Boo-yaka! which translates into 'yeah, I did it' in my mind. For those who've missed me, fear not! I'm back, for a month or so anyway. But I need your help! I am scouting for an innocent beta I can corrupt with all the sex scenes I have in my pervy little head. I have conditions though, and the most important one is that you MUST be a GaaNeji fan, otherwise you won't be able to wade through all the redhead and brunette bloo-blah I've got. Obviously, if you read this, then you are, durr. Second, you must beta FAST. As in, gimme it back the day after you get it, coz I'm sort of trying to jog my memory here and I do well when under pressure. As for the other conditions...well, those who desire the position will just have to find out from me first-hand.
On with the show!
- - - - - and then...- - - - -
The dark, heavy curtains in the master bedroom had an important job, the most important job ever assigned to a pair of drapes, and they were completely failing to do it. Well, maybe not failing, but they were certainly guilty of stupidity. You'd have to be pretty stupid to show your enemy your weak point, and just right down dumb to let him get into the previously dark sanctuary.
Yes, Neji decided as he glared at a spot of sunshine the size of a coin, they were a pair of dim-witted curtains, so deliberately obtuse they had the brains of a mouse, except they didn't eat cheese. They didn't eat anything, really.
The sunshine certainly was insolent. It remained on his blanket even though he had tried to wave it away, and it winked cheekily at him, as if it were laughing. Why would it? There wasn't anything funny happening here, was there? With all the grace he could muster, he pulled the blanket over him and buried his head under the pillows. An unpleasant throb from his temples reminded him of the reason he'd woken up in the first place. He had a hammering hangover, worse than a splitting one because this one slowly beat away at his senses until he would sell his house, possessions and soul to the nearest denizen of hell for an aspirin and a glass of water.
Dear gods, what ever had possessed him to buy an apartment so close to the marketplace? The sun was barely up (too damn early, in his opinion) and already the noises were filtering up to him through the walls. Something about fruit fruit fruit and fresh fish from Wave Country, discount price til high noon and you call this meat fresh you bastard its green yeah pal say that to my face…
He whimpered, belatedly remembered he was a Hyuuga, and turned it to an inaudible, but very manly, groan. Sleep seemed like such a good idea right now, sleep in his nice, safe, warm cocoon, where he wouldn't be disturbed by shouts about a head of lettuce that could walk all the way back to wherever it came from and insidious evil sun caterpillars that wormed their way into his shadowy haven. He nodded sagely to himself, except not too hard, because his head would fall off, and reached out for his Warm.
Except it wasn't there.
He immediately felt disoriented, even more than he was a few seconds ago. The Warm was missing; it wasn't where it should be and that was just wrong. He stretched out his arm, questing fingers pushing aside heavy woolen folds to touch nothing but an empty space, and despite himself, a soft whine escaped his lips.
A dent. There was a dent where the Warm had lain. Mind sloshing through throbbing pain and the residue of a heavy drinking binge, he deduced that lying in the same place as the Warm would be just the same as having the Warm there, because the dent proved that the Warm had been there, therefore, in essence, he was. And if he rolled over just like this with all the blankets held just like this, and if he put his head on the Warm's pillow and breathed in the scent of spice and apples, he would really feel like the Warm was all around him.
Except that in his haste, he hadn't held the blankets just right and now they were tangled up with his legs and that was just uncomfortable, damn it. He kicked fretfully at them, twisting this way and that to loosen their hold on him even more. He felt the semi-cold against his bare back and wriggled even more, determined to be free. Now was not the time for decorum and Hyuuga pride. Pushing his feet out one last time, he both heard and felt the load fall from the bed and allowed himself a triumphant smile before falling asleep.
- - - - - and then...- - - - -
You leave to get him some water and this is what happens.
Gaara sighed, something that didn't happen very often. Not a lot of people had heard him sigh, because normally, sighing was a sign of weakness, and he would never admit to any kind of weakness in public. Except for one, though the Hyuuga probably wouldn't appreciate being called a weakness.
Balancing his full glass in one hand, he pulled the blanket up and dropped it on the unoccupied side of the bed. Neji had bought it during one of his garage sale frenzies. He had a thing about things being thrown away, probably some prompting from a childhood trauma. Everything he bought had a special meaning, some memory he attached to it, and two times out of three, he would come home with a blanket. This one, a blue and green patterned knit wool coverlet, was extra special apparently, due to the fact that it had been bought when Gaara himself had been unwillingly dragged along, and it was never to be sullied in anyway. When it wasn't in use, it resided in its own shelf in the black walnut cabinet that had also been scrounged from a backyard. Woe betide anyone who even looked at it wrong.
Almost every night, the sleeping brunette would kick it to the floor, and Gaara would always pick it up in the morning. There was probably something deep and meaningful about that action, but he didn't want to think about it.
A hand curled around the hem of his boxers as soon as he sat next to the pillows, and a soft purr vibrated through his skin as Neji's lips brushed over his back. A smile tugged at the corner of the redhead's mouth as he swung his legs up onto the bed and the Hyuuga immediately dragged him down with a satisfied mumble.
"Warm…" Eyelids cracked open and he saw the sleepy glimmer of pearl.
"Do you want some water?"
Neji nodded and sat up, incidentally on top of his thighs, and took the glass with two hands. Gaara watched his throat work, and when he heard the tinkle of glass on the wood of their bedside table, he pressed his lips to the slender column, feeling the muscle move as Neji swallowed.
"Good morning."
"I want to spend it in bed." Neji grumbled, rolling off him and tugging at the blanket. "My day off."
Strong arms hauled him back, pulling the thick wool over their bodies. The brunette turned, and put all his weight on the hard chest imprisoning him. It didn't budge an inch.
"You're lazy."
The voice, deep and rough and the slightest bit amused, turned his heart over, though he would never say anything, but he was too tired deny his hidden gentle nature, and in response, he cupped the smooth cheek and pulled his lover closer to kiss him.
What had started out as chaste quickly escalated into something more, something wilder, something hot that built up in his throat until he couldn't breathe and he opened his mouth in desperation. Gaara invaded his mouth, the sweet, heady taste that was just him filling his body, a rush that had the tips of his fingers tingling, and he tightened his arms around the lean body. Teeth and lips attacked his neck, making their way over his shoulder and back, leaving a trail of dark red bites in their wake. A hot tongue slicked up the side of his neck to toy with the lobe of his ear, making his breath hitch. He felt the rumble of a growl, urging him on, and he raked his nails down the plane of the taut stomach, eliciting a sound more to his liking. The brush of something hard against his thigh turned his attention downward and he pushed his hips up, seeking the friction he knew would come. But it didn't. So slowly he didn't realize it, the delicious pressure began to move away, the kisses turning tender, gentling the flaming desire until he opened drowsy eyes.
"Why'd you stop? " He mumbled.
"You're tired and your head still hurts doesn't it?"
As if to remind him it was still there, his ignored hangover sent him a pain that lanced across his eyeballs and left him with a ringing in his ears. But he couldn't help noticing that Gaara was breathing as hard as he was, and he knew what it cost his lover to withdraw. No one in the outside world would believe it, but Subaku no Gaara was actually being gentle. Just minutes ago he'd exploded in a kind of passion that no one else had been privileged enough to see, an overwhelming desire that only his lover could-would feel, and now…he was actually being sensitive.
"It's like I'm dreaming," Neji said with a grin as he brushed his fingers between the sand demon's shoulder blades, a technique proven to calm him down.
"You're not asleep."
"No," he conceded. "But the way you act when you're outside and the way you act when nobody's looking are both completely different. It's like one is real, and the other is just a sort of dream. It's…surreal."
Jewel-like eyes focused on him, and he could read the amusement in their depths. "Oh? And which one of me is the real one?"
It sounded like a challenge. "I'm not sure. They're both real…but the you that is with me right now is the one that resides in that space between dreams and reality."
"What about the dream me?"
"The dream you would wait on me hand and foot and would never ever deny me sex." Neji said, a rare mischievousness lighting his face up. "He would grab me the minute I got home, drag me up here like a cave man and -"
A hand clamped tightly over his mouth, but he heard the chuckle, soft as it was, and saw the laughing eyes. "You're wrong."
He struggled indignantly and tried to say "Oh yeah?" but he just made an incoherent babble. Finally he contented himself with uttering a questioning noise
"This." His lover said with a soft smile as he took the hand off and pressed a tender kiss against his parted lips. "This is the space between dreams and reality, and we're in it together."