A Rush of Blood
Pairs: 1x4/4x1
Warnings: arson, kissy, weirdness, strange sap, moving-on-ness, lil dark, songfic
Dedication: Written completely and solely for Dùlin. That's right! This one's been looonnnggg overdue, and I've owed you a great deal, so this is a thank you. huggle Love you, girl. Thanks a lot.
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He looks at me, and I look right back at him. He's holding a gallon of gasoline in one callused fist, a sly grin on his face as the dancing lights in his eyes play tango with my mind. He's hungry for this, he wants it, he needs it, and I only nod my acceptance. He turns back to the desk, his father's old oak desk, with papers still cluttered, pencils and pens still waiting, a photo of his dead mother, an old contract of WEI... and he spills the gas all over it. Destroys them.
He said I'm gonna buy this place and burn it down
I'm gonna put it six feet underground
He said I'm gonna buy this place and watch it fall
Stand here beside me baby in the crumbling walls
The gas pools and spills onto the fine Persian rug. Quatre just smiles a little more, his hands shaking with anticipation as he walks into the narrow hall between the rooms, the gas spilling behind him like a bread crumb trail toward oblivion. The obnoxious fumes reach my nostrils and I lick my lips, tasting the danger. It tastes like burning honey. Sweet... so sweet, but deadly. Hurting.
Oh I'm gonna buy this place and start a fire
Stand here until I fill all your hearts desires
Quatre hands me another pale of gas that had been waiting in the hall, and he sends me to the other wing of the mansion. I only nod and start drenching the million credit home with its death sentence. Our penance. I spill the liquid over old photos, a misused bed, a forgotten closet, over knick-knacks, old wood and torn leather. Over clothes some would kill to have, and over shoes that could buy forty thousand starving children a decent meal for Thanksgiving.
I aid him, in this destruction. I start it and I help to end it.
Because I'm gonna buy this place and see it burn
Do back the things it did to you in return
I meet Quatre in the center of the house, in an old forgotten ballroom. It's very large and stands in the center of the mansion, ideal as a place for destruction to begin. He sets his empty pale down delicately, as if handling a rare gem, and walks to the center of the ballroom. I follow him, tossing my own pale carelessly in random direction and ignore it as it clatters with a loud thud before leaving my life forever.
In the very center of the room, where Quatre stands proudly, is a bomb. A small bomb, but a bomb nonetheless. He bends, checks the wires and then nods to me.
He said oh I'm gonna buy a gun and start a war
If you can tell me something worth fighting for
He takes my hand and we walk out the back door. We slowly circle around to the front and then walk up a hill in which the mansion rests just below. There are no houses surrounding it, not for miles, and the explosion will be small enough not to harm anyone needlessly. Just me and Quatre. Just me, him and the past...
He is still holding my hand when we finally stop at the top of the hill and look over the old house. His hand--cold--trembles in mine, while his other pulls a slender black box from his pocket. There is a deadman switch on the box. His fingers are itching push that trigger... twitching... waiting...
Oh and I'm gonna buy this place, that's what I said
He looks at me, the lights of his teal-blue eyes laughing maniacally. He is smiling softly, looking for something as he watches me. I shiver under them, resist the urge to look away, and he tightens his hold on my hand, absently caressing the switch with his thumb...
Blame it upon a rush of blood to the head
He presses down. The palace explodes into a bath of orange, yellow and white.
For a moment, neither of us breathe.
And honey
All the movements you're starting to make
See me crumble and fall on my face
He drops the switch like a vampire to a cross, his face coiled in the faintest notion of horror before retreating back into nothing. He turns into me, pulls me to his body and caresses me, worships me among the backdrop of the burning flames. He is shaking, trembling as if there were a seizure. The wind has picked up from the explosion and I shiver again. My back is now to the fire, the heat is prickling against my skin, breathing down the back of my neck. Hesitantly, I return the embrace, bury my fingers into the hard white locks of his hair as I try to hide from the pain.
He smiles into my neck. I feel it.
And I know the mistakes that I made
See it all disappear without a trace
The burning of the house becomes less painful and more accepting, and his tight hold around my body gradually relaxes. He starts to pull away, his legs shaking. He sits down on the hill and watches the flames feed, the yellow tongues licking the sky away and devouring the old wood, charred ghosts. Burning everything.
And they call as they beckon you on
They say start as you mean to go on
Start as you mean to go on
He has finally moved on, and I with him. Everything will finally go away.
I follow him down, sitting in the springy green grass that has been fed too much water, to many lies. I pluck at it, feeling the blades slice under my blunted fingernails, and I dig into the earth. I don't want to look at him because I know that he is crying now. I can feel it. I always knew when he cried.
And I hear a voice.
He said I'm gonna buy this place and see it go
Stand here beside me baby watch the orange glow
"Heero..." A pause. He shifts and I hear him gritting his teeth. I don't look up, don't answer and he pulls my chin up, wanting me, asking me to look him in the eyes. I do and I lose my breath again. Quatre always had the oddest blue eyes...
Some'll laugh and some just sit and cry
But you just sit down there and you wonder why
"Heero... Heero, I--"
Before he can say it, his cheeks stained red and his skin flushed orange from the fire down below, with the salty trails draining from those eyes... so sad, so emotional so odd... blue eyes...
I lean down, rub that dampened cheek, and kiss it. I kiss his tears away.
So I'm gonna buy a gun and start a war
If you can tell me something worth fighting for
I'm gonna buy this place, that's what I said
Blame it upon a rush of blood to the head
I kiss him, kiss the wet silk of his skin, trace his face like a painter to a canvas, my lips the brush, my tongue the paint and the burning of the house our lighting and our model.
I kiss him, kiss those soft cherry lips, and whisper against them, teasing him with my breath. Calling.
"I know."
I do. And he does too. We always knew and we didn't need to say it.
But Quatre was always the stubborn one. "No, Heero. I... I--"
I block it off with another kiss, this one very demanding. I don't want to hear it. I can't hear it. I can't.
And honey
All the movements you're starting to make
See me crumble and fall on my face
He pulls my head back, his eyes dark, and he utters, "No. I did it. And I love you. I'm not afraid to say it anymore, and you will not be afraid to hear it. I did it. I... did it. I love you."
I freeze. We've never said it. Never before, never ever. We just knew.
Why did it suddenly hurt so much? So... nicely...
I almost feel human again.
He smiles, cradles the back of my head and lowers his own lips to mine. I let him take control again and he caresses his lips along mine, silently asking for entrance. I let him in. I let him show me.
He loves me.
And I know the mistakes that I made
See it all disappear without a trace
In the smoke of the burning wood, in the wailing of alarms in the distance of the fire trucks making for a rescue, in the scam, in the lie, in the cheat, in the... love, I suddenly cannot hold it back anymore. We have moved on. There is nothing else to stop me, nothing else to hold me back. I kiss him back and seize his tongue for tango.
And they call as they beckon you on
They said start as you mean to go on
As you mean to go on, as you mean to go on
I feel the rumble of a growl vibrate in my throat.
I smile when he returns the sound.
So meet me by the bridge, meet me by the lane
When am I going to see that pretty face again
Meet me on the road, meet me where I said
I pull away suddenly, panting, and he raises an eyebrow, confused.
I can say it now. So I do.
"I love you too, Quatre. I... do."
He just smiles oddly, another tear sliding down his cheek as his hand finds mine again. He doesn't kiss me, he just looks back down at the fire, thinking quietly to himself for a long moment. Then he stands up, pulls me up beside him and turns his back to it.
He turns his back on the past. The present.
The mansion was his past. It was his father's and his mother's and they are dead now. He had to move on. But the fire is his present. It is now, he and I, together, as we both lick the sky in hope to taste heaven. We do not know if we will ever reach it--ever feel it--but now, with him, I am content.
He pulls my hand, and walks away. I follow him into the future. Away from the hilltop, the mansion and the fire.
Away from the war.
I do not know where we will go and I don't think either of us care.
Blame it all upon
A rush of blood to the head
Damn the past. Damn the future. For now... I live for now.
--Fini
A/N: This was my second attempt at a songfic, and my first try at 1x4x1. I hope I got this right, I've only heard the song once, and I don't actually have the beat or the melody down yet. It's just that the lyrics are so damned good, I couldn't help myself. The song is "A Rush of Blood to the Head," by Coldplay. The best song ever.I think it suits Quatre rather well, especially as a pre-war songfic on his reasons for going to war. I WAS going to use it that way, but for some reason, this came out instead.I still like it. It does fit though, doesn't it? Tell me yes or no and why and I'll give you three invisible cookies.