The Laying of Boundaries

Author’s Notes: Uhm…no comments this time, I hope that you guys like it so far.

Vaan was ignorant, ignorant of everything that had happened at Migelo’s Sundries, and most likely he would never know what had occurred there; what had been said and just how Reks had taken it, or the sting that that conversation had placed into Rek’s mind or the guilt that it brought down upon his chest or the thoughts it had sent spiraling through the dear elder brother’s mind.

But most of all, Vaan was completely unaware of the simple little fact that Reks was presently clambering through those busy crowds in something all to near a frenzy, avoiding bulky, and irregular people and square shoulders as he went through seas of them and finally made his way into Lowtown, and now dashing his way through even more teeming and the now dimly lit streets that lurked beneath the sun-baked city above.

The air in Lowtown was cool, and yet, somehow, Reks was on pins and needles of white hot dread as he at last made it to the waterway entrance, he flung the pieced gate open and stepped behind it, his eyes glancing hurriedly through the musky air of the underground channels as he searched. Though his eyes were of little use, when his ears suddenly pricked with the sound of Vaan in the not too terribly far distance, a sound he would recognize absolutely anywhere. Moving around a great stoned support, he stepped down several damp and mold blanketed stairs, glancing through the gathering vapor and drawing ever closer to where he heard the sounds emanating from.

He passed through numerous inches of dirt swirled water before from behind another large stone barrier he heard a shrill shrieking sound before a hefty figure of a dire rat suddenly crashed against the wall mere inches before Reks, the creature plopped to the murky, water-covered ground with a vile thud as it continued to give diminutive choking sounds. The older brother was to some extent shocked and merely stared at the wretched creature while it jerked in a jagged material pain and fright, a large wound on it’s side that Reks knew all too well…he knew the precise blade that made such a mark…Vaan’s blade, and there was no question in his mind about that fact.

“Reks!”

Reks’s head snapped up in response to the one who had made the call. It was none other than Vaan. The boy’s brow was glittered in a rising sweat, his features were tenderly flushed as though someone had crushed delicate Galbana lily petals and sprinkled them across those caramelized cheeks, and yet...The now desiccated garment was once more stretched across those young shoulders and Reks could have sulked at the thought of having the sight of that skin restricted to his eyes.

But soon, his thoughts were entirely drawn from his younger brother when that juvenile girl Penelo had piped in. Wretched girl.

“Reks! It’s been a long time since you’ve been down here.”

Her disposition was joyful, as customary, and her hair tugged back submissively into those ludicrously untidy braids accompanied by sprigs of spun gold dangling just above her eyes. More often than not, she may have been a welcomed addition, but at the moment…she was nothing but an nuisance, for this…this was a family matter, and friends were best left blanketed by obscurity.

“Penelo,” Reks acknowledged in a fashion that seemed almost too close to seeming delighted to see her, “Migelo says he has another chore for you, it’s not wise to keep him waiting, you should be off quickly.” He lied, Migelo didn’t need her, but right now...neither Reks nor Vaan needed her either.

The girl’s head bobbed agreeably and she hurried off hastily, giving the brothers an immediate gesture of dismissal before she raced off and stole up the grimy flight of steps to the sun-paved streets above the lowly underground city.

Not even a full moment after the girl had closed the gate, and Reks was still standing in the same place that he was before…when normally, he would have had the boy in his arms, or against the wall, spread across the floor, or collected upon his lap by now…or in any other position, no matter how precarious, that would have had Vaan’s skin against his own. And yet, nothing of the sort happened, and nearly instantly, Vaan was the one to close the space, which had always been quite a rare occurrence between the brothers.

“Reks…something’s wrong.”

Vaan declared rather than inquired, for he knew his brother far too well and there had to be something wrong when the two weren’t already impatiently hard-pressed against one another.

“Vaan…”

Reks sighed in a nearly remorseful manner. And he realized then, that his head had dropped, and thus, he raised his head, fixing his eyes down onto his brother who was just a few inches shorter than himself. A weighty mouthful of air passed through his lips; he didn’t know what in the world he could say to the boy. Reks had assumed he knew all of his upcoming words when he’d been pacing through the streets, he thought he knew exactly what he would say when he came to meet Vaan, but now that Vaan was right before him and within an arm’s reach…he couldn’t seem to say a thing.

However when a hand unexpectedly brushed gracefully against his cheek, Reks’s eyes opened in awareness and his head was brought back down from the clouds that it had been drifting in the midst of. Giving a fleeting look downward, Rek’s eyes fixated themselves onto his brother’s features, and for just a moment…one could have sworn that the roles of the two brothers had been reversed and that Reks was the younger, with Vaan as the elder.

“Reks, what happened up there?”

Reks could no longer contradict that voice, that enticing voice that could command him to do anything, anything at all, with any consequence, and he could never and would never question that voice. And his resistance was broken, utterly broken and shattered beyond all hope of repair or mending.

And all of a sudden the younger brother had found his lips once more pushed against those of his elder brother, those forever tender, and somehow exceptionally passionate lips that had always known how to rid him of his every remaining word. Reks’s hands were pressed to the small of his back and those fingers were all so soothingly sketching subtle and irrational patterns into the sinuous flesh as the two bodies were drawn entirely against one another.

Vaan’s eyes fluttered for a moment and stared intently up to his brother, noticing that Reks’ eyes were closed, but…not only were they closed, they were clamped securely shut and a faded expression of pain was shaped upon his features. Reks was fraught, and he couldn’t refuse it, he held his brother close, as close as was achievable with no threat of pain or possible soreness…but in his actions, lingered more desperation than ever before.

He was frantic to taste Vaan, to feel him, to smell him, to see him, hear him…Reks had to be entirely without doubt that his brother was in his arms…and so, he searched for him. His tongue surveyed the younger brother’s mouth in a panicked frenzy, tasting each curve, and each bend of that luscious silky mouth as hands gripped the other and soon rose to the back of his brother’s head to give him even more access to that inconceivable passage of taste.

While every fiber of his being searched frantically for his beloved brother, every sense was caught up in a panic…until of course, breath became a dreadfully grave factor upon them both. And Reks had to pull his lips away, he gasped for air and his chest heaved as he threw his head over his brother’s shoulder, his arms fixed firmly around Vaan’s shoulders as their upper bodies pressed together. Vaan was left breathless, his facial appearance gaining a deeper and more vivid hue of coral as he breathed heavily for air while leaning feebly against his brother for a but a brief moment,

”…Reks?”

Came a throaty little whisper from Vaan, though it was nearly in vain from being muted against his elder brother’s shoulder…though it was heard…though only just.

“My brother, I need to know of something…” Reks began, his voice trembling as he himself began to tremble uncontrollably, though his mind was cursing him for the entire length of time that he was speaking. And he didn’t wait for a response from his brother before he asked his question, “This, is it wrong?”

“What?” Vaan was right away bemused by the outlandish words from his brother, words he’d never once heard from Reks, “Wh…what are you saying?” He rambled in bewilderment, his eyes wide and frightful as they stayed pressed against the crook of his brother’s tepid shoulder, “What do you mean by that?” He inquired with a tremor in his voice.

But he wasn’t able to ask anything else, before Reks’s knees suddenly fell from beneath him and out of his command, but with his arms still draped affectionately about his brother’s shoulders, Vaan was tugged downwards and both were plummeted to the caps of their knees. The feat causing a violent fluid sound as soiled water splashed up their knees. But the water was of little concern to either as Reks buried his face into Vaan’s shoulder and Vaan clung in puzzled and mystified alarm and distress to his brother.

“More than you could ever know, my brother…” Reks’s voice was guttural and uneven as he tried to fight with his own uncertainties, his own concerns…as well as his very own temptations to just have at his brother then and there before the two could be forced to be at a distance without end. But it was hard, it was so hard…and he didn’t know if he could will his hands to pull away, to disregard his brother, and to turn him away…just like so many others had.

Vaan could barely seem to grasp the situation, but somehow, it was just clear enough to the young boy…and despite the fact he may not have understood everything about what had happened, he did know one thing…at least one, what Reks needed.

And so, with that logic in his mind, he took his next action and ever so gently pulled away from the touch of his brother before his careful hands went to cup the sides of his brother’s face fondly, gazing over that fearful countenance sweeping his brother’s features for a number of moments, and he could have said that Reks had appeared to have witnessed a ghost. Though, that would be too coincidental and thus, refrained it was.

And within the next heartbeat that younger pair of lips took the initiative and were affectionately pressed against the brother’s pair, and he could almost instantaneously sense Reks still and settle, he just knew he would and that thought fueled his actions even more as the younger boy began to suckle at the bottom lip of his brother. The suckling drew a wistful and dreamy moan from Reks’s lips as they parted faintly, almost pleading for more action from his brother in stillness as Reks’s eyes remained closed, though now…they were closed in bliss.

Vaan could have beamed at the exceptional noise he had been given, though his heart was still shuddering from Reks’s words and he didn’t know if he could manage even a feeble smile…not to mention the current state of those petal-like lips that were still at work. But soon, the lips had been pulled away, and delicately, Vaan drew away even more so before he began to gently lick at those two lips, his features yielding as his tongue ran over those memorable lips of Reks’s. Reks couldn’t contain a breathy groan as his hands pressed in circles against his brother’s back drawing him even nearer, if that had been at all feasible…though neither could be convinced that it truly was.

“V…Vaan…”

The younger boy’s ears perked at that thin murmur, his tongue still lapping at his brother’s lips before he began to lick across his own brother’s jaw, his cheeks, his chin; all of that beautiful skin that for eternity appeared so close to him until just moments ago when Rek’s had nearly refused to come near him. But now, now his brother was so close, and Vaan…he was blessed, and he never could have wanted more…than to be with his brother, even if he had no idea that it would never be possible.

After but a moment, Reks’s breath became heavier due to the ministrations of his brother’s exceptionally skilled tongue and all he could do was mutter contently and too softly to be heard until something caught him off guard and he felt himself being pushed lightly until his back came in contact with the clammy barrier behind him. He soon found himself with his legs in front of him, his back at the wall, and with Vaan now atop of his lap. Vaan’s legs were on either side of him and Reks couldn’t contain a shudder at the feel of his brother sitting above him like that…or perhaps it was the feel of untrustworthy water bleeding steadily through the seat of his trousers.

Either way, there was barely a moment before Vaan’s lips were finally separated from his features…until the lips snaked down the side of his face and began to lovingly move along Reks’s neck, planting kisses there and sucking and nipping ever so gently along the neck while lightly work-roughened hands worked attentively at the material embellishing his brother’s chest, and keeping Vaan from his own brother’s exquisite flesh.

And it was Vaan’s time to gape, to gawk at his brother dreamily while Reks allowed his eyes to flutter open before glanced up to his brother, an almost dreary and yet…somehow ravenous gaze caught in his eye as he breathed roughly through his nose and panted in a gentle way. But the staring was cut short when Vaan lowered his head yet again, though, his lips wandered to his brother’s chest instead, gracefully lapping at the saline draped flesh while his fingers ventured aimlessly across the supple flesh of his brother’s belly, gathering all of it that he could with his fingertips, and not being able to think of ever letting it go or pulling away.

That tongue was wicked, tracing nonsensical patterns across Reks’s collarbone and roving downward, before it swiped amorously over one nipple at his brother’s chest. The deed drew an immediate response from his brother, Reks’s back arched and his head lulled to one side, and through his parted lips a drawn out groan that could have been on it’s figurative knees and begging by now escaped him. But he didn’t have enough time to continue begging, for Vaan’s hips almost at once ground down upon his brother’s and Vaan was given a louder moan this time, something of a sharp harsh cry more or less as he bit down upon his lip to stifle another shriller sound that wished for an outlet, though, that may have been Vaan…neither was sure.

The boys’ breath was harsh; both of them, and both were caught within a fog, that neither could think clearly through and it was completely frowned upon…what they were doing, what they could have been doing, and where they were. Both in the literal sense and the sense that one was atop the other and both were benefiting in corrupt and sinful ways. But neither could complain, they couldn’t complain about the stench, the sensation of that granular water leaking through their clothes or the murk clouding their eyes…all they knew, all they could sense…was the familiarity of family.