|
|
No, this isn't what I'm supposed
to be working on, but this idea just
popped into my head the other
night, then wouldn't go away. Every time
I sat down to write part 4 of
'Every Single Time', Sage and Rowen kept
turning into Sai and Kento.
I know, pretty scary. So I finally gave in
and wrote the thing...
Kento: *smugly* We just wanted
equal time.
Sai: *sniff* It's only
fair, you know.
Rowen: But guys, think of how
she left me 'n Sage hanging. Any time she
spends with you she doesn't
spend with us
Sage: And I don't think I can
take much more of Mika. If she doesn't do
something soon, *I'll* be the
one killing her.
*shrill voice in the distance*
Saaaage, where are you Sage?
Sage: Argh, hide me, quick!
*ducks behind Rowen, Sai, and Kento*
Ryo: *grumbling* What do you
guys have to complain about? At least
she's done a story featuring
all of you. *sigh*
L: Arrrrrgh! They're all
talking to me now. Save me! *flings fic at
ML, then scurries off to hide*
Insert standard disclaimer here:
Nothing rw/yst belongs to me, and I'm
making no money off this, so
please don't sue.
"Oi, Sai, come back in!" Kento swept his
arm through the shallow water
he lay in, sending the wetness arcing towards
the slim man settling
himself on a nearby blanket. Letting the
water wash over him felt good,
though he was running the risk of getting sand
in his suit laying there
like that.
"Ken, stop! You'll get our blanket wet."
Sai breathed a sigh of relief
as Kento's latest volley fell just short of where
he was busy burrowing
his toes into the sun-baked sand at the edge
of his blanket.
"You're the one being a wet blanket!" Sai
groaned and rolled his eyes
in exasperation at the horrible pun, but Kento
just serenely stuck his
tongue out at the other man, then lay back flat
and let the next wave
wash completely over his head. As the water
receded, Kento rolled with
it ending on his stomach, then finally surged
to his feet. He slogged
through the ankle deep water to the shore, trying
to keep the pebbles
from lodging in between his toes.
Sai smiled as Kento shook himself like some great
dog, noting that it
was done a considerable distance from the blanket.
The season didn't officially turn for another
two weeks, and it seemed
that for once, the weather had decided to pay
attention to the
calendar. The air was heavy, still feeling
of summer, was redolent of
salt spray and the tide. Though the sun
was just edging towards the
deep indigo horizon, the long, lonely stretch
of beach Sai and Kento had
claimed as their own was as deserted as it had
been all day. Being a
weekday and with school in session again, it
seemed that the general
populace had abandoned the shore, had little
problem admitting that
autumn was creeping up on them. A softer
smile graced the slender young
man's lips. It was just as well.
The lonely solitude of the beach was
exactly as Sai liked it.
Sai watched sleek power ripple beneath Kento's
skin as his companion
lowered himself to his stomach on the blanket.
The chunkiness of
Kento's adolescence had matured into smooth,
powerful muscle. Kento
would never have the long, slender lines of Sage
or Rowen, yet still
managed to move with the same type of grace.
A grace so many didn't
believe him capable of given his bulk.
Sai smiled to himself yet again,
for he intimately knew just how graceful Kento
could be when he chose.
"Can't believe you actually got out of the water
before me," Kento mock
grumbled, folding his hands before him and settling
his chin on them.
"Believe it or not, even Torrent can turn into
a prune." A lazy shrug.
"'Sides, I was getting a little cold."
"That's 'cause you're too skinny." Kento
poked the slender thigh next
to his head emphatically.
Giving himself credit for somehow resisting the
urge to say 'am not',
Sai leaned back on his hands and tilted his head
back. The lingering
rays of the late afternoon sun beat down, penetrating
and warming him
through.
Comfortable silence descended, the kind that could
so often embrace two
who were as close as two people could get.
It went on long enough that
Sai wondered if his companion had given in to
the siren call of the
warmth that surrounded them and fallen asleep
like some sort of big
cat. A snicker threatened to erupt as the
image of White Blaze's body
topped with Kento's head popped up behind his
closed eyelids.
Sai felt the coiled strength next to him flex,
then still. Kento's low
murmur blended in with the gentle roar of the
surf, making it nearly
inaudible. "Do 'ya wish the other guys
could've come?"
Given their vastly different fields of study,
it was somewhat amazing
that none of the friends had classes this particular
day of the week.
What was even more amazing was that none of their
friends had chosen to
accompany the two of them that day.
Rowen had been left hunched over his computer
researching his latest
paper. The headband high piles of texts
on and around his desk hid him
from view if one gazed at the right angle.
Sage had decided to stay
home as well, not because he didn't want to join
them for a day of sun
and surf, but because Rowen had stubbornly insisted
on working on a
paper that wasn't due for nearly a month.
Sage had made it his mission
in life to save the blue-haired archer from the
horrors of academic
burn-out, and had told them that Rowen would
be pried away from the PC
and out into the sunlight and warmth if it killed
him. Sage just didn't
know how long it would take him. The sight
of the slender blond leaning
over Rowen's shoulder and offering what he claimed
were 'helpful hints'
on how to improve Rowen's writing style had them
stifling laughter as
they exited the house.
As Sai had been about to step off the front porch
he'd found himself
jerked back and out of the way by Kento before
the white blur that raced
past could take his leg off at the knee.
Anticipating the inevitable
pursuit, Kento somehow managed to juggle Sai,
picnic basket and blanket
without losing his hold on any. "You stupid
cat, I'm gonna skin you for
a coat for Mia!" Drenched and with suds
dripping off his nose and down
his neck, Ryo tore around the corner of the house.
Their friend was so
sodden it was doubtful he could have flared up
even if he wanted to, yet
that didn't stop Wildfire from moving as quickly
as his namesake.
Evidently White Blaze had decided to give his
owner a bath instead of
the other way around, and nearly choking on their
laughter, the two had
wisely agreed that now was *not* the time to
invite Ryo to the beach.
So the sun, sand and sea had to make do with just
the two of them, which
was perfectly fine as far as Sai was concerned.
The five of them and
Mia were so close that sometimes when they were
separated, Sai felt as
unbalanced as if he were trying to walk with
toeless feet. That was
most often the case, yet there were other times
when it was such a
relief to just... get away for a while.
Not to be alone, for Sai had long
ago admitted to himself that he didn't like to
be on his own, but with
just Kento for companionship. With a soft
exhalation, Sai sat forward
and idly began to sprinkle more sand over his
feet.
Sai was silent for so long that Kento roused himself
from the nearly
hypnotizing motion of the waves and rolled to
his side. Propping
himself on his elbow and shaking his hair from
his eyes, Kento took note
of his friend's slight frown, then transferred
his gaze to Sai's
wiggling toes. Slowly, he reached out and
let the sand spilling from
Sai's fingers flow over his own. "Sai?
You OK?"
"Yeah. It's just... am I selfish if I'm
*glad* the others stayed home?"
Sai opted to scoop the warm sand up over his
feet instead of letting it
dribble from his fingers, refusing to meet the
concern he knew he'd find
in Kento's eyes.
A feeling of profound relief. A soft chuckle.
Kento shook the sand
from his fingers and scooted up until he was
sitting cross-legged next
to Sai. "Is that what's bothering you all
of a sudden?" When Sai
simply continued to entomb his feet in sand,
just silently nodding,
Kento leaned to his right until he could nudge
his companion's shoulder
with his own. "If you're selfish, then
I guess we'll have to be selfish
together. I'm glad they stayed home too.
I like it here with just the
two of us." Given the smile Sai bestowed
on him, Kento knew that the
simple truth had been exactly what Sai had needed
to hear.
To be at rest, nearly surrounded by his element
was something Sai simply
needed every once in a while. To be isolated
with no one around to
disturb his communion was as necessary as breathing.
"Coming here makes
me feel as if I've somehow come home. The
ocean is just so big and all
encompassing. It's so powerful and so full
of life. The pond back home
is a comfort, but at times it's just not enough.
It's so small that it
just can't compete with all that... I don't know,
all that dead, dry
dirt. Sometimes I feel so landlocked, so
threatened, and I just have to
get away. I love it here, Kento, and having
you with me just makes it
feel even better."
"Our elements are all intertwined, Sai.
'Ya can't have just one without
the rest." Kento reached out and grasped Sai's
nearest hand, absently
dusting the grit from between the slender fingers.
"Each of us finds
comfort within our particular element, that's
only natural, but Sai, you
*can* find comfort outside of water.
"The earth is hardly dead or dry. Like water,
it contains both seeds of
life and kernels of death, has the potential
to either nurture or
destroy. It is the medium for all that
is green and growing, the plants
which are the basis of so many of our food chains.
It is as full of
life as your ocean. It is our foundation,
supporting all that we are
and all that we create and build. It's
solid and warm, slow yet
irresistible." Kento's voice was hushed.
In spite of the deep
throbbing of the surf, in spite of the cry of
the sea birds, the lack of
any other evidence of humanity besides their
lone blanket made it seem
as if the world was new, pristine, a fragile
harmony so easily shattered
by the discord of a human voice.
"All the elements interact closely in the creation
of life, but it's
always seemed to me that earth interacts more
closely with water than
with any of the others. Kinda like it's
water's partner. It even
cradles the ocean you love so much, so that even
if you're far out to
sea, you know the earth is still beneath you,
supporting you."
Staring into the reddening surf, Sai felt Kento
shift around behind him,
then relaxed into his love's arms when they encircled
his waist. "Earth
and water, perfect partners."
"Yeah." A satisfied whisper. The slim
frame beneath his hands
shivered, and concerned, Kento murmured, "You
cold?"
A simple negative shake of the head. Never
cold, not in the shelter
Kento provided. Twilight was creeping closer,
yet Sai was loath to
move, not wanting to break the spell that seemed
to have fallen. A
whispered question. "You know why I really
like coming here with you?"
As Sai drew Kento's arms more tightly around
himself, he felt his
partner's powerful shoulders move in a shrug.
"Because this is where
the power of the surf meets and caresses the
earth, and it reminds me
of us."
Kento smiled softly, tightening his arms and leaning
into Sai's warmth.
Though the breeze blowing off the water sent
tendrils of auburn hair
skittering and tickling across his cheeks, he
was content with his
position holding the man he loved so much.
The relationship he shared
with Sai was forever, was as inevitable as the
endless caress of the
waves on the shore that Sai spoke of, as inevitable
as the brush that
stroked the sky to livid colors at each days'
end. Through the years
they had been drawn ever closer together.
First friends, then
teammates, partners, then finally lovers; they'd
been all that and more
to each other and always would.
"I love you." Simple? Perhaps, yet
those three simple words spoke what
was in Kento's heart with an eloquence unmatched
by any others.
Was it OK? Maybe if I did a decent job,
they'll be satisfied and leave
me alone for a while so I can work on what I'm
supposed to be doing...
*sigh*
Ladyglen
--
You've got to dance like no one is watching,
and love like it's never
going to hurt.
