25-Sept-2000
Title: Inferno's Touch ~ Chapter 9
Author: Ravynfyre
Archive: GW Addiction, Darkflame
Category: Action, Angst
Pairings: 5x6
Standard Disclaimer: Not mine. Theirs. Too bad, but otherwise, I guess I'd never get anything done >nice hentai thought<. Anyway, not makin' any money offa this so dun sue me. You'd only get some college debt, a few dogs, and a pair of fuzzy bunny slippers anyway.
Rating: NC-17
Warning: There be yaoi lemons here. If yer not 18 or older, or you have a
problem with guys seducing guys, then dun read this. If you choose to ignore
this warning, your mental anguish will not be on my head.
Spoiler: None
Notes: Terminology at the end.
Feedback: Yes, please. All comments welcome (although flames may be fed to my dogs, who, since they have notoriously gassy intestinal tracts, will be spending the night with the flamer afterwards)
The images and words on the papers scattered all over the table before him began to blur for the fifth time that minute. With a frustrated sigh, Wufei pushed away from the table and lurched to his feet. He stumbled to the stove and poured himself another cup of tea from the pot he'd left brewing. It had been steeping for far longer than he typically liked it, but right now, with the exhaustion licking at his mind and soul, he needed the brew as potent as he could get it.
The antique grandfather clock in the living room started to chime and toll it's far too cheery song. Six in the morning.
Wufei shook his head and trudged back to his seat. Zechs would be back home soon. It wouldn't do for the older man to see him so... drained. Wufei swallowed back a long draught of his bitter tea and returned to pouring over the notes and pictures he'd snapped at the hospital arson four hours ago.
Being the investigator on call that week, he'd been unsurprised to receive the page in the dark hours of post midnight morning. He'd simply climbed out of the bed he shared with Zechs, pulled on his jeans and denim shirt, and headed for the address that he'd found on the pager.
By the time he finished poking through the wreckage of the room, snapped all of the pictures he'd wanted, talked to Maxwell and all the other witnesses, and bullied his tired body home again, Zechs had already gotten up and left for his pre-dawn jog.
Wufei had decided to get some work done on this latest case while all the details were still fresh in his mind. Spreading his materials all over their kitchen table, Wufei had sat down and started transcribing his notes and impressions onto the complicated, multi-paged reports that the fire department demanded.
That was why when Zechs slipped through their kitchen door, he found Wufei still awake, head propped up by one hand, slumped over the littered table.
So engrossed in his work was Wufei, that he didn't even hear the kitchen door click open and then shut once more as his mate crept into the house. An exhausted groan burst from his lips as he contemplated the pictures once again, studying the remains of the corpse.
"I heard that," Zechs' quiet voice murmured from directly behind him.
Wufei jumped a little, his whole body tensing as he rose into a half-crouch from the chair.
Zechs' hands descended on his shoulders and pushed him down again, an admonishing whisper floating through the still morning to chastise the Chinese man.
"Why are you still up? You should have gone back to bed."
"Case," Wufei grunted noncommittally.
"Hn. One with another body count, I see," Zechs commented as his talented fingers began kneading Wufei's too stiff shoulders.
"Just the one."
Wufei leaned back, giving in to his lover's ministrations while Zechs scanned all of his notes from over his shoulder.
"At the hospital?" Zechs queried, voice thick with surprise.
"Yes. Heero found it. Put it out."
"He's been seeing an awful lot of fire for being so new," Zechs said uncertainly, his voice almost hesitant with suspicion.
"He was accounted for during the time when the fire was set," Wufei automatically replied.
"Ah, good," Zechs replied, relieved, "He's a good firefighter."
Wufei nodded, a small smile tugging at the corner of his lips at Zechs' compliment: one of the highest a firefighter could give another firefighter.
He melted back into his char a little more, letting his mate work his gifted fingers over muscles that had been screaming with pain and fatigue for much longer that Wufei cared to admit.
"Hn. Interesting. Spontaneous Human Combustion?" Zechs joked as he finished glancing through his lover's notes.
"Murder," Wufei replied grimly.
"Murder? Are you sure?" Zechs asked, surprised.
"Unfortunately."
An incredibly soft curtain of platinum blond draped over Wufei's cheeks as Zechs leaned forward and dropped a tender kiss upon the crown of his head. He felt Zechs' fingers nimbly slipping the tie off of his tight ponytail, freeing it from its confines.
Suddenly, much of the tension in his neck melted away. Zechs' hands crept back to Wufei's shoulders, kneading very gently, while his chin dropped to rest on top of Wufei's head. The Asian man let his mind drift away from the case and the world itself, slipping into a comforting half daze with ease. His dark eyes peered out through the commingled curtain of black and pale gold silk while his mind filled with images of a sun dappled tiger creeping through the long grass at the edge of the rain forest. It was so easy to lose himself in Zechs' embrace.
"Something's bothering you about this case," Zechs observed quietly.
Rather than snapping him back to the real world, Zechs' voice reinforced the soothing half-trance Wufei had put himself into. His thoughts came clearer here, less cluttered smoother.
"Aa."
"What is it?"
"Restraints. The victim had been put in restraints. He couldn't leave the bed."
"So then. It was murder. What else? I can feel it in your shoulders."
"Hn... I'm not... It's there. Staring at me. I just can't see it..." Wufei murmured.
"Don't try. It will come," Zechs replied gently, leaning down and forward a little more to rest his cheek against Wufei's.
"Hn... Burned hot... but fast. Not very much damage... The oxygen was off. At the emergency shut off down the hall. The door had been sealed... to hide the smoke. The window had been opened enough to keep the fire fed... no backdraft. Soft restraints."
Zechs could feel the slight tensing of his lover's body, heralding his return from his thoughts. He unfolded from his crouch but didn't let go of Wufei's shoulders as the Asian man's eyes popped open.
"The arsonist. He's familiar with the hospital, both procedurally and architecturally. The restraints had been properly applied. That's not something your average person can fumble through. The oxygen had been shut off to that wing. To prevent an explosion and fire spread I imagine," Wufei mused.
"So whoever it was, wanted to make sure the victim died, but no one else?"
"Yes. That's it. So it's someone familiar with the hospital, to have accomplished all of that without being seen. Otherwise the arsonist was seen, but he or she belongs there, so no one even considered mentioning that person's presence."
"Highly possible," Zechs agreed.
"With the way the fire burned, however... I'd say the arsonist is also well aquainted with fire as well. Which would point to this not being his or her first fire. Hn. The warehouse."
"Do you think they could have been set by the same person?" Zechs asked.
"It's possible. It was designed to... to kill whoever was sent to put it out," Wufei replied, his hands clenching into fists on the table.
Zechs didn't miss the hesitation, the skip in Wufei's voice, or the unconscious tensing of the Asian man's body. Before he could remark on it, Wufei was speaking again.
"That flophouse. Something about it seems... familiar. There were about a dozen people killed in that one too."
"Deliberately?"
"I wasn't sure before. But now... I think that's a possibility. The fire... it burned from the outer rooms of the building, in. Containing itself. Just like the hospital. If anyone was inside when it started, there would be no way for them to escape, and it was an arson fire. There was enough accelerant used in that fire to open a gas station," Wufei mused softly.
"So it was murder, then, too."
"Aa. Why? Why those people?"
"What do a group of most likely homeless people, firefighters, and a rich, but immoral, business man have in common?" Zechs asked.
Wufei shook his head suddenly, disagreeing.
"Don't include firemen in that. It feels... wrong."
"But the warehouse fire..."
"I don't think it was the same arsonist. The warehouse fire was too... dangerous. Too malicious. It would have been too easy for that fire to get out of control. The flophouse fire and the hospital fire... They were deliberate. The way they were carefully staged, precisely controlled to cause as little damage as possible, but still... Those fires were thoroughly thought out, meticulously calculated executions. The warehouse...was a trap left to chance," Wufei replied decisively.
Zechs' hands stilled as he contemplated that.
"Are you sure?" he asked quietly, a sharp stab of fear racing down his spine at the thought of two most likely mentally unstable arsonists running around, concentrating their efforts, it would seem, in his district.
Wufei's shoulders slumped in defeat as he sighed explosively, all of his tension and exhaustion returning in an instant.
"No. No I'm not. It's just a guess."
"Hn. Then we'll figure it out," Zechs soothed, bending down again to drop another gentle kiss atop Wufei's head.
Wufei sighed again.
"I'm safe, you know," Zechs said softly, letting his hands trail from Wufei's shoulders down the Asian man's chest to clasp over his heart.
"I know you are. I'm fine," Wufei lied quietly.
"You were scared. When you got the call about the fire, and heard that two men from 8 were on their way to the hospital," Zechs guessed shrewdly.
He felt Wufei stiffen against him.
"I- I..." Wufei's voice trailed off, not finishing his thought.
Zechs slipped around in front of his lover, squeezing between him and the table and pushing Wufei's chair out into the floor a little to give him more space. He knelt, staring through his platinum bangs to meet the Asian man's dark, pensive gaze evenly.
Wufei glanced away nervously, his throat tight and an uncomfortable sensation crawling along his stomach. He finally turned back to his lover and spoke is slow, hesitant tones.
"It's... dangerous. What we do. I know that. I was there once, right beside you..."
"You still are," Zechs murmured comfortingly.
"Aa. You- you are my strength, Zechs Marquise. I- I can't lose you. I'm a fool for thinking that, but it's true..."
"Why are you a fool?"
"Because... Because our lives are too dangerous..."
"No," Zechs interrupted him gently, "That's an excuse. Please... I'm not Merian, Wufei."
The Asian man clenched his jaw a little and glanced away, deep in thought, though his eyes sparkled suspiciously with the unshed tears that sprang up at Zechs' words.
"I know what you were about to say. Our lives are too dangerous to form such vulnerable bonds. That it would be unjust to force that on another being, to risk not only your life, but their soul, should you be injured," Zechs spoke earnestly.
Wufei turned to meet his gaze once again, swallowing uncomfortably at Zechs' accuracy.
"You're wrong. Yes, we live dangerously. That was part of our mutual attraction to one another. But it is because of that very danger that we must allow ourselves to be vulnerable to the other. To allow ourselves to form that bond, and depend upon each other. No one man can or should be expected to face that daily danger and stress alone. Do you understand?"
"It's weakness, though, to need someone so much," Wufei whispered.
"It's weakness to think that you need stand alone. It takes strength to recognize the need for stability and help. You, my love, are the strongest person I know," Zechs murmured, caressing Wufei's cheek with one callused hand.
Wufei glanced down, not giving in to the instinct to mutter a denial to his lover's words.
"You couldn't have done anything, even if you had been there, you know," Zechs said slyly.
Wufei's gaze snapped back up to Zechs' face, eyes narrowed in speculation and surprise.
"What do you mean by that?"
"Duo still would have been inside that warehouse, even if you'd been there. He'd still have gotten hurt."
Wufei snorted in annoyance.
"That braided baka can take care of himself, I'm sure. What does he have to do with this anyway?"
"You think I don't know how scared you were for both he and I? I'm smarter than that, Chang Wufei. You were frightened... and jealous," Zechs guessed.
"Jealous? Of what?" Wufei scoffed, although something deep in his dark eyes flashed with recognition and panicked denial.
Zechs nodded to himself, settling back on his heels, and then shifting to his knees between Wufei's legs.
"Duo. More precisely... Of Heero," Zechs said, spearing his mate with another shrewd, sly glance as he continued blithely, "I've always known how much you admired Duo."
Wufei looked away guiltily until Zechs pulled his face back towards him with one slender hand on Wufei's chin.
"I- I'm sorry."
"Why?" Zechs asked curiously, "Duo IS rather cute. Especially with all that hair."
Wufei's eyebrows shot into his hairline, and his hand flew to his mouth to stifle back the gasp of surprise.
"It's only human to look and admire, love. As long as he keeps his hands to himself," Zechs teased gently, "I'd hate for Yuy and I to end up killing each other when I stepped in to defend your honor against Duo."
Wufei couldn't help but smile at that image.
"Yuy needs to quit fighting it and wake up," he finally replied, his voice heavy with amusement.
"Give him time. He's very much like you and I, love. Hates to think he's not in control of his own destiny," Zechs murmured, sitting up on his knees and leaning forward to nuzzle at Wufei's throat.
"Hn."
"Were you finished with your notes?" Zechs whispered into the bronzed skin.
"Hn. Guess I could be..."
"Good."
Wufei's hands came up to rest on Zechs' back, rubbing lightly along the thin fabric that was still slightly damp with sweat from his lover's jog. He once again felt all of his tension melting out of him as Zechs nipped playfully at the pulse in his throat, while the blonde's hands busied themselves with the snap and zipper of Wufei's slightly sooty jeans.
As the zipper rasped gently down, Wufei's manhood sprang out, demanding attention. Zechs pulled back enough to toss a chuckle and an amused grin at his mate. Wufei frowned and glanced down for a moment, noticing the source of Zechs' good humor.
"It was two o'clock in the morning," he explained with a blush, defending his commando state.
"Am I complaining?" Zechs murmured, leaning forward to nuzzle at his throat again.
"G- guess... n... no...t..." Wufei managed to sigh as Zechs' talented hands began to stroke him.
With his free hand, Zechs quickly unbuttoned the denim shirt, baring Wufei's chest to the blonde's wandering lips. He smiled to himself as Wufei' s body seemed to melt into his chair, the Asian's head dropping back on his shoulders as if he simply couldn't hold it up any longer. He lapped greedily at Wufei's skin, licking along the defined pectorals as if he would reform t he very flesh, although how he would improve on perfection, he had no idea.
Wufei's hands tightened along his back, balling his T-shirt up in his grip when Zechs' talented mouth nipped gently at the Asian man's nipples, bringing the pouting flesh to full attention. Zechs smiled to himself once again. He could feel the exhaustion still trembling in Wufei's body, whispering along the Asian man's muscles like a dread promise. Despite how his lover had been trying to hide it from him, Zechs could feel how close to breaking Wufei really was.
Well, there was more than one way to skin a cat. Or should that be more than one way to soothe a dragon?
Zechs let his lips wander freely over Wufei's flesh, his tongue darting out sporadically to lap at the flushed skin, tantalizing and teasing, but in no recognizable pattern. His hands caressed and massaged his lover's erection, alternating between gentle feather touches ghosting over the heated shaft, to firm, demanding strokes. Above him, Wufei's breath began to get raspy and uneven, punctuated now and then by throaty, wet moans.
Wufei's grip shifted to Zechs' hair, the long fingers burying themselves in the thick mane of pale gold. Zechs shifted his grip to Wufei's thighs, running his hands up and down the taut muscles while he bestowed worshipful kisses along the firm washboard stomach before him. Wufei squirmed a little in his grasp, a small hiss of displeasure slipping through his pursed lips as Zechs abandoned his erection.
"Something wrong, love?" Zechs murmured sweetly against bronzed skin.
"Zechs..." Wufei growled dangerously.
The blond bit back a wicked chuckle as he dipped his head lower, lapping the weeping tip of Wufei's shaft teasingly.
His lover's whole body seemed to shudder and fold in on itself as a startled moan burst from Wufei's lips.
"That's better," Zechs murmured, pausing to rub his cheek against the velvet steel of Wufei's manhood.
Before the Asian man could bite out a response or complaint, Zechs drew back enough to take Wufei fully into his mouth, enfolding the Asian man in liquid ambrosia. He felt Wufei's fingers tighten almost painfully on his scalp as he stroked the underside of his lover's erection with his tongue. He couldn't stop the self-satisfied groan from working its way up his throat, which only made Wufei shudder and gasp once again.
"God...Zechs... I-"
"Hmmm?" the blond hummed in inquiry, a devilish twinkle lighting in his eyes as he peered up at Wufei's slack face.
"Kisama," Wufei hissed, his jaw clenching was he fought back the wave of pleasure sweeping over him and threatening to steal his sanity.
Zechs continued stroking his lover, relaxing his throat to take the Asian man as fully into him as he could, while his hands worked a counterpoint tempo along Wufei's thighs. He increased his pace, pulling back once in a while to blow gently across the heated shaft of firm flesh he was busy trying to devour.
He felt Wufei's body tense up, and the Asian man's head fell back upon his shoulders once again, warning his lover. With one last hum of impish merriment, Zechs drew his lover fully into his mouth again in time to collect Wufei's gift as the Asian man's climax struck him like a bolt of fire and lightning. He exploded into the blonde's throat, a hitched-breath moan bursting from his lips like a promise in the still dawn morning. The same promise he made every time he looked into his lover's ocean deep blue eyes.
Wufei gave himself over to the wave of mind-numbing pleasure that was threatening to tilt his world off its axis, not trying to master the sensation, but simply enduring it, clutching it and holding it as long as he could. Slowly, infinitely slowly, the world started to fade back into view. Dimly, as if from a thousand miles away, he could feel his lover licking the last traces of his seed from his still flushed skin. He opened his eyes, blinking at the sudden brightness of the room, the way the colors all seemed to bleed into one another, while flashing with brilliance and individuality he'd never noticed before. He wanted to lean down and claim his lover's lips in a grateful kiss, but somehow, he just couldn't muster up the energy to do so. He barely had the strength to utter a sated sigh.
"Feel better?" Zechs asked him quietly, his chest rumbling comfortingly against Wufei's knees and legs.
"Aa."
"Good. You should sleep now," Zechs instructed, settling to lay his head in Wufei's lap.
"Aa."
"I bet the bedroom is far more comfortable than staying sprawled in a hard kitchen chair all day."
"Aa."
Zechs smiled to himself triumphantly as he shifted enough to get his feet under him. Before Wufei could protest the movement, Zechs had scooped him into his arms, draping his lover's arms over his shoulders and laying Wufei's head against his neck.
"You did this on purpose," Wufei whispered tiredly.
"Hm?" Zechs replied, all innocence.
"Wore me out..."
"You were already worn out, love. I'm just taking you to bed," Zechs replied smoothly as he navigated them to their bedroom.
"Aa."
Zechs slipped through their doorway with long-practiced ease, thankful that he was strong enough that he could kneel and gently lay his lover on their shared bed, rather than dropping or tossing him gracelessly. Of course, it helped that Wufei wasn't as heavy as most of the other people Zechs had been forced to pick up and carry in his career as a firefighter.
He settled his lover carefully on the featherbed, disentangling himself long enough to gently work Wufei's jeans down his legs and discard them into the hamper. Coming back to Wufei's torso, he carefully slipped the denim shirt off of the Asian man's shoulders. As he tried to draw away to toss the shirt in the hamper to join the jeans, Wufei's arms snaked up and wound around Zechs' shoulders. Trapping him.
"Love?"
"Come back to bed," Wufei murmured sleepily.
"I'm still all sweaty from my jog..."
"I don't care. I want you here," Wufei replied, punctuating the statement with a firm tug that tumbled the pliable blond into bed beside him.
"Very well. If I must," Zechs responded with mock resignation.
"Aa."
Zechs kicked the blankets up over them both, intending to stay long enough for Wufei to slip into deep sleep. He hadn't counted on his own weariness, however, for shortly after his lover's breathing evened out into slumber, he drifted off into his own dark cloak of sleep.
~TBC~
~RavynFyre~