What is it about space that makes us philosophical?

0o0o0o

Kiku worried at the hem of his shirt, nearly unraveling a loose thread.

'What do you mean you might not want to be healed?'

'Would you?' Leon challenged. Kiku didn't answer, and Leon slumped against the headboard, wheezing slightly. 'Tell me what the procedure is.'

'I'm not sure on everything,' the black-haired man said, trying to recall everything from Yao's rush of words when he'd spoken about Ivan's Earth. 'Your throat and most of your chest are replaced with metal and plastic. The machinery is obvious and whirs when you breathe.'

'And they tear you open to save you?' Leon said with a ghost of his former smile. Kiku looked away.

'I think so.'

Their silence was broken by Leon's coughing.

'Would you want to be ripped to shreds and replaced if it meant you could be saved, Kiku?' he asked tiredly. Kiku felt a lump rise in his throat.

'I…' He shook his head in frustration, vision blurred. 'Do you want to be saved or not?' he demanded.

Leon sounded lost when he answered, Kiku thought, lost and small and lonely.

'I'm not sure.' He made a hollow, tiny noise, a sob. 'I don't want to die, Kiku. But I don't want to live like that.'

0o0o0o

Yao was not alone in his room when he woke up. He came to curled tight against Ivan's chest, too tired to wonder why he hadn't kicked him out after they'd exhausted their stories. Maybe he had just been lonely enough to let him stay.

'You're awake,' Ivan said gently, brushing the hair away from his face.

'Yes.' Yao couldn't find it in him to move away. 'How long have you been up?'

'Not long, don't worry.' Ivan tipped Yao's head up to meet his, surveying his face, and drew lines down across his cheekbones. 'Your crying woke me up.'

'Crying?'

'In your sleep. About Leon and Kiku.'

Yao feebly grasped for the ragged edges of his dream and could only recall a dim sense of loss. 'Sorry.'

'It's okay to cry around me, Yao.' Ivan kissed his forehead with the softest of touches. 'I will never hurt you.'

Yao buried his fingers in the folds of Ivan's scarf and found he was starting to believe that.

'We have a meeting today,' Ivan reminded him, just as Yao had almost drifted off again. 'You should get ready.'

It was hard to untangle himself from Ivan's strange warmth. He felt drained, and couldn't find the words to ask the man to leave. He didn't need to. When he looked back at the bed from securing his robe, Ivan was gone.

Yao got ready alone.

0o0o0o

The meeting was mindless chatter reviewing the scientist's discoveries-not much-and as always, asking for better funds, better space, better rooms for the sick and better lies to tell them. Yao couldn't look them in the eyes when they asked for that. Beside him, Ivan took the stares instead, and eventually they looked away.

Yao wanted to apologize, not to the politicians, but to the people lying in the hospital beds knowing there was no cure coming, to the young boy he could not save except through-

No. He wouldn't give Leon the machinery. Would he?

The nobleman was immensely grateful when the meeting was over, and followed Ivan out of the room. He was thinking of trying to do paperwork until he decided he couldn't and slept instead, or just go back to the observatory like he always seemed to do. As he was thinking, Ivan stopped abruptly and Yao nearly crashed into his back.

'Ivan!'

'Hello, sister,' he said, ignoring him. Yao wondered if he was the only one who could hear the hollow threat in his voice.

'Hello, brother. Nobleman Yao, I have a letter for you. The instructions are that you open it alone.' Natalya extended a simple, blank white envelope, which Yao reached for. She did not release her end. Instead, she smiled and whispered, 'Please consider your decisions wisely after reading it.' Then she let go, and Yao held the letter with hands he hoped weren't visibly shaking.

As soon as she was out of sight, Ivan turned to Yao and took the letter from his hands. Yao opened his mouth to protest, but Ivan held up a hand to silence him, examining the letter closely, even the folds and creases. Eventually, he picked off a minuscule patch of what looked like putty holding the corner together, stuck it on the wall, and motioned for Yao to follow him, pushing the letter deep inside his coat. After they were around a corner, he spoke.

'That was a listening device.'

'Oh.' Yao felt foolish and immensely grateful Ivan had thought of such a thing, as well as knew what it looked like. 'Thank you.'

'I will have to put it back on. You cannot destroy it. My leader will become suspicious if he doesn't receive information from it, so talk normally around it, but do not reveal anything personal.'

Yao nodded. 'Will there be a device inside the letter?'

'Assume there is,' Ivan said. He looked tired, Yao realized. He didn't know how to say so, and Ivan turned around before he could think of the right words.

They returned to where Natalya had given them the letter, and Ivan replaced the device.

'Ivan,' Yao began. The Russian gave him a warning glance. 'Goodbye.'

'Goodbye, Yao,' Ivan said.

0o0o0o

Yao opened the letter carefully, always eyeing the listening device, wondering if it would be suspicious if he stuck the letter underneath a pan, or all of his paperwork, and deciding it was. He pried the simple, pure white sheet of paper out and unfolded it. It was only a few lines of text.

Dear Nobleman Yao Wang,

Ivan seems to have healed from his injuries well. We thank you for your help. It would be unfortunate indeed if he could not reach such help in time again. Do not worry, we would find you another ambassador if such a thing happens.

Natalya will talk to you about how the alliance can proceed in the boardroom at six. Do not be late. We can reach a compromise.

Showing or mentioning the contents of this letter to anyone would result in the prompt replacement of your ambassador.

The letter was unsigned. Yao dropped the paper on his desk. White, white, nearly blank again against the dark wood and legal forms filled to the brink with clauses and safeguards. This letter did not need safeguards. It held enough threats that Yao would not dare step out of line.

He reread the words before slipping the letter back into the envelope and placing it securely in his pocket. So few of them. So simple a page. He did not dare release the laugh bubbling in his throat. Six was almost upon him.

0o0o0o

Natalya watched the hands of the clock tick towards six. Five minutes before, Yao knocked at the door.

'Welcome.'

Yao inclined his head, settling down across from her. She watched, almost impressed at his poise. She could almost see why Ivan loved him. Long, dark hair, red silks, copper eyes. Sharp and wiry and bright.

'The alliance is on your shoulders, Yao.' She rose to offer drinks, which Yao accepted. 'You have the power to change the winds between our fleets.' Yao politely nodded. 'I hope you have heard that my fleet is in need of your technology.'

'And we need your people, yes.' Natalya smiled. 'And you need Ivan.'

That almost broke his image, she thought at the way his fingers curled a little more on his untouched glass. Ivan was his breaking point, and he was Ivan's. Her brother was so foolish sometimes.

'As much time as he spends around you, he still belongs to us. To my fleet. You cannot guard him from danger every second of the day, Yao.' She swirled the drink in her glass and sipped, enjoying the taste. 'We can take everything from you, nobleman Yao.' She emphasized the word. 'And yet threatening Ivan does nothing to us, for what do we care the fate of a lowly ambassador? Would your fleet give up it's leader?'

'Why?' Yao breathed. He was coming undone, and Natalya reveled in it. She leaned closer and crooned the last words.

'This is not because of you or him. It is for us, and you are our simple pawns.'

Yao stared back, utter terror alight in his eyes. His voice shook.

'Please.'

'Goodbye, Yao,' she whispered, and he left.

0o0o0o

Yao was almost on the line with Kiku before he remembered the threat of the letter in his pocket and slammed the cancel button. He couldn't tell anyone, or Ivan was dead.

They had him, Yao thought. They could prompt him to him do anything they wanted, and even though he knew he was playing into their hands, he would still do so.

He called Ivan instead.

'Yao, what is-'

'Come to me,' Yao demanded. Ivan did not object.

'I will be there soon.'

Yao waited, jumpy and on edge until Ivan arrived. The first thing the larger man did was motion to his front. Yao impatiently threw the letter onto the table, crushed it beneath a heavy book, and turned around.

'I brought it to a meeting with Natalya,' he explained quietly, expecting some sort of plan on how they could use it. Instead, Ivan shook his head.

'It will be useless.'

Yao frowned for a second before Ivan stepped closer and kissed him.

'Hey-'

'What did she say? What did the letter say?' Ivan whispered against him. Yao sucked in a breath.

'Ivan, you genius.' His only response was a smile.

'It threatened you. Natalya said your leader would use us to twist the alliance. That you were especially in danger.'

'How?'

'If I step out of line, they'll break you.'

'They could not break me,' Ivan assured.

'Your machinery.'

Ivan paused, hands gripping Yao's sides. He looked vulnerable for a split second before it turned into hunger.

'So I am the collateral.'

'Yes,' Yao admitted. Ivan gently kissed him before looking him in the eyes.

'May I, Yao?'

Violet eyes. Yao felt like they were their own nebulae, ready to fuse into stars at the slightest touch. He pulled Ivan onto the bed, the air of if we are caught above them, driving them to madness. Closer. Closer, until he could smell the sunflowers and metal and Ivan's eyes were blue.

'I give myself to you, Ivan.'

His eyes were beautiful, Ivan thought, and he was bright and fiery and was even now fighting to win against a world against him.

'Somehow, I will save you,' he promised. Below him, Yao shook his head and kissed him again.

'Tomorrow.'

Ivan agreed.

The world was swept away. The fleets, the politics, the danger, the alliance, their alliance. It was all gone underneath his eyes, underneath the stars. Heat and the pressure of his gaze and the endless space around them as Ivan pressed him deeper into the bed with gentle touches and oh, the heat, Ivan's eyes fused into the hottest types of stars and they burned Yao's soul to ashes.

'Ivan,' he gasped, hair spilling onto the pillow, hands in his hair and tugging at his scarf. 'Take off the scarf.'

He did. Yao ran his hands over the metal and whispered beautiful. Hearing the word was new to Ivan, and it sent shivers down his spine.

The night was the rest before the storm. The night was their respite. The day would come tomorrow, and they would fight again, but for now Yao was his and Ivan was wondering about fate, about what brought him to a fleet leader and made him fall in love, and as they finished in a scream he thought let them hear us and may the stars come together for us.

0o0o0o

I think it's the possibilities.

:: Lightning and the expectant silence afterwards