Chapter 5
Ky's breath hitched as Sol looked deeply into his eyes. The bounty hunter's hands were warm and callused against Ky's cheeks, his body a firm, pleasant weight on top of the Knight's.
"Ky," he breathed, sending a warm breath across Ky's eyelids, making him shiver in intense expectation.
"Sol," he echoed, whispering his partner's name like a kiss. God, why had he never before noticed how incredibly beautiful Sol's eyes were? They looked like... molten gold. No, they weren't that heavy. They were golden, but somehow airy at the same time. And not just golden either. There were subtle hints of other colors as well. Vibrant, beautiful.
"Ky," Sol repeated, ghosting kisses along his face, starting below his chin and working his way across Ky's cheek.
'Oh God,' thought Ky, 'this must be what Heaven is like.'
"Mmm," he managed as Sol gently traced his lips with one finger, then bent to kiss them, nibbling delicately on first the lower, then upper lip. But he didn't go further. He paused, then drew back slightly.
Ky opened his eyes - he had closed them in the ecstasy of the moment, and found himself caught once again in Sol's penetrating gaze.
"Ky, I want to tell you something," murmured Sol.
"Hm? What is it?" asked Ky, less concerned about what Sol was going to say than what his hands were doing, which was something he couldn't quite ascertain, but which felt very good.
"I just wanted you to know." Sol sounded slightly nervous, and Ky made an effort to pay attention to what he was saying. "Look, I know how much you care about me, and I just wanted to tell you that I..."
He paused. 'Is he really going to say it?' thought Ky. 'Oh my God. He's actually going to tell me that he loves me. Oh. Oh God. Incredible. How amazing.'
"I think you've slept long enough. Rise and shine, Sunshine."
Ky blinked. What? Then he opened his eyes.
Sol stood towering in front of him, between him and the remains of their campfire. "Come on," he said, "I said get up. We need to get going."
Ky blinked the remnants of sleep from his eyes, then blushed suddenly as he remembered the dream he had just come out of. He hurriedly busied himself, grabbing his makeshift crutch and using it to help him stand. "Alright, alright. I'm up."
Sol nodded, then sneezed. He glared at Ky. "This is all your fault."
"What?" Ky wondered if perhaps he wasn't still a little groggy. Sol didn't seem to be making any sense. "What is?"
Sol sneezed again. "This! It was fucking raining out there last night you know! I may have caught a cold thanks to you! I was fucking miserable! And cold! And wet! And it's all your fault!"
To his surprise, Ky found that he actually felt guilty. But he wasn't about to admit that to Sol. "Serves you right," he said instead. "You were the one who kept pushing me. Besides," he consoled himself, "you work with fire magic. I don't think you can actually catch cold."
"Well I was still miserable," Sol muttered, pouting.
"Yeah, yeah." Ky rolled his eyes. "Come on, let's get going then, if you want to so badly." He walked calmly out of the cavern, followed by Sol.
They walked an hour in sullen silence with Sol glaring at him the entire time before Ky finally gave in and apologized. "Alright, alright. I'm sorry I made you sleep out in the rain, okay?"
The pout that Sol had been wearing for the last hour finally cracked. "You could always make it up to me," he suggested, stepping closer and grabbing Ky's ass.
Seconds later, Ky looked down at Sol where he lay twitching from electric shock. "In your dreams, pervert."
When Sol had recovered enough to walk, the two of them struck out again. Much to his chagrin, Ky was unable to keep himself from casting surreptitious glances in Sol's direction every few minutes. He was still haunted by the dream he had had that morning. Although by this point he had mostly managed to convince himself that it was simply the result of his subconscious working with the innuendo that Sol had been feeding him most of the day. Right. Sure. That was it.
At noon they ate lunch on the go, their meal consisting of what they had managed to glean from the stores in Sol's cave. Sol wisely refrained from teasing Ky too much after his initial zapping, but Ky couldn't help feeling as though Sol was planning something.
It was about mid-afternoon when they came to the lake.
It was extremely large, seeming to stretch the entire width of the canyon, cutting through the forest in the center. In fact, the trees grew into it in the middle, creating a natural bend so that one side of the bank was obscured from view by the thick branches.
Sol grinned as they approached it. "Oh good, I was hoping we'd reach here soon. I don't know about you, but I think I'm more than ready for a bath. What do you think?"
Though his first impulse was to give Sol another good jolt just for being himself, Ky relented as he realized that he was indeed filthy, and sweaty, and altogether unclean. "Alright," he finally relented, "but if you think for one second that I'm going to bathe in anywhere near the same general vicinity as you, then you are sadly mistaken."
Sol looked vaguely disappointed; as though Ky had spoiled some sort of scheme he had planned. "Fine," he said, rolling his eyes and beginning to take off his shirt.
"Hey!" Ky protested loudly. "I mean it you know! You damned well better go to the other side of this bend before you start taking your clothes off. Or at least allow me the time to get over there. I can't say I trust you if either of us are less than fully clothed." He paused. "Come to that, I don't really trust you anyway."
"Alright already!" said Sol, throwing up his hands. He sloshed his way past the trees, muttering the entire time.
When Ky was absolutely sure that Sol was out of sight, he tentatively disrobed, taking great care around his wounded leg. He stashed his clothes and crutch on the beach within reach, in a place where he could keep a constant eye on them. (He wouldn't have put it past Sol to attempt to steal his clothes.) With a murmur of pleasure, he waded into the cool water.
At first he just floated, allowing the water to flow around him and ease his aching muscles. Even before this impromptu hike, Sol had done quite a number on him during their duel. The bruises were just now starting to ripen, staining various areas of his body an ugly blackish purple. He washed those spots tenderly, careful not to prod them too much and awaken fresh pain. There were an awful lot of bruises, he noted.
He sighed. This rivalry with Sol was going to be the death of him yet. He wondered once again, as he often did, why God had sent him to this person. Surely Ky had a greater destiny in life than to die by Sol's hand? Because eventually that was what was going to happen. That was the one major advantage that Sol always had. While Ky was simply trying to knock him unconscious so that he could arrest him, Sol was always fighting to kill. Often, Sol had beaten him and walked away. But he always had some sort of excuse. Sometimes he was convinced that Ky had been holding back, that it hadn't been a proper duel. There always seemed to be some reason why Sol had been given an unfair advantage, why he had to leave Ky alone for another day.
Now, thinking back to their conversation of the day before, Ky wondered if there was perhaps another reason that Sol was constantly letting him go.
'If he kills me, then he has nothing left to live for,' Ky thought, scrubbing hard at the dried sweat that had accumulated on his neck. 'If he kills me, then it's like killing himself.' It suddenly dawned on Ky what exactly Sol had meant when he was speaking yesterday. 'If he kills me, he has nothing left to live for, but all he has to live for now is killing me. It's a no-win situation.'
Quite suddenly, Ky felt an emotion that he had never before associated with Sol. Pity.
He might have continued further in this vein of thought, but his musings were interrupted by a loud yelling from the other side of lake. Sol's voice called out in an incoherent cry of pain and surprise.
Ky swore vehemently in French and considered his options. His sword was still with his clothes on the beach. However, going back might take him too much time. He could move quickly in the water; he didn't have to rely so much on his injured foot. If he swam there, he could be there in a matter of seconds. Ky quickly made his decision. He would have to rely on the little bit of magic energy that had returned to him and use it to attack from the water. He started swimming, praying fervently to God that nothing serious had happened yet.
He rounded the trees quickly, swimming a few feet until the water became quite suddenly much more shallow, and he was able to stand, the water coming to just barely above his waist. He planted his good foot firmly and the other gingerly, gritting his teeth against the light pain that this caused. Readying his magic, he looked around for the threat.
The only thing there was Sol, standing calmly in the water with his arms folded, smirking at him.
In a flash, Ky realized exactly what had happened, and felt like a complete moron. "You jerk!" he yelled, "I thought you were actually in trouble! How dare you pull something like that! Do you know how potentially dangerous that could have been! I could have electrified the entire lake! In fact, I still have half a mind to do that, just to teach you a lesson!"
Sol was still smiling infuriatingly at him. "It was worth it," he said calmly, giving Ky's nude body a frank once-over. Ky was suddenly very glad that the water came to above waist level.
"You are just... argh!" Ky glared at him menacingly, shaking his fist. "I swear Sol, if you ever do that again, I will zap you so hard-"
"Alright, alright." Sol held up his hands placatingly, but Ky could tell that he was trying not to laugh. "I promise I won't do it again. Even though you are really cute when you're angry."
Ky scowled to keep himself from blushing, and tromped back into the deeper water, swimming back towards his section of the beach. He swore some more in French to make himself feel better. He could almost feel Sol's smirk following him as he went.
Oh God, that was hideous. Take me back.
or
Oh God, that was hideous. Let me complain to the author.