Disclaimer: See the first chapter.
A/N: This chapter was going to be something else, but I felt the urge to stick Rion and Cain in a shower, so that takes up a good portion of this chapter. XD This chapter is like the calm before the storm.
Thanks to: SakuraBubbles the Muffin Child (Ahem, I give you shaved cat.), Cvinceus (I think Rion and Lilia were more like brother and sister or very close friends in this, though.), Riku Aros (Oh, the slashiness indeed. - grin -), and Saiyajin Angela (You gave me hugs! That made me happy. :D).
Chapter Four – Respite
Rion's fingers stopped circling in the sand at the warm breath coursing tickling the back of his neck.
"Why is it always here?" he asked, glancing over at Ash as he sat down beside him on the edge of the sandbox.
His outline was dimmed through the fog. Always. There was always that heavy fog and eerie silence reverberating throughout this place.
When he didn't receive an answer, he began swirling his fingers in the sand again. There were things Ash didn't like talking about – He understood how that was, how some topics could strike up a familiar pang in his own chest.
Finally, "I was never allowed things like this as a child."
"She's dead." It was difficult to witness the drawn-out, suffering glaze that shrouded Ash's eyes. So don't remember.
If only it were that easy.
"Regardless, she will always haunt me."
"That's not true," Rion found himself saying.
Ash's eyes narrowed, lips parting – Rion could almost read it as, "How would you know?"
"The things that have happened to me...don't bother me as much. I still get nightmares, but –"
Mother...! In the refrigerator, clock in her mouth... Blood, blood... Blood underneath those fingernails and splattering still. The closet... He's in there, too... Hurts – Stop. Stopstopstop... "I command you to die!"
A hand closed over his wrist.
Swallowing a cry, Rion gasped and jerked around to find his face inches away from Ash's. It was a mistake to even think of those nightmares. Even more so, it was a mistake to think that he was over what had happened to him.
"Every second here is hell," Ash icily reminded him. "Nothing will ever go away. Nothing."
Rion could only stare back, at first not trusting himself to say anything. He had always comforted those who wouldn't tell him what was really wrong. Cain, Lilia...
He knew, anyway.
Waves of guilt crashed over him. "I'm...selfish." He couldn't even meet his eyes. Also, he was unsure about Ash's intentions with them so close to each other.
"Merely reasonable." Ash chuckled quietly, brushing his thumb over Rion's hand. "Do they make your life worth living?"
"Yes." That was easy to answer.
Though Ash was intimately touching...his hand.
"Tell me about them."
"I..." Rion wet his lips, currently at a loss for words. "We walk home from work together. Rita and Cain work at a corner grocery store, and I work at the dry cleaners." It occurred to him that it was a random and perhaps stupid thing to say, but it was what was on his mind. "We just talk about things. It's nice...I guess. I never really had that before." He could feel his expression change at the thought of Cain and his quirks. "Every single day, Cain has to eat chocolate on the way." (And that was just Cain. He hadn't even gone into all the other odd things everyone else did.) "He smells like it, tastes like it even –"
"How is Lilia?" Ash interrupted curtly, shifting a little bit away from Rion.
Lost, Rion registered the miffed expression on Ash's face... What...? I said... Shit. He had slipped without even noticing it. "She's..." he trailed off, not able to really describe it, nor wanting to. "It's hard."
"You knew it was coming."
His voice wasn't harsh by any means, but Rion felt irrational anger rise up inside him – towards death in general, maybe. He didn't know or care. "That doesn't make it any less harder."
"Rion."
You always say my name like that. Why?
"Have I angered you?"
"Have I?" At the confused look flitting across Ash's face, Rion clarified, "With...Cain."
"I must say that I thought you had better taste," he retorted, smirking.
Rion could most definitely feel his jaw dropping. "And that would be you?" He couldn't help but let some incredulous laughter escape, even though he was getting some peeved vibes from Ash that threatened death.
"Well, I certainly think so," Ash shot back indignantly.
"You..." He shook his head in disbelief. "You're never going to change."
Admittedly, he never wanted him to.
/-/
"You got up late," Cain observed.
Rion, curling an arm around his waist, peered over his shoulder to see what he was frying in the pan. Bacon. Even though it was one of Rion's favorite foods, he had his mind on something else.
His voice sounded...
Biting? Suspicious?
Rita, who met his eyes with a cup of coffee halfway to her lips, might have thought the same thing, for she raised her eyebrows in question.
"What's wrong?" Rion asked. "It's not like I have to go to work today."
"Nothing." He continued cooking the bacon, jabbing it almost viciously.
"In case you forgot, the meat's already dead," Rion muttered, no longer interested in holding him.
Rita's tired laughter startled them both. She ran a hand through her sleep-mussed hair, eying them with amusement. "Cain's jealous, Rion."
"Jealous?" Cain sputtered, almost dropping the spatula. "Why the hell would I be jealous?!" He glared at her, silently demanding an answer.
Rion straightened, suddenly feeling more than a little uncomfortable. "Did I...?"
"You said his name a few times," Rita replied, voice low, but Rion knew that Cain could hear her, too.
"It wasn't because..." he trailed off awkwardly, considering that Cain possibly thought he was having dreams of a sexual nature. "...something like that. It was just because I was visiting him."
"Still, that really..." Cain sighed and looked away. "I really don't like him."
"What's your main problem with Ash, anyway?" Too late, he realized how confrontational that sounded.
"I don't know... Maybe the fact that he won't stop touching my boyfriend?!" Cain snapped.
Wait... Boyfriend?
Rion stared at him blankly, interpreting the expression that quickly set in on his face as "Shit." His guess proved to be correct as one of Cain turned away.
"So you two are dating?" Rita mused. "I suppose I kind of figured that. It was a bit obvious, but you never really said anything publicly."
Rion had never considered them to be technically dating, but he...liked the way Cain said it. He even wanted him to say it again.
"Then again, the fold-out bed is quite squeaky –" Rita continued.
"Rita!" Cain interrupted heatedly.
Despite the embarrassment of the whole thing, Rion found humor in their arguing. But then he remembered... "Does Lilia know?"
"Oh, I don't know." Rita fumbled through a pack of cigarettes and lit one. "Lilia's not as innocent as you two think. Probably."
"If I find out that you've been whoring her out to your friends..." Cain grumbled under his breath. "And don't smoke in here."
"Yes, Mother," she quipped.
Silence.
"You know I didn't mean it like that, Cain."
"Okay, fine. Just...fuck it all."
"I'll give you some time to talk." She walked away from the table and out the front door, cigarette in tow.
Rion watched her go, knowing it would buy him some time to think of what to say. So far...he had nothing.
"So, are you pissed at me, because I'm such a possessive asshole?" Cain broke the silence, leaning up against the sink and focusing on something outside the window. Maybe it was nothing.
"No. I understand. But we only talk, and he knows about you."
"Oh. I'm...sorry for being such a moron." He let out short, bitter laugh. "And I said..."
"Say it again," Rion murmured, surprising both himself and Cain, who was now facing him.
Rion looked up from the tile to find that his eyes were wide. He was frozen. It seemed like minutes went by, but in reality, it was most likely only a few seconds.
An awareness passed over Cain's face. He smiled.
Rion felt like all the bones in his body had liquefied.
"...Boyfriend."
Slowly, he walked over to the table, and bending down, kissed Rion's ear so softly that he could barely feel it. His skin prickled, and he moved his head to kiss him bac –
"Look, I finally did it!" Rainheart exclaimed, bounding into the kitchen.
If he thought there was anything peculiar about Rion's and Cain's closeness, he said nothing. He seemed to proud of...
"What the fuck did you do to my baby?!" Cain screamed, temporarily forgetting that Lilia was still sleeping.
Sleeves was missing a lot of his fur. Most of his fur, actually. He was even bald in some spots. What it looked like to Rion was that Rainheart had shaved him.
"Did you shave him?" he asked in disbelief, trying to cover up the amusement in his tone and failing miserably.
"Yeah." Rainheart beamed.
"You little bastard!" Cain snatched Sleeves up from Rainheart's arms and was now examining the bewildered kitten from every angle. "How could you do this?! What... What are these?"
"Dollar signs!"
Rion couldn't take it anymore. He began to shake with suppressed laughter.
"Rion, how the fuck can you think this is funny?! This is a disgrace... A disgrace!"
"I...thought you would be happy..." Rainheart scrunched up his face like he was about to cry. "It took me forever just to find the right thing! You said he needed a haircut!"
"I was kidding! Kidding..." He shook his head in defeat and held out his hand. "What did you use?"
Rainheart meekly placed the object in Cain's hand. It was small, metal...
Cain's mouth dropped open. "Nose hair clippers."
/-/
Rita and Cain had gotten their own very patched-up coats at a thrift store, and as the weather became cooler, they had to return there for Rion and Lilia. "Cooler" was kind of a bit of an understatement. Rion knew that his ears were red from the harsh winds on their walks home as they traversed blocks and blocks of cracked pavement.
"You're going to get fat if you keep eating so much of that," Rita admonished, glancing over at Cain. "I guess it would be better than looking starved, though."
Cain "hmmph"ed through a mouthful of the chocolate bar that he had shoved, up to the wrapper, in his mouth. "Says you."
Rion brought his corduroy coat sleeve up to his lips to hide that he found this funny, but Cain noticed even this slight motion.
"What?" he asked curiously.
"I was just imagining you fat," Rion admitted.
"Oh, that's just what I need." He playfully shoved Rion, who could've tackled him but instead opted for mimicking his move, remembering that they were in the presence of Rita.
Because most of the times that Rion tackled him, he had ulterior motives. Wrestling had been an activity that they'd engaged in as children, which had Cain told him, but it was no longer such an innocent exchange. All it took was a hand "accidentally" brushing up against somewhere that had nothing to do with wrestling. Other times, it was more direct from the start.
Cain would sometimes pin him and just study him quietly, taking him in. He remembered what he had once said to him, kidding, but Cain had replied seriously.
"Are you looking for something?"
"No, I've already found it."
He also liked to turn the tables on Cain, to make him gasp and squirm...
"Look, it's Rainheart."
Cain's voice snapped him out of his reverie (thankfully before he felt an even greater desire to tackle him). His eyes followed where Cain was pointing, up into the murky gray sky, where he could make out a cloud that almost exactly resembled a pig, down to the ears and the curly tail.
"Looks more like a pig to me," Rita decided, echoing Rion's sentiments.
"That's the point."
He was definitely still pissed about Sleeves, from what Rion could see.
"Cain!" Rita yelled furiously, chasing after him as he smirked over his shoulder at her.
Rion could only smile to himself as he watched the two of them take off down the street. Such a change had come over him since he had started living with them. He was apt to be more serious by nature, but he was now able to laugh and, for the first time in so long, actually mean it.
Rion rounded a corner, now in sight of their apartment, which Cain and Rita had already dashed into. As he stuffed his hands into his coat pockets, he wondered if it would kill him to lose this.
/-/
Rion stilled, fingers tangled in his soaked hair. He had just been rinsing out conditioner when he heard the click of the bathroom door.
"Sorry, I have to take a piss," came Cain's voice on the other side of the shower curtain. "Really badly," he added. "You take forever to take a shower."
"I know." His eyes slid shut as water droplets beat on his face and coursed down his body in little streams. It had been a long time already, and he was done bathing, so he groped for the knob to turn off the water.
The sound of the sink taps running and then the door opening and shutting reached his ears, so Rion deemed it safe to reach outside the shower for a tower. Fingers blindly searching, he couldn't find it. I thought I put it here... He went to poke his head out, confused about where –
Something firmly grasped his wrist and tugged him forward.
"Ah!"
His face was buried in warm, soft fabric that smelled like clean laundry and chocolate...
Cain...? Oh, I'm going to kill him.
He swung his head up, dripping wet, and encountered Cain, who had quite the mischievous grin on his face.
"I've got your towel, Rion," he taunted, waving it above his head.
Rion could feel his face starting to glow with an unearthly heat, but not about to be outdone by Cain, he made a swipe for the towel. "You're going to get a lot more if you don't give it back."
They hadn't seen each other completely naked yet, except for when they were children – but Rion couldn't remember that, anyway. The main thing on his mind now was that he was absolutely bare. In front of Cain.
"I could run away with it, and you couldn't chase me," Cain countered. "Unless you're okay with everyone seeing you...like that." He raised an eyebrow, silently inviting a challenge. Then his gaze traveled lower and lower, finally resting on the area right between Rion's legs. "I guess I have no problem with it."
"I'm not surprised." Rion took this opportunity to take another lunge at the towel. Unfortunately, the water that had been dripping off his body had accumulated in a puddle beneath his feet. He slipped on the slick tile, set up to smack the back of his skull on the shower floor. Clenching his eyes, he waited for the throbbing pain that was sure to ensue, but he was... Somehow, Cain had managed to catch him in a split-second before that could happen. One of his hands was splayed out against Rion's back, propping him up. The other was...tightly molded to his ass.
Cain was frozen in place, looking utterly stunned.
"You planned this on purpose...didn't you?" Rion attempted – and failed – to stifle a moan as Cain recovered from his momentary surprise and began kneading him gently.
"Yeah, but I didn't think it would work out this well."
"Come in here..." Rion urged. Having regained the use of his own legs, he pulled him into the shower without meeting much resistance.
They crumpled to the floor together, Rion with his back skidding down the damp wall. Cain placed his palms flat beside either side of Rion's face and stared into his eyes seriously. The air was thick with tension, and the energy between them was – in Rion's mind – nearly crackling. Just when Rion wasn't sure if he could take it any longer, Cain leaned in and wetly traced the outer rim of his ear with the tip of his tongue until he got to the earring at the bottom. Clenching it between his teeth, he pulled it back ever so lightly.
One of Rion's weak points. Though, to be honest, he had discovered that he had a few more.
Instantly, he fisted a hand in Cain's shirt and began kissing him desperately with a kind of gentle fierceness that he could only ever picture Cain being capable of, somehow. Actually, he could never picture doing this with anyone else, either. No, not like this at all.
"Your clothes... They're getting wet," he mumbled breathlessly against Cain's lips. His fingers crept below the damp fabric, teasing Cain's flesh with tiny circles before brushing up against his nipples.
"Ahn..." Cain gripped him tighter, sucking on his collarbone.
Seeing that he was occupied, Rion assisted in yanking the shirt over his head. In a clash of hips, his bare erection rubbed against the thin material of Cain's pants. They were both hard... Rion panted, fumbling for the button at Cain's waist.
/Rion.../
Rion gazed up at Cain questioningly as his pants popped open.
"I don't want you to see, because...I'm ugly..." he stammered, shielding the area where his undershorts were tenting.
What? "What are you talking about?" He was so lost that he didn't even know where to begin. Cain had always been timid about letting others see his body, but he had been less so with Rion, and Rion had even thought that he'd gotten better about it. "Cain..."
""I know it's true. I've heard it so many times." He averted his eyes.
"But..." Rion could hear the confusion in his own voice. "You're..." He took in the sight of him lying there, cheeks flushed, soft lips parted. His vivid eyes, the niche at his waist, and the smooth expanse of his chest...
"Rion." His arms shook. He could only stare at Rion, seemingly stunned, unable to pull the rest of his clothing off.
No words needed to be exchanged between them. Rion knew that Cain understood what he couldn't say.
He guided his hands, and they did it together – falteringly, but at last, the clothing slipped over Cain's feet.
Rion's eyes passed over him leisurely, eliciting some nervous fidgeting from Cain. He reached out for him but then waited, hand hovering.
"It's okay," Cain assured him quietly.
He gave a slight nod, running his fingertips up and down his length, brushing his thumb over the head.
Cain jerked, arching up against him. "Ngh..." He caressed Rion's skin, hands gliding smoothly over shoulder blades, and pressed kisses up his neck. "Rion..." /Please./
Rion stroked him faster, feeling himself get even harder at Cain's breathy pants and moans.
Oh, god. I want...This was exquisite. He could lose himself in this.
In him.
"Faster..."
Tasting him, touching him...
"Ahn!"
Cain sagged beneath him, drawing in great amounts of air, nuzzling him softly.
He was beautiful.
And to prove it to him, Rion kissed the corner of his mouth – Cain was currently too out of breath to do otherwise, but sometimes Rion liked to give him small, chaste kisses instead. He brought his fingers, covered in a moist stickiness, to his lips and licked it up with a dart of his tongue. It tasted...strange. Not wholly bad, but strange.
"Rion, you..." Cain smirked slyly and, in one smooth motion, pinned him. "I'm not just going to leave you to fend for yourself."
Caught by surprise, Rion gaped up at him. Oh. It wasn't that he forgot that he was still in need – it was more like he was amazed at Cain's ability to even catch him off guard after something that tiring.
Cain trailed kisses down his chest and stomach, pausing to delve his tongue into Rion's navel. Hot breath skimmed over his arousal, and he couldn't help but squirm impatiently as his hips were lightly massaged. "Cain –"
He swallowed the rest of his words when Cain swirled his tongue around the tip, smiling up at him playfully. All he could do was throw back his head and, for once, not think about anything. Except for how Cain's mouth was hot and tight and how his delicate lips were enveloping him –
Air came quickly now. His breathing was shallow.
He distantly heard himself moan, not really caring to withhold the sounds he made, no matter how loud they might be or who might hear them. All the while, Cain was mapping out his body, fingers skating, pressing, squeezing. It was difficult for him to even lift his head off the ground at this point, but Rion wanted to see...
Cain had evidently wanted to watch, too. He studied him through heavy-lidded green eyes, speeding up the movements of his mouth and tongue until it was unbearable –
/Cain.../ Rion shook as he came, holing onto Cain's shoulders with an unsteady grip.
They were silent. Rion's eyes fell on Cain, who was resting a cheek on his thigh. He tenderly ran his fingers through his hair, leaned down, and brushed his lips over his temple. Their mouths met slowly, almost tiredly, but Rion wasn't entirely exhausted yet.
I never...want to stop touching him.
"Rion?"
"Hn?" He looked to him curiously.
Cain pressed his lips to his palm, and Rion could feel the smirk he was hiding against the skin. "I think you're going to have to take another shower."