Kino could not understand why Crono had turned away so suddenly. He couldn't understand why Crono barely looked at or spoke to him at all since he'd been there.
Crono is my friend, he thought to himself. Why does he stay away?
To compound matters, Kino needed Crono. He needed him now, to listen to him and his feelings. No one else understood him here in the village. No one cared what he felt. Kino was smart, not strong, and it was strength that mattered. Ayla was the strongest in the village. She had even helped defeat the menacing Azala, and then Lavos. No one could match her. No one's opinion mattered but her's.
So Kino sat silently by her side, a trophy. It was tradition that nothing be denied the strongest warriors, and Ayla chose him, despite any and all protest.
She just can't see...Kino thought sadly, though his face still managed to smile.
He didn't even really have a reason to fight it. It was the way things had always been, and he'd expected it ever since he and Ayla had become friends. He could have accepted it too, if it weren't for the memories that chased him now, and let him know that there was another way that things could have turned out...and maybe still could.
***Flashback***
It was a moment driven purely on hormones. From the moment Kino noticed Crono leaving the village, till the moment he taken the red heads hand in his, the prehistoric blonde's only motivation was something that he couldn't name. He would have called it attraction, had the word been invented at the time.
Now he was towing Crono behind him through the towering trees and overlarge leaves of the underbrush of the forest. There was a stream running along side them, he knew. It shined through the branches in moonlit flashes, and gurgled faintly. Close, he thought, in an effort to push other thoughts from his mind that he could not place. Never had the touch of someone's hand in his felt so hot and stirred feelings deep inside him. It was confusing, but he liked it.
"Kino! K-Kino!" Crono yelled, and the blonde boy came to sudden halt, and released Crono's hand. He turned to see his friend bent over, huffing and puffing to catch his breath.
"What?" Kino asked, his expression as innocent as a child's. For a moment he thought that maybe he had done another bad thing, and that Crono would be angry with him. When the other boy finally looked up though, he didn't look angry.
In fact, he was smiling at first, and then, his eyes got wide, and his face turned very red. Kino didn't know exactly what to make of this, so he cocked his head to the side curiously, and waited.
Crono stared up at the boy with the heaving, chiseled chest, coated with a thin layer of perspiration that glistened in the moonlight. He saw Kino's curious face, shadowed by the over hanging branches, the flawless face a flushed picture of youthful invigoration.
...and beauty, Crono thought as he stood there, unable to do anything but stare rudely for a while. But Kino had asked him a question hadn't he...?
"Oh, n-nothing," he stammered. I just needed to catch my breath.
Another, puzzled look. Kino glanced about as if searching.
"Catch it, then?" he asked, obviously confused. Crono couldn't help but chuckle.
"Yeah, I caught it," he responded, smiling and cursing the closeness of the boy as he stood straight up finally, much too close to that enticing grin.
"Good! We go now." And with that, Crono found himself being dragged through the trees once more. He stumbled and ran to keep up, While Kino easily manuevered the obviously familiar path.
It would have been much easier for Crono if he would just look forward instead of down, but the furs draped around Kino's waist flailed about wildly in the wind, and each time Crono looked up, he got an eye full of the boy's perfectly round, bronzed behind, which alone could make him lose his balance. Fortunately, the trip was over soon. The forest ended as abruptly as it had sprung up several yards before, but instead of another sprawling plain, there was an even more beautiful sight.
It was a beach of black sand alongside a river that Crono had heard and seen in snippets along the way there. The moons glow caught grains of the sand so that they glittered, and the beach looked like a reflection of the sky. The river itself was so quiet and smooth that it was tough to see where the water gave way to the sand, unless the light caught the surface just right, turned the stream into a snaking path of blue light. All this made up a clearing before a large cave into which the water, and the sandy banks, ran. After turning about once to take in the entire scene, which was pretty secluded with the dense forest rising behind them, and the huge mountain before, Crono turned to find Kino smiling at him brightly.
"This my secret place. Where the village not know, and Ayla not know. Only Kino know...and now, Crono know."
Kino had said that last part much softer than the rest, and his expression changed to something solemn, and something that Crono could not quite put his finger on, or rather, wouldn't let himself believe. The red head himself was blushing.
Wait...Crono thought, peering at Kino's own boyish cheeks. Is he blushing...too?
He leaned to look a bit harder, but Kino lowered his head, and then turned around all together.
"Come. Kino show Crono all."
Crono felt a tingle run through him at these words, but mentally he chastised himself.
He can't mean it the way I think he does, the way I wish he would....can he? Crono wondered as he followed behind Kino into the darkness of the cave. Just as things were becoming pitch black, Kino reached back and grabbed his hand again. For a moment, their eyes met, and neither boy made a move to do anything. Crono's heart was pounding in his chest. Was Kino going to pull him close to kiss him, or maybe pull him down, to...
Stop it! he told himself, but the look in Kino's eyes, that shined like jewels as they caught the last few beams of light, made it all seem utterly possible.
There was something Kino wanted to do, but he couldn't be sure it was the right thing. Instincts told him to get closer to Crono, to kiss Crono, but...that wasn't how things were. He only saw the girls in the village kiss the boys. Never did the boys kiss the other boys.
But Crono not from village, he thought, and screwing up all the courage he had, he leaned in quickly and kissed the other boy firmly on the lips. It was brief, and it had taken enough out of him to do that much, but the moment his lips touched Crono's own, Kino felt a jolt of something he had never in his life felt before. Now drawn back, he had dropped Crono's hand, and was staring at a face he could not read. His lips felt warm and tingly, and his heart beat like crazy in his chest. When a few moments had passed, and Crono did not speak, Kino slowly became even more confused. He wondered if he had done something wrong, if Crono was angry with him, and would not be his friend anymore, and...something strange in him just wanted to hear Crono speak, and to say...to say what?
"Kino..." Kino began, taking a step back into the darkness, "Kino sorry!" he cried, and ran into the inky darkness crying tears he could not explain.
"Kino!" Crono cried after the boy had gone, finally finding his voice although it was too late to do much good.
Why didn't I SAY something!? he screamed at himself in his head, and then: He kissed me...
Foolishly, he reached up to gingerly touch his lips, as if there would be something there, something fragile as a house of cards that would fall apart if he touched it. And there was something, but nothing he could feel with his hands. There was a spark, a tingle, a feeling that made his heart race and his blood sing. A feeling tainted by his horrible post-kiss screw up.
He went out on a limb...and I made him feel like a fool, Crono thought dejectedly. Well, there's only one thing to do.
With that, Crono took his first tentative steps into the opaque darkness of the deeper reaches of the cave. He could feel the along the sand with his shoes and find the imprints of Kino's footsteps. It was an arduous task, but slowly he made a way for himself in the darkness. Eventually, he could see a faint light ahead, and then the sand gave way to rocks. Crono no longer needed the footprints to guide him then, though. The light grew brighter with each step he took, until he could see well enough where he was going. As far as he could tell, there was a cliff up ahead. He could hear the sound of the water crashing in what must have been a waterfall ahead.
Briefly, he thought of a grief stricken Kino running over the cliff, and his heart caught in his chest.
No, he thought then. This is Kino's place. He would know there was a cliff...
Crono walked on. When he reached the cliff, he was greeted by yet another incredible vista, perhaps the most incredible.
From the edge of the cliff, he could see the water cascade down in a beautiful waterfall into a steaming lake below. The lake set in the center of a huge, dome shaped clearing in the cave, that was opened far above so that light poured in from the sky. The entire room glittered, and it's walls all appeared to be coated in a film of glass. Had Lucca been there, she could have explained that they were inside an old, inactive volcano that had once been on the floor of the sea, and, because of all the sand and intense heat, had indeed coated the entire clearing in glass.
As it were, Crono didn't know any of this. Just that the room was beautiful, and that Kino was there, dangling his legs in the steaming pool of water below. The sound of the boy's sobs echoed enough to be heard over the rushing water. The sound broke Crono's heart, and to think, he was the cause of it all...
Kino sat alongside the warm, bubbling pool, crying softly to himself. His legs were submerged in the water, which he could feel swirling about, loosening his muscles. Usually, it felt good to be there. Not this time though.
Stupid...he thought to himself, and kicked the water which made a splash, but did not relieve any of his feelings.
What had he done? Now Crono would not like him at all. He would go to the village, and tell them all about what he had done. Then the village would not like him. Ayla would not like him. Nobody would...but it bothered him most that Crono wouldn't, because he liked Crono more than anyone else.
He began to sink down into the water, letting it swallow up his naked body inch by inch. His furs were in a pile beside the pool where he had thrown them. He had never swam in them before, and even as upset as he was, he didn't forget to remove them. He liked the way the hot water felt against his skin. It could relax him, help him to think. Besides, he would probably not get another chance to go there after Crono went to the village and brought everyone there. They would take away his special place.
Then Kino have no place, he thought, and sunk in till the water reached his neck. When he closed his eyes, he saw Crono. He relived what very few times they'd had together. That was the best he had, after all. And the best he would ever have, he figured.
A sound behind him caused his eyes to flash back open. Turning to look, he saw Crono, staring at him again in that same strange way. Kino was very surprised, and he stood up to turn and face him, oblivious to his nakedness and the effect it might have.
Crono is my friend, he thought to himself. Why does he stay away?
To compound matters, Kino needed Crono. He needed him now, to listen to him and his feelings. No one else understood him here in the village. No one cared what he felt. Kino was smart, not strong, and it was strength that mattered. Ayla was the strongest in the village. She had even helped defeat the menacing Azala, and then Lavos. No one could match her. No one's opinion mattered but her's.
So Kino sat silently by her side, a trophy. It was tradition that nothing be denied the strongest warriors, and Ayla chose him, despite any and all protest.
She just can't see...Kino thought sadly, though his face still managed to smile.
He didn't even really have a reason to fight it. It was the way things had always been, and he'd expected it ever since he and Ayla had become friends. He could have accepted it too, if it weren't for the memories that chased him now, and let him know that there was another way that things could have turned out...and maybe still could.
***Flashback***
It was a moment driven purely on hormones. From the moment Kino noticed Crono leaving the village, till the moment he taken the red heads hand in his, the prehistoric blonde's only motivation was something that he couldn't name. He would have called it attraction, had the word been invented at the time.
Now he was towing Crono behind him through the towering trees and overlarge leaves of the underbrush of the forest. There was a stream running along side them, he knew. It shined through the branches in moonlit flashes, and gurgled faintly. Close, he thought, in an effort to push other thoughts from his mind that he could not place. Never had the touch of someone's hand in his felt so hot and stirred feelings deep inside him. It was confusing, but he liked it.
"Kino! K-Kino!" Crono yelled, and the blonde boy came to sudden halt, and released Crono's hand. He turned to see his friend bent over, huffing and puffing to catch his breath.
"What?" Kino asked, his expression as innocent as a child's. For a moment he thought that maybe he had done another bad thing, and that Crono would be angry with him. When the other boy finally looked up though, he didn't look angry.
In fact, he was smiling at first, and then, his eyes got wide, and his face turned very red. Kino didn't know exactly what to make of this, so he cocked his head to the side curiously, and waited.
Crono stared up at the boy with the heaving, chiseled chest, coated with a thin layer of perspiration that glistened in the moonlight. He saw Kino's curious face, shadowed by the over hanging branches, the flawless face a flushed picture of youthful invigoration.
...and beauty, Crono thought as he stood there, unable to do anything but stare rudely for a while. But Kino had asked him a question hadn't he...?
"Oh, n-nothing," he stammered. I just needed to catch my breath.
Another, puzzled look. Kino glanced about as if searching.
"Catch it, then?" he asked, obviously confused. Crono couldn't help but chuckle.
"Yeah, I caught it," he responded, smiling and cursing the closeness of the boy as he stood straight up finally, much too close to that enticing grin.
"Good! We go now." And with that, Crono found himself being dragged through the trees once more. He stumbled and ran to keep up, While Kino easily manuevered the obviously familiar path.
It would have been much easier for Crono if he would just look forward instead of down, but the furs draped around Kino's waist flailed about wildly in the wind, and each time Crono looked up, he got an eye full of the boy's perfectly round, bronzed behind, which alone could make him lose his balance. Fortunately, the trip was over soon. The forest ended as abruptly as it had sprung up several yards before, but instead of another sprawling plain, there was an even more beautiful sight.
It was a beach of black sand alongside a river that Crono had heard and seen in snippets along the way there. The moons glow caught grains of the sand so that they glittered, and the beach looked like a reflection of the sky. The river itself was so quiet and smooth that it was tough to see where the water gave way to the sand, unless the light caught the surface just right, turned the stream into a snaking path of blue light. All this made up a clearing before a large cave into which the water, and the sandy banks, ran. After turning about once to take in the entire scene, which was pretty secluded with the dense forest rising behind them, and the huge mountain before, Crono turned to find Kino smiling at him brightly.
"This my secret place. Where the village not know, and Ayla not know. Only Kino know...and now, Crono know."
Kino had said that last part much softer than the rest, and his expression changed to something solemn, and something that Crono could not quite put his finger on, or rather, wouldn't let himself believe. The red head himself was blushing.
Wait...Crono thought, peering at Kino's own boyish cheeks. Is he blushing...too?
He leaned to look a bit harder, but Kino lowered his head, and then turned around all together.
"Come. Kino show Crono all."
Crono felt a tingle run through him at these words, but mentally he chastised himself.
He can't mean it the way I think he does, the way I wish he would....can he? Crono wondered as he followed behind Kino into the darkness of the cave. Just as things were becoming pitch black, Kino reached back and grabbed his hand again. For a moment, their eyes met, and neither boy made a move to do anything. Crono's heart was pounding in his chest. Was Kino going to pull him close to kiss him, or maybe pull him down, to...
Stop it! he told himself, but the look in Kino's eyes, that shined like jewels as they caught the last few beams of light, made it all seem utterly possible.
There was something Kino wanted to do, but he couldn't be sure it was the right thing. Instincts told him to get closer to Crono, to kiss Crono, but...that wasn't how things were. He only saw the girls in the village kiss the boys. Never did the boys kiss the other boys.
But Crono not from village, he thought, and screwing up all the courage he had, he leaned in quickly and kissed the other boy firmly on the lips. It was brief, and it had taken enough out of him to do that much, but the moment his lips touched Crono's own, Kino felt a jolt of something he had never in his life felt before. Now drawn back, he had dropped Crono's hand, and was staring at a face he could not read. His lips felt warm and tingly, and his heart beat like crazy in his chest. When a few moments had passed, and Crono did not speak, Kino slowly became even more confused. He wondered if he had done something wrong, if Crono was angry with him, and would not be his friend anymore, and...something strange in him just wanted to hear Crono speak, and to say...to say what?
"Kino..." Kino began, taking a step back into the darkness, "Kino sorry!" he cried, and ran into the inky darkness crying tears he could not explain.
"Kino!" Crono cried after the boy had gone, finally finding his voice although it was too late to do much good.
Why didn't I SAY something!? he screamed at himself in his head, and then: He kissed me...
Foolishly, he reached up to gingerly touch his lips, as if there would be something there, something fragile as a house of cards that would fall apart if he touched it. And there was something, but nothing he could feel with his hands. There was a spark, a tingle, a feeling that made his heart race and his blood sing. A feeling tainted by his horrible post-kiss screw up.
He went out on a limb...and I made him feel like a fool, Crono thought dejectedly. Well, there's only one thing to do.
With that, Crono took his first tentative steps into the opaque darkness of the deeper reaches of the cave. He could feel the along the sand with his shoes and find the imprints of Kino's footsteps. It was an arduous task, but slowly he made a way for himself in the darkness. Eventually, he could see a faint light ahead, and then the sand gave way to rocks. Crono no longer needed the footprints to guide him then, though. The light grew brighter with each step he took, until he could see well enough where he was going. As far as he could tell, there was a cliff up ahead. He could hear the sound of the water crashing in what must have been a waterfall ahead.
Briefly, he thought of a grief stricken Kino running over the cliff, and his heart caught in his chest.
No, he thought then. This is Kino's place. He would know there was a cliff...
Crono walked on. When he reached the cliff, he was greeted by yet another incredible vista, perhaps the most incredible.
From the edge of the cliff, he could see the water cascade down in a beautiful waterfall into a steaming lake below. The lake set in the center of a huge, dome shaped clearing in the cave, that was opened far above so that light poured in from the sky. The entire room glittered, and it's walls all appeared to be coated in a film of glass. Had Lucca been there, she could have explained that they were inside an old, inactive volcano that had once been on the floor of the sea, and, because of all the sand and intense heat, had indeed coated the entire clearing in glass.
As it were, Crono didn't know any of this. Just that the room was beautiful, and that Kino was there, dangling his legs in the steaming pool of water below. The sound of the boy's sobs echoed enough to be heard over the rushing water. The sound broke Crono's heart, and to think, he was the cause of it all...
Kino sat alongside the warm, bubbling pool, crying softly to himself. His legs were submerged in the water, which he could feel swirling about, loosening his muscles. Usually, it felt good to be there. Not this time though.
Stupid...he thought to himself, and kicked the water which made a splash, but did not relieve any of his feelings.
What had he done? Now Crono would not like him at all. He would go to the village, and tell them all about what he had done. Then the village would not like him. Ayla would not like him. Nobody would...but it bothered him most that Crono wouldn't, because he liked Crono more than anyone else.
He began to sink down into the water, letting it swallow up his naked body inch by inch. His furs were in a pile beside the pool where he had thrown them. He had never swam in them before, and even as upset as he was, he didn't forget to remove them. He liked the way the hot water felt against his skin. It could relax him, help him to think. Besides, he would probably not get another chance to go there after Crono went to the village and brought everyone there. They would take away his special place.
Then Kino have no place, he thought, and sunk in till the water reached his neck. When he closed his eyes, he saw Crono. He relived what very few times they'd had together. That was the best he had, after all. And the best he would ever have, he figured.
A sound behind him caused his eyes to flash back open. Turning to look, he saw Crono, staring at him again in that same strange way. Kino was very surprised, and he stood up to turn and face him, oblivious to his nakedness and the effect it might have.
