I particularly love seeing how other narratives intertwine to make a story speak.
0o0o0o
'God, Emil.' Leon buried his face in the taller boy's shoulder and carefully let go of his hand, which he had been clenching behind their backs as a handhold from the pain. 'It's off, isn't it?' he asked as an afterthought, motioning to the screen.
'Yes.' Emil eased his throbbing hand out from Leon's grip. 'You did very well.'
'I don't care about that, just get me some water,' Leon begged. Tino handed him a glass. Leon set it on the bedside table when he was done. 'That was terrifying. I didn't show anything, did I?'
'No.' Emil cautiously ran a hand over Leon's hair. When Leon didn't stop him, he did it again, settling into a pattern. 'You were very brave.'
'I'm dying, is what I am,' Leon said. His cocky smile wavered and he collapsed, Emil holding him tightly as he cried.
0o0o0o
Ivan carefully closed the letter and placed it back on his desk. Do not tell Yao. Their alliance held nothing in the terms of keeping secrets. Yao would never know.
'Natalya, please put Kiku Honda of the Middle fleet on the lin-'
'We are going to talk about how I found you,' she said calmly. Ivan fell silent. It would be better if she had yelled, if she had spat the words with hate in her voice.
'Agreed. Meet me in my rooms.'
He closed his device with shaking hands, suddenly, irrationally terrified she would threaten Yao. She almost certainly would. She would be delighted. He was invincible, had been invincible, untouchable until Yao arrived and announced his presence with amber eyes and red silks and broke Ivan's heart wide open.
He clutched his scarf to his face, trying helplessly to ground himself in the rising panic. He could hear his machinery whirring faster and faster as he gasped for breath. Yao was in danger. Yao was going to be threatened and hurt and it was all his fault, all his fault.
The knock startled him, and he rearranged himself with careful movements before opening the door.
'Welcome.'
Natalya stood there, not entering. 'You said you'd handle him.'
'Am I not?'
'No, Ivan. You're not.' Natalya smiled coldly. 'You fell in love with him.' Ivan was stunned silent for a single, horrible second, and Natalya's smile widened into a shark's grin. 'I was right.'
'No,' Ivan said weakly. Natalya shook her head with a laugh that tossed her silvery hair back. It swung out from her head in slow motion. Ivan was frozen.
'Give up, Ivan. Your card is drawn.' She turned and walked out, closing the door behind her. In Ivan's hand, his device lit up with Kiku Honda's number. With a bitter laugh, he raised the device to his ear.
Will she tell?
Not if I ask.
0o0o0o
Kiku accepted the call and excused himself from the meal.
'Ah, Mr. Braginsky. I see you have gotten my letter. I apologize for not sending it to your device, but I feared interception.'
'If I save him, he will be a ruin forever. The operation seems to take more than your lungs. It strips you of a bit of your humanity.'
Kiku felt as if his words had abandoned him, struggling for something to say. 'Can you?' Braginsky did not answer for a worryingly long time. Kiku was about to end the call when he spoke again.
'We will see.'
'If there's anything we can try,' Kiku whispered. 'We must.'
'I will try to contact the Baltic fleets. It's an alliance, Honda.'
Kiku barely hesitated. 'Of course.'
The call blinked off, and Kiku returned to his meal with nervous energy sparking through his fingers. They would deal with Yao later. Today, it was one step at a time, and this step, they were saving Leon.
0o0o0o
Yao woke up with his face pressed to paper and groggily focused on the legal jargon before hauling himself up. Asleep again. Ever since he'd heard about Leon, he'd been drained. With a groan-he'd regret this later-he laid his head back onto the desk and was about to close his eyes when the sunflower bud caught his eye.
He was on his feet and across the room before he could think, stroking over the dusty petals in his hands. The yellow was dim and flaked away under his touch. He'd forgotten about this in the chaos. It had never bloomed, ruined before he ever laid a hand on it. With an almost helplessness, Yao replaced it in the cup, but it didn't look right there anymore, and he picked it back up and strode out of his rooms without knowing what he wanted to do.
He ended up in the Russian observatory. How he'd gotten there was a blur, but he didn't bother with it right now.
'Yao.'
For once, Yao wasn't surprised. He just nodded-somehow, it was right for Braginsky to be here right now-and beckoned him to come closer.
'Come help me.'
Ivan knelt by his side and silently helped him slide the airlock door open. When it was, Yao meticulously put on the suit, stepped into the chamber, and waved, the delicate flower cradled in his hands, the most precious treasure. Ivan had the strangest expression on his face when he opened the outer doors and watched Yao float into space. Acceptance, Yao decided to call it, and released the sunflower. It floated. Yao floated with it, watching how it spun away. The whole world spun around them. The stars wheeled above.
When Yao returned to the observatory, Ivan looked almost sad. Yao leaned into him and breathed in the scent of sunflowers and metal, and they watched the ruined flower spin above them.
'Space has a way of preserving those things it takes,' Yao said. Ivan nodded, and they stood together.
And it was then, with the tail of the sunflower's brightness just spinning out of sight, Ivan ran a hand through Yao's ponytail and told him about the morning.
'My sister proved difficult.'
Yao didn't look at him. 'So she might tell?'
'Almost definitely.'
Yao laughed a bit bitterly. 'Sooner or later. Kiku knows,' he added. 'He won't tell. Tell me, Ivan, is your sister using me as collateral against you?'
Ivan tilted his head, impressed and reluctant that it was true. 'Yes. I was invulnerable otherwise.'
'I'm only your weakness if you consider me so, Ivan,' Yao said, eyes still fixed on the glass. 'Do you think I'm your weakness?'
'Yes.'
Yao scoffed, and finally met his eyes. 'Unfortunate.'
'How did you know?' Ivan asked. Yao turned back to the glass.
'You haven't broken our alliance, even though it's done,' he said simply.
0o0o0o
'Ivan Braginsky is what?' her leader purred, eyes gleaming brightly. Natalya inclined her head.
'In love with Yao Wang, leader of the Middle fleet.'
'Mmm.' Her leader nodded, smile widening. 'Natalya, how would you like to be my main commander?'
After Natalya had left, the man picked up a pen and began to compose a letter. Ivan Braginsky, in love with the nobleman. How far would he go for the slight man dressed in red silks?
0o0o0o
The implication of all that Ivan could bring upon both of them hung heavy in the air. Theirs was a world of shifting allies and pacts, and sometimes the only solid things were alliances of need between a nobleman dressed in red silks and an ambassador breathing with machinery.
'I'm sorry, Yao,' Ivan whispered. Yao pressed against him, hands already familiar with where the metal met his skin and his bones turned to plastic and the places where he wasn't quite machine or human.
'If she knows, if we are in danger…' Yao shrugged, a fire alight in his amber eyes. 'I will tell you about myself, Ivan. Come.'
The air was charged with satisfaction, with anticipation, with energy that jumped between them as they collapsed onto Ivan's bed. The sheets smelled like winter, Yao noticed, like snow with a hint of metal. They were close everywhere, tangled together, waiting for the first match to be struck.
'I should have known it would come to this,' Yao whispered breathlessly. 'Ivan, I give myself to you.'
Yao told of his life and his dreams, of how he loved space and he loved stars, of what he wondered. He gave himself up utterly in a hope for release. And in return, Ivan let him know a different sort of peace.
'Did you know, Ivan, back when there were nations instead of fleets, the Middle kingdom of old had a tradition. Leaders in peace, leaders who remembered…' He ran a hand through his now-undone ponytail. 'They left their hair long. And so do I. In order to remember that which I have never really seen.'
'My nation does not forget,' Ivan murmured, pressing a kiss to his throat. 'I will remember every place dragon tails cross your skin in the image of the ravines of Earth. I will be your eyes and your ears and your hands. Live through me, Yao-I give myself to you.'
Yao stared into his violet blue eyes and tipped his head back and laughed and laughed and laughed, and Ivan held him close and gave him that peace.
0o0o0o
Toris messily jammed the letter back into its envelope and threw it across the table. He couldn't breathe, Ivan wanted another one of the machines, the one that he had to be ripped apart for.
He said it was to save a life, and Toris found the irony hysterical.
The door clanged open, and Toris flinched before realizing it was Feliks and not Ivan. The blond's arms closed around him.
'It's okay, it's okay,' he promised, holding Toris tight. 'You don't have to.'
'Who will I let die if I don't?' Toris whispered, the horrible weight of guilt already weighing in his stomach. .
'You don't have to,' Feliks repeated stubbornly. 'After he let you go he said it was forever.'
'I know, Feliks,' Toris soothed. 'I want to.'
Feliks shook his head, eyes bright with tears of frustration. 'I trust you, Toris. Like, I really do. If you want to do this, I will assist you.'
0o0o0o
Kiku read the letter about how Ivan was able to make another machine like his. As soon as he got to the details about the operation, he felt sick. What Ivan had to go through must have been horrific. What Leon would have to go through if he wanted to survive would be horrific.
Kiku buried his head in his hands, suddenly overcome by doubt. What if Leon didn't want the machines? What if he couldn't handle the procedure? What if the procedure killed him?
Before Kiku realized, he was halfway to the medical bay and then the command room, demanding to know about Leon.
0o0o0o
The first thing he realized was how close Leon looked to the verge of collapse after he realized it wasn't Yao on the other end of the line.
'It's just you, Kiku,' he sighed. 'I thought it was Yao. Don't tell him, please. I don't want him to worry.'
Kiku's throat tightened. 'I admit a similar sentiment. He...he is trying to live, I think.'
'Can't live and be a leader,' Leon joked weakly. 'You give up one or the other, and yet Yao wants both.'
'He has always wanted too much,' Kiku admitted softly. Leon blinked too fast and looked away. Yao with copper eyes and too much love for things he could never have.
'If I could help someone save you, would you want to be saved?' Kiku asked. Leon jerks out of his daze.
'What? How?'
'An alliance,' Kiku said carefully. Leon studied him for a second more before closing his eyes and exhaling in defeat.
'Braginsky.'
Kiku released a long breath silently, neither accepting nor denying it. 'Perhaps.'
'I know it is, Kiku,' Leon said, sounding tired. 'And I don't know if I want it.'
0o0o0o
It tells so much about how the world is built.
:: A specific song at nearly midnight when it is all quiet and you remember the lyrics
