Author's note: Last minute stuff, so be warned. I've also taken the rather large artistic liberty of making ancient Chinese floor beds rather comfortable--apparently they were made of clay, something I didn't find out until finishing the story. Axel and Roxas are actually staying at a small inn of sorts, which is based on modern day hot spring hotels.
Up until now, this hasn't been posted anywhere but AFF. It was originally a Valentine's Day ficlet and it's taken me three months to decide I liked it enough to post it here. Hope you enjoy nonetheless.
Sweeter than the first breezes of spring whispering over fetal buds and tender blossoms, the breath of life that soothes the spring in through layers of snow.
Richer than some exquisite chocolate passing through the trembling fingers of a romantic youth.
It's every shade of red and white that possibly counts toward the spectrum of color that is life itself.
"Nngh…ah…"
They've come together.
"A-Axel…"
The name, spoken with breathy reverence, floats by a thread on the night air and is reciprocated by way of a purring sigh. Clear, pure moonlight filters through the shafts in the bamboo, falling on skin made to sheen not by passion, but by the mineral-heavy waters of the hot springs that lie just yards outside. Tucked away within the Land of Dragons' many groves, they have found a temporary respite from Dusks and missions (but not nothingness; that follows them everywhere). This is their Eden and Babylon.
They slide together, moving with the same-never-the-same practiced fluidity that makes them shine on the battlefield, locking weapons and striking out among flames. Lips are ghosted up the slim line of the younger's neck, jaw, seeking out his lips, and they kiss again deeply, slowly, a parallel to their joining.
The pleasure is mounting, but not all-consuming; this is not one of their rushed alleyway affairs, nor is it a quick morning fuck spent racing the seconds until the Superior comes for them. No. Tonight, they have time, every thrust sending a wave of minute tingles pulsating through the blonde's hips and groin and lower spine, only to fade into a delicious pressure, but then back again. He knows his lover is purposely avoiding the spot inside him that will turn his vision white, and for now that's just fine. Outside, a nocturnal Eastern bird adds a few notes to the ever present cricket song that has been in full swing ever since they got to the bathhouse and shared the pot of rice now lying covered in the corner.
Sapphire eyes already half-hooded flutter closed as he arches into the slender body above him. His legs have been spread lazily, bent at the knee just as they were when he first lay down on the floor bed and offered himself up with a blush and lust-glazed eyes, but now he brings them around Axel's hips. Just a small change in the angle, but it brings forth a sound that's almost a whimper.
"Damn, Rox..." It's no more than a whisper, their lips brushing, but still his voice is the kind that gets right into your blood, whether raised in laughter at someone else's misfortune or husky and drugged on heat, tightness, him. "You drive me crazy."
Hands around his shoulders, blinking up into hypnotic green eyes. "S'alright...I can do that."
Somewhere in the very back of his mind, he realizes that doesn't make sense. But the redhead just chuckles, bites his shoulder softly, and rolls his hips a little more meaningfully. They say youth knows nothing of delight, but even after a relatively brief time together they are familiar with every inch of one another's bodies. Roxas knows how tightly to hold on, as well as the sensitive places on the older Nobody's cheeks, eyelids, and collarbone; Axel knows each and every sound Roxas makes, and the ones he bites back.
So when he finally starts angling his movements with the intention of striking his lover's prostate dead on, he knows before it happens the way the blonde's toes will curl into the sheets, and that he will cover his own mouth to unsuccessfully stifle the resulting cry. If Axel were just a little less experienced, it would be enough to make him come right then.
They're racing for the finish line, but neither will go over without the other in sight. Not this evening, when the moon shines for lovers. As their fingers interlace, heated vocalizations pronounced in the quiet atmosphere, there is one sound in particular that stands out above all others--a rapid timpani.
It's the sound of two hearts beating.
Suddenly, they fall together. The blonde's nails scrape his lover's back, leaving thin red welts in their wake, his head tossed back as he cries out his ecstasy in a rare moment of no restraint. His entire body goes stiff, spasming muscles bringing Axel over the edge with a cry of the other's name, and then nothingwhitewhitewhite...
When the brief mental vacuum subsides, leaving the pair once again out of the clouds and in a small shack near a network of Chinese hotsprings, on a floor bed which suddenly feels immeasureably comfortable. The redhead withdraws, lying his head on his partner's stomach, and Roxas contentedly runs his fingers through the still-damp spikes. A quick clean up is in order, but not right this moment.
"Axel?"
"Hmmm?" Comes the reply, drowsy to Roxas's thoughtful tone. Still, he's listening.
But Roxas gently shakes his head. They both know that neither will speak of their phantom heartbeats, already drifted away as if they were never there at all (maybe they never were?) Even a fleeting heartbeat is preferable to the fate of a Nobody, and there will be no laying a curse on the idea by talking about it. "Never mind."
Kiss each finger, adding up to the forbidden "L" word that hangs the stars on nights like this.
For those who have hearts, that is.
Say it anyway.