Like Glass

A one-shot by Ellipsis the Great

Summary: It was the kiss, it took me away; it's like he knew that I am fragile. He handled me like glass, and it hurts, but it's what I deserve…because I should have been more careful with the others that I handled… Rai/Seifer

DISCLAIMER: Kingdom Hearts and everything affiliated with it belongs to SquareEnix and Disney. The summary is from Gavin Degraw's song 'Glass.' All I own is the plot…

Rated: T, just in case

He is big and meaty, tanned from too much sun on top of a naturally caramel-colored skin tone. His hair looks like it should be spiky and impenetrable, but it is soft and welcoming, instead. The rest of him, though, is just as hard (just as inelegant) as his bulky figure suggests.

But he is careful (so, so careful) like he thinks I will break at the slightest misstep. It's a pretty laughable idea, because I'm not exactly dainty, but there is something to be said about someone who absolutely worships the body with which he has been presented. He worships as if this is why he is here.

Outside of this—out there, where people only see the fumbling, idiotic face he presents to the world—he worships in a different way. He stands behind, tenses his muscles, exudes an aura of support like the buttress of an ancient castle; pushes in front, speaks with fumbling uncertainty, pulls people's attention to himself so that he alone is the one considered an idiot and a threat all at once; pulls back, awaiting orders and carrying them out with a precision, a devotion, an ease that would shock anyone who cared to notice.

Outside of this, he lets me—lets me, mind you—take total control of his movements.

But here…here. he is slow in his worship; reigning in his extensive strength and desire with less effort than that of a master horseman. He is the one in unequivocal, uncontested control; wrangling out every sigh, every moan, every plea for more, God, just a little more.

Here, he scatters kisses everywhere he can reach (and there is no place he can't reach), the scruff of his almost-beard scratching against my skin. His fingers, thick with muscle and rough with callouses, are gentle to the point of absurdity as he traces the line of my jaw; the curve of my neck; the hollow of my collarbone. He memorizes every freckle, curve, and dimple like I will disappear at any moment and he will have only his memories of me left.

And sometimes…sometimes, I think that his gentleness is more punishment than the roughest of hands would be. I have broken so many before him—break them even now, with him at my side, sometimes helping, sometimes watching—and I wait for the other shoe to drop with baited breath. I wonder what will happen when I break him. Will he stop being gentle? Will he stop being everything?

Am I so full of myself that I think that I am his entire world?

But he is so good at making me think I am just that.

So I am careful, too. He is simple, true—not stupid, but simple in the way that lets him adapt to and accept anything and everything that comes his way.

I think that one day, he won't be able to adapt to and accept me, anymore.

Everybody breaks, sometimes.

The End.

A/N: You guys said Rai/Seifer couldn't be done. So obviously I had to prove you wrong. Obviously.

I hope I shattered your ideas of this pairing like I did my own when this story started writing itself in my brain. And, of course, I hope you enjoyed the story.

-EtheG