Title: Ten Years
Author: Stigmatized
Warnings: Implied yaoi, Kai/Rei pairing.
A/N: Well, this is a one shot I wrote after the start kinda popped into my brain while I was in the middle of maths class. I ran out of ideas to finish it so, not looking forward to yet another unfinished story on my desktop, wrote the last bit. The summary is so pathetic because this is really hard to summarise without giving the whole thing away. Och well, happy reading! ^_^
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'Ten years. It had been ten long years since the last time I had seen him. For the first few months of that voluntary separation, it had been hard. I would have never guessed how badly I would have missed him if we had never gone through that. We had never been more than friends, it was true, but the fact that he had even bothered to call me a friend was enough to send my heart beating at 100 miles per hour. After a while, I began to get used to the constant tugging of my heartstrings and began to automatically ignore them. During those ten years I went through a lot of partners, male and female, but none of them could hold a candle to him, those small, real smiles he would give me so rarely, and only when we were alone or when he thought I wasn't looking. It was amazing how much difference ten short years could make.
My girlfriend at the time had been begging me to take her to a new club that had just opened, not far from my apartment. Not being one to be able to refuse the puppy-dog eyes, I had agreed. When we finally arrived after me waiting hours for her to finish picking the perfect outfit, getting her makeup just right, getting her hair totally immaculate… I began to wish I had gone for my own gender on my last hunt. Guys just stepped into the shower, picked a shirt and trousers at random and were ready in less than an hour. Oh well, I had thought, no changing that now. After what I had calculated to be three hours, she was finally ready, and we started to walk down the street.
We waited in the queue for about half an hour, further adding to my frustration. Finally, we entered to the sudden deafening beats. No wonder the doors were soundproof. This place could shake the city down. I got used to it though, and I even let her drag me up onto the dance floor a couple of times. Two times, yet people penned me in up there for about an hour. Apparently I was a good dancer, but my heart wasn't in it. I had a strange feeling, and my chest had seemed to be tightening at totally random points throughout the day.
Let me tell you, it is not good for a guy as well known and with as good a reputation as me to nearly break down in tears in the middle of a lecture on philosophy. Let's just say the students let me off with the excuse that it was a cough.
As I was dancing, I suddenly realised with a shock that my eyes had closed. It's funny how things do that at the most inappropriate times, as just then I reached the end of the platform. I fell, rather ungracefully, off of the small stage and heard quite a large collective gasp and a few tuts. The thing is, I hadn't had a drink all night. Just as I toppled over the edge and reached the point of no return, I hit something soft and realised that my body was indeed not at a horizontal angle. Oh, I had thought, that wasn't too bad. I looked up to apologise and thank whoever had caught me, but my voice caught in my throat.
There, looking down at me in shock, was a pair of crimson eyes. I recognised the face instantly, although the features had changed from those of the seventeen-year-old boy I used to know. The face had matured and the jaw had strengthened, but the eyes remained cool but mysteriously innocent, although slightly soiled. My only record of time was the speed of the bass line that was making the floor pulse and steadily turning my feet numb as neither of us moved. As the tempo started to slow down, I blinked slowly and gulped, pushing myself off of him and standing to my full height, finding that we were both at a fairly even altitude. His face was still not free of the blue triangles he had become famous for, and he still wore the skin-tight black tank top, but a pair of tight leather trousers had replaced the baggy jeans. At the back of my mind I vaguely heard the murmur of the thought, "When you reach twenty-five, leather suddenly has a lot of appeal…" I don't know what triggered that off in my head, but I then remembered the black leather trench coat I had left in the cloakroom.
"Rei?" He was the first one to speak, brave as ever. I nodded slowly, and could feel that my eyes were still wide but I didn't have the courage to blink, thinking that this whole situation was just a mirage and that if I blinked he would disappear forever. For all I knew, the real Kai could have been dead. After all, the godly 6' 6" vision in front of me couldn't be the real Kai, could it?
"Kai?" My vocal chords suddenly kicked into gear, unfortunately at that moment a dust particle chose to fly into my eyes. It felt like quite a large, jaggy one (I think it was actually a fly) so I automatically doubled over, clutching my face.
"Rei, are you okay?" He suddenly asked, placing his hand on my back and bending over to try and look me in the eye. A small thrill of triumph went through me. So he was the real Kai! My heartbeat seemed to be drowning out the music as I managed to blink the particle out of my eye. I wasn't the first reunion I had been planning for years, but it would do. I stood up, unable to keep the grin off of my face as I pulled him into a tight hug. I felt him stiffen slightly but then hesitantly returned the embrace. I pulled back, but kept my grip on his shoulders, keeping him at arm's length as I examined the rest of his body that I had not been able to see from in his arms.
"I'm fine." I replied to his earlier question, still grinning like a maniac. "But how are you? I just… Wow! I didn't expect to see you here! What have you been doing? Where have you been? We should have met earlier and preferably not when I made a complete idiot of myself." I was rambling, but hey! Who doesn't do that when they trip up in front of the guy they've been in love with but haven't seen for ten years? He blinked at me. I had been talking too quickly again, he had explained later, but right at that moment my heart sounded like a pneumatic drill, how else was I supposed to act? His eyebrow raised and he chuckled lightly, although I could hardly hear the quiet sound over the loud music and my own heartbeat.
"I've been good. I-" He was cut off by a loud call of my name. Shit, I thought to myself. I had forgotten about her. Although to be fair, up to that point I had forgotten about everyone in the world. For a moment I had actually started to believe that Kai and I were the only beings on the planet. My mood dropped considerably when I realised everyone else in the building could look at him and he wasn't just for my viewing pleasure. And what a pleasure it was…
"Uh, hey Akari." I greeted rather shyly. She grinned and jogged over to us. I looked at Kai. "Uh, this is Akari, my girlfriend." At the time I thought it was my imagination, but I thought I saw surprise and a hint of disappointment on his face. He later told me that he knew she didn't deserve me. He still has no idea how much that one little comment meant to me. I-'
"Rei, what are you doing?" Kai asked sleepily as he pulled the pen out of Rei's hand. The neko-jin smiled up at him.
"Nothing, Ai. Just go back to bed." Kai grunted, peering over Rei's shoulder at the notebook on top of the small desk, squinting in the half-light and struggling to stay awake. Rei stuck his tongue out and covered the paper with his forearms.
"I would go back to bed if you'd just come with me. That incessant scratching's keeping me awake." Rei chuckled and closed the small book, putting it in a drawer and locking the desk. He stood up, rolling his neck to get rid of any cricks and kissed Kai quickly on the lips.
"I'm sorry, Ai. You should have said earlier." Kai let the corner of his lips quirk up into a small smile as he rolled his eyes, locking his arms around Rei's waist.
"Well, I would have if I hadn't been so busy trying to get to sleep." Rei chuckled, kissing Kai again. After a while he pulled back smiling and walked over to the bed. He shook his head in amusement as Kai clambered into the opposite side. He stripped down to his boxers and climbed in, shuffling up behind Kai and resting an arm over the man's waist, smiling as he pressed his lips against Kai's neck.
"You're just grumpy because Kodama got that promotion instead of you." Kai grunted, his body stiffening slightly. Rei let out a quiet chuckle.
"That name is never mentioned in our bedroom, understand?" Rei nodded, reaching over and placing a finger on Kai's lips.
"I understand. Just go to sleep, we've got a big day tomorrow." Kai nodded, turning over to look into Rei's eyes.
"Yeah, yeah, yeah. I remember. You didn't invite Takao, did you?" Rei chuckled, putting on a face of mock compassion.
"I'm sorry, Ai, but I couldn't leave him out." Kai grumbled. "Look, Kai. It doesn't matter who we've invited or not. Just go to sleep and we can worry about that tomorrow." Kai shut his eyes and sighed.
"I'd already be asleep if you'd not been up half the night writing."
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A/N: Well, tell me what you thing by sending a review! It would be much appreciated and any constructive criticism is very welcome, so don't be afraid to nag me a little. Unless your review is a completely stupid flame, complaining about the pairing. If so, it will be deleted and shamelessly mocked at some point or another. Well, all you have to do is press the little button down there and type a few words. I've rambled on long enough so ja ne!
Stigma