Kiss Kiss.
Alfeegi's heart is broken when Ruwalk falls in love with someone who happens to NOT be Alfeegi, and Kai-stern tries to make things better while dealing with his own issues at the same time. Alfeegi x Kai-stern, Ruwalk x Alfeegi.
Author's notes: Wow. This kind of came out of nowhere. Originally, I signed up to the Alfeegi x Kai-stern version of the '30 Kisses' challenge because I thought it would be kind of fun to play around with occasionally. I'd already signed up with Misura to tackle the Tetheus x Kai-stern version with her, and saw this as basically a fallback fic to work on when I was bored/didn't want to concentrate all that hard. What ended up happening was that I wrote about 25,000 words in five days.
As I'm sure you can all imagine, this fic is 25,000 words of utter crap – but in a way, that was the point. This is not supposed to be a work of art or anything close to one, it's instead just a lot of campy, cliché fun where I get to explore lots of little aspects of Kai-stern and Alfeegi's characters without having to be all that serious about it. Originally, these were only supposed to be short, somewhat interconnecting ficlets, but that kind of changed half way through. As a result, the chapters in the second half of the story are almost twice as long as those in the first half, something that I personally hate as I like my chapters to be roughly the same length.
Anyway, the Live Journal '30 kisses' challenge goes like this: 30 different themes are provided, and a story must be written for each of the themes. All of the stories must feature one particular pairing, and each individual story must feature a kiss, although the kiss does not have to be between the pairing chosen. The stories don't have to be interconnected, but I thought it would be fun if they were. Also, three of the 30 themes are not present in this story, as they are ones that would require a modern day setting. Those three themes will get a completely separate story.
Sorry about the overly long author notes of doom, I don't think I've ever written an introductory note even half this length before. Gah. I'll be posting each chapter every couple of days as while the whole story has been written, the individual chapters still need some editing. All reviews and thoughts are very muchwelcomed!
Kiss: If Only I Could Make You Mine.
Alfeegi had been smiling all day. He'd smiled at the doorman, who had acted as though he was not used to such a simple gesture, and he'd smiled at the bratty children who always chose to play loudly outside his office window. A special smile for Tetheus, who looked rather disturbed as a result of it, and another one for Rath, who blinked once, then twice, before he walked away very quickly in the opposite direction.
Smiling at Kai-stern had perhaps been a bad idea, as the other man had muttered a quick 'bloody hell' under his breath before declaring that he was going to take Alfeegi out and get him completely and utterly drunk.
Alfeegi quite liked the bartender, he happened to smile back. Kai-stern didn't seem to approve of the man behind the bar all that much, as he rewarded the bartender with a glare before placing a strong tasting brew before Alfeegi and demanding that he drink it up.
Kai-stern went from frowning at the bar man to looking down right concerned when Alfeegi downed the glass in only a couple of gulps. Alfeegi watched with a sense of distracted interest as Kai-stern closed his eyes briefly before taking a large gulp of his own drink.
"Do you want to talk about it?" Kai-stern asked cautiously, almost as though he was worried that Alfeegi would do something horrible if the tone he was addressed in wasn't completely and utterly to Alfeegi's liking. What exactly Kai-stern thought he would do, especially considering that they were in a tacky, horrible bar that was far from Alfeegi's own comfort zone and much more Kai-stern's kind of territory, Alfeegi wasn't sure. Perhaps Kai-stern thought he'd smile at him again.
"No." He needed another drink. Strange, how whatever Kai-stern had forced down him (naturally it had been forced, as Alfeegi would never touch alcohol on his own accord) made him lose the ability to not only smile, but was making him feel slightly … fluffy. Yes, that was the word, although now that he thought more about it, he wasn't entirely sure it was even a word to start off with.
The second drink lasted about as long as the first. Damn Kai-stern and his peer pressuring ways. It wasn't nice to make people drink, especially ones who quite enjoyed living solely in the world of sobriety. Not that Alfeegi wasn't discovering that this alcohol induced world wasn't quite enjoyable as well, he found that he kept getting distracted by things he would normally ignore, such as how the music seemed to soak into his skin and hum through his veins, or how everyone took on a slightly more attractive look when seen through somewhat hazed eyes.
And, whoa. Standing up was not such a good idea. But Kai-stern steadied him, before leading him out onto the dance floor, muttering something about low alcohol tolerance and how at least Alfeegi wasn't one of those drunks. Which, to be brutally honest, Alfeegi thought was all sorts of unfair, considering that he was hardly drunk. Who got drunk after a couple of drinks?
He was merely a little tipsy, and he was merely a little distracted.
Both which were good, very good. And, quite possibly, what Kai-stern had intended all along.
Kai-stern turned out to be a very good dancer, which Alfeegi also approved of. At some stage, Kai-stern also managed to finish his own drink, before ordering them both another, and then another.
And possibly another. Alfeegi sort of lost count after that.
He was starting to see why Kai-stern liked this scene as much as he did, when something completely horrible and unexpected happened. It was a silly little horrible and unexpected thing, and totally Kai-stern's fault. Naturally. They'd spent half the night drinking and dancing and laughing and drinking and dancing and occasionally slipping! Whoops! But then, Kai-stern. Of course.
"I'm sure it won't last, Alfeegi. It never does."
And what part of 'no' had Kai-stern not quite properly comprehended back when Alfeegi had very firmly used the word in response to the whole 'would you like to talk about it?' conversation? Kai-stern hadn't been drinking then, so surely he didn't have the same excuse Alfeegi had earlier when he'd misheard something someone had said and had ended up with a strange looking pouch of powder that Kai-stern had immediately confiscated and hidden far away.
"It has nothing to do with me." He prided himself on how his voice didn't waiver at all. "If Ruwalk chooses to get serious about someone who isn't me – and I'm pretty sure it isn't me, as I'm neither blond nor an elf – and wants to be all lovey and dovey with that someone who isn't me, then that's his choice." Rotten, bad, evil choice, but Ruwalk's all the same. "And if he decides that he is so in love with little-miss-not-me that he has to parade her around in front of everyone and pronounce his undying devotion to her, then good for him." The two timing, no! Triple timing bastard.
Not that they'd ever been seeing each other in the first place. In fact, Ruwalk didn't even seem to realize that Alfeegi was kind of, slightly, completely and utterly in love with him.
"Um. Yeah."
Although apparently everyone else did.
"It has everything to do with me, doesn't it?" He bemoaned, dropping his head briefly onto the bar before lifting it back up again and turning beseeching eyes on Kai-stern. "She's prettier and has curly hair – do you think he'd love me more if I curled my hair? Or maybe I'm just not clever enough, she looks clever doesn't she? No wonder he chose her, who would want me in the first place? Nerdy little Alfeegi who isn't at all attractive and is intelligent but only in all the wrong kinds of ways – ompf!" He was cut off as Kai-stern suddenly leaned in and pressed his lips to Alfeegi's own. Soft and brief, the kiss was gentle and unassuming, and Alfeegi was a little dazed when Kai-stern pulled away. Quiet seriousness was reflected in Kai-stern's eyes as he glazed slightly up at Alfeegi, not a hint of humor clouding them.
"Ruwalk is the one who isn't good enough for you, Alfeegi. He's a fool for not even realizing how lucky he was to have you in the first place." Kai-stern did smile then, a pretty, friendly smile that Alfeegi found himself hating. "We should head back. It's almost dawn, and you're going to have one hell of a hangover come morning." Kai-stern helped him to his feet, and they stumbled – well, Alfeegi stumbled – out of the bar and back up to Draqueen.
And Kai-stern had kissed him. It had been almost … nice.
But it hadn't been Ruwalk, and somehow that only made it hurt that much more.
Alfeegi certainly wasn't smiling the next morning, the promised hangover coming out in full force. Strangely enough, everyone seemed to be relieved when he chose to grumble, growl or frown at them instead of smile. He did flush slightly when he saw Kai-stern, the memories of spilling secrets and bad, drunken dancing coming very much to the fore, not to mention his head happened to pound even more just being in the other's presence. But Kai-stern just smiled and waved, before going off to do whatever his newest assignment was.
Alfeegi couldn't help wonder why no-one became concerned about Kai-stern's smiles, since he was discovering that they rang as true as his own had the day before.