Alexi's Angel

Alexi\'s Angel

By Nix Winter

Copyright 2004, all rights reserved

\"I thought you said you were quitting,\" Alexi said, gently, not judging.

There were just the two of them in the loft, just the two of them and billion snow flakes fluttering outside the industrial sized wall of windows that over looked Seattle. One sat on a stool, wearing only black sweat pants, a cigarette from the pack he\'d just op that not now lay on the floor by the stool where he\'d dropped it. Half Japanese, half Sinbad the Sailor, Taylish\'s long black hair lay over lean martial artist shoulders, dark almond shaped eyes watched the snow. \"It\'s snowing, \'Lexi.\"

\"I can feel it,\" Alexi agreed, moving towards the sound of Taylish\'s voice, bare feet silent against the smooth, but worn wood floor. He wore blue jeans as comfortable as he wore the rest of the world, like all of life was just a comfortable sweater for him. His sweater hung around his lean body in dark blue folds, the collar frayed, but it was soft when he wrapped his arms around Tay. Eyes closed, he nuzzled his cheek against Tay\'s ear.

Taylish reached around and caught the end of Alexi\'s red braid, holding it in a fist as if he\'d never let it go. \"Sorry about the cigarette.\"

\"It\'s the snow,\" Alexi said, holding one hand out, finding the cigarette by the heat it gave off and just held his hand close enough to feel that heat. \"Taking today off?\"

\"Can\'t. Best day. They\'ll never see me coming.\" Taylish said, ng tng the cigarette away from Alexi\'s hand, but moving forward to warm his palm with a kiss.

\"If I remember right, snow was white,\" Alexi teased, caressing Tay\'s face. \"You\'re a Persian prince with dark hair and no sword. I think you\'ll stand out in the snow.\"

Laughing, Taylish took another drag of his cigarette and blew the smoke out so that iuld uld flow away from Alexi. Before turning, he put the cigarette out against the scarred leg of the stool, then stood, slipping an arm around the smaller man. \"I am a dark Persian prince, but you are my lost Russian prince with hair like fire. What was that Russian story, with the firebird? You\'re my firebird.\" Taylish lifted Alexi off his feet, feeling the slender body under the baggy sweater. \"My very own firebird.\"

\"And I have stolen the apples of immortality from the Tzar and we will live together forever,\" Alexi laughed, arms around Taylish\'s shoulders. \"Stay home with me today. It\'s snowing.\"

Taylish held him, both arms around him face hidden against the soft sweater. \"It\'s tempting, to stay here with my fire prince, but \'Lexi. I\'ll get you good dirt today. We know something\'s going down. I don\'t want to fuck up finding out what it is. Do you?\"

Cheek against the top of Taylish\'s head, Alexi opened his eyes were white as the snow outside their apartment. Once they\'d been a blue closer to amethyst, but the attack that had ended his police career had also ended his vision. He combed his fingers through the long dark silk of Taylish\'s hair and wished that it never snowed in Seattle. \"No, I don\'t want to fuck that up, but I don\'t want something fucked up worse. You\'re not at your best when it\'s snowing,\" Alexi said delicately.

\"I jus just a sneak and grab today. The snow makes a great cover,\" Taylish said, putting Alexi back on his feet. \"I\'ll be back in a couple hours, way before dark and we\'ll curl up in bed and I\'ll read to you. That new King book and you\'ll get scared and snuggle really close.\"

\"More likely, we\'ll send the evening with me trying to pull a bullet out of your ass or something. It is not a smart man that goes out, gets a bullet in his ass, and hopes a blind man will be able to pull it out,\" Alexi teased, real worry giving his words an edge.

\"No one I\'d rather have playing with my ass,\" Taylish teased back, understanding Alexi\'s edge. He pulled away just enough to be able to see Alexi\'s face, to cup his face and run his thumb over red eyelashes. A moment later, he caught Alexi\'s hand and drew that to his face, smiled under his lover\'s fingers. \"See? The snow\'s not bothering me at all.\"

\"Don\'t lie, Tay,\" Alexi said, giving in and tracing his fingers over smooth smiling lips anyway. won won though, you know? The election\'s over. We won. Blackcrow is going to be president. The war will end. Everything is going to be better. It\'s what we worked for. You could stay home. I can live without this one story.\"

\"Don\'t lie, Alexi,\" Tay responded then kissed the fingers above his lips. \"You can\'t live without a story. You want their lying polluting asses as much as I do. And besides. I have a bad feeling. Something isn\'t right. I\'ll believe we\'ve won when I see it. Something\'s just not right.\"

Alexi pulled back, ran slender fingers through uneven fire red hair, combing it back from pointy, almost cold looking face. \"Okay. We\'ll never fully win, but we can\'t stop everything. I\'ve got a bad feeling too. I want you to stay home.\"

\"Maybe the snow bothers you more than it bothers me,\" Taylish said, pulling back into the protection of his masculinity, like it was a shell that kept emotions from having an impact on his decisions. \"I was the one that got raped. I can deal. You should be able to as well.\"

\"Fuck! Taylish! Don\'t put it like that!\" Alexi\'s sightless eyes tracked the other man as he crossed the large open area of their apartment. The kitchen was along the far wall, the bed behind a Japanese room divider. The rest of the room was weight bench and punching bags, their computers. It was an apartment given to hours of energy burned in martial arts, bare of anything that coult int in the way of a blind man. Alexi had learned to live with his blindness in this space. Taylish had learned to live hurts of his own, and sometimes the world was still full of colors neither of them could see. \"Don\'t. Just don\'t.\"

Alexi didn\'t know the details of the attack that had left Taylish in intensive care for a month. He\'d told Taylish it might be easier if he did. Taylish didn\'t want Alexi to know though and there were moments when it was raw and vivid between them still. It never snowed in Seattle and when it had, they\'d both gotten wounds that didn\'t heal easy.

\"Sorry,\" Taylish said, throwing three solid punches into the big bag, then a backwards round house kick that made the back creak and echo in the open loft. Three more punches from the other side, and then bag\'s chains stilled too quickly, as Taylish wrapped his arms around the thing and hide his face, hid the tears. He knew Alexi would know, from how soon the bag had stopped, but he was hiding them from himself, not Alexi.

\"No problem,\" Alexi said, standing there, sweater cuffs hanging down over his fingers, floor suddenly cold against the soles of his feet. \"Taylish.\"

Alexi closed his eyes and rubbed his temples, thinking mostly that he wanted eye drops because his eyes felt so dry. They always felt dry when he wanted to cry now. \"Bring home some Chinese food, uh?\"

There was a smile then, as Taylish turned his face against the bag to look at Alexi. \"It wouldn\'t be snowing tomorrow.\"

\"Never lasts long in Seattle,\" Alexi agreed, moving towards his computers. \"Let\'s go to Honolulu, after we get this story done. We\'ll go and lay in the sand and you can read to me until we run out of sun screen.\"

\"And you\'ll rub that oil, the suntan oil into my back?\"

\"Yeah,\" Alexi said, now sitting on a backless wheeled chair, powering on the brail unit, fingers already reading the headers of his email. \"We\'ll get tattoos too, or something. Something matching.\"

\"Maybe the snow really will be gone tomorrow,\" Taylish said, rolling his shoulders and stretching. \"I love you, \'Lexi.\"

Russian skin shows blush quite well. Red hair fell over his face as he leaned his head forward for a moment, then lifted his chin. \"Well, obviously.\"