Disclaimer: I STILL don't own them, but I'm working on it…
Next chapter, and they're getting progressively harder. Still I shall carry on, for the good of mankind.
Warning: Some shōnen-ai this chapter, but only your PG-13 make out stuff.
Chapter 2
We're riding through the jungle. Horseback, just the two of us and a couple of servants. Hunting, judging by the guns they're holding. I'm holding. Talking English too, I guess that there's no way the servants could understand us.
'There's a lake just over there, fancy a swim?' The Raja, whose name still eluded me, makes the suggestion.
'Sure. I have an idea,' I reply, feeling my face muscles twitch into my trademark wicked grin, completely of their own accord. 'TIGER!' I fire off a couple of shots. 'I got it! Over there! You two, don't come back without it!' The raja quickly translates for them, those chokingly beautiful eyes flashing me a smile, and yet his mouth remaining serious as he yells at them, gesturing wildly in some far off direction.
We tie the horses to a tree branch and tear our clothes off, before leaping into the water. You can't feel in dreams, but I swear I can feel the gasping cold around my feet, the burning sunshine on the top of my head. And I feel love for this boy, practically a stranger to my mind. He who seems to have me laughing with only words, or equally easily crying, and who could have made me beg with a mere glance, I'm totally under his spell.
He pulls himself up onto a rock that is jutting out, and lies back in the sunshine, clothed in only a pair of clinging linen shorts. I stay where I am, covertly stealing glances of him – the strong, powerful shoulders and chest, the sinewy lower arms that change form as he tensed them, pulling himself over to dangle his fingertips in the water. And those legs, perfectly sculpted in every way, not yet obscured by the dark layer of hair that age threatens to bring.
I swim around to the side of the rock where his arm hangs down; the side he was facing, eyes closed, and flick water at him, catching his face, making the dark skin glisten again. He opened his eyes and made a grab for me. I thought I was safe, but he caught my braid. My braid! Even in this unknown body I had it? Turning, I grasped his wrist, trying to break his grip. With ease, he drew me out of the water to about waist depth, so we were on eye level. 'Hey!' I cried out. Inside my mind I was panicking, screaming in my mind and trying desperately to thrash about; I've always detested being under someone's control; but that was no good when I had no control over my actions.
'What's the matter?' he practically purred, those eyes boring into me, to the point where I was sure he could even see me tucked away inside, a little stowaway. Instead of answering, I put my hands out and ran my fingers through his thick dark hair, gently, feeling myself calm down with the action. He smiled at me, the first actual smile I had seen from him so far, and I put my hands to his face.
Suddenly I felt the self control snap; I held his face in my hands and kissed him. I kissed his cheek, the corner of his mouth, and then on his soft lips. That mouth so set in its expression was so soft and giving now beneath my touch. He pulled me up, out of the water and onto the rock with him, my wet skin sliding over him. The hand holding my braid drew my head back down to his and kissed me, I responded to his tongue and my own went on its journey of discovery through this unknown territory. And then it changed, became more urgent, more passionate, as I was wrapped in his arms, leaning over him. I ran my cold hands down his bare, smooth chest, when suddenly the horses whinnied, and we heard feet through the undergrowth. Practically leaping apart, with guilt scrawled all over my already bruised lips, his perfect face the picture of serenity, we swam back to the water's edge, where we'd left our clothes. The servants looked at us, one said something to the other in Swahili, but we were ok. There was nothing wrong with going for a swim, after all.
--ooOoo--
The dreams had become an obsession for Duo. While the other members of the team did what they were best at…storing things, labelling them, verbally describing them for little Dictaphones, he would normally spend his time visiting the surrounding area with Quatre, seeing what there was to see, tasting local cuisines, learning. It was this that duo loved about his job; travelling to the far corners of the Earth, meeting people, feeling that for a few weeks he could be a part of their lives.
Instead, however, he had spend the last two days sitting in front of the elephant, in a dark, heavy canvas tent, with no ground mats and the strong scent of damp musty fabric, writing the dreams down, scribbling maniacally, writing solidly for hours sometimes, every little detail of the dreams that he remembered, at intervals running his finger along the elephant's back, as if he had come to rely on the hit of emotions to get him through the day.
Quatre looked on sadly. He was used to Duo not talking about his feelings; he would much rather shoulder everyone else's burdens for them, but that didn't stop Quatre wishing he WOULD share sometimes. It pained him to see his normally headstrong friend so dependent on something. The look on his face when they took the elephant away, a look like a lost child who's been torn away from his mother in a crowd, almost brought tears to Quatre's eyes. But until Duo spoke, he would remain in the dark.
Duo himself hadn't even noticed the stir he was causing his friend. He had all but forgotten about the dig, and didn't care that he was keeping that man waiting there; he had promised not to touch anything, so there was no hurry.
And tonight he was ready for the dream. Looking at the way one linked to the next, a series of events, he was pretty sure he was going to enjoy tonight's show.
--ooOoo--
Et voilà… Another one. I don't like how short they are, but it's where it wanted to stop. The finished fic will be the same whether it's broken in two places or two dozen places though, and having the need to update lots means I feel good that I'm paying so much attention to it
Review me and I'll love you forever…
LaVerne x
