Author: Kerrie
Warnings: Slash
Pairing: Aspiring Artist Michael/Lowell. My love of minor UC pairings shines through!
Disclaimer: FFIX, characters, places. Not mine.
A/n: Okay, so truthfully, do you have any idea who they are? Well, if no, Michael's the artist in the house/basement in the second screen of the Theatre District in Lindblum, and Lowell is the blue-haired ego-centric actor whose autograph and moogle-suit you have the option of obtaining and whom you also meet in Michael's house. Coincidence? I think not. ;)
Pairing is 'inspired' by Devilish Kurumi (Before the Storm). They're lovely together. ;)
Edit: Thanks to Pied Flycatcher, for pointing out some mistakes I'd made. :D
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Lowell confuses Michael, more than he'd sometimes like to admit. He has thousands of fangirls and -boys, desperately grasping for anything the blue-haired actor would want to give to them, which doesn't always seem to be much, and Michael hates it. Hates how easily the fame and acknowledgment comes to the actor and how he just brushes it off with barely a glance. Hates how he himself has to fight for it. Just earning enough Gil to put food on the table is hard enough without the actor there to remind him of how bad he is doing in contrast to the other man.
It made him wonder sometimes – why Lowell always seemed to come back. Even in spite of his egocentricity and arrogance, he could have anyone he wanted, and yet he somehow always ended up in Michael's bed, in Michael's paint-stained arms, crushed tightly to Michael's pale chest. And he didn't know why.
Upon questioning Lowell had gone quiet, and just as the artist had stopped hoping for an answer, the actor had whispered so quietly that he would have missed it if his breathing had been only a little louder. 'Because I love you.'
His latest painting had consisted purely of different shades of orange. It had been a sunset, and it had been one of his first sunsets. He had destroyed it, burned it and thrown it far away, while trying unsuccessfully to will away the tears. Because Lowell loved orange sunsets.
And Lowell had gone.
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Pretend that this takes place after the attack on Lindblum and after Lowell goes to work at Ruby's mini theatre. Also, pretend that Michael knows that Lowell went to Alexandria, and pretend that Lowell didn't say goodbye.