Hi y'all! Ugh it took me a while to get this one out, I know. Jeez, life gets tiring sometimes! I can't promise the next update will be anytime soon, but just know that this story has already been mapped out and I will write it until its end!
Thank you for the bribes, dear, dear bribers!
Tarot Card Meaning: The Star is a card that looks to the future. It does not predict any immediate or powerful change, but it does predict hope and healing. This card suggests clarity of vision, spiritual insight. And, most importantly, that unexpected help will be coming, with water to quench the Querent's thirst, with a guiding light to the future.
2. The Star
Lenalee was looking at him reprimandingly.
"Well, what did you expect?" she whispered, pouring him a glass of water before picking up the infant from the crib next to her. She then reached for the waiting baby bottle from the low table once she sat back down in the cane chair and fed the little baby in her arms.
Tyki watched her feed Charlie for a moment before sitting back in his chair. "You know him best, what do you suppose I should do?"
Lenalee smiled at Miranda's little girl in her arms and looked up at him. "It's not what you should do; it's what the both of you have to do: Make time for each other. Don't wait for time to fall into your laps."
"I asked him that—"
"And he shot you down?" Lenalee smirked knowingly, glancing at him as she looked back down at the baby.
"Yeah," he whispered and then sighed. "But that's probably because I didn't make time for us back then either."
"Let him be stubborn," she said softly, holding the baby closer. "He has every right to right now. Take him out to dinner, surprise him. Make time for him and he'll be more willing to make time for you as well."
Tyki reached for a paper tissue from the box on the table and gave it to her so she could wipe off Charlie's chin clean. "That might work."
"It will, trust me," Lenalee replied, resuming her feeding of Charlie. "Allen feels like he has a lot to prove right now. If he feels like you're not fully behind him, he will retreat back into his shell and put up his defenses until he feels like he's proven himself to you."
He huffed and nodded in agreement. "Yeah…"
"This time it's no different. He's trying to make it on his own for the very first time, Tyki," she whispered, smiling as she realized that the baby had fallen asleep while drinking. She removed the teat from the mouth gently and placed the bottle back on the table. "He needs your complete support in this."
"And he has it," Tyki said determinately. "I just feel—" he fell silent and shook his head, sitting back with pensive look on his face.
Lenalee stood again with a knowing smile and placed the infant back in her crib. "You get it now, don't you? This thing works in a circle, someone has to start, right?"
"God, it sounds so obvious now, doesn't it?" Tyki said, standing up in turn to look at the sleeping baby for a moment.
"No relationship is easy, but most problems are uncomplicated at their base," Lenalee whispered gently, pulling the small duvet over the baby. "And there's nothing complicated about Allen, that I can assure you."
Tyki smiled at her thankfully. She placed a friendly hand against his arm before walking out of the sunroom to go check on Kanda's dinner in the kitchen.
He walked over to the large buffet standing against the wall that relayed the sunroom to the living room and looked at the different shelves with pictures. He'd always liked this small nook of memories. Some pictures dated from when Allen and his friends were still in high school, others were more recent. You could look at these pictures and read the history behind the smiles and the silly poses, the people who kept appearing in them and the ones who disappeared. It told the story of the inhabitants of this house, and of the place each ones of those faces at some point called his or her home.
Tyki picked up a picture of Allen and Marian silently and smiled a bit, thinking back of the time he and Allen first met and the difficult period that followed after Marian's death. It's true that in life, he and Marian practically hated each other, even though they only met once. Tyki did recognize the love Marian carried for Allen though and he respected what the man had done for Allen when he was still alive.
It would be the anniversary again soon.
They'd talked about it often with Allen and he'd assured him that even though his relationship with Marian lasted nearly a decade, there would never be another one who could take Marian's place. Nor would he ever want to have someone replace him.
Tyki understood and respected that. It made him love Allen even more for admitting to that without restraint, showing his confidence in their relationship and Tyki's love for him.
They still had a lot to learn from each other, but it would be worth it, he knew. As long as he had Allen by his side, it would all be worth it.
He placed the picture of Allen and Marian back in its place and went to find Lenalee in the kitchen.
The fake fur was itchy against her skin.
Fo tilted her head a bit backwards and to the side, leaving her cold expression as it was for the photographer to take a picture of. She shook her hair out and let it catch the wind blowing from the overhead fans.
Allen was leaning against a white prop wall next to her, wearing black headphone and holding the plug between his fingers playfully.
They were going to grace the cover of a music magazine next month and this photo shoot was the second of a list of 8 magazines this week.
"Can we come and look?" Allen asked when the flashes around them stopped.
"Yeah, I think we already have a winner shot," the photographer said with a gesture of his hand. " Take a look."
Fo took off the jacket of white fake fur she had on and followed her partner to the laptop screen the photographer turned their way. "That one," she said determinately, pointing at the fourth shot from the right.
"You just want it because you're almost all over the picture!" Allen said smugly with a grin, pushing her aside and inspecting the pictures himself. As the producing, musical and artistic force behind their duo, Allen didn't let anything that had to do with their image go unnoticed to him and he always made sure he had to last word when it came down to things like editing/altering pictures that were to appear in the written press. He didn't mind fronting Fo as the face of 'Dirty Talk', but the article that was to appear dealt about the both of them so he wanted them to be equally represented.
"So what if I am?" Fo grinned back with a shrug. "It's not like people are lining up to see your face…"
"You'd be surprised…" Allen replied calmly with a knowing smile, pointing at the pictures he wanted to have a better look at. "Not that I mind, of course."
Fo rolled her eyes and crossed her arms over her chest. "Of course."
Allen gave his okay for the selected photos and they left the set a few minutes later to go change, wrapping up another day of promotional work. Tomorrow was going to be another day of interviews and photoshoots.
Just after he'd kissed Fo goodnight, he felt his phone go off in the back pocket of his jeans. A slight sense of apprehension went over him when he saw the caller's ID and he let it ring another two times.
Tyki.
After their dispute of the night before, they hadn't spoken a word to each other, let alone slept in the same bed. They'd both picked a side of their house and slept in different rooms. This morning when he was preparing for his day he thought about talking to his other half, but his pride held him back, reminding him that it was up to Tyki to apologize, not him. It assured him that once Tyki understood how angry and disappointed he was, he'd come back on his own.
Yeah… right.
The only flaw in that logic was that it could backfire on him. Very badly.
So, Allen picked up his phone. Albeit in a forced calm manner.
"Hey."
"Hey, are you done for the day?"
Allen made a soft consenting sound.
"Did it go well?"
Allen stepped in the back of his awaiting car and made another consenting sound. He knew Tyki would take his non-speaking as a defensive approach.
"So, I was thinking about maybe dinner tonight?"
The softness of his voice brought a smile on his face and he sighed into the receiver. "Baby…"
"Allen, please don't reject me…"
The car started up and pulled out onto the street.
Allen closed his eyes and shook his head. "I would love to have dinner with you tonight, Tyki…"
He could hear him sigh apprehensively on the other side of the line."But…?"
"No…" Allen whispered back comfortingly, looking up at the passing street lights. "No buts… I miss you too and dinner sounds great. Really."
"Are you coming straight home?"
Allen bit his lower lip with a smile. "Yeah… I can't wait to see you and I'm so sorry…"
"I'm sorry too. Let's talk things out tonight, alright?"
Allen sat back in his seat and sighed softly in relief, vividly wishing for the car to take him home faster.
Droplets of water were falling down his naked back, the sensation of his lips against his moist skin sending shivers down his spine, stopping the breath that was about to escape his parted lips.
"How I've missed that…"
Tyki stroked back a strand of his pale hair to the side and kissed the base of his neck longingly, moving in closer through the water of their bath. "You mean this?"
Allen smiled blissfully when Tyki's large hand pulled back his hair from the side of his face and back, before kissing his way up his shoulder to the side of his neck. "Yes…" he breathed, turning around to face him. He laid his arms around Tyki's neck while staring him in the eyes deeply. "All of it…"
Tyki slid his hands down Allen's sides in the water and grabbed him by his thighs lifting him up onto his lap when Allen pulled his face closer to his for a wanton kiss.
Allen sighed approvingly into the kiss when he felt nimble prod at his entrance eagerly, testing, carefully touching and stroking, caressing lovingly and amorously.
Tyki watched him arch against him, observing how his pale hair stuck to the moist skin of his throat as he did, his lips swollen-bit and shiny, voice breathless and shaky with anticipation. "Allen," he murmured gruffly, unable to keep his need from tainting his voice, his eyes mesmerized from the vision that was him.
Allen slowly looked back down at him, his heart thundering with each breath as they discovered each other in that one long gaze, both hands sliding up into the wet, thick black curls of Tyki's mane. They kept staring at each other silently, letting their mutual desire grow steadily. Tyki began to lower him onto his lap then and kept looking at Allen intensively; wanting to catch every nuance of his unbound pleasure and commit it to memory.
From the moment Allen shuddered from being filled to the hilt, Tyki pounced and captured his lips with his, swallowing the beseeching whimper that escaped Allen. He maintained a firm grip on Allen's body with both hands, keeping him from escaping him in any way, commanding his body to move harder and harder against him to soothe their enflamed need of each other.
Water was sloshing over the edge of the tub Allen was holding himself onto, splashing onto the black tiled floor as his breathy grunts echoed in the large room louder and louder as the rhythm went faster and faster.
"Don't stop…" he heard himself breathe desperately time and time again, just one electrifying look from Tyki enough to make him dizzy with insatiable want. Each thrust inside nearly hurt now, but he couldn't care enough to stop even though he knew somewhere in the back of his mind he'd regret it come morning.
Tyki switched their weights forwards and engulfed one of Allen's nipples with a growl, never slowing his strokes and lapping furiously at the swollen bud again and again until Allen couldn't take anymore and came with a quivering gasp, holding Tyki's head pressed against his body.
"I love you," he moaned brokenly against his hair, wincing with each thrust that came harder and faster before Tyki spilled inside of him, holding his body in his arms in a nearly bruising embrace.
"You have no idea how much I need you, Allen. How much I admire everything that you do," Tyki whispered against his shoulder, still holding him tightly. "I wouldn't know what to do if you ever—"
"Never," Allen interrupted him. "I can't even think about it. You're the one who gave me everything back. My life, my joy, my music…" he pulled back to look him in his eyes. "I wouldn't be anywhere if it wasn't for you."
Tyki placed the back of his fingers against Allen's cheek and watched him lean into the touch and close his eyes. "Allen…"
"Even when we fight, know that I'm only reaching out to you through the harsh and selfish words; I only want to be with you all the time," Allen whispered, taking Tyki's hand in his. "I know I can be a complete bitch, but I only want to be with you, Tyki. I promise."
Tyki looked at their matching platinum bands they wore around their left hand ring fingers and then smiled at him gently, remembering all the vows they promised each other and more over the years. "I promised to stand by you no matter what and that's what I intend to do, for as long as I get to be with you."
"I never want you to leave me, ever…" Allen whispered with a small, sad smile. "I wouldn't be able to take it this time, so don't you go anywhere alright?"
Tyki nodded and pulled him in for a kiss, wiping away Allen's tears away as they kissed, his heart beating in time with his and breaking with each of his soft whispers of his name. "I love you, Allen. So much…"
Allen stared at him lovingly for a few moments, a smile creeping on his face when Tyki made one of his funny faces and broke the moment, making him laugh. "How can you be real?" he whispered after a while, resting with his head against his chest.
"It's simple," Tyki answered, kissing his forehead. "You make me real…"
Allen grinned and cuddled closer, once again contemplating how lucky he truly was.
There's always something in our past we most likely want to forget or simply run away from… it's the easier way out, but is it also the wisest?
ToBeContinued in 3. The High Priest