Divinitas

030 - Listen

~ * ~

Yuki was snoring. Yes, that damn little wolf pup who had so promptly taken over Gryps’ vacated bed was snoring as loudly as some fat drunken man. And of course, Phoenix would have to suffer knowing exactly how each breath entered and exited that tiny nose, and what assortment of whistles and snorts it made, because he had not fallen sleep before this mockery of music had began!

It was now what? Two, three o’clock in the morning? And he was still as wide awake as an owl. Never mind he had the darkest bags under his eyes, or that his body felt like it had run a marathon, the fact remained his mind was running in over drive and refused to park itself in the Sleep lot.

And all because certain little super deformed Aethers were skipping around his mind, prancing and frolicking in a pathetic imitation of an over grown fawn.

Phoenix shook his head. Where the hell had that come from?! The boy groaned, rolling over onto his stomach and pulling his pillow over his head as if such a useless action could block out both sound and deranged thoughts.

If just three months ago, someone had told him he would be losing sleep due to his pining for the amethyst eyed fiend who had done such unspeakable acts to him, he would have fallen over and rolled around on the floor laughing his ass off. It was almost mind boggling, how much he had changed. Moving from declarations of his rather dying that being with Aether to wanting him to actually let Phoenix love him as he would.

That golden haired devil, with his perfect body, low seductive voice, and his smile that always brought a flush to Phoenix’s face whenever it was directed at him with such untamed desire. Why couldn’t he just come to him as Phoenix had asked? Why did he insist on avoiding Phoenix, making him feel like yesterday’s trash? Damn it, confusion and pride and all that shit were not enough of a fucking reason!

In a rage the boy hurled the pillow off his head and sent it flying towards Gryps’ old bed, dragging the sheets around him as he swung his feet onto the cold ground. Fine. Fucking fine. If that stupid, idiotic, good for nothing jerk would not come to him, he would gd pud punch his face in!

Storming out of his dorm room, not caring the least if he woke up either Draco or Chima, the fuming boy stalked upwards towards Aether’s, his sheet trailing behind him like a silken cloak.

Stupid, stupid Aether! Damn him to hell for provoking him to this course of action. Inconsiderate jerk. Making him feel guilty over this whole thing. Oh, and Dawn’s little lecture and suggestions didn’t help one bit, thankyou very much. Really, everyone should just die…

Damn it, why did he feel like something was weighing him down? It was bad enough there were several flights of stairs he had to climb to get to the fiend, he didn’t need a dead weight dragging him down as well. And why was there this inconstant growl disturbing his train of heated thoughts?

With a sharp yank, Phoenix pulled his sheet off the ground, only to find attached to the end of it the culprit of the aforementioned crimes. “Yuki!” Phoenix stared at the bundle of fluff who was using his precious sheet as a chew toy. “You little brat! Let go, damn it!” the boy swore, flapping his sheet around in a fury of movement.

The little wolf pup just gripped the sheet tighter in his sharp little teeth, growling at the back of his throat. The pup certainly wasn’t about to forgive the villain that had awoken him from his lovely sleep in his new bed, or let go of a potential playmate… By the time Phoenix wasfingfing and puffing from his unwise exertion of energy, the pup was still hanging with the utter most ease, wagging his little tail, wanting more.

“I am so going to skin you alive, you mutt,” Phoenix muttered, giving up and proceeded on his journey, dragging the pup along behind him.



~ * ~

A resonating knock against his doors brought Aether out of his directionless thoughts. It was a horrible habit, to simply sit and become immersed in one’s musings until one lost track of all time and place. Especially if one’s mind was full of doubt and conflict.

The knocking became more insistent, until whoever it was on the other side was pounding the solid wood as if it were a drum.

Slowly Aether uncoiled his body from whence he sat, and moved towards the door. He knew it was Phoenix. Who else could it be? But he was far from delighted as he might have beene upe upon a time. There were many reasons he had yet to confront Phoenix, even if the younger boy had all but commanded it. The first and foremost being simply that he did not know what to say.

One could almost smirk that at remark. Aether, not knowing what to say to Phoenix. He who had wanted the boy since the very beginning, since he first laid eyes on him. And now, being told by Phoenix that Phoenix actually wanted to love him, if only Aether would let him do it on his own, Aether had no worith ith which to articulate his jumbled thoughts. Well, wasn’t that just fine and dandy?

Apparently Phoenix didn’t agree.

Mechanically Aether pulled open the door, composing himself as best he could to face the obviously enraged boy.

He was promptly greeted by a right fist that smashed into his cheekbone with enough force to send him staggering backwards, and causing him to fall ungracefully onto the floor. It was quite some time before his dazed senses allowed him to realise that something was licking his face, and that a very furious yet violently shivering Phoenix was standing over him, glaring at him with blazing red eyes.

“Jerk,” Phoenix spat the word at him, looking down at Aether with contempt.

The older boy let a neutral smile steal over his lips, dropping his eyes wantonly and breaking the hateful gaze. He stood up slowly, easily regaining any lost elegance, picking the wolf pup up as he did so. Then, without so much as a glance towards Phoenix, he simply shut the door and walked back into his main room.

“Oh, so you’re just going to pretend I don’t fucking exist now, are you?” Phoenix growled, stomping after Aether, the sheet that had covered him dropping forgotten onto the floor.

Aether settled the young wolf on the leather couch he had recently vacated and turned his single eyed gaze at the fuming boy. “You’re freezing,” he observed simply.

For a moment, Phoenix was totally taken back by the unexpected comment. It was only then that he realised he had come all the way wearing only his boxers and the sheet, and not another scrap more. And indeed, he was freezing. His toes were almost blue and no doubt so were his lips. Winter was drawing near, and the icy night wind off the ocean penetrated the walls and into one’s very bones.

By the time Phoenix had snapped out of the shock of his embarrassing predicament, and had stopped blushing enough to once again be mad at Aether, the older boy had already approached Phoenix, sweeping him easily off his numb feet and tossing him onto the bed.

“What the fuck do you think you’re doing!” Phoenix demanded, struggling to make his frozen limbs work, as Aether, having disrobed, climbed onto the bed and covered Phoenix’s body with his own. “Get off! I’m fucking pissed off at you, you cold hearted bastard!”

“I know,” Aether answered, before arranging his limbs more comfortably around those of Phoenix’s, snuggling his warm body against the icy one that laid beneath him. “But your body does not receive the cold well. You will become ill if you do not warm up quickly.”

“Why the fuck do you care,” Phoenix snapped back violently, though his body had given up the struggle. Unfortunately, and as much as Phoenix hated to admit it, Aether was right. He needed to warm up.

A gentle hand threading though Phoenix’s hair was the only answer he received.

Slowly Phoenix’s heart began to beat louder, travelling up his throat as it did so. “What. Aren’t you going to say ‘because you’re mine’, or some other crap like that?” the boy forced himself to say, feeling his voice catch in his throat as he did so.

A long tense silence followed before it was broken by a confession against his ear. “I did what I did because I was jealous.”

Phoenix started at hearing the words. Aether… was actually laying open his heart and soul…?

“That evening when you were working late, I came to pick you up. You were in a bar, drinking with a young man. I saw you kiss him.”

Phoenix stiffened. Something about what Aether had just said was very, very wrong.

“That was why I did what I did to you. I wanted to make you mine. So you may never stray from me again.”

“I never kissed Ash,” Phoenix whispered in a dry voice. He suddenly found it very hard to swallow. “I did go to the bar with him, and I did drink. But I didn’t kiss him!” The boy made an agonized noise. “I don’t remember leaving the bar. I was drunk. I know I talked a lot… about something… and then it was morning, and I was lying on his couch with a splitting headache…”

Suddenly Phoenix gave a violent shake of his head. “Why the hell am I even trying to justify this to you? Even if I had kissed him, or he had kissed me, because both he and I were drunk and I was miserable, what right does that give you to torture and rape me because of it?!”

Aether let Phoenix struggle and shove against him until the boy finally gave up, panting heavily. “What would you like me to do then?” he asked softly.

“I’m not yours. I am not property to be own and used as you will. You can’t make me be yours by force,” Phoenix answered, voice tinted with anger, even as soft as it was. “Aether, I want you to back off. Let me decide in my own time whether I want to be yours or not. Do not crush my dream with your own.”

The older boy slowly rose a few inches off Phoenix, looking down at the determined face that was flushed ever so slightly. Was it from the heat of Aether’s body, embarrassment from being so close… Or was it a blush?

His intense amethyst gaze bore down into Phoenix’s rich red eyes. This boy, who, on one level or another, had always, always denied him in some way, who was now looking at him with such an imploring yet resolute gaze… Back then, so many millennia ago, why had Phoenix stayed in the beginning? Why did he then betray Aether so, and leave him locked in solitude for so many thousands of years?

“Do you love me?”

The blush deepened, causing the seriousness in Phoenix’s eyes to fade. “You… You can’t ask someone such a question!” Phoenix stuttered, diverting his gaze quickly, but then seeming to change his mind, locked it back on Aether. “And no! I do not love you!”

A knowing smile spread across Aether’s lips. “Alright. I will honour your wish for now. I will not force you to be mine,” Aether whispered, and lowered his head to bestow a gentle kiss on Phoenix’s slack lips. “I will be your’s instead,” he breathed into Phoenix’s partially open mouth.

Phoenix’s mind was wiped blank on hearing those words. The only sound seemed to be the loud echoing beats of his heart within his chest.

It was Aether’s way of saying sorry, wasn’t it. The fiend was too full of stubborn pride to ever say ‘sorry’ directly. But he had actually listened to and acknowledged Phoenix’s wish.

Slowly Phoenix’s arms encircled Aether’s back, embracing Aether on his own for the first time. “Thankyou.”

The two boys held that position for a long while until Aether finally pulled away, sitting up to look down at Phoenix with a lecherous glint in his eyes. “Then, to show your gratitude, will you sleep here from now on?”

A vein in Phoenix’s forehead twitched.

In the blink of an eye, Phoenix had armed himself with two pillows and began pummelling Aether with them. “Die you, DIE!”

Aether could only laugh, pulling Phoenix on top of him and placing a tender kiss on his nose.

~ * ~

http://cruelangel.net/divinitas