Final Clauses
A/N: For Juli, promised so long ago. It wasn't what I expected it to be, but I guess many things are unexpected in life. Change is the only constant.
A surreptitious knock. The silent acknowledgement in the quiet answer of the summons. An open door; a late night visitor. A familiar scene.
The room was barely lit by the dimly glowing reading light. It was always dark when they spent time together like this. Not for the sake of mystery, nor was it out of fear. It was just a part of the clause. All of the things about their relationship were in the clauses of their agreement.
Neither spoke for a moment after they had settled onto the hotel room's bed. They both knew what was next- they only had to admit it to themselves now.
"The tournament is over," Rei said finally. "The celebrations are over too."
Rei turned to face his silent companion.
"I guess this is over too."
Kai grunted in response. Crimson eyes flickered dully in the orange glow of the lamp as Kai gazed absently at his clenched fist.
"Yes." The Russian youth conceded finally, tiredly.
Feeling the oncoming lapse into silence, Rei rose.
"I'd better leave . . . it's –"
"Don't."
Rei gazed silently at the hand clasping his own.
"Don't." Kai repeated.
Rei smiled, sadly. His lithe body sank gracefully to the floor and he leaned his head of velvet black hair onto Kai's waiting lap. Kai enclosed the outline of the Chinese youth's face with a strong, broad hand. A familiar position. One neither was inclined to surrender any time soon.
"Some things can't be helped. You can't help it when things start or when they end." Kai whispered as he leaned over to brush his lips against those feline ears.
Rei chuckled softly.
"My words." Rei replied with a small grin.
"You remember the last line?" Kai asked in a hushed whisper.
Rei sighed.
"That is why, I want to hold you close now. " He murmured, repeating the words he had said so many months ago.
Back then it had seemed that they had forever. Back then.
"I promised, we promised." Kai reminded him.
"We did." Rei agreed.
"I'll make a deal with you Rei Kon. We can indulge in our feelings but only as far as our private ambitions keep us together and never in compromise of them. Deal? "
Rei listened wordlessly to Kai's repetition of the deal Kai had offered in the beginning.
"I want to fulfil that final clause." Kai whispered finally. "The deal's still good Rei, for tonight."
Rei looked up into the face of his lover for the first time in the past half- hour. Those pale lips were unusually tight, the crimson eyes oddly bright. Rei raised his lips and Kai obediently lowered his lids. Rei kissed those eyes, forbidding any drops of sorrow to fall. Not tonight, while the final clauses made it all right. The last time it would do so.
Kai rolled back onto his bed drawing Rei along with him. They lay quietly, their breaths growing more urgent with every passing second.
"You can't help some things. You can't help it when things have to end." Rei whispered finally.
"Yes." Kai agreed. "And that is why . . . I want to hold you close now." Kai whispered back.
As if it were a secret formula, some magic phrase that gathered power as they repeated it day after day.
"Yes." Rei replied just as he had to the deal offered to him so long ago.
Rei drew his dark curtain of hair over them both.
Twin magicians in their final act. Two lovers wrapped in the final clauses.
Porticulis, 2004