BIRTHDAY BOY

A STORM HAWK FANFICTION

PAIRING: Dark Ace x Aerrow

AUTHOR: Djap

RATING: PG13

DISCLAIMER: I don't own the boys and I won't make any money with them. Pity.

GENRE: Romance, Established Relationship

SO TAKE A GLASS WINE, LIE BACK AND ENJOY

YOURS DJAP

*~*~*

Birthday Boy

a Djap story

*~*~*

"But Aerrow, you're the one the prophecy speaks of. You're the only one who could help us win this war!"

Aerrow sighed deeply. He had looked forward to see his old friends again after such a long wait, but he was tired of their tries to retune him.

"Piper, please, you promised me not to try that again with me. I've made my decision and I won't change it for all the prophecies in the world."

Piper glared at him, hurt, so this time it was Finn who spoke.

"Dude, I still can't believe, you left us. Without you, we are in real big trouble most of the time and we can be proud, that we managed to survive at all so far."

"You all know I'm sorry about that, but on the other hand the most dangerous servant of Cyclonia stopped fighting in this war too. You should do fine without me."

This time Radarr sprang forward, mentioning wildly, growling and hissing at him. His best friend was to angry to get a special message delivered to him, but Aerrow knew very well how much he'd hurt his best friend by leaving.

Aerrow went down on his knees, then grabbed a hold of the animal, and hugged him tightly, tears in his eyes. At first Radarr struggled wildly and even bit him in his shoulder, but Aerrow didn't let go of him. He hold on and after some time he stopped struggling, sagged in his arms and returned the hug.

Aerrow missed his friend very much, but there was nothing he could do about it. At least not yet. But the most annoying thing was, that he couldn't tell them the whole truth, at least not yet. He hoped he could do so in the near future, but for now he must keep silent.

When he finally let go of Radarr all of his former team had tears in their eyes. For a moment everyone was silent, before Aerrow defiantly dried his eyes and spoke up, still petting Radarr's head:

"Look, guys. I love you. All of you. So I had to leave you to keep your respect. Because I fell in love, and I fell hard. There's nothing what could change that, so I left. We have been through this so often now, and you promised not to mention my return again. I had hoped we could celebrate my birthday after all, but I see now that was a stupid wish. Perhaps we'll be able to do so another time."

He turned and started to walk away, when Fin yelled:

"So you'll just go back to him? Although you know how much we need you?"

"You'll do fine without me. You really wouldn't want to live and fight with a leader, of whom you always had to fear he would betray you because he fell for the enemy. And I can't change my feelings anymore."

It was Stork who answered that, with another point they'd discussed way to often now:

"Look Aerrow, we don't want to belittle your feelings. We accept that your feelings may be honest. But what makes you believe that he isn't just using you? What makes you sure he won't kill you some day, perhaps just because he's bored of his new toy. What makes you sure, he isn't still working for his Master? What makes you so sure you're not already doomed?"

Aerrow wanted to tell them, he really did, but then he just shrugged and decided for the most true answer he could find:

"Nothing. I just chose to believe so."

He turned again, looking all of them in the eyes: "You know how to contact me. I don't want to loose you guys for good. But for now, I'm too tired for this discussion. So watched yourself and tried to stay out of trouble. I'll go home now and start really celebrating."

With that he left and nothing they did could change that.

*~*~*

When he arrived back in his new home, which lay hidden on the rocky part of a inhabited Terra, he felt still bad, but tried to hide it. He had after all left his lover to celebrate his birthday with his friends, so he probably should look cheered up instead of depressed.

He crossed their hut, looking for his partner, but at first couldn't find him anywhere. He feared the man had gone on one of their dangerous missions alone, but his skimmer had been right where it should be down in their garage.

And it was very difficult to leave this place without their skimmers so he must be around somewhere.

Finally he found him in their bedroom and was very glad he hadn't called out to the man yet. He was still pretty much zonked out from their early morning activities. Aerrow grinned broadly and very satisfied in reminiscence of that and debated if he should join his lover for another round.

But Ace looked really tired, and somehow he didn't want to disturb his peaceful slumber. So instead he just satisfied himself with watching his lover sleep. He had admired the man's forbidden good looks right from the start.

Of course he would never have done anything about the attraction between them at the start of all this. He still wasn't sure, why their feelings had seemed mutual right from the beginning. Perhaps it had something to do with his father, who had been friends with Ace before the man had to betray them all.

Aerrow knew that his lover was still loyal to his former Master in some ways. Although the dark and mostly silent man never talked about his time as a former Storm Hawk he had told him some crucial things about his loyalty to his Master. Of course, as Stork had pointed out, the man may just have been lying to him, but somehow he doubted that.

You must probably be really a hardened and cold person if you could keep lying to your lover, when you still were enjoying the afterglow. And he was never cold or hard to him in bed. Quite the contrary, he was passionate and quite jealous, yes, but never selfish and every time they made love he felt the most cherished and loved Person of whole Atmos.

So he had told him about his childhood as a Cyclonian orphan, and how the former master of Cyclonia himself had decided to take care of him. He grew up in the palace until he was ten year old, when he was sent away to get a better education. It must have been a coincidence that the Cyclonian ship got involved in a fight against Atmosians. Sky Knights destroyed it and nearly everyone died. But he survived and was found by some of the Sky Knights.

He wanted to be brought back, because he hadn't done anything to them, but they didn't listen. They decided that such a young boy should be rescued of the evil hands of the Cyclonian master. So they tried to re-educate him and even made him a Sky Knight because he was such a talented fighter. But still, most of them thought badly of him and treated him really badly too, because he'd grown up in Cyclonia.

So, when he got the first opportunity, he betrayed the few friends he'd made and got back to his real home. And even after his death he still felt loyal to the old master. He had deep feelings for the new master as well, which he'd seen grow up for about the last ten years. Still, he feared for the future of whole Atmos now. Where the old master had just wanted to rule Atmos, his new master sometimes seemed to want to destroy it.

And that was too much, even for him. He wanted to be loyal, he wanted to bring her back to sanity, because somehow she was loosing it more every day. And that may probably have been the only cause why this relationship had been able to happen at all.

Back in his days as Talon Commander of Cyclonia he'd gotten hold of another prophecy. It told about a special and rare crystal, which could help to clear every mind again. Of course he'd searched for it alone at the beginning, but the prophecy had been clear – only if he would start to work with his nemesis – the chosen saviour of Atmos, which undoubtedly was Aerrow after all – he'd be able to find the stone.

They both didn't know yet, why that was this way. And both knew too, that just bringing back Cyclonis to sanity wouldn't stop the still ongoing war, but it would be a first step. And the prophecy had, after all, brought them together. They hadn't even been lovers when they left their earlier homes to start their new mission, although Aerrow had made his friends believe so to give them an explanation, but somehow on their dangerous journey together, they had found each other.

They didn't know what future would hold for them, but whatever it was, they'd find it together from now on.

*~*~*

Aerrow stared at the still sleeping form of his attractive lover. He had fallen deep for that man, and his looks are a pretty good part of it. He wasn't so much an ordinary beauty, but still sexy as hell. Part of the attraction had always been that he was so much older, which promised a lot of experience and possibilities to teach him.

Aerrow loved the strong but lithe body of the grown-up, had learned all of its secret pleasure points and everything about its strength. But especially he loved the face of his lover. Those promising, thin lips, that aristocratic nose, the long face with the square features. But most of all these long lashes and how they framed those crimson red eyes which seemed to be able to look into his very soul.

While he stood there admiring the view of his still naked lover, which was only partly hidden under the covers, the snoring suddenly stopped and the man blinked at him before mumbling in his deep, sexy voice:

"Mornin', birth'ay 'oy."

"Good morning again, sleepy head."

"Come here!"

Ace opened his arms to welcome him home and Aerrow went without hesitation.

"You're back early." His lover stated while folding him in his arms and holding on very firmly to him.

"I didn't think I should let you sleep so long, so I decided to come back early." Aerrow tried to make fun out of it, but his lover saw of course right through it.

"So it didn't go well."

Aerrow snorted: "You could say so. One should think they would be able to stop complaining at least while celebrating my birthday."

"They worry about you." Although he defended them, his grip on him only grew stronger. Although he never said so Aerrow knew his insecurities about their relationship too. Aerrow wasn't the only one who was afraid to loose him.

"Yes, they do. But if they really love me, they should be able to accept my decisions. Especially on my birthday!" Aerrow pouted. He really thought so. Birthdays had always been very important to all of them and he felt somehow betrayed "They didn't even had a present for me."

Finally his lover relieved him of the tight hug and lifted a questioning eyebrow: "They didn't?"

Aerrow shook his head, still pouting. Ace suddenly smirked and made motions to rummage through his bedside table "So I'll have to do all the work again. But actually I wasn't expecting otherwise…"

Aerrow smirked, as he pulled the rest of the sheets off his lovers body revealing a really promising view. "And here I thought I had already gotten my present from you this morning. But of course you can never have enough morning sex on your birthday, so you won't hear me complaining…" Aerrow smirked and licked his lips in anticipation.

But Ace shook his head grinning: "God you really have a one track mind, don't you?"

Aerrow who was fighting to get his clothes off as fast as possible stopped midway and looked confused: "You don't want to have sex with me now?" He started pouting again, so Ace answered fast:

"I never said so, but you should probably open your present first."

"You got me a present?" Aerrow looked dumbstruck. "A real present?"

Now Ace looked sour: "Of course I did. What were you thinking? That this would be a day just like any other?" Aerrow blushed and didn't answer right away. But he knew he shouldn't start a fight with his lover now, so he told him, what he'd expected of him:

"I didn't think it would be so important to you. I really thought our early morning sex had been the present. I know how much you like sleeping in after all… and… and I thought that being able to be with you was enough of a present for me."

That earned him a kiss that made him blush furiously, because it hit the tip of his nose.

"Stupid boy. Of course I got you a present. Here, open it."

Ace thrust a package in his hand, which looked as if a maniac had tried to wrap it up. And probably his lover had felt that way too while doing so – obviously he wasn't used to wrapping gifts. That made Aerrow smile all the more and he unwrapped the gift in a rush feeling like a five year old again.

When he was finished and held his gift in his hands, tears welled up in his eyes. He didn't know what to say, just smiled broadly at his lover and stared afterwards unbelieving at his hands again.

"You're eighteen now. After Cyclonian Law you are old enough to marry. I know we can't really have a ceremony, and you probably won't even want to wear the betrothal ring, because you feel to young to bond to someone like me…"

Ace never could finish the speech he'd wanted to held. Instead he had to deal with an armful of his most excited lover, who had already slipped the ring on and who was kissing him now fiercely and without mercy.

That was Aerrow's first birthday he spent nearly constantly in bed. And he was pretty sure this wouldn't be the last.

*~*~*

Endless End

Finished 13th September 2009

Happy birthday to me – and to everyone else who was born today.