<< Mine - Sleep Token >>
One awkward dinner and several long hours later, Kaius lay in bed, staring up at the ceiling.
"For fuck's sake Katesch, did you have to give me so much?" He muttered furiously, his eyes wide and alert.
The odd energy the Fate had passed to him was still circulating through his body, chasing away the desire to sleep. And Kai still felt as though he could run several laps around the city walls and his muscles twitched with the desire to do exactly that.
But the nights were pitch dark and filled with the unknown. No one ventured outside of the city at night unless they were sufficiently armed and in the company of others.
So, Kai simply lay there, frowning and more awake than he had any right to be.
When somebody knocked softly on his door, therefore, Kai immediately jumped out of bed.
"Aida, you're too old now to -" He began with an indulgent whisper, throwing his door open. But it wasn't his younger sister frightened by a strange noise in the night.
Instead, a tall, broad figure was standing in his doorway and Kai, unable to see clearly in the near pitch black of his room, opened his mouth to give a startled yell.
Before a single sound could slip out a large, rough hand clapped over his mouth and pushed him back inside, shoving him against the wall and letting the door swing shut behind them as he did so.
"Keep your voice down, you'll wake up the whole house." A low, husky voice whispered in his ear.
Kai's racing heart began to settle at its familiarity, but his brows furrowed in confusion. What was Rameses doing in his room at this hour?
His hand was still pressed against his mouth, waiting for him to agree to be quiet so Kai nodded slowly.
But instead of moving away or removing his hand entirely, Rami's hand slid down to his neck, the hard lines of his body pressing him against the wall as he whispered in his ear, "Who the fuck are you?"
Kai's eyes widened in shock, the unexpected question swiftly distracting him from the heat of his body, "Wh-what?" He stumbled.
Rameses pulled his head back a little, the silvery blue of his irises the only light in the dark, glaring at him in suspicion, "You heard me. You aren't him. So who the fuck are you and where is Kaius?"
Kai felt his heart begin to race again. He wasn't gripping his neck with any real force, only holding it lightly in warning but he could surely feel his pulse quickening underneath his hand.
What did Katesch do to him exactly? Was there something that Rami's eyes could see that he hadn't accounted for? Now the odd way in which he had been looking at him since he returned from Mount Mirai made more sense.
He swallowed heavily, "I don't know what you're talking about." He stated firmly, working to keep his voice level and sincere, "Are you actually insane? I am Kai."
The pale blue eyes narrowed further, "No you aren't. You're different. You've been different since the cave, but I gave you the benefit of the doubt after hitting your head like that. But then you start disappearing day after day for months, and Genevieve? What the fuck was that? One day you're in love with her and the next you don't give her the time of day and then dump her out of the blue?"
Kai gave a bitter, quiet laugh, "What, I can't come to my senses? She sucked...and not in a good way." He sneered.
He felt Rami's hand twitch against his neck, and then, it slid down, pressing against his collarbone as he moved away just enough to give Kai some personal space, "And today? What did you do today that made you different again? Something else changed." He pressed.
Kai opened and closed his mouth for a long moment whilst Rameses waited patiently. He wished he could see his face, but knowing Rami it would be just as serious and inexpressive as it always was, "Tell me about your Artifact. What exactly can you see?"
After seeing the strange eyes of the Fate just hours earlier, Kai couldn't help but compare them to the unnatural blue of Rami's. If there was a connection between their mysterious abilities and Rami's Artifact, perhaps there was something he could tell him about what she had given Kai. Even in the future, he had never fully explained to him what his eyes could see.
"No, first you're going to tell me what happened to you today."
"Tell me what your eyes do first." Kai retorted.
"No. You first." Rameses pressed.
"Nope. You."
"..." Rami glared at him.
Kai's lips twitched up and despite himself his shoulders began to shake with barely restrained laughter at the ridiculous back and forth.
The eyes narrowed again, "Why are you laughing? It isn't funny."
Kai covered his mouth with his own hand to muffle his voice, "Pfft! Sorry, sorry. Ok, but...looks like we're at an impasse, huh?" He winked up at him in amusement.
Rameses was silent for a long moment, his eyes roaming over every inch of his skin.
Kai repressed the urge to shudder.
Whenever Rameses looked at him like this it was as though he could feel his gaze piercing through him, like he was seeing more than just his face and body.
And then, bizarrely, he let out a heavy sigh and dropped his head onto Kai's shoulder.
"Can you - can you at least promise me that you are Kai? Promise me that you're you?" He whispered, his usually level and emotionless tone, tinged with what sounded like - pain.
Kai's hand raised up automatically to the top of his head, ruffling his thick, black curls softly, "Yeah, idiot. Of course I'm me. What, did you think I was possessed by a Demon or something?" He chuckled, quietly.
"Maybe. Some of them can do that, you know." Rami mumbled against his skin.
"You've just been acting strange lately is all." He sighed, lifting his head up reluctantly.
Kai scoffed nervously, fully aware that he was indeed behaving a little strangely, but unable to explain why.
'I mean, what am I supposed to say? Yeah, don't worry about that, I just went back in time fifteen years, so I am me, I'm just future me in past me's body. Oh, and I've been angry with you because of something you did in my future self's past...'
So instead, Kai coughed awkwardly and averted his eyes from Rami's probing ones, "Me? Strange? No way. I'm normal, so normal."
The silver in his eyes flashed for a moment with doubtful accusations, "Mmm, yeah right. So, what about now?" He raised his hand, cupping the side of his face and sliding it down to graze his thumb against his lip, "And what about when I had you up against the wall in your garage a few months back, hmm?" Rami dipped his husky voice even lower as he leant in, his face was only inches away.
Kai stayed frozen and silent, his lips parting involuntarily and his heart crashing in his chest.
'Breathe, just breathe.'
"My Kai would have hit me, kneed me in the balls or something and told me to get off and stop messing around." As if to drive his point home, his leg slid in between Kai's knees and he tilted his head up until he could feel his warm breath brush over his lips.
"I was - I was getting to that." Kai mumbled, but even he could hear that he was breathless.
"What were you thinking about? Did you want me to do something?" Rami teased, wrapping his other hand around his waist.
Kai flinched, "No!" He exclaimed, far too quickly and far too loudly.
They both jolted, freezing in place to listen for any sound of stirring from Kai's family. Thankfully, his room was at the far end, above the garage and next to the single bathroom, with his father's and his sister's room at the other end of the hall.
"Maybe...I don't know..." Kai added, dropping his voice back down to a whisper when they heard no response from the house's other occupants.
Rami's eyes snapped back to his, momentarily startled by the uncertainty in his tone, "Maybe? Maybe you - you wanted something?"
"I like girls." Kai blurted out, adding a strange inflection that almost turned his declaration into a question.
"And me, apparently." Rameses drawled.
Kai blinked at him, "What do you mean?"
Rami's eyes roamed south and he pressed his thigh against the rock hard outline at Kai's groin.
"Ah, for fuck's sake! Stop looking! Pervert!" He whispered furiously, raising his arms in front of him to shove him back.
Rameses caught them in a tight grip and held them up against the wall with one large hand.
Even though Kai couldn't see his expression in the dark, he could hear the smirk in his voice, "I'm not the one getting worked up like this because I'm getting pinned against the wall by another man. Why are you so excited you little fake? Did you want to try it out? Maybe you just haven't experimented enough."
His tone was light and teasing at first, but it swiftly descended into a deep, seductive drawl and Kai's heart jolted at the movement of his thumb, running along the edge of his bottom lip.
Rami's blue eyes were focused on it too, watching his mouth as though he were in a trance.
But then, they flickered back up to his hazel ones, half closed and out of focus, "If you don't say anything, I'm going to kiss you. Real Kai or not."
"..."
Kai stayed silent.
He felt strange. It wasn't as though he was inexperienced. In his mind he was fifteen years older than his current appearance. He had dated Genevieve for almost five years and spent over a decade after that, roaming from place to place, bed to bed, failed relationship to failed relationship.
Yet it was always with other women and the roles were always reversed.
Feeling Rami's taller, more muscular body looming over him, the smell of airship fuel that always seemed to stain his skin, the heat of his breath and the firm grip of his hand that still held his wrists; it made Kai's breath catch in his throat.
His stomach flipped when his lips came closer.
He had never felt like this before.
Maybe Rameses was right. Maybe he hadn't experimented enough.
So this was ok, right? It was just an experiment. If he hated it he would stop. He would tell him to stop.
As soon as that reasoning clicked into place inside his mind, Kai found his nerves melting away and he closed the gap himself, his brows furrowed in determination.
He intended to take back a little dominance, crushing his mouth against Rami's before he could make the first move and biting softly at his lower lip like he used to do when he kissed Genevieve.
But the action appeared to snap whatever restraint that Rameses had been holding onto.
He cursed quietly, releasing his hold on his wrists and cupping his face in his hands, roughly.
He kissed him again, harder than Kai had, forcing his lips to part wider and slipping his tongue inside of his mouth.
With his hands now free, he mirrored Rami's actions, determined to one-up him like a competitive game of which he was the only conscious participant.
So when Rami slid his hands into Kai's hair, Kai gripped Rami's hair harder and pressed his body against him.
'Whoever moans first loses.' He thought to himself, repressing the urge to smile as he slid his tongue back and forth against Rami's.
But Rameses, in clear violation of the rules, suddenly broke away, panting softly, his eyes darkened and hooded in a way that sent a rush of heat through Kai's body.
He wanted to pull him back, but Rameses had grabbed the back of his thighs and hoisted Kai up against the wall before turning them around and carrying him over to the bed.
Kai had gasped when he did this, swiftly wrapping his arms around his neck and repressing the urge to scowl at the concept of his 6ft frame begin carried as though he weighed nothing.
Instead, he pressed his lips back to Rami's and bit down harder in admonishment.
Rameses hissed at the bite as he lowered him down, climbing on top of him and breaking the kiss again to swear quietly, "...fuck. I like that. You're so fucking hot."
A moan almost slipped out of Kai's mouth at his admittance. Was it possible to be too turned on? Could he make him moan if he bit his neck? His chest?
As if he could read his thoughts, Rami knelt back to pull his shirt off over his head and Kai heard it drop to the floor.
He was glad for the dark then because Rameses would definitely tease him for the deep blush that crept over his face when he recalled the last time he had seen his body.
But the darkness didn't stop him from being able to feel every hard, smooth muscle over his arms and back when Rami dipped back down to catch his lips again and Kai wrapped his arms around him.
He could still see it when he closed his eyes. The size of that damned thing between his legs, the vein that stood out against the skin of his forearm when he ran his hand up and down the length of it, the way his hard, tanned abs had flexed when he was about to come.
Kai ran his hand over his abs and felt more than heard the moan that slipped past Rami's lips into his mouth.
'Ha. I win.'
And then Rami pushed his thin shirt up past his chest and trailed his lips down to his neck.
Kai gasped when his rough fingertips brushed over his nipple teasingly, and his teeth grazed his throat.
He made an embarrassing sound, halfway between a moan and a whimper when he began to kiss and suck at the side of throat, his fingers pinching and rolling the bud of his nipple between them.
"Ngh!"
He swiftly clapped a hand over his mouth to muffle his voice.
Rameses rolled his hips and Kai's legs naturally parted further, wrapping around his hips and grinding back against him.
He was painfully aware of the fact that, with the night's being as hot as they were on Zenin, they were both wearing very thin trousers.
His own were made of a silk-like material that was brushing and rubbing against his aching cock with such soft, agonising pleasure that, with a shock, he realised that if Rami kept moving his hips like that he was never going to be able to claim a shred of dominance over him again.
But maybe he was close too, he could feel how hard he was, grinding and moaning quietly with his lips at his ear, pressing against the thin layer of skin behind it and then brushing against his jaw.
Mercifully, he stopped a moment later with a desperate groan and sat back on his heels, "...fuck. Hang on a second. Where's the light? I want to see you."
Rameses reached out to his nightstand and pressed his hand against the rune at the base of his lamp and a soft orange glow lit the room.
Kai froze.
As soon as the light came on, the illusion in his mind, the mental images he'd been picturing and the silly game he'd made up in his head shattered into pieces.
It wasn't that he was imagining someone else. His head was filled with nothing but Rami.
And yet, that look in his eyes, the smirk on his lips, the way he raised his hand and ran it through the black curls on his head...he'd seen that all before.
Rameses, seemingly oblivious to the shift in Kai's demeanour, lowered his head back down and brushed his lips against his frozen ones, his hand sliding back up the side of his waist, "We'd have to be quiet but...do you want me to fuck you, Kai? Or we could just do this for a little longer. Tell me what you want and I'll give it to you." He drawled.
Kai swallowed against the lump in his throat and his hands gripped the sheets tightly, his knuckles stark white and strained.
His voice came out in a hoarse, harsh whisper, utterly devoid of warmth, "I want you dead. I wish I'd never brought you back here to live with us. I should have never let you in."
The words had slipped out before he could stop them and then it was Rami's turn to freeze.
He leant back and stared down at Kai's cold, blank face with wide eyes, shock crossing over his handsome features for a brief moment before settling into a state of clear bewilderment, "Kai?"
"...get out." Kai stared back.
"What? Kai, what did you just say? Are you ok? Did I hurt you or something?" He asked again, with a hint of what sounded like panic creeping into his frantic whispers.
He reached his hand out to touch the side of his face but Kai slapped it away before he could reach him.
"Don't touch me. Get out of my room and leave me alone."
Rameses flinched as though his words were a sharp blade that were being driven into his chest.
Unresisting and clearly confused, he slowly got up from the bed and picked his shirt up from the floor, grasping it tightly in his hands and Kai watched blankly as he walked towards the door.
He paused when he opened it, looking back as if he were about to say something more.
But Kai turned his face away, rolling over onto his side and curling up into himself.
The door closed with a quiet click that made his body flinch involuntarily and then there was nothing.
After a long moment of deafening silence, Kai felt something wet on his cheek.
He brushed it away angrily, but then there was another, and then another, and another.
"Stop it." He sobbed quietly, furious at the aching in his chest and the traitorous tears that just wouldn't stop falling, "Stop crying for fuck's sake. I meant that. I meant it. I hate him. I hate him, I hate him, I hate him..."
**