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The late-morning sun was trickling through the hotel's gauzy curtains when Mohammed Avdol finally flopped down on to his hotel bed, still fully clothed. He felt the tired weight drift from his body as he sunk down into the mattress.
It had only been a day or two since he and the others left the island by submarine. Well, they'd started by submarine, but naturally, the ride hadn't gone as planned and they'd ended up swimming most of the way to Egypt and encountering another Stand user.
Avdol wouldn't say it out loud, but he already missed the island that he had been staying on during his recovery from his encounter with Hol Horse. Even if he found himself missing a certain Frenchman during his time on the island.
Avdol found himself slipping into a restful haze, dreaming of how he would bring his love to the island when this was all over, enivisioning beautiful days of just the two of them and the chickens.
Suddenly, Avdol was startled awake by a knock at the door. He groaned as he sat up and shuffled blearily to answer whoever it was that decided to bother him. He gazed in the peephole and saw Polnareff standing on the other side of the door, his brows knit together and his jaw set in a furious expression.
Avdol pulled the door open to ask his friend what he could do for him, but before he could speak, the Frenchman brushed past him, pushing his way into Avdol's hotel room.
A soft, tired sigh blew through Avdol's lips as he shut the door and turned toward where Polnareff stood. As much as Avdol cared for Polnareff, he hoped whatever he needed to talk about wouldn't take long. It was a struggle to resist the magnetic pull of the bed already. A few more minutes and it was likely that Avdol would be asleep on his feet.
"What is it, Polnareff?" Avdol inquired, trying his best to keep his voice a kind, level tone.
The other didn't respond, he stood still with his back to Avdol, both hands gripping the fabric of his pants so hard, Avdol could see the tension that seized the muscles in his arms and his shoulders. He could sense something was amiss with Polnareff, but he couldn't tell just what.
"Jean Pierre, what's wrong?" Avdol's voice was tender, his words sounding just a touch above a whisper.
"Don't. " Polnareff said. The word was harsh, and if Avdol weren't paying attention, he would've missed the slight waver to Polnareff's voice that illustrated uncertainty and the possibility of tears.
"Don't what? I don't understand." Avdol stepped closer, unsure whether he should reach out and touch him in an attempt to give a little comfort.
"Don't…" Polnareff inhaled deeply through his nose, then let the air out through his mouth with a soft whoosh, "Don't call me that. I'll lose my nerve."
Avdol felt his heartrate pick up and his chest tighten. What was Polnareff here to do?
"Your nerve to do what, exactly?" Avdol's veins flowed with a cocktail of fear and excitement. It was hard to tell what Polnareff's true intention was with coming here, but Avdol hoped the suspicion he had would prove correct.
"To ask…" Polnareff's voice quaked, more certainly than before, "To ask why you didn't tell me. About the island."
The tightness in Avdol's chest grew, but all of the excitement in him was flushed out by disappointment mixed with a few drops of confusion.
"I thought," Polnareff continued, the tremble in his voice fully apparent now, "I thought you had died , Avdol. Why did you let me believe that?"
"I…" Avdol's throat felt dry. Drier than any of their days spent in hot desert air or running from enemy Stand users through unfamiliar streets. "I really don't know, Polnareff."
Polnareff turned around slowly, eyes rimmed with unshed tears, "You don't… know…"
"I think everyone thought if you knew, you might have slipped up and said something." Avdol stepped forward slowly, a hand outstretched to comfort Polnareff. "We didn't want to alert any enemy Stand users."
Polnareff's face hardened and he shoved away the hand that was inches from him before pushing past Avdol for the door.
Avdol rushed after him, reaching around Polnareff to put a large hand on the door and shove it closed, keeping him from leaving.
"Let me go." Polnareff demanded, still facing the door. His knuckles were white from the tight grip he kept on the doorknob.
"You don't get to ask a question like that and just bail, Jean Pierre." Avdol said, dropping his hand from where it rested on the door. "Would you like to come sit?" He set a hand on Polnareff's shoulder, but the man shrugged it off. "No. I just wanted to know. I'll get out of your hair now." He twisted the knob and opened the door once more, but Avdol brought his hand back up and pushed it shut.
"What's really on your mind? It's more than that, Polnareff. I can see it."
"It's nothing ." He said through gritted teeth, annoyance rising in Polnareff's voice.
Avdol kept his voice level, despite his frustration with his friend's reluctance to tell him the truth. "No, it's not nothing."
"It really is."
"Tell me what's really going on, and I'll let you go."
Polnareff twisted around, his back pressed to the door. "I don't want to!"
"Why not?" He pressed.
"Because I'm pissed, Avdol!"
"Why?"
"Because I'm in love with you, okay?! Is that what you wanted to hear? I'm fucking in love with you, and you…" He jabbed a finger into Avdol's chest, the tears that had been threatening to spill over this whole time finally tumbled down his flushed cheeks and his voice dropped to a broken whisper. "You let me believe you were dead."
Avdol's mouth opened, but no sound came out. He hated that he had no words to conjure, but he didn't know what to focus on. He had been presented with two very different emotions and his mind was like the ball in a game of Pong, bouncing around, from one thought to the other.
He loves me. I left him. He loves me. I left him.
"Please say something…" Polnareff's hoarse whisper broke the silence, throwing the ball off of the map.
Avdol swallowed, trying to force down the thick knot that had nestled in his throat, "Why didn't you tell me how you felt? Before..."
"I didn't realize how much I needed you… until you were gone."
The words falling from Polnareff's lips knocked the wind out of Avdol. ' I needed you' flickered through Avdol's mind over and over. Throughout their journey, Avdol had found himself pining over this gorgeous Frenchman, wanting his embrace, longing for his affection, but he never found the words to let him know And now, here stood that very man, whispering to Avdol that he needed him.
Avdol couldn't make words come to tell Polnareff all of these thoughts that flooded his mind, but something told him words weren't what he needed. Instead, he stepped forward, closing what little space was between them. He found Polnareff's lips with his own and pushed softly. Polnareff pushed back, deepening the kiss and letting their bodies press flush against each other. Avdol was never fond of the smell of cigarettes, but the taste of the menthol laced smoke that lingered on Polnareff's lips was intoxicating.
Soft, low sighs escaped Polnareff's lips as the two parted for quick breaths before the magnetic attraction of their lips, teeth and tongues dragged them back together.
After minutes of affections in the corner by the door, Avdol begrudgingly broke the kiss, receiving a breathy huff from Polnareff in response. He slowly lifted Polnareff's hand to his face, looking into ocean-blue eyes as he brushed his lips over the man's knuckles before leading him away from the corner they were occupying and moving further into the room.
They stood in the center of that room, wordlessly staring, studying each other's features. A crooked smile was painted on Polnareff's face, despite the fact that salty tears continued to streak down his ruddy cheeks. Avdol brought a hand to his cheek and wiped away the tears with his thumb. His heart moved in his chest as he watched Polnareff, lean into the touch, his eyelids fluttered shut, a sigh escaped his pink, kiss-swollen lips.
Despite the solemn circumstances that had brought them to this moment, there was no denying that things were finally going the way both of them had once thought they'd only ever dream.
Avdol let his hand trail from Polnareff's cheek down his neck, and the man let out a small gasp as the tips of Avdol's fingers grazed the sensitive skin there. The hand travelled further, sliding down the blushing Frenchman's soft chest, and over the ripples of his abdomen. He stopped at Polnareff's hip, letting his thumb travel under the dark fabric of Polnareff's shirt and glide across the skin just above his waistband. Polnareff's eyes followed the hand curiously, and half of another gasp fell from his lips before it shifted into a moan as Avdol pulled Polnareff closer by the hip, dipping his head down at the same time to bring his mouth to the soft space just below Polnareff's ear, teeth barely grazing the snowy flesh.
He lined kisses down his neck and across his collarbone, teeth scraping across his skin just enough to elicit breathy moans with each kiss.
Avdol brought his lips to Polnareff's ear and let out a warm breath, reveling in the soft shiver he felt roll down Polnareff's spine and the goosebumps that pricked you across his skin.
"Do you want me to keep going?" He whispered.
"God, yes." Polnareff responded, his voice hoarse and dripping with desperation, "I never want you to stop touching me." He turned his head and put a hand on the back of Avdol's neck, pulling him in for another kiss, this one hotter than the ones before. Polnareff's lips moved quick and hungrily, and his tongue snaked its way into Avdol's mouth. Avdol responded to this with a muffled moan into Polnareff's mouth and a small, involuntary buck of his hips.
While their mouths moved against each other, their hands made work of removing their layers. Kisses only breaking for brief moments to pull a shirt over their head or to tug pants off of ankles. When they were both bare, Polnareff took a few steps back. His eyes roamed every inch of Avdol's body and a smile tugged at the corner of his mouth.
"What is it?" Avdol asked, his face growing hot as a self-conscious nervousness bubbled up in his chest.
"You're just…" his eyes roamed back up until they met with Avdol's once more, "So fucking beautiful."
Avdol could only give a soft gasp before Polnareff had taken the steps to close the space between them. He grabbed Avdol's face, smushing their mouths together in a graceless, passionate display.
Just minutes before, Avdol had wanted nothing more than to curl up on the bed and sleep for as long as his body would let him.
But as he found himself being led to the bed by Polnareff, sleep was the last thing on his mind.
On that bed, they lost themselves in lips catching teeth and tongues, in hands pulling on hair and running across miles of skin, and in hips bucking together, each motion clumsy and unrhythmic, filled with weeks' worth of urgency and need.