighed.
"I've always loved the stars," he said softly. "I wanted to be an astronaut. Been up there a few times; man, I'd like to go back, see more."
And he'd only thought of running away to Mexico. Kaine tilted his head back to look. Houston's light pollution drowned most of it out, down here. "What's it like?" he asked.
Vance's fingers touched the back of his hand. Kaine froze, then cautiously turned it over. Vance looked at him, trusting him to find his gaze in the dark.
"Incredible."
___
We must always love something. In those matters seemingly removed from love, the feeling is secretly to be found, and man cannot possibly live for a moment without it.
-Blaise Pascal
Rattling Good History >
Author: windfallswest
Fandom: Marvel 616, the 2014 run of New Warriors
Pairing: Kaine Parker/Vance Astrovik
Rating: NC-17
Disclaimer: <----
Word Count: 3.9k
Notes: Also at AO3 and cross-posted to marvel_slash and allfandomfics. Follows In Spite of Ourselves.
Summary: Some end-of-summer fluff inspired by my recent beach vacation. And by fluff, I mean yelling.
"Kaine, Kaine! You have to come quick!"
"Aracely? What is it? Are you all right? Where are you?"
"The ocean is glowing Kaine!"
He'd known it was a mistake, getting her a phone.
"Look! I'm sending you a picture."
Big, big mistake.
"Kaaaaaaaaayyyyyyyne, come on," she whined.
"All right! I'm coming. Just stop doing that. And don't drop your phone in the water. Or touch it until we're sure it won't try and eat you."
But Kaine couldn't help smiling a little as he thumbed away a picture of Aracely touching the water and stuffed his phone into his pocket.
"I'm bored," Selah complained. "C'mon! It's Friday night! I've been in class all week; I've got a paper to write tomorrow. Gimme some crime to fight!"
A light started to flash on the comm panel. Robbie pointed excitedly. "Is that something coming in?"
Vance, protected from allergens by a low-level shield and daily doses of Claritin, reached past Jake Waffles to open the channel. "You should make an effort to learn some of this stuff, both of you."
"Guys, guys!"
"Hummingbird?" Vance asked.
"Hi, Justice! Everyone has to come to Houston, right now!"
"Awwright!" Selah and Robbie high-fived, sending him bouncing in the background.
Vance gestured at Jake Waffles, who was already moving. "We're coming; what's the situation?" he asked.
"The ocean is glowing!"
"Is it radioactive?" Mark asked.
"Ooh, or maybe chemical pollution?" Robbie suggested, coming to a rest.
Selah already had her phone out. "Half of Texas is tweeting about it."
Faira-not-Namorita leaned in to look over her shoulder. "It is nothing unusual. The smallest creatures of the sea often make themselves known so."
"It's awesome! Everybody bring your swimsuits," Aracely told them.
When they got to Texas, Kaine was standing on the beach next to a pile of take-out bags. Aracely splashed in the surf waving enthusiastically while Vance lowered everyone to the sand.
Faira had gone straight into the water as soon as they arrived, her wake traced in blue-green light. Vance had followed her in to shore.
"Now I know why Aracely wanted me to pick up so much food," Kaine said. "Never should have bought her that damn phone."
"You have a phone?" From what Aracely said, Kaine was pretty careful about staying off the grid.
"Aracely's been out of town a lot," he said in a tone that didn't invite any further commentary on the subject.
Vance let it slide. There was no point in badgering a man for doing a good thing. He could always get the number from Aracely if he really needed it. "So, what's for dinner?"
"Did you get my catfish?" Aracely called, and they were suddenly inundated.
Vance fought his way clear with a plate piled high. You had to eat defensively around super-heroes, and Sam had just blown in: nothing ate faster than a fifteen-year-old with super-powers.
He settled in on the packed sand a little below the high water line. The fried catfish was indeed excellent, plus some kind of crab samosa; and there had been an enormous pile of what looked like every empanada in Houston, right next to an even bigger pile of biscuits. They had better find some crime to fight this weekend, or Vance was going to get fat. He also made a mental note about Kaine's idea of a picnic.
Mark and Selah had claimed a tub of fried seafood between them and were eating it like popcorn. The smile that touched Vance's lips as he watched them was only a little bitter-sweet. He took another sip of sweet tea. Robbie had discovered sweet tea while shooting the...ill-advised reality show, and he'd been emphatic about introducing Vance to it during their recent travels. It was the small things.
Vance was amusing himself by zipping a little ball of force around underneath the waves while he mopped up the last of the gravy. He was just contemplating getting in the water himself when Kaine, carrying two plates, walked over and squatted down next to him. He held one out without looking.
"Tide's coming in. You're going to be underwater if you keep sitting here." The waves were already lapping at his feet, luminescing on contact. The water was warm.
"Thanks." It looked like cheesecake. "I'm definitely going to need to fight some crime."
"This isn't a date, you know."
"Whatever you say. This is amazing."
"Goat cheese. There wouldn't have been any left." Kaine ate about a third of his in one bite. "I'm serious."
"I believe you," Vance averred whole-heartedly. Goat cheese had no business not being disgusting; this was pretty much a miracle.
"Not about the fucking cheesecake," Kaine snarled. "I've got got things in my past...they're going to come back at me."
"You have a lot to learn about the people on this team."
"You really don't want me around; you'll figure it out sooner or later," insisted Kaine.
Vance put his fork down. "Is that what you came over here to say?"
"Yes. No. There are things that can't just be waved away because you want to."
"But you thought dessert would soften the blow?"
"Just because I'm not a fucking superhero doesn't mean I have to be an asshole all the time," Kaine snapped.
"Only most of it, apparently," Vance couldn't help but notice.
"I am not a good man."
"Do we have to have this conversation again? As far as I'm concerned, all that matters is what you're doing now. The more you're coming back from, the more that says about you."
"That's bullshit. All you heroes are the same. If I told you what I've done-"
"I've killed before," Vance said shortly.
Kaine snorted. "What, space invaders? I know you hero types. A super-villain got hit by a truck while you were fighting or somebody died because you couldn't bench press a burning high-rise fast enough and now you blame yourself. I was an assassin."
"I went to prison. For killing my father."
That actually stunned Kaine into silence for a moment.
"I keep trying to kill mine, but it won't stick."
Vance would have smacked himself in the forehead if he weren't still balancing the cheesecake. "Wow, you really are related to Spider-Man."
"...So, was you father a super-villain, too?" Kaine asked after a long beat.
Vance caught Kaine's gaze and held it, hiding nothing. "He was going to hit me. Again. I lost it and blasted him through the living room wall. They found me guilty, and they were right. I was more careful defending myself against strangers who were trying to kill me. You don't-do that to somebody if you don't want to hurt them on some level. Part of you has to want to hurt them back. It's not an easy thing to know about yourself."
Kaine stared back at him with something else behind the hardness in his eyes. Vance swore he'd never forget the look on his face right before the wave came crashing down.
There were shrieks from where the rest of the group was congregated; Robbie's howls of laughter in particular were easy to pick out.
"It's okay, I got it!" Vance shouted. Kaine was sputtering where he'd been knocked over, covered in little twinkling lights like the sand around them. Vance grinned at him. "I saved the cheesecake."
Kaine looked at him like he was crazy. Then his lips were curling back and he was tackling Vance to the sand for a salty kiss. The hoots and catcalls only made him smile.
The next wave almost drowned them. Kaine dragged him to his feet and they stumbled coughing past the tide-line, leaning on each other, sparkling from head to toe, with light trailing after them, the cheesecake hovering safely overhead.
Kaine's arm didn't slip from around his waist. Vance pulled him in. This time, they didn't have to stop for waves.
"Um, are they kissing?" Sam asked. His eyes were as wide as saucers, poor kid.
Selah made an appreciative noise. "I've got to wonder about his choice in men, but that is hot."
"It is?" Mark's tone was dubious. Well, he wasn't gay, then.
Faira, who had let them pry her out of the water for dessert, was also watching the show, head cocked to one side. At least somebody was with Selah on this. Actually, she'd thought Faira might have had a little thing for Kaine herself, what with their both being surly and excessively violent, but maybe not. And wasn't she supposed to be on some sort of quest? They should help her now that they'd saved the world and de-evolved the Lord High Teakettle. Or, if not now, then after finals.
"Wait, which one?" Robbie asked belatedly, ready to jump to his friend's defence.
"She means Justice. Hey! Kaine is totally a catch," objected Aracely.
That girl had more issues than Selah, whose father was a super-villain. Also, she might want to re-think her choice of role-models. And consider respecting a person's mental privacy, Selah thought loudly at her. Aracely stuck her tongue out.
"They are both formidable warriors. But Justice would do well to live up to his name," Faira said darkly.
Hah! Called it, thought Selah smugly.
"Is this making anyone else uncomfortable?" asked Mark.
"It's the twenty-first century; deal with it," Selah told him.
"I would also be uncomfortable if you were making out with your boyfriend."
Selah's head whipped around. "Oh? I'm not seeing anybody, actually," she said casually.
"Down, girl," Sil told her. "Team dating is a bad, bad, bad, bad idea."
Sam pointed. Damn; Selah wished she'd brought some light-gear. "Hey, tell that to them."
"You first, kid," said Mark.
"Oh, well, it's Vance; that's not really a problem." Sil shrugged.
"True; he and Firestar waited until waaaaay after they left the team to implode," Robbie agreed.
Firestar? Who was Firestar? "Who's Firestar?"
"What happened with them? Disappearing like that, I thought Stark's people got to her early in the War. But then I didn't see her for forever, even after the repeal."
Robbie looked trapped. "Ummmm-oh, hey, look, they're coming up for air."
Kaine's mouth kept drawing him like a magnet, even though everything, everything tasted like salt.
"Your place or mine?" Vance's voice came out low and rough to his own ears.
Kaine's breath caught. "Hotel'd be closer. Anywhere but a Four Seasons."
"And we wouldn't look a bit odd walking in soaking wet." Vance didn't even have a shirt, a fact which Kaine's wandering hands kept reminding him of.
"It's a beach. I've still got eight hundred dollars in my pocket. What do you want to bet we can get a room whether we're dry or not?"
Vance kissed him one last time and stepped back. "I think I have a better idea."
Selah intercepted him before he reached the others. They were grouped around the remnants of dinner and, Vance was afraid, had been staring at him going at it with Kaine this whole time. He felt heat start to prickle up the back of his neck. It wasn't that he minded people knowing; he was just a private person.
Selah bounced up to him and took his arm, her eyes shining. "I didn't know you were gay!"
And that was why.
Vance suppressed a wince. Selah had a lot of potential, but sometimes she was so naïve it was painful. "I'm not."
"Your tongue down Scarlet Spider's throat begs to differ."
They were approaching the others now.
"Sign up for a course on sexuality next semester. Sil will get you back to the base if you ask nicely."
"I will?" Sil asked.
Vance flashed her a grin. "Up to you; you can always make them swim for it. Don't forget to clean up," he added.
Vance crouched and sorted through the vanquished meal until he had a smallish takeout container with nothing in it but dry crumbs. The cheesecake, after all.
"I'll see most of you in the morning. Thanks for calling us in, Aracely; this was a good idea."
"I like it when you two have sex where I can't hear it. It makes Kaine happy and it's way less awkward for me," Aracely confided cheerfully.
Oh good god. "Maybe we can find someone to help you with that kind of thing."
Robbie held up his fist for him to bump. Vance rolled his eyes. "Later."
Kaine watched Vance walking over to the others. He almost felt bad about leaving Vance to deal with them on his own. Almost. Kaine didn't really feel like turning this into a thing tonight.
It looked like Vance didn't either: he was already heading back. Selah and Sil's heads bending together in his wake convinced Kaine he had made the right decision.
Then again, there was a lot of not-talking going on tonight. The scars Kaine had noticed before on Speedball's arms and face covered his entire body; there was an especially nasty one where something had clearly been aiming for his heart and a bullet-wound, gut-shot. Even more sobering was the mess of old scars across Silhouette's back and belly that the kids kept trying not to stare at. The way Kaine's eyes worked these days, he could count the bullet-wounds easily.
What did the kids make of it? Did they think it was inspiring? It should scare them shitless, the marks these people wore so casually. This is what happens to heroes.
Sometimes, Kaine thought he was a walking scar, the trauma left over from a shot someone had taken at Peter Parker. But his skin was clean, the only marks on it his own. For now.
Vance flew them not out to the mountain or in to town, but down the beach, out of even superhuman earshot. They landed at the edge of a stand of trees, one of those shoreline nature park things. Obviously cover. Kaine eyed Vance with growing approval.
"I'm liking this idea," Kaine told him, sliding his hands down the back of Vance's swim trunks and pulling him in.
The kiss Vance pressed to his lips was full of promise. "Just wait."
Vance's hands encountered the wet and clingy fabric of his shirt. Kaine stripped it off and threw it away. The night was so warm and close that there was barely a moment's chill as his wet skin hit the air.
"What if I don't want to wait?"
"Then take your pants off," Vance suggested, amusement in his voice.
He took Vance's pants off first, because that was more fun. Clever hands found Kaine's buckle and drew his belt off in a long, sensual slide. Damp jeans were uncomfortable, and he was glad to be rid of them, especially when this was the alternative, Vance stepping in so they were touching everywhere. Kaine wondered if that telekinetic mutant power of his could prevent them from getting sand in horrible places.
He flexed his toes only to find there was nothing under his feet. Not entirely certain he wanted to, Kaine opened his eyes and looked down.
They were already twenty feet in the air. When he looked up again, a shy smile was tugging at Vance's lips.
"You're insane," Kaine said reverently.
Anxiety tinged Vance's bashful expression. "Do you want to go back down?"
"No." Kaine really was used to heights; this was just...unexpected. "Just let me-"
Kaine webbed his jeans and reeled them in. The lube in the pocket was fine, but apparently condom wrappers weren't waterproof.
"Do we need it?" Vance asked hesitantly.
"Well, I guess not." The odds of Vance having an STD were basically hilarious, and Meland was convinced Kaine was going to get tetanus fighting werewolves or something, or maybe he was just trying to figure out how to give himself spider-powers; either way, he kept taking Kaine's blood and doing tests on it.
Vance waited while he flung the pants in the general direction of some shrubbery, only keeping the lube. He drew Kaine back in close and kissed him again, unhurriedly, as the world dropped away beneath them.
The wind of their ascent wasn't the only thing giving Kaine goosebumps. The warm lights of two cities sprawled below; and as they rose the sky opened up around them, the stars piercingly bright against the darkness.
It reminded Kaine of another sky, another night, another pair of arms holding him close. Vance shone so much more brightly than she had. Had Kaine really found this again, after he thought he'd murdered it long ago?
Louise had been like one of those dead stars whose rays kept travelling through space long after their source had gone dark, all her light a lie. Vance was unbroken; his heart was true. It blazed like a beacon in his darkness.
Kaine wanted to ask him how he'd done it, how he could be the kind of man he was after what he'd done. How he'd escaped the pit Kaine was clawing his way out of.
Maybe Vance actually had a reason to believe in him, and he really did know what he was talking about. It was even possible that Kaine didn't have to run away from this.
Right now, he didn't think he could even have let go if he tried. Vance's lips parted for him easily, luring him into deeper kisses, an embrace so tender it made him shake.
He still tasted of sea water, the scent sharp in Kaine's nose. Strands of Vance's damp hair brushed his face, and he honestly couldn't have said if the salt wetness on his cheeks was from that or tears.
"Kaine?" There was more concern than breath in Vance's voice.
"Just shut up and kiss me."
Vance brought a hand up to touch the tracks of moisture on his face; he closed his eyes, fighting to breathe as Vance leaned in to feather a kiss at the corner of first one, then the other. The sweetness of his lips on Kaine's would have been more than enough for them to lose themselves in, except that they were naked and pressed together all the way down to their tangled feet.
Their hips were two steps ahead of them, already engaged in an exquisite, grinding sway. Their erections slid against one another with a sensation like, Kaine imagined, the tautly-wound strings of bow on violin. Each stroke resonated through him, building up to a deafening scream of sensation.
He threaded his fingers through Vance's hair, and Vance let himself be tilted back, taking Kaine with him, until they had reached the horizontal. Kaine knelt over him on empty air, Vance's hands resting in the crooks of his knees lending more support than mere flesh and bone.
A flick of Kaine's fingers produced the lube; he squeezed some out and dropped the tube on Vance's stomach. A muscle jumped at the unexpected contact, accompanied by a sharp intake of breath. Vance's eyes were wide and dark.
Kaine ran a slick palm up his chest, biting teasingly at his lips before seguing into a serious kiss. It was so tempting just to stay there in that closeness, but Vance's short nails dragging up the backs of his thighs towards his ass reminded him what he really wanted.
Sitting back, Kaine let his hand linger on the way down. Vance's grip tightened as he widened his stance, reaching around behind himself, and with a grunt pushed two fingers into his body. Could use a bit more lube, probably, but Kaine really didn't want to take the time.
Good enough. He was more generous coating Vance's dick, partially for the little leaking noises Vance made while he did it. He was gasping by the time Kaine was done with him, flushed and looking almost as desperate as Kaine felt.
"I'm crazy," Vance choked while Kaine positioned himself.
"You just keep us steady; I've got this," Kaine reassured him.
Vance swallowed visibly, his hands resettling themselves on Kaine's thighs as he opened himself with Vance's cock and sank down. Kaine didn't try to stop the moan that escaped his lips; there was no one to hear it but themselves. It seemed like the world was spinning, but probably it was just them. The way Vance was watching him, he probably wouldn't have noticed if all the stars went out.
Kaine went slowly, testing their stability. Vance was a stretch but so well-greased there was barely any friction. Just the burn and a feeling of incredible fullness as he bottomed out. Far below, waves crested in blue-green flashes and the waters flickered with eerie light.
Stillness and motion; sky and sea. Searching for something to hold onto, he found Vance's hands on his thighs. They turned palm-up for him and their fingers caught and held.
It was amazing and terrifying and freeing. Kaine moved as slowly as he could stand, drawing out this moment like that might slow time and stop the morning from coming and searing away both their darkness and their light. He felt so much all at once, emotions and sensations crowding together so thickly that any minute they'd burst out through his skin.
Kaine didn't want to let any of it go. He hung on with everything in him as sweat pooled on Vance's chest and ran in rivulets down his face with the effort of concentration necessary to keep them aloft while Kaine worked himself on his dick.
Skirting so near the edge, one of them was bound to tip over. Kaine's back bowed and he gave a shout as orgasm tore up him like a string of firecrackers. He curled forward again over their joined hands, and when Vance came, they shot upwards through the air with the force of it, or maybe just his determination not to drop them into the bay.
Slowly, they sort of crumpled into one another, wobbling a little. Kaine switched his arms to a more secure hold.
"Vance?"
"I got it, I got it," Vance said a bit fuzzily.
There was a very un-Houston-like chill this far up that disappeared gradually as they descended. Vance tipped them upright and squinted at the poorly-lit shore.
"I have no idea where we left our stuff," he admitted after a moment.
Kaine pointed.
"I keep forgetting that you can see in the dark."
"Maybe I asked the spiders," he said.
Vance twitched. Ha.
Kaine was on the money, although it took a little longer to find his pants. They were still wet, but he pulled them on anyway.
As he finished buckling his belt, he saw Vance stand up with a styrofoam takeout container in his hand. "Dessert?"
Kaine laughed. It felt good.
They ate the cheesecake hovering low over the water, watching the blue-green glow of the waves as they broke. Or, Kaine was watching the waves go in and out; Vance was staring up at the sky again. He sighed.
"I've always loved the stars," he said softly. "I wanted to be an astronaut. Been up there a few times; man, I'd like to go back, see more."
And he'd only thought of running away to Mexico. Kaine tilted his head back to look. Houston's light pollution drowned most of it out, down here. "What's it like?" he asked.
Vance's fingers touched the back of his hand. Kaine froze, then cautiously turned it over. Vance looked at him, trusting him to find his gaze in the dark.
"Incredible."
___
We must always love something. In those matters seemingly removed from love, the feeling is secretly to be found, and man cannot possibly live for a moment without it.
-Blaise Pascal
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