Disclaimer: I do not own Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann or its characters. I get no money from this work of fiction.
Notes: If there are any grammar mistakes I sincerely beg your pardon, because English is not my native language. Please correct me if you should find it necessary.
Crash.
The clanking of enemy ganmen's spikes breaking into Gurren's armoured stomach.
- Oh shit! - Simon almost howled, when he saw the accursed spikes pierce the robot through... right in the place where the cockpit was.
There was a short cry below, from that cockpit, but it stopped abruptly.
"No, nothing could have happened, nothing could have happened, he stopped himself, he did, because I've always scolded him for that..." Simon thought feverishly.
Don't cry! Aniki never flinched, however hurt he got!
But Rossiu's not aniki.
Simon, growling angrily, seized the controls of Gurren-Lagann and struck the opponent with his drill-armed hand, crushing his limbs completely and breaking the spikes, still stuck in Gurren's armour.
Another strike! and another! The enemy's defeated, his gunmen completely trashed and a lump of metal by now, and if the enemy's survived - Simon doesn't give a damn.
He opens the lid, jumps out of Lagann and rushes below, almost falling, below, to Gurren's metallic stomach where his partner is imprisoned.
It takes a lot of effort to force open the steel jaws, and it's no surprise considering the damage taken. But who cares? Certainly not Simon, who's forcing the jaws open at the expense of his hands scratched raw.
At least there's enough light to see a small figure of his second pilot, shivering in his seat.
- Rossiu!
He jumped at Simon's voice and tried to get even smaller, curling up and clutching his own shoulders.
- What's wrong?! Answer me!
- Don't come near... Simon-san!..
The voice weak, unsure. So unlike the usual Rossiu. What's happened?
- What's wrong with you? - Simon reached to shake Rossiu's shoulder, but...
- Don't touch me! Simon-san!
Rossiu tried to get away from Simon's hands. Simon watched his comrade, confused, not knowing what to do.
- Rossiu... What's wrong? Did I do something wrong? - Simon thought he had found what the problem was about. - You're hurt? Rossiu! If you are, then what the hell?! You should at least get it looked at!
Simon rushed to his comrade, tore off his cape, grabbed his arms and started looking at his body hungrily, looking for wounds.
There was no blood and Simon sighed with relief. When aniki was wounded there was a lot of blood... a lot of...
His vision got clouded, like every time he remembered aniki's death. He blinked and felt a hot tear slide down his cheek, almost burning the skin.
- Simon... san?.. - he heard Rossiu's voice as if from afar and immediately got embarrassed with his display of weakness.
- You're alright... That's good, - Simon muttered. - I... was scared.
There was a moment's silence. Simon evaded looking into Rossiu's eyes but felt that the other boy was looking at him, intently and with strange greed.
- Release me, please... Simon-san, - Rossiu spoke again, his voice now quiet and constrained.
Only then Simon realised that he was still clutching Rossiu's arms with all his strength. He dropped them instantly and noticed with a twinge of guilt that his touch left red marks on the pale skin.
- I'm sorry.
- But then what's wrong with you, if you're not hurt? - Simon spoke with irritation. - Why do you evade me? We're piloting Gurren-Lagann together, we're friends, we're comrades... Are we not? Then why?
- Don't you... remember, Simon-san? - Rossiu asked, rubbing his wrists automatically. - The night Kamina-san... died.
All that Simon remembered of that night were his tears, his sobs constricting his chest, his howl that was like the howl of a wounded animal, Yoko's lost eyes and the overwhelming emptiness that started taking Kamina's place.
- No...
- And you don't remember me that night either?..
Simon met Rossiu's eyes, wide-open in disbelief. Something stirred inside Simon. He... had seen that look in the other's eyes before.
- Perhaps this will remind you, - said Rossiu with heart-rending despair and, grabbing Simon by the shoulders he pressed their lips together.
Pain. Pain in his hands and knees as they struck the rocky ground.
Rossiu's shoulder, pale white neck of the underground dweller, vulnerably bared.
Simon's hand, squeezing this shoulder so hard his nails hurt and his knuckles got white.
Hair, spilling on earth because the string holding it broke, and now this hair's making Rossiu's boyishly clean face look almost feminine.
Dark eyes, opened wide in surprise and disbelief.
The kiss, hungry and needy, almost cruel, the warmth of another's lips, yielding to him.
"Like now..." Simon thought, clumsily answering Rossiu's kiss, fervent in its desperation. "Did I... then?.."
- You were hurt, Simon-san, - Rossiu spoke when they broke up and he was pressing his forehead into Simon's chest in order to evade his gaze or to hide his face, red from excitement.
- You hurt so much you didn't care about anything else... I just happened to be near you that time.
- It's just... - Simon could've sworn he heard a stifled sob. - It's just I love you for real, Simon-san.
I don't want to be a replacement for Kamina's warmth he gave you and I don't want to replace your memories of him... I just want you to be able to love me too.
- Rossiu...
- Your touch hurts me, Simon-san... because I know I mean nothing to you.
- But...
That feeling of comraderie, of harmony, born in our battles when we both pilot Gurren-Lagann, when the both of us are united... is it not enough?
And, answering himself -
It's not.
Rossiu pilots Gurren just because there's no one else good enough to pilot it better. It's not because he and Simon share "the brotherhood of souls" like Simon did with Kamina.
But it's not because Rossiu didn't try to...
It's because Simon closed his soul from others.
And if it should open... if it... should open... ...
Simon, as if watching from a distance, sees his fingers lifting up Rossiu's chin. As if through another's eyes he sees their lips meeting again.
- You're wrong, - he whispers, before continuing the kiss.
And he instantly loses control, his eyes close, he feels Rossiu's hands on his waist and shoulders, he feels Rossiu's mouth get more greedy, more hot, and then Simon parts his lips obediently, allowing Rossiu to enter deeper.
Iron jaws of Gurren slide shut, it's dark inside and it's like there's no one there.
Only ragged breathing and names.
Simon-san.
Rossiu.