torch, October - November 2000 (January 2001)
flambeau@strangeplaces.net

Disclaimer: These characters belong to other people. They sure get around, though. Thanks to elynross and !Super Cat. All errors are mine. Do not archive this story without permission.

Steam

The fire hissed, and Trowa felt a drop of rain against his cheek. He looked up to find the stars obscured by clouds. There was a patter of rain on leaves, growing louder. He got to his feet and picked up the soup bowl and the coffee mug. "Come," he started to say, and then the heavens opened and water poured down.

Through the thick curtain of rain he saw Wufei rise as well, and Trowa tilted his head in invitation, turned, and went towards the trailer. The moment he got inside, he shook himself, shrugging off water, and stepped aside to make room for Wufei to do the same. Trowa put the bowl and cup in the sink and opened the cupboard where he knew he had at least one clean, though well-worn, towel, a hand-me-down from Catherine. He handed it to Wufei and went into the trailer's tiny bathroom to look for the towel he'd hung there after his shower two days ago. It was gone.

A corner of his mouth twitched, despite the mild annoyance he felt. Catherine always told him he had to do his own chores, and then she did them for him anyway. She walked in and out of his trailer as though it were her own, rearranging his things to suit her. He wondered why she bothered, but on the whole, he didn't mind. Except now, when he was wet and would really have liked something to dry himself off with.

Trowa backed out of the small bathroom cubicle again and turned toward Wufei, who had wiped the water off his face and arms, though his clothes were still plastered to his body. "I'll leave now," Wufei said, so quietly that Trowa almost didn't hear it over the sound of the rain drumming on the trailer roof.

The weather was bad, and Wufei's mood was worse. There was a set to his shoulders that Trowa recognized from other lost battles. "You can stay." Trowa took the towel out of Wufei's hand and scrubbed at his face. "There's room."

Wufei looked around the trailer, at the cupboards and the sink and the narrow strip of floor and the unmade bed, and back at Trowa. The expression in his eyes changed. Trowa tilted his head slightly, let his own eyes go through the same change. "Are you sure?"

Trowa nodded, and then Wufei nodded, too, and pulled off his soaked tank top. Trowa stepped forward and ran the towel over Wufei's shoulders, and down his chest. He met Wufei's eyes briefly, and then rubbed the nap of the towel with slow deliberation over already-stiff nipples, teasing first one, then the other. One of Wufei's hands shot up, fast as a thought, and took Trowa's wrist in a hard grip, and then he was being peeled out of his own clinging sweater; Wufei flung it away to land with a wet thump over by the bathroom door. Wufei had the towel now, and he reached around Trowa to rub his back with it, pressing them together, cold damp chest to cold damp chest.

The towel was damp now, too. Trowa shivered a little, and it had nothing to do with being wet and cold. They stepped apart to take off shoes and socks, and Trowa noticed Wufei's easy balance; he'd already taken note of how the other boy walked and how he sat still, with the ease of someone who has trained his body to do what he wants it to do. This seemed... promising. Trowa reached out and tugged Wufei's belt loose, and knelt in front of him to pull down the white pants, soaked into near-translucence. It took some work to get them off. Trowa glanced up. "You have very pretty knees," he said solemnly.

Wufei scowled at him and put a hand on his shoulder; before he could be pulled upright, Trowa leaned forward and put his mouth against the inside of Wufei's thigh, then began to lick slowly upwards. Pretty knees or not, Wufei had wonderful skin, smooth and soft and tasting of equal parts rain water and sweat. Trowa nibbled, and felt Wufei's hand tighten on his shoulder. He smiled and rubbed his cheek against the other boy's cloth-covered erection.

"Bastard," Wufei muttered, and Trowa turned his head and licked at the head of Wufei's cock, tasting cool wet cotton, and heat and a different wetness underneath. He tugged the cotton away, pulling Wufei's underwear down his legs and waiting until he'd stepped out of it before standing up.

Then Wufei pounced and flipped Trowa around in an arc neatly confined by the cramped quarters, dumping him on the unmade bed. Trowa landed, bounced, and began to unbutton his jeans. Wufei's hands came down to help, and together they managed to get the skintight denim off Trowa's legs. It felt good to be rid of it. He grabbed Wufei and yanked him down, pulled him close. They wrestled their way in under the scattered sheets and blankets, testing each other's strength in short forceful movements.

There was so little space, every move drove them against each other. Trowa rubbed his thumb over Wufei's nipple. "Warm yet?"

Wufei hissed between his teeth, arching his neck. He had rough, callused hands and a gentle touch with something deliberate about it, the touch of someone who is used to tempering his strength to handle fragile things. Trowa didn't feel fragile. Not at all. He stretched against Wufei, sliding close, and when Wufei pushed at him he rolled back and pulled, catching Wufei's body with his own, feeling very warm himself pressed between the mattress and Wufei's compact, muscular weight. He looked up into serious dark eyes, slid his hand around the side of Wufei's neck, and dragged his head down.

Their mouths met with irresistible, explosive violence. They kissed until Trowa thought he tasted blood. He ran his free hand down Wufei's back and over the curves of his ass, stroking firmly and then dancing his fingertips closer and closer to the crevice, dipping down and pulling back teasingly.

Wufei broke out of the kiss to glare down at him. "Do it like you mean it," he said and bit at Trowa's lower lip with sharp demanding teeth. Trowa thought about teasing some more just because of that, but Wufei licked at his ear and then fucked it with his tongue, and teasing seemed like something people did when they didn't know what they wanted. He knew.

The tube was wedged between the mattress and the bedframe, and he had to reach blindly over his head and fish for it with fingers made progressively more unsteady by what Wufei was doing to his ear and neck. He couldn't remember how much was left from the last time he'd jerked off, but the tube was reassuringly weighty once he'd grabbed it. Trowa slicked his fingers, and Wufei bit him again, just under the collarbone, and slid his thighs apart, straddling Trowa's legs. Trowa bit him right back and drove a finger into him, hard, and then another one. He thought he might get a moan, but instead, Wufei growled, a small, low, husky sound that made Trowa thrust up against him and sink his fingers deeper.

It was dark inside the trailer, no lights on and when Trowa looked up, Wufei's eyes were the deepest darkness of all. When he moved his fingers, sparks shot through that darkness. In the brief hollow moment shaped by the meeting of their eyes, Trowa thought, I don't know him. I don't know him at all. Then they were kissing again.

They moved like sparring partners now, not combatants. Trowa didn't know which one of them made the first move to turn over, only that their bodies shifted against and around each other until he was kneeling and Wufei lay on his back, one leg drawn up with easy grace almost to his chest, the other hooked around Trowa's shoulder, pulling him closer. Faint light fell from the window over Wufei's throat and chest, catching the edge of his slightly rounded chin, leaving his face in shadow. There was a drop of sweat in the hollow of his throat, or maybe it was rainwater.

He was irresistible. He was beautiful. He was like gravity. He simply was, and Trowa fell into him. Gripping Wufei's hips in both hands, he shifted the other boy until the angle was perfect and drove himself inside, deep and hard.

And hissed, the same sound he'd make lowering himself into a tub of too-hot water. Wufei arched, arms pressed down into the mattress, lifting himself up into Trowa's thrusts. Tight and sweet and utterly, completely demanding, and Trowa threw himself into that demand and tried to overtake it, tried to give more than Wufei was already asking for. Working their bodies together, they were like badly aligned machinery, a few perfect thrusts followed by one or the other falling out of rhythm into a different pace.

The bed rocked under them. Trowa wondered if the whole trailer rocked.

Pleasure flared, sputtered, then flared again, until he felt the need for something more efficient. Trowa pulled back, pulled out, and tugged at Wufei, who was suddenly heavy and hard to move. "Turn over, damn it," he said, dumping Wufei's legs on the bed. Wufei glared at him again, and Trowa glared back, and the light fell over Wufei's arm and shoulder until he lowered his eyelids, squirmed, and turned over, getting up on his hands and knees.

Trowa sank into Wufei's body again, leaning forward until he was covering Wufei's back, his arms down along Wufei's arms, his hands pressing Wufei's into the mattress. Now he could do it the way he wanted to, slow, regular thrusts, letting it build just right and Wufei was so warm and strong against him, quivering with tension, breathing in startled gasps. Trowa buried his face in the back of Wufei's neck, where the damp ponytail lay plastered to sweaty skin. Wufei smelled good, like drying earth in the sun.

Wufei didn't make a sound as he tensed up, and bucked violently under Trowa's weight, and came.

His elbows gave way and he slumped forward, and Trowa drove into him harder and faster, going as deep as possible into the tight heat. He lost his measured pace, the pleasure sputtered and flared in the carelessly lit tinder of his body until it finally caught, and burned, and burned, and he came in a rush of fire.

Fallen together, they were a bony pile of knees and elbows, uncomfortable, but too spent to move at first. Trowa turned his head so he could at least breathe, and felt one of Wufei's shoulderblades dig into his breastbone. Just a moment ago their bodies had fit together perfectly. The rain still thrummed against the roof of the trailer, and now that he'd stopped moving, he could feel that the air was cool.

It took some time for them to get untangled. Trowa ended up lying on his back, one side pressed against the wall, which was unpleasantly chilly against his bare skin. Wufei was on the outside, balanced on the edge of the bed, more tense now than before. Stray strands of hair had worked free of his ponytail and clung to his neck. After a while, he sat up. "I have to go."

"I meant it when I said you could stay." Trowa rolled to one side and propped his head on his hand. "It's late."

Wufei got off the bed and began to get dressed, pulling on his damp crumpled clothes, his face expressionless once more. He glanced at Trowa, then shook his head. "No." It sounded more like a stray thought than an answer. "I can't stay. I'm weak." Then, with an edge of feeling, "I was never worthy of her."

Wufei was as fast as a shadow. Dressed, he became untouchable and intangible, and slipped away before Trowa could speak. The door opened and closed, and he was gone.

Trowa tugged at the covers until he could roll himself up in them for warmth, and lay staring at the ceiling. The rain kept falling.

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