"Never saw you as the type to be a clown, Trowa."
Trowa turned around, surprise all over his usually calm face. Ralph? He thought, staring at the man. The man was handsome with an eerie resemblance to Heero, but there was a playful, ironic twist to his smile that was pure Ralph. "Ralph," Trowa said. What is he still doing here? I thought he'd gone with Chris.
"I saw Chris off at the spaceport. She's gone home."
"I see."
"Didn't get to really talk, what with the emergency and all."
"Come with me to my trailer. I'll make you a cup of coffee... from scratch."
Once inside, Trowa ground the beans for the coffee maker, dumped the grounds into the filter, then turned on the coffee maker. Trowa then said, "Why didn't you go with her? You talked about her a lot when we used to work together."
Ralph sat on the bed, closed his eyes and said, "Because I know she's all right. I can stop worrying. I like to make sure the people I care about are all right. So, how are you?"
"I'm perfectly fine," said Trowa. Behind him, the water in the coffee maker began heating up.
"That's good. It's hard to keep track of someone who doesn't have a name. But if anyone were to survive, it would be you."
The hot, dark liquid started to penetrate the thin filter that kept it from falling and began drop by drop into the awaiting vessel.
"Are you and Catherine... "
"Catherine is my ne-san. We may not be related, but that's how I think of her." Trowa then frowned. This is not like me, but I felt I had to answer that question quickly. Why? Then he sighed. I know why. I closed my heart after you left. It took being with the others to open it up again.
"She's nice. A trifle overprotective, though."
"All ne-sans are."
"You've gotten some meat on your bones. You've gotten taller, too. I was wondering if you were going to spend the rest of your life as a toothpick."
Trowa felt a little irked at that statement. "I have been taking care of myself."
"Mmmm. I have something to ask you."
"What is it?"
"Why didn't you go with Quatre?"
Trowa didn't say anything, but looked at the coffee maker. It hadn't finished yet. He turned back to Ralph.
Seeing that Trowa was not answering that question, he said, "At the spaceport, there was a delay for the shuttle to L4. I ended up talking to him. He misses you, Trowa."
"I know."
"There's not too many people his age around him. He was wondering... "
"Wondering?" Trowa turned to see the coffee maker was done and poured the steaming coffee in the two cups.
"If there wasn't someone else. He mentioned that whenever you were around Heero, you'd always look at him in a certain way. Are you in love with Heero?"
"Heero Yuy? No."
"Then perhaps someone else?"
"Here's your cup."
Ralph took it, looked at him for a second, then took a sip. "You've still got the touch."
Trowa looked at him, cup in hand. It was a just a childhood crush, something that one outgrows, he thought. Why does he unsettle me still? He drank the hot liquid and felt the warm bitterness fills his mouth and the complex, indescribable smell wash over him. After a few sips, he put it down on the counter. I better stop drinking or I'll be more on edge. "What are your plans after this?"
"Nothing, right now."
"You could stay here if you needed a place to stay."
Ralph was quiet for a moment, then stood up. He walked up to Trowa until he was within a foot of Trowa. Trowa would've taken a step back except he had been leaning against the counter. The compression of his personal space was extremely... vexing.
"Trowa, what is it that you really want to say." Ralph leaned forward and brushed Trowa's bangs away from his face with his hand. "Still trying to hide behind that hair? I thought you would've stopped hiding your face by now."
"Why?"
"It's a nice face, a very nice face, especially those green eyes of yours." Trowa could smell coffee on Ralph's breath; a warm, complex slightly bitter smell. The weight of the calloused hand on his hair was very light but he was intensely aware of it. He felt adrenaline course through his veins, telling him to do something instead of just stand there, but the only sign of his turmoil was the dilation of his eyes and a slight shift in weight from one foot to the other. Then Trowa said, "I want you to stay with me."
Ralph's answer was to kiss him, his arms pulling him close. Trowa wrapped his arms around the one he'd been thinking of, missing all this time. Their tongues met each other and they tasted the presence of something other than bitterness. They smelled the aroma of gunpowder, the warm maleness of their bodies and the salt of their bodies merging. Attacking each other's necks in turns, they knew there were going to be bruises but they didn't care. They half-walked, half-stumbled to the bed, acting as if they were intoxicated.
Their shirts were quickly shed. Ralph's hand accidentally brushed against a ticklish spot on Trowa's side and he involuntarily laughed. "Long time since I heard a laugh come from you," he said, then laughed, himself.
"You know all my weaknesses."
"Lets see if you've got other ones," Ralph licked Trowa's nipples with the tip of his tongue, then reached into Trowa's pants and liked what he'd found. "You've done a lot of growing while I've been away." He began caressing the shaft with his tongue while slipping Trowa's pants off, then throwing his own after them. Feeling Trowa stiffen in his mouth, he removed his mouth, then toyed with his calves feeling the defined muscles right below the skin with his teeth.
Then he stopped and looked at Trowa's face. It was as if he was holding his breath. "You don't have to be silent at a time like this."
A violent exhalation passed from Trowa's mouth. "It's... just... so much," he gasped.
Ralph chuckled. "You're tense... " Ralph held him from behind. "I'll make sure you're ready for it, don't worry," he said, his hands giving his neck and shoulders a firm but calming massage. Those hands, capable and kind, slowly kneaded the excess tension from the body while caressing it, causing Trowa to lean back and relax against Ralph.
Finally, Ralph's hands began to stroke Trowa's shaft. Trowa turned his head to kiss Ralph, who readily accepted his lips. Ralph looked around for something to ease his way into Trowa, and saw some cold cream that he used to remove the clown make-up from his face on the dresser near the headboard of the bed. I suppose that'll have to do, he thought. He took the jar, and slicked up his fingers. He slowly eased a finger to the first joint inside the person who had been and was again his partner, though in a different way.
"Ra... "
"Trust me like you always did," he said. Hearing nothing more, he slowly eased the rest of his finger in, then the second finger. He heard Trowa gasp and smiled. There I've got it, he thought. He slid his fingers, then applied the cream to his awaiting cock and slowly entered him.
As he felt himself being entered, waves of warmth seemed to radiate into his body and he felt like he was taken to a place where thought was unnecessary, just feeling. He said, "I want to see your face."
He felt it come out of him, then when he found himself facing Ralph, he felt it enter him again, easier again. He rocked back and forth, occasionally opening his eyes to see the look of ecstasy on Ralph's face.
Suddenly, Trowa felt his balls tighten and squeeze themselves against his body, then white drops shot out.
Then a few seconds, he felt a moist warmth inside of him. Together, they collapsed back on the bed. After a few minutes, Ralph slid out of Trowa and lay on his side.
"Trowa?"
"Yes?"
"Why not the others?"
"Hmm?"
"You didn't know if we'd ever see each other again. I was surprised that you hadn't taken up with someone else already."
"I wanted someone who could fully open my heart. I remember you took the time to make coffee from scratch. You said that most people settle for instant because it's easy and less work. For someone who was willing to take the time, I was willing to wait." With that, Trowa closed his eyes, exhausted emotionally and physically, but happy.
The End
(:./mk/coffee)
