I wrote this for the "One Blanket" fic challenge on livejournal. It's my first attempt at a yaoi and, considering the conditions in the fic, I didn't think smut to be appropriate.
So, here's to a very fluffy yaoi!
Just One Blanket
Hatori panted as he slammed the door against the blistering cold, leaning heavily against the frame, exhausted. He'd never before felt anything as brutally freezing as the weather outside.
"Are you alright, Ayame?" he breathed, barely capable of speaking. The snake poked its head out of his collar.
"Yes. Are you alright, Tori-san?" it asked.
"I'm fine," the doctor snapped, looking around the small, one-room cabin he had led himself to. It wasn't much of a shelter from the cold, in fact, the only thing it blocked was the wind. There were two windows, boarded up with splintering wood, a small stove completely devoid of coal, and a ragged but thick blanket on top of a straw mat.
Whoever had lived here had obviously not been wealthy.
As Hatori shed the coat of Ayame's he'd put on when the man had transformed, the snake transformed back, completely naked in arctic conditions. He gave a violent shiver and groped around for his clothing, finally wrapping himself in his coat, his lips blue and his teeth chattering.
Hatori, knowing that, for once, Ayame wasn't trying to be dramatic, gathered up the blanket and draped it across his shoulders.
"That should make this a bit more bearable."
Ayame looked up.
"What about you, Tori-san?"
"I'll be fine," Hatori snapped again, even though his teeth were chattering as well. He huddled into his coat and sat on the frozen wood floor, hissing as the cold seeped through his already freezing layers. Ayame looked at him, doubtful, and drew the blanket tighter around his small frame. His body didn't handle extremes too well.
As night began to fall, it became clear that the cold before had been nothing compared to what the cold would be when the sun was completely gone. Hatori, who had started to become used to the chill and was slightly numb, started shivering again. Ayame glanced at him and tightened the blanket more.
"Tori-san, do you think this storm will ever end?"
The doctor shrugged. "It has to end sometime." He was too busy staring at the shaking window to notice the curiously tender look Ayame was giving him.
For Ayame, the look was no big deal. It was a look he always gave Hatori when he wasn't watching. The man, though not much older than himself, had always just seemed bigger. He was always so calm and collected. He thought things through, unlike Ayame and Shigure. He was practical, logical, and able to fall in love.
Hatori was Ayame's idea of the perfect man. If only he could see it in himself.
The cold was getting worse now; the winds had strengthened and the sun was almost completely down. Hatori's shivering was becoming more violent, more noticeable.
Ayame didn't know what he could do. He knew that, as long as he was incapable of handling the temperature, the dragon would not let him take off the blanket. He knew there was absolutely no way Hatori would move from that spot without an excellent reason.
And, as the sun sunk completely over the horizon and Hatori's lips were verging on bright blue, he found one.
"Tori-san," he whispered hoarsely, knowing that, the more dramatic he was, the more the doctor would understand.
"Unh?" was all he managed with his teeth chattering so much.
"It would be much warmer here if there were more body heat," the snake said, shivering to emphasize his point.
Hatori stared at him, but didn't need to be told twice. Bracing his gloved but frozen hands on the floor, he pushed himself up and lurched over to Ayame, plopping down beside him as he quickly opened and closed the blanket around him.
It was almost like stepping into a lukewarm shower and, at that moment, felt fantastic. But when Ayame scooted closer and leaned into his chest, he froze in an entirely different manner.
"What are you doing?" Hatori whispered harshly. Ayame nestled into his chest, bringing the blanket with him.
"It's warmer this way," Ayame murmured, his eyes closing. Hatori really was warm.
Hatori felt his face heat up (bliss, sweet bliss) and had to admit it was much more comfortable to have the extra blanket and body heat. "Fine." For better stability, he wrapped his tingling arms around the smaller man, making room for the blanket to be tighter.
Ayame purred quietly into the dragon's chest, unnoticed by Hatori who was having his own troubles to deal with.
He wasn't sure how long ago it had started, five, ten, twenty years, but he had been looking at Ayame differently for quite some time. At first, he'd rejected the idea that Ayame could be special in any different way than Shigure was. But soon, he'd come to accept it and learned to deal with it. Ayame was just different. He was annoying, self-centered, melodramatic, flamboyant, but that was only on the outside. When he was alone or even with him and Shigure, he was so much different. When he was with them, his smile actually reached his eyes.
Hatori had seen Ayame cry before. No one but Hatori and Shigure had ever seen Ayame cry.
When things like that happen, it's hard to look at someone quite the same.
So the rigid doctor, who had never before been so close Ayame, was in a bit of a state. It didn't help anything that the snake's hands were gripping his coat tightly and, in his light slumber, his perfect hair was splayed all over his unblemished face. Hatori subconsciously tightened his arms.
Ayame cracked his eyes open, wondering why he was so warm. With a rush of excitement, he realized the dead weight on his back was Hatori's arms. When they tightened again, he realized what had awakened him.
"Tori-san," he murmured, tilting his face up to look into his deep brown eyes.
"You're awake?" Hatori asked, already missing his picture-perfect sleeping form.
"Your arms startled me," Ayame replied cheekily, pleased with the faint blush that tinged the doctor's already pink cheeks.
"It was easier this way," Hatori replied smoothly, aware that his face was heating up. It started to tingle, a sign that he might be defrosting.
"Of course," Ayame said, glancing up at him evilly.
"What's that look for?" Hatori asked, instinctively tightening his arms around what he was holding.
Which just so happened to be Ayame.
"Nothing, Tori-san," Ayame crooned in his sing-song voice.
"Go back to sleep," Hatori huffed, turning away.
"I'm wide awake, now. Aren't you, Tori-san?" he whispered huskily, snuggling into the doctor's chest even more.
"I haven't been tired at all. It's freezing in here."
Ah, Hatori, Ayame thought, smiling up at him.
"You're smiling. Now I'm concerned," Hatori said, moving a hand to feel his forehead. Of course, everything, hand and forehead, were like ice, so it didn't help much.
"You should try smiling once in awhile," Ayame scoffed, hating having his temperature taken.
"I do smile."
"When?"
"When something makes me happy."
"When does something ever make you happy, Hatori?" Ayame cried, glaring at him.
Hatori blinked, taken aback. He wasn't sure which had startled him more, the fact that Ayame had actually gotten somewhat angry with him or the fact that he called him "Hatori."
"Plenty of things," he muttered, disgruntled.
"Like what?"
He had to think about that one.
"Like the beach."
It was not the answer Ayame had been expecting. At times like these, people were supposed to open up and share their emotions with you. "The beach" was hardly an emotional answer.
"What about Kana?" Ayame accused.
Hatori's eyes widened and he spluttered.
"What about Kana?" he choked out, suddenly feeling like he was suffocating.
"You haven't smiled since Kana. Why didn't you mention her?"
"I didn't think about it," he growled, wishing Ayame hadn't brought her up.
"I doubt that. Kana hasn't slipped your mind since she started working for you."
He was almost right.
"That's...not true," he said a lot more confidently than he felt.
"Oh, it isn't?" Ayame asked, starting to sound bitter. Was this what really happens in situations like these that no one ever mentions?
"No, it's not." Hatori started wondering where this confidence was coming from, but soon decided that he didn't care.
Ayame, deciding that he might get a better reaction if he stayed angry, deepened his theatrical scowl. "Well. When has she slipped your mind then?"
"When I was barreling through a blizzard with a snake in my coat, getting ready to die of frost."
Also not an answer Ayame was expecting, but it made sense, and he scowled.
"How about right now?" he whispered.
"What's so–?" He was cut off by Ayame's mouth crashing onto his in a violent but unmistakable kiss.
Hatori Sohma panicked. For the first time in his life, he panicked.
He was barely aware of how he did it, but suddenly Ayame was off of him, staring at him in a most infuriating manner.
"You liked it that much, huh?" Ayame asked, grinning superiorly.
"Don't do that ever again," Hatori said, his tones clipped and his eyes unseeing. He was clearly shaken.
Ayame, taking advantage of the fact that he wasn't looking at him, leaned forward and brushed his lips across Hatori's neck.
"Why not?" he whispered, coaxing a shiver out of the dragon that was not due to the temperature.
"Just don't."
His mind was reeling. Had Ayame just done what he thought he just did? And then–again? It was too much. Trauma really did cause people to do crazy things.
To the ignorance of Hatori, Ayame was studying him closely. One might not think it, but Ayame could be very observant when he wanted to be.
"What are you afraid of?" he whispered boldly.
"I'm not afraid," Hatori scoffed. But he had hit the nail on the head, he realized. He was afraid. He was terrified.
"Yes you are, I can tell," Ayame stated triumphantly, green eyes glittering.
"Other than thinking we'll starve to death, what could I possibly be afraid of?" the doctor asked curtly, avoiding the snake's mischievous eyes.
"You're afraid of us."
Hatori's mind lurched again. "Who is 'us'?"
"Sometimes I wonder why people call you the smart one."
"What do you–hey!" Ayame had reached up and gently grabbed his face in two gloved hands, bringing it closer to his own face.
"I'm glad we're here, Tori-san," the snake whispered before placing a much gentler kiss on the other man's lips.
This time, Hatori didn't panic.
His brain shut down completely and left his lips and hands on autopilot. His lips, of their own volition, kissed Ayame back and his hands, of their own volition, gripped the smaller man's hips tightly.
It was only when he started to feel a bit lightheaded that his neck jerked his head out of the way and he breathed deeply.
"Mmm, Tori-san," Ayame purred into Hatori's neck, kissing his pulse. Hatori, wondering what his brain had just let him do, didn't protest.
When his prey didn't move, Ayame took it upon himself to go further. He lightly gripped the exposed skin of his neck with his teeth and licked the pulse, tasting and testing. Hatori gasped when Ayame sucked lightly, then moved to suckle elsewhere along his neck.
The tingling sensation he attributed to thawing out startled him out of his daze and he found himself slapping Ayame away and turning up his coat collar. Ayame looked strangely hurt.
"Why are you doing this?" the dragon demanded harshly. The snake looked up at him with pain-filled eyes and slid off his chest.
"Because I love you," he whispered. Hatori froze once more because of something other than the temperature. His face was starting to hurt at the rate it was heating up.
"I..." Hatori couldn't speak. It was just too much. He slumped over, under the blanket, and stared blankly at the wood floor beneath him. Ayame watched him for a minute, not moving, not doing anything, until finally, he placed one finger under his chin and lifted it up.
"Tori-san?" he whispered, looking into his glassy eyes. "I understand." He smiled, tilted Hatori's face toward him, and kissed him again. This time, Hatori's brain knew what it was doing when he kissed him back.
Reviews are much appreciated.
Much.