Work Text:
Their lovemaking was slow and gentle like it had never been in the past. The thrusts sure and steady, the response utterly welcoming. The younger one’s head was thrown back in utter abandonment, his hair spilling over the pillow. Eyes squeezed closed, the beautiful face made even more beautiful by the signs of lust, nearing completion, and the thought that he was the reason for this made him push harder, faster and more frantically, pulling them both over the edge.
Both of them knew that this was a one time thing, and that they wouldn’t do it again. They were happy with their respective partners and in no need to look for fulfillment anywhere else, but both felt that this was needed to finally leave the past behind them. A past that had scarred both of them, though the outside scars were more visible on one than on the other.
“Are you happy?”
The question, asked when they lay in each other’s arms afterwards, surprised him. Did he still need assurance?
“Now? Yes.”
And the younger one knew that “now” wasn’t just this moment.
“I am sorry.”
“Don’t be, it wasn’t your fault alone. Both of us were young and stupid.”
“But ….” The words were stilled by a gentle kiss, his tongue slow and languid against the others. When they parted, both of them smiled.
“Don’t dwell on it. It’s over.”
The younger one nodded. He took the other one’s hand and kissed the back of it, as if to make past mistakes go away.
“Why aren’t you …?”
“It’s me. And it shows what I have now.” He shrugged. “And it has become too much of a trademark.”
He understood that, even though technology could erase it without leaving an outer mark now, the real one couldn’t be erased; only accepted.
It took them years to get to this place, but each of them had finally reached a stage where they were certain of their place in life and their success. Where the past didn’t hurt them anymore, where they slowly started to speak to each other again, both surprised that they still had something in common, something that had pulled them together when they were still boys. Something that could bridge the gap of the hurt and self-doubt of their teenage years. And the wounds they had inflicted on each other.
In the same way that they hadn’t been able to imagine in their teens what would happened to them later, they hadn’t thought this possible in their twenties. When they hadn’t talked to or about each other, when maintaining the very thin façade was all they had managed.
But the years had mellowed them; their respective success had steadied them and love received had given them courage.
When they told their partners they wished to go away for the weekend, both had nodded without asking any more questions as to the why, as if they knew that this had to be done. That the demons had to be laid to rest, and that only the two of them alone could do it. That they would come back to them sound and healed.
The fans stared in amazement as they witnessed a happily smiling Takizawa Hideaki singing a duet with an equally genuinely smiling Shibutani Subaru at the next Countdown concert, screaming in delight when the performance ended with a hug.