Chapter 6
Fire on Snow
Touya put his hand on the the doorknob of Yuki's room. Moment of truth time. The last two nights he'd tried, it had been locked, but lately Yuki had been forgetting sometimes...
Success! The knob turned under Touya's hand. He took a deep breath and stepped into the room.
Yukito was curled up tightly in his bed, clutching his blankets around him. When he heard Touya entering the room he sat bolt upright, his eyes widening as Touya quietly shut and locked the door behind him. Doing his best to appear calm, Touya stepped up to the edge of the bed. "We need to talk," he said softly.
Yuki's face immediately fell and he stared down at his covers, sitting up. "I... I kind of figured," he mumbled. "You're here to break up with me, right?"
Touya grabbed Yukito so fast that it was a few seconds before the silver-haired boy could even react. When he realized he was in Touya's arms he struggled, flailing and squirming and shoving against Touya's chest, crazed as a wild animal trying to escape a trap. "Don't touch me!" he gasped. "Get away!"
"No!" said Touya. His voice came out harsh and raspy. "Calm down, Yuki. It's okay. I'm not going to hurt you."
Yukito continued to struggle, but Touya held on for dear life, keeping his arms tightly wound around Yukito. Finally, finally, Yuki's strength seemed to ebb and he stopped his flailing, settling with a sigh of exhaustion into Touya's arms. He sniffled a little bit, like he was going to cry, and Touya's heartstrings tugged with shared pain. Making Yuki cry was the last thing he wanted to do. But this was necessary, he reminded himself.
"Why are you doing this?" Yukito whispered.
"Listen to me Yuki." Touya shifted on the bed so that he was kneeling in front of Yuki, arms on his shoulders, staring deeply into his eyes. "I want you to listen closely, because this is important."
He continued to stare until he had Yuki's undivided attention. "Look at my hands, Yuki," he said, taking them off of Yuki's shoulders and displaying them palms up. "Listen Yuki. These hands are fire, do you hear me? They're flame. And wherever they pass over your body, wherever I touch you, they will burn, and they will burn away the pollution. I will burn his touch from you, Yuki. Everywhere they touch, he will be burned away and underneath your body will be new again. It will be yours, and it will be just as pure and clean as it ever was."
It should have sounded cheesy. Touya knew it should have sounded cheesy. But staring into Yukito's eyes, he forced the impact of his words to carry over to his lover, and he knew that Yuki felt their seriousness. He looked almost as though he were in a trance, the world around them suspended. They hung in a world where the words were real, as real as Yuki's shame and as real as the touch between them. Touya was intensely aware of the heavy sound of Yuki's breathing, still recovering from his struggle against Touya's hold.
Time between them seemed to stretch, slow down, and finally cease, until all that remained was their gazes, locked together forever. And then, the smallest of whispers from Yuki.
"Touya... I'll melt."
He had him. He understood, and Touya had him now.
"You won't melt," Touya assured him. "Only the outermost layer, the ice that's become mixed with dirt, that will melt. And the melted water will wash it all away. And underneath will be the pure pristine clean white snow that's always been there. I promise. I know it's still there, Yuki. I'll help you get it back."
Yuki stared at him, and Touya could feel a hunger in his gaze now, a need for the purification. He had swept Yuki up. He believed now, and only waited. Touya felt his heart swell a bit at the thought that even now, Yuki still trusted him enough to believe that Touya could heal him.
"But I won't touch you unless you ask me to, Yuki," Touya said. "It must be your choice. It is your body, Yuki. Yours to clean."
For a moment they were both still, staring at each other as they kneeled on the bed. Then, tentatively, Yuki reached out and took the wrist of one of Touya's hands in both of his. He lifted it up and placed it on his neck, one hand remaining on Touya's wrist while the other crept up to cover Touya's hand with his own. And it did feel like ice; Yuki's skin was freezing, Touya's palm a hot brand by comparison. Yuki shivered at the contrast as soon as their skin touched. But even so, he leaned into the fingertips, leaned into the burn, his eyes sliding half shut, his breath leaving him in a shuddering exhale. Touya could feel the pulse in his neck.
"Touch me," Yuki breathed. "Please."
Touya smiled and reached forward to comply.
--------------------
This section of the fic has been edited out due to the NC-17 restriction on this web site. If you would like to read the full un-edited chapter, you may do so on my web site, Kagedtiger's Dragon Nest, available on my profile or at:
dragonnest . 0catch . com / fics / pieces06 . html
(Copy and paste that address into your browser window and remove the spaces.) Whichever version you choose to read, I hope you are enjoying the fic. (Although I highly recommend the full version; I feel that certain details mentioned in it add to the atmosphere/flavor/value of the fic.) Now back to the clean stuff.
--------------------
And then he collapsed on top of Yukito, his breathing heavy and labored. Yuki was gasping to, although it sounded more like he was choking back sobs. Worried, Touya gently pulled himself out of Yuki and leaned up for a closer look. His heart sank; Yukito, eyes squeezed tightly shut, was crying. Had it all been for nothing after all?
But then Yuki opened his eyes and stared at Touya with such gratitude that it took Touya's breath away, what little he still had.
"Are you clean now?" he asked Yuki.
Yuki closed his eyes again and nodded. Touya drew Yukito's hands into his and kissed them. "Your body is yours again," he said. "It was never anyone else's. And it never will be. Always yours, and only yours."
"And yours," Yuki murmured. He looked on the verge of falling asleep. Touya reached over to the top of the bedside table, snagging a few tissues to clean them both off before Yuki could doze off.
Touya kissed his hair. "Only when you give it to me," he said.
Previous Chapter I Next Chapter