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XiaolinFireGirl – You are freaking fantastic. That is…wow. I love it.
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Chapter 6 - The Meaning of Flowers
They touched down and Kimiko, Omi, and Raimundo ran out to see Elijah. "Elijah, I thought they fixed your face?" asked Kimiko, referring to his swollen features.
"They did," said Elijah. "To normal people, it would be swollen like this for about a month. But to a Xiaolin dragon, it should be gone in about two seconds, should Master Fung let me try it." He looked at Master Fung and the master nodded. Elijah pulled something gold and glowing out of the air and touched the swollen parts of his face lightly, letting the magic dissipate. Sure enough, when the glowing stopped, the swelling was gone and Elijah was grinning at them, his face completely fixed. "Woot."
"How did you do that?" asked Rai, astonished.
"No one's asked my element yet," said Elijah with a grin. "My element is aether, or life energy, essentially. Akasha, void, space, quintessence, chi, whatever you want to call it. I can control life." He stumbled back a bit and Clay caught him. "Takes a lot out of you, though."
"That. Is. So. COOL!" said Kimiko, jumping on Elijah and hugging him. "So, what, you just used your own energy?"
"Oof!" said Elijah, as Kimiko knocked the wind out of him. She released him and he said, "If I used my own energy, I'd probably be dead right now. What happens when you extract life from your body? You die. I used all that quintessence that was floating around out there. It's everywhere! You just can't see it."
"Far in," agreed Omi.
"Far out," corrected Raimundo. "The term is far out."
"Correct," said Elijah; straightening himself and the clothes Dojo had come over with. "Now, if you don't mind, I'd like to go have a nap."
"I'm gonna go change," said Clay. He was still wearing the bloodstained clothes he'd carried Elijah in. He and Elijah walked inside, side by side, not talking. There would be time for talking later, and now was not it.
"What did Clay want to talk to you about?" asked Raimundo abruptly.
"Mm? Nothing," said Kimiko nonchalantly. She strode inside to wait for Clay.
Raimundo stared after her for a moment, scratching his chin. "Something's up with them," he murmured.
"With Clay and Kimiko?" asked Omi. "What?"
"I have no idea, but I'm gonna find out," he muttered, walking after her.
"Wait for me!" said Omi, running after him.
"Shush!" said Raimundo in the kitchen. They silently walked over to Clay's cubical, where they heard Kimiko's soft voice.
"I love you," said Kimiko softly. "Easy as that. Just say it! I love you."
"Fine," murmured Clay. Raimundo heard something rustle. "I love you. How does that sound?"
"Perfect," whispered Kimiko with a giggle. "You're going to be so happy, you'll see."
Raimundo was enraged. Clay, his best friend, was stealing the girl he knew Raimundo liked?! This was going too far. "What are you doing?!" he cried, pulling the curtain open.
Unexpectedly, they were not locked in a passionate embrace. They were facing each other, a vase in front of them, each holding a flower that they were plucking the leaves off. "Arranging flowers," said Clay confusedly. "Why?"
"Oh," said Raimundo rather stupidly. "Right."
"What did you think we were doing, making out?" asked Kimiko.
"Actually, eheheh, funny story about that," said Raimundo. "Actually, yes."
Kimiko sighed. "Raimundo, you would have to be an idiot to think that I liked Clay like that. I'm helping Clay arrange flowers for Elijah," she said as she stuck a red tulip in place. The bouquet was halfway done, and Raimundo smiled at it.
"Can we help?" he asked.
"Sure!" said Clay, grinning back at his friend. "The more the merrier."
They got the bouquet finished relatively quickly and Clay picked it up, grinning at it. He thanked his friends, then quickly and deftly snuck into Elijah's room and placed it by his bed. He smiled at Elijah's sleeping face. He looked younger, more innocent and carefree when he slept. He placed a little note next to the vase and the single, extremely important yellow rose atop it. He gently pushed Elijah's hair from his eyes and quickly left, afraid he'd woken him.
"Ow!" said Clay in the kitchen the next morning, sticking his cut finger in his mouth and sucking it. The finger he'd cut this time was the left index finger, and Clay reached for the tape once again. His middle and ring finger on his left hand were already taped and all the fingers but the thumb on his right hand were taped. He'd just finished taping his finger when he smelled something burning. "Hot damn, the tea!" he exclaimed. He ran over to the teapot and grabbed the handle, yowling like a dog when he realized if the tea were burning then the metal handle would be hot. He dropped the burning hot teapot on the ground, starting a small fire. He yelped and began stomping it out when he smelled another burning scent from the stove, this one the smell of bread burning. "And the banana bread," Clay moaned, turning off the oven. He grabbed the pan of bread, again forgetting that hot things are hot, and he quickly extracted his hands from the oven, howling with pain. He turned on the sink and ran his taped, burned fingers under the cold water. When they felt okay, he grabbed a pair of oven mitts and took the burnt bread out of the oven, scraping it into the bin. At that moment Elijah walked in.
"Did something burn?" he asked perplexedly. He looked at the ground and the singed circle. "Did you start a fire?" he said to Clay. He caught sight of Clay's fingers and gasped. "What did you do to your fingers?"
"Long story short, I was tryin' to make breakfast and miserably failed," said Clay, giving Elijah a sad little smile. "I saved the bacon, though!"
"Ooh," said Elijah, scratching the back of his head awkwardly.
"What's 'ooh' mean?" asked Clay. Had he screwed up?
"It means I'm a vegetarian," said Elijah awkwardly. "Sorry."
Clay sighed sadly. "Somehow, I thought somethin' like that would come up." He sat down in a chair and rested his elbows on the table, grabbing his hair under his hat. "I just can't catch a break, can I?"
Elijah chuckled a bit and walked over to the stove, donning his apron in the process. "How about I cook breakfast?" he asked, turning on the stove and melting a bit of butter in the pan.
"Thanks," said Clay gratefully.
"Come to think of it," said Elijah, looking at the door, "the fire smell only woke up me, while Omi and Master Fung should be running in here about now. Where is everyone?"
"Master Fung has a conference to go to," said Clay. "He figured we could handle ourselves for a week. He says he's sorry you couldn't say goodbye, but you were tired. The others are in town for the day. I said I'd hang out with you, as you were still asleep when they were ready to go." Clay grinned at Elijah. "So, just cookin' for two, if you don't mind."
Elijah chuckled. "You tried, and I'm impressed you even did that. My turn." He cracked a couple of eggs into the pan and they began sizzling as they fried. He took four pieces of bread and two slices of cheese and removed the fried eggs from the pan, placing them on the bread. He arranged the sandwiches on two plates and took them to the table.
"Mm…" said Clay, taking a big bite of his sandwich. Elijah giggled and Clay smiled at him. "What?" he asked.
"You!" said Elijah. "The way you do stuff. I like it."
"Well, thanks," said Clay, turning beet red and pulling his hat over his eyes.
"By the way, I liked your poem," said Elijah.
Clay started, demanding, "How did you know it was me?"
Elijah laughed, then. "Like that, first of all," he said. He smiled and added, "Besides, the poem kind of made it obvious." Elijah pulled a piece of paper out of his pocket and unfolded it. He cleared his throat and read,
"You've been admired from afar"And you are my first love
"I've only loving thoughts of you
"My darling turtledove
"The bright red tulip speaks my love
"As I always knew it would
"And the single yellow rose
"Says what I never could."
Elijah placed the paper on the table between them. "I'm smarter than you give me credit for. When you were talking about flowers, I retained some stuff. Yellow chrysanthemums mean a secret admirer, lilacs mean first love, pansies mean loving thoughts, red tulips are a declaration of love, and hyacinths mean sincerity, so you meant it. And one yellow rose," he paused here to take the rose out of his apron pocket and lay it on the table in between them, next to the poem, "in Texas, it's a sign of love." He looked up at Clay. "That's the meaning of flowers. They speak their own language, and I'm happy you'd use it for me. It makes me feel special."
Clay looked at Elijah with his impossibly blue eyes. "I just was a bit shocked when you'd first kissed me," said Clay. "I just didn't know what to do."
"Do you know now?" asked Elijah slowly. He looked at Clay and matched his gaze. They looked at each other for a long moment before Clay broke the silence.
"I think I do," he murmured. He and Elijah stood up and Clay took his hand, leading him outside, past their flowers, and into the gazebo. He turned then, and took Elijah's other hand. He looked into Elijah's gray eyes and asked him, "Can I kiss you again?"
Elijah looked back at Clay and nodded. Clay dropped one of Elijah's hands and touched Elijah's face lightly before leaning in slightly. They waited what seemed like an age to both of them before Elijah closed the gap hungrily. They kissed like that, Elijah nearly on his tiptoes, Clay leaning down slightly, for a few minutes before Clay broke it. He still held his hand lovingly on Elijah's cheek. "Elijah Clark, I think I'm in love with you," he said softly.
"Clay Bailey, I think I'm in love with you, too," said Elijah happily. "I'm so glad that the feeling is mutual."
Clay sat down on the bench and Elijah sat next to him, laying his head into the crook of Clay's elbow. Clay began tracing patterns on Elijah's tie-dye pajama shirt, as, while Clay had changed into his normal outfit before attempting to cook, Elijah had smelled fire and came out of his room still in a loose tie-dye shirt and a pair of sweatpants. It was mid December, and Clay for the first time looked at Elijah's bare feet. "Aren't your feet cold?" he asked.
"A little bit," Elijah shrugged. He grinned up at Clay. "So what now?"
"A very good question," said Clay. "Kimiko already knows I like you, and she probably knew you like me, so she's not an issue. Raimundo will probably wig out, but then he'll calm down and probably won't care. Expect a lot of 'bigger in Texas' jokes, though," Clay said the last part almost imperceptibly. Elijah giggled. "Omi won't care. He'll be happy two people found love. That's just his way. It's Master Fung's way, too. I'm pretty sure we won't have to worry about anyone at the temple." He looked at Elijah with a worried look on his face. "It's my folks I'm worried about. They'll wanna meet you."
"That's what Christmas is for!" said Elijah. "We can go to both of our folks' house on the 25th. My mum and siblings will want to meet you, too."
"But, you don't get that my family is a proper Texan family. My dad might disown me if he finds out I'm bisexual!"
"Oh, tsk," said Elijah, sitting up. "Please. He won't disown you, and I'm sure your sister will find it sweet. I don't know anything about your mum, but I think she'll be okay, too. Your dad…well, he won't disown you." He grinned and kissed Clay again. "As long as I'm beside you, you can get through it, right?"
"Yeah," said Clay. "You're right." He smiled as Elijah lied back down. "What about your folks?"
"My mum and brothers and sister?" asked Elijah. "We grew up in the theatre. When I told my mum I was gay, she said, 'Great, what do you want for dinner?'"
Clay chuckled at this. "So, it's settled. We'll stay at my place for Christmas Eve, and go to yours on Christmas Day. Okay?"
"Sounds great," Elijah replied.
They sat in silence for a moment before Clay said, "I wanna give you somethin'."
Elijah looked at him questioningly.
"What?" he asked quietly.
Clay took out a pocketknife and cut a silver button off his shirt. "I know it ain't much," he said, "but the buttons have my initials on them." Elijah turned it over and, sure enough, a little C.B. was inlaid on the inside. Clay tenderly stroked Elijah's fingers. "So, in some small way, I'll always be with you, even when I ain't."
Elijah looked up at Clay and smiled gently. "Thank you," he said.
"You're welcome, darlin'," said Clay, smiling back softly.
Elijah pecked Clay on the cheek, pocketed the button, then stood up and said, "If you don't mind, my feet are turning blue, and I want the rest of my sandwich!" He bounded off to the temple, Clay crying, "Hold up, darlin'!" and catching up with him. Clay caught him around the waist and kissed him, and Elijah took his hand and they went back to the temple together.