Alright guys. It's the grand finale at last. This is where everything culminates and the story concludes (but due to popular demand, there will be an epilogue chapter afterwards). I want to thankyou profusely for being such greater readers. Your encouragement in the form of reviews, PMs, fanart and diligent following of the story really kept me motivated. I'm proud to say that the Ache & Plants series, although taking over a year to complete, have become the size of a short novel (approximately 60,000 words). You guys are amazing, and you totally deserve getting to find out the ending. I quite honestly say that I love you and there are many times that hearing from you has made my life not only brighter, but at times, more worth living for than it had been prior. So, this is it: the ending. Without further ado...

Rating: Pg-13. Slash - sensuality - violence - light incest.
Category: Angst/Romance
Pairing: Kyou/Yuki
Length: 18-B/18

Ache
by Lanie Kay-Aleese

Chapter Eighteen (Second Part): Grey lips, Pink lips

- - - -

Warmth, in the tips of his toes, and a cool breeze sweeping his hair against the base of his neck. A hazy fog was lifting slowly from his mind, and all that Kyou could bring himself to care about was the feeling of unearthly satisfaction that he had just achieved. He squinted his eyes, the edges still crusted with sleep. Curling into himself, slightly, he would've been perfectly content to remain in that semi-consciousnes, except for that prickling sensation of being watched.

Kyou's eyes opened to a world of mid-twilight.

Then he remembered where he was and why he felt as though he'd slept without his covers on. He had slept without covers, he'd slept on the ground and he'd done it because of him - and he wasn't even sure if Yuki was still alive. After all that embarassment - Kyou's heart was beating quickly again - he couldn't help thinking that he could've still failed - and he had to know. Had to know if it had been worth it to debase himself. He forced himself to sit up, woozily, with the nagging impression that the catnip haze still lingered in his mind.

He found his voice before the world had finished swirling around him, though it still came out as a raspy croak. "Yuki!"

"Yes?"

Kyou swung around.

There he was, the Prince, sitting perfectly calm and centered only half a meter away. His face was still pale but it didn't have the grey around the lips anymore; his breathing seemed to be far more controlled. His bangs fanned about his large eyes in such a beautiful way that Kyou wanted to cry. He was beautiful but even more importantly he was alive.

So Yuki was alive. And safe. And after what he'd done to save Yuki - where did that leave him? And how he'd taken advantage of Yuki - again, except this time, he was practically dying - What did that make him?

Miserable and alone, just like always, Kyou thought sourly, though his eyes had been entirely captured by the wispy bangs that seemed to be the very tendrils of the sky, as if the fading light of the day had been enchanted into the color of Yuki's hair.

He felt that distinct pang again, and he hurriedly masked it with that other feeling he was so desperate to escape.

"I hate it," Kyou snarled, "It's like - it's like when I turn into that other form. I can't control myself. I'm not even human. I'm less than that, even - I can't even hear my own voice - "

"Thank you."

Yuki's head was slightly tilted as he smiled. A wave of terror rippled through Kyou's heart at the simple expression that lit up his cousin's face. He appeared so relaxed - so tranquil - but for Kyou to see that smile, directed at him? To see such soft eyes? How could he keep himself calm when Yuki was treating him like he really gave a damn? And how, how could he make an expression like that when he always hated him so hard?

"No, don't thank me! You don't get it!" Kyou slid his tongue across his bottom lip, and he felt himself growing frustrated with his inability to articulate his feelings. "I'm - I'm a freak!"

"I don't blame you for it," said the rat, still unruffled. Yuki stared directly at him with an unreadable expression, and somehow this made Kyou feel worse.

"Why? Why don't you? Everyone else does! It's obviously my fault that I'm like this, I must have done something terrible to deserve being born into this... this body."

"I was born into this body, too."

"But it's different!" Kyou insisted.

"No, it's not!" Yuki testily returned, "I have things expected of me, too! I have so much that this family expects of me - and I know what it is to be imprisoned - you got to be free to do whatever you pleased! I may not have a visible form of my sickness, my evil spirit, but I know it's there. You, and me... We're the same, really."

Kyou averted his eyes as petal-shades of blush bloomed across his cheeks. He couldn't believe that he was hearing this and that it could make him feel so... so warm; in his cheeks, in his heart.

He refolded his arms, desperate to keep them from uncontrollably reaching out to Yuki. He couldn't even explain it, but he could sense the pain and he was still somehow shocked by the sudden change of everything around him. And that smile had been something to cling to. Now, without hate, without love...

"You're okay, now, though," Kyou half-stated. He bent his neck in a clumsy attempt to hide the heat on his cheeks from Yuki. It was only with great effort that he could keep from shaking with his mortification.

Did I really kiss him?

Or was that part of the dream?

"You helped," Yuki replied, quietly. "The catnip helped me get composed... and back in control."

Kyou took in an unsteady breath. He could still feel it on his lips and he was anything but in control. His protective layers were unraveling from him with every breath, every second. Why? Why did these interviews always take so much energy out of him? Why couldn't he just let go of the stupid notion that there had ever been something meaningful between them, and that he had wanted it - and still wanted it - more than anything in the world? Why did he have to feel this way?

A warm, gentle touch on his cheek sharply drew him back to reality. Kyou's eyes dilated as he struggled to focus in front of him.

Yuki's hand drew back after only a moment. He looked down at his splayed fingers and frowned at them, then at Kyou.

"You're crying."

"No - No, I'm not!" Kyou threw his hands to his surprisingly wet eyes. He could scarcely believe that he hadn't felt his eyes leaking, too lost on his own thoughts of being humiliated, and now doubly so. The loss of even this last dignity was too much to bear - and Kyou mumbled an excuse so intelligible that there was no way for Yuki to refute it. He heard the linen of Yuki's shirt rumple and it reminded Kyou of how close they were to each other. He willed his face to look as natural as possible, even though a voice in the back of his head reminded him of how he'd failed to keep any self-control at all.

Yuki's voice cut through the fog of his senses, like a clear glass bell. "You are... Crying. Is this because... of...?"

"That's stupid," Kyou interjected, summoning his last reserve of pride. He tried to return the appearance of strength to his shoulders with an utter lie: "I wasn't worried about you! If that's what you think--"

"Actually, it's not. I was asking if the catnip made you cry," Yuki replied, his eyes filled with a deceptively innocent sincerity. Kyou realized he'd been tricked and his cheeks reddened.

"It's none of your business," he growled.

"But... I want it to be."

Kyou felt taken aback.

"What are you tryin' to say?" he asked deliberately.

The rat turned his head away and stared off into some undeterminable distance. Kyou followed the path of his gaze but all he could see were the looming shadows of trees and forest and the last of the purple in the sky before it became utterly dark with night. When he returned to look at Yuki, he was surprised to find that the boy was gazing at him intently.

"Kyou, I think... Would you...?" The boy's mouth parted for a slight intake of breath. He was moving forward and Kyou's heart began to race dangerously inside of his chest. As the space closed between them, all the air seemed to be pressured into that meager distance between them. The inexplicable tension hung in the air for the longest moment, and then suddenly,Yuki's delicate hand came to rest on his shoulder. The feeling shot through his nerves with such force that Kyou forgot how to breath. Looking down, Kyou searched Yuki's own penetrating eyes. Then, Yuki placed his other hand on the ground by Kyou's hip, and pulled himself forward, directly into Kyou's lap. His arms snaked around Kyou's waist, and he lowered his head against Kyou's shoulder. His lips were right against the fabric of Kyou's shirt, and as he exhaled, his warm and moist breath seeped through the cloth.

"...I'm just... please," Yuki drowsily finished, his fingers clutching into the cotton of the cat's shirt.

It wasn't a complete thought, even, but Kyou understood all too well. He gently placed his arms around Yuki's thin shoulders, and pulled the boy deeper into his lap. His hands encircled Yuki easily, naturally, his entire being fluttering around him like a moth to a flame. Kyou's heart was pounding and the only thing that kept him from dying of that embarassment was the knowledge that Yuki's heart was going just as fast - perhaps it was beating even faster.

Why?

Kyou turned his cheek into the rat's lush grey hair. His lips passed lightly over the top of Yuki's ear.

"What's this about, Yuki...?"

For a moment, Yuki paused in his breathing. Then he replied in a quiet mumble, "Stop asking questions," and looked away. Kyou scowled and pushed Yuki backwards enough to peer into his eyes.

"C'mon, you damn rat, why the hell are you acting like this? You - you hate me. You have damn good reason to hate me even if I just - you know - helped you with your asthma or whatever, it doesn't change anything!"

Yuki's heavy eyes lifted towards Kyou, and a false smile played at the corner of his lips.

"You know, right now, your skin is glowing with the light of the sunset." Yuki's delicate hand traced Kyou's forearm with an exploring touch, the pads of his fingertips sliding gently across the tan and golden skin. Kyou shivered at it, finding himself struck by the action in an unreasonable way that wouldn't let him look away. "Kyou, you look so warm... There's something about you that's always so filled with... heat. With feeling. And when I'm close enough to you, I feel like... it makes me warm, too... when you kiss me."

Kyou's breathing hitched and Yuki's fingers crept beneath his shirt sleeve.

"Yu... Yuki!" he gasped.

Yuki brought his other hand up to rest on Kyou's cheek. Kyou felt his eyes widen and his vision darted rapidly in and out of focus as the shock hit him, that somehow the status quo had shifted again, and suddenly his cousin was very much in control of the situation and Kyou couldn't say a single word.

"It was the catnip. It had to be the catnip, I think. You knew what the catnip would do to you and you still tried to help me. I didn't understand my own thoughts at all - I didn't understand why I wanted you so badly to be there with me - I thought it was just that I was dying - and then I remembered I had been dying before - And the taste of catnip - I remembered that, and the thought of dying, and -"

"Akito," Kyou cut him off, and swallowed, his mouth strangely dry, "I don't know what Akito told you, but I didn't do anything. Shigure - Shigure's the one who told her about us - but only because she made him. Because we can't disobey Akito. But - But this - this was different, I think-"

Kyou couldn't understand how he was still coherent. He was exhausted, and he felt like all of his emotions had been screwed in every direction; and yet, the words which had clung to the back of his throat were now some sort of eager honey on his tongue.

"You know, Akito told me not to love you- But I couldn't, I just couldn't - And then she showed you to me, and, she was going to let you die if I didn't agree to letting our memories be erased - She made me watch it, that sick bitch made me watch you coughing - coughing up blood," Kyou closed his eyes, the images flooding through his head too quickly for him to make sense of. "And Hatori... Just standing there. Not doing anything while she laughed. Yuki, it wasn't worth it, I just couldn't let you die, even though I knew I swore I wouldn't do anything stupid again, I just, I just..."

Oh, god, he was crying. He couldn't even stop it, but it was okay now, because Yuki remembered and he was here. And he was alive. And he was holding him. And he was alive. And Kyou loved him, Kyou loved him so much, that it hurt to exist.

Yuki's voice was nearly too quiet for Kyou to hear over the sound of the breeze winding through the tops of the pine tree forest.

"Go on."

"I had to agree. You had to live. But I loved you," Kyou gasped, "I just... I still do. Even after everything that happened, I still really do."

He cracked his eyes open just in time to see Yuki with the most beautiful smile he'd ever worn in his life.

"And you think that I don't?" asked the Prince, with a ghost of a smirk on the edges of his lips.

Kyou stopped breathing.

Yuki moved forward and tilted his forehead together with Kyou's. A tremor went down his spine as he felt the warm breath of the smaller boy against him, and at that moment all of those deeply contained feelings and aches came to a head: he loosened his hold on Yuki's shirt and refound their place against Yuki's cheeks. With a great effort he took in a great breath, and pulled Yuki into his lap completely and captured his lips, consciously this time; and it was too fierce to be loving, it was too wet to be lovely, it was everything that Kyou couldn't put into words, and somehow, in that amazing way that Yuki had, Kyou felt his lover respond with the same intensity and perfect understanding- agreeing, soothing, complementing, and fiercely devouring him in turn.

Sunlight rippled behind them as the moment passed into minutes, and the minutes passed into the twilight, and the stars emerged in the bright, infinite future that danced in the galaxies above their heads.

- - - -

For the low cost of your review, you can gain access to an epilogue that includes special features such as... the musical track for Plants and Ache, the long-awaited Kinky-Kyou & Yuki clothes (Version 2.0), a party, and enough fluff to give you a toothache (There will be toothpaste and toothbrushes available just in case). Make sure to tell the authoress what you think of the story, too!