The Title Will Go Here - 18. Chapter 18

- XVIII -

When he pulled into his driveway, it was 6:30 in the evening. He briefly thought that he managed to make it all the way back here in four and a half hours, and silently congratulated himself for managing to do so without getting any speeding tickets. He turned off the car and climbed out without bothering to lock it.

He unlocked the front door and walked inside, pulling off his jacket and kicking off his shoes as he walked. He almost started walking upstairs, and then paused and went into the kitchen instead.

“Gem,” he said quietly a minute later, and Gemini who was making some weird-looking cupcakes it seemed, looked up, blinked, and dropped the spoon that he was holding.

Yes, this was exactly what he needed, Stratos realized when he sank his fingers into the silky hair, trying to drink every single breath out of the perfect mouth, getting dizzy from the familiar scent and frantic heartbeat. This was exactly what he needed.

Gemini’s mouth tasted like chocolate and cherry. Cupcakes, Stratos realized a minute later when he pushed the golden-haired kelari into the wall, tugging off his shirt and yanking off his pants. He was making cupcakes, and he had to keep tasting them to make sure everything was right. Making dessert relaxed him, Stratos thought, and threw a quick glance around after finally tossing the last item of clothing onto the floor. He blinked several times when he saw a few trays of little muffins, fruit cups, and something that looked like an upside-down pineapple cake. How much dessert has he made...?

Then he felt his own shirt being pulled over his head, and stopped thinking about cooking. He let out a moan when he felt a frantic tongue trying to assault his entire mouth at once, kicked off his pants that slid to his ankles by now, lifted the trembling body in front of him off the floor, and pressed it harder into the wall. Gemini immediately locked his legs around Stratos’ waist, digging his fingers into the back of the musician’s neck.

Stratos jerked his hand downwards, determined on starting working his fingers, and Gemini moaned at that and shook his head.

“Mmm...” he breathed. “Don’t... Just forget about it... Enter me...!”

“I don’t want to hurt you...” Stratos muttered unevenly. “I need to prepare...”

“You won’t...” Gemini interrupted him. “You won’t hurt me...” He shook his head again. “Enter me...” he breathed. “Just enter me... Stratos, please...!”

Stratos bit his lip, his expression hesitant, and when he heard another desperate ‘Enter me...!’ his eyes darted around the counter next to them. He saw what he needed and let go of his lip, letting a quick smile to run across his mouth. He reached out, managing to keep Gemini pinned to the wall, and pumped some oil from a bottle with olive oil not too far away from him. Gemini let out a strangled moan when he felt that oil being used with a very different purpose from cooking, and dug his fingers a little deeper into the back of Stratos’ neck.

“Enter me...” he whispered again, and threw his head back when Stratos finally obliged, after using plenty of oil on both of them.

He didn’t care about silencing his throat anymore. He set it free, letting every single moan and whimper to come out in a stuttering, endless wave. Stratos loved every single sound that emerged from the perfect throat, half-realizing that his own moans were echoing Gemini’s in ideal unison. His hips moved with impatient, hungry accelerando, and he knew that he wouldn’t last much longer, but he didn’t care about it right then. Restraints felt almost blasphemous, and he moved faster when the circle of legs around his waist tightened significantly.

They stared into each other’s eyes, drowning in crescendo-ing moans, and when Gemini gasped for air some time later, Stratos knew exactly what he was about to say.

“I’m gonna come...” Gemini muttered, and even though he knew it, hearing those words, pushed Stratos closer to the edge. “I’m gonna come... Oh, God... Stratos, don’t stop... Don’t stop...! I’m gonna come... Stratos, I’m gonna... I’m gonna... Oh...!”

Stratos wouldn’t be able to stop even if he had a gun to his head. He felt the silky, tight muscles around him start trembling with sweet, familiar, anticipated contractions, and his eyes rolled backwards when a bursting rush of heat shot through him, making his head spin.

“I’m gonna come...” Gemini stuttered again, and the contractions became stronger, making Stratos to breathe out several weird, non-existent words. “I’m gonna... I’m... Oh, God... Stratos, I’m coming...! I’m coming...!” he screamed out and threw his head backwards again, not even noticing that he bumped into the wall rather hard. “Stratos...!”

“Gem...” Stratos moaned out in low-octave desperation, and that was as long as both of them lasted before the bursting, brilliant light decided to drown them in the explosion of pleasure.

Stratos locked his lips on the helplessly opened mouth in front of him, swallowing every single breath and moan, and several minutes later, when both of them stopped shuddering, he felt the tight circle of legs around his waist to relax and start sliding off. He shook his head and sneaked his right hand down, making one of the legs to stay put.

“Just like this,” he muttered, and the circle slowly came back, locking around him once again. “I am not done with you yet...” he said in a low voice a minute later, and swallowed another quick, shaky breath.

He stood still for a few more minutes, just to make sure he could keep his balance, and then he slowly started walking towards the staircase, in the general direction of his bedroom – he was serious when he said he wasn’t done yet.

****

“Mmm...” Gemini muttered an hour or so later, his eyes closed, head securely positioned on Stratos’ chest. His entire body was purring in perfect, singing content. “Mmm... Now I can finally sleep...”

“Mmm...?” Stratos opened one eye without raising his head.

Gemini let out a long, satisfied sigh.

“Ever since you left, I couldn’t sleep,” he said quietly without moving. “And now...” He let out another sigh. “Now I can finally sleep...”

Stratos opened both of his eyes when he heard that.

“Really...” he said slowly and felt another satisfied sigh.

“Uh huh...” Gemini murmured and scooted a little closer to the other man’s body, locking his arm around Stratos’ waist.

Stratos closed his eyes again and held him tighter without saying anything, inhaling the familiar, sweet scent of silky hair that spilled all over his chest. They lay still for several more minutes, and then Stratos let out a sigh of his own; this one was slightly regretful, however.

“Sleep sounds insanely tempting...” he muttered and opened his eyes. “...but there is no time for that,” he finished and unlocked the circle of his arms, sitting up and letting the relaxed, slender body in his embrace to slide down on the pillows.

Gemini opened his eyes and frowned.

“I want to get back there before two in the morning,” Stratos explained and got off the bed. “I only have two days left until the concert...”

Gemini slowly sat up.

“You are leaving again...” he muttered without looking away.

“Uh huh,” Stratos nodded and shot him a quick glance, while heading towards the closet. “Get out of bed,” he said, and the golden eyes slightly widened at that. “Get out of bed,” Stratos repeated with a nod and opened the door of the closet.

“You want me out of bed...?” Gemini muttered with dark confusion, and Stratos emerged from the closet with some clothes in his hands.

“Yes,” he said patiently and put the clothes on the edge of the bed.

“Oh...” Gemini blinked several times, bit his lip, and slowly slid out of bed, his expression almost miserable.

“Go take your shower,” Stratos continued while putting on his shirt. “You could wait until we get there, to be honest, but...” He shrugged and reached for his pants after buttoning up the shirt. “...we both know that you will keep obsessing about it for the next five hours,” he finished with a slight nod, and Gemini’s expression became very confused.

“Shower...?” he muttered, and Stratos nodded again.

“Yes,” he said as patiently as before. “Oh, and by the way...” he paused, working his belt buckle. “Don’t get stuck there for an hour as you usually do,” he said finally after the buckle decided to behave. “We only have...” He glanced at his watch. “...thirty three minutes before we have to leave,” he nodded yet again. “So, you get twenty five minutes total to get your shower and to get dressed combined... So, hurry up,” he looked at Gemini, whose expression was now completely bewildered.

“Wait...” he muttered. “Wait... We...?”

“Oh, yeah,” Stratos walked towards the bathroom and flipped on the lights. “Haven’t I mentioned that? You are coming with me,” he grabbed the hairbrush from the counter and ran it over his messed up hair several times, making it to behave.

He sighed when there was no response, put the brush back on the counter, and turned around, facing the huge golden eyes.

“You are not the only one who couldn’t sleep, Gem,” he said quietly. “I didn’t come back here tonight just for sex... Don’t get me wrong,” he shrugged without looking away. “For sex with you, I would’ve traveled a hell of a lot farther, but it’s not the case tonight... I haven’t slept for more than forty-eight hours, and if I stay awake any longer, Saturday night will be a spectacular disaster...” He nodded again. “You are my remedy,” he said a minute later. “Therefore, go get that perfect ass of yours in the shower, and now you have...” He glanced at his watch again. “...twenty two minutes left,” he nodded yet again.

Gemini finally blinked.

“I only need fifteen,” he said quietly and a trembling smile lit up the corners of his mouth.

Stratos snorted at that.

“No, really,” Gemini nodded and walked towards the bathroom. “Taking long showers is just an old habit... A very old habit,” he added a second later. “I don’t need them now... I mean,” he shrugged. “I don’t feel filthy anymore, but old habits are hard to break...”

“Yeah,” Stratos muttered without a smile this time.

He leaned closer when Gemini was standing next to him, and placed a slow, deep kiss on the perfect mouth.

“Go take your shower,” he whispered a minute later, and swallowed a quick breath.

“Yeah...” Gemini said very quietly, and Stratos stepped aside, letting him into the bathroom.

He stood still for a few minutes, and when he heard the sound of running water from behind the closed door, he sighed and closed his eyes.

“Why haven’t I met you years ago?” he muttered with a small frown. “You would never feel filthy...”

He sighed again, opened his eyes and left the room, heading downstairs and determined on making some coffee before they had to leave – he had doubts that Gemini would only need fifteen minutes total.

…Exactly fourteen minutes later, Stratos heard light steps, and he looked up with a small, puzzled frown. Gemini came down the stairs, looking as perfect as he always did, his hair slightly damp from the shower, and he was wearing the same all-black attire as he did for the previous performance. Stratos blinked several times.

“Impressive,” he nodded finally, and received a very familiar smile as a result. “Here...”

He handed Gemini a travel mug filled with coffee and one of those weird-looking cupcakes he was making earlier. Stratos had three of them while the blond kelari was in the shower. They looked weird, but they tasted heavenly.

“I put the rest of the stuff in the fridge,” he said seriously, and shrugged when he caught a slightly surprised golden glance. “We are not coming back home until probably Monday morning, and I would hate for them to go bad,” he said simply and received another smile.

He grabbed the keys from the table by the door and pulled on his jacket.

“Let’s go,” he said and handed Gemini a short dark coat that he pulled out of the closet earlier. “Put it on, it’s cold outside.”

They finally left the house, and when Stratos turned the car into the main road, it was 20:15. Perfect timing, Stratos thought and bit into another cupcake without looking away from the dark road. They should be back in Brookland a little after midnight. Perfect timing...

****  

Robert could not believe his rotten luck. Here he was, waiting patiently for the sun to go down all the way, impatient for anticipated darkness, and when it seemed that there was maybe half an hour left – it would get dark delightfully early in December – who decides to show up all of a sudden? Stratos-goddamn-Gregorio, that’s who. At first, Robert thought that he drank a bit too much while he was waiting, and now was simply seeing things, but then he realized that he wasn’t looking at the fruit of his drunken imagination. It was Stratos himself, and he seemed to be in a hell of a hurry.

Robert cursed through his clenched teeth and reached for his thermos yet again. Coffee in that thermos was still quite hot, Robert loved it. Of course, the fact that coffee was diluted with a serious amount of liquor, only added more appreciation.

He knew that he became dangerously obsessed in the last week or so, and that his behavior was anything but healthy, and he couldn’t care less. Ever since that day when he somewhat restored his inner balance in that abandoned parking lot, he couldn’t stop thinking about the hateful original. He would even dream of him, and it was driving him crazy.

Finally, he decided not to wait as long as he planned in the beginning, and if not throw cautiousness to the wind completely, but definitely take some risk. He started watching Gregorio’s house a few days ago, trying to come up with some sort of a plan. To his disbelieving but very pleasant surprise, he realized that Stratos was leaving the house on Monday morning (yes, Robert was that dedicated – he would watch the damn place for the entire day, and only leave at night when he knew there was nothing he could do), and that the only person going with him was Leon Rolands, Stratos’ manager. Robert liked Leon. He was a quick-witted, friendly guy with a great sense of humor. Also, it was quite obvious that he hated Stratos’ kelari with burning passion; he hated him almost as much as Robert did, and it only added to his charm.

At first, Robert didn’t quite believe that Stratos would be gone for longer than a day, so he waited patiently, just to make sure – taking some risk was just fine, but impatient rushing was not. Then, yesterday afternoon, while listening to the radio, Robert heard an advertising announcement – Stratos was giving yet another performance. On Saturday night. In Brookland.

That was better than great. That meant Gregorio would not come back until at least Sunday morning, and considering that it was Tuesday afternoon when Robert heard the announcement... He had troubles breathing for a few minutes, feeling almost giddy with joy. Finally, after he calmed down, he decided not to waste any more time and start taking care of business that very night – he would have at least four days of undisturbed intimate time with that damn kelari, and you could do a lot in four days.

He almost started going through with his plan, but to his greatest frustration, one of Stratos’ neighbors decided to throw some ridiculously huge party, and there were people all over the street, even after dark. There was no way he would be able to be unnoticed while he would be breaking into Stratos’ house. He gritted his teeth and cursed that idiot of a neighbor for almost an hour, feeling extremely frustrated and furious. Then, after he somewhat calmed down, he drove back home, figuring that he might as well get some sleep, since it didn’t make any sense to keep watching the house tonight – it seemed like the party would last until sunrise.

He drove back home, and after he managed to drown his fury in a bottle of liquor, he thought that three days of intimacy wasn’t too bad either. Granted, four days would be better, but three was more than acceptable. With that, he went to sleep, passing out in the familiar dark haze, and when he woke up in the morning, he felt better.

He drove back to the house a little after one in the afternoon, and to his greatest relief, the party was finished and all those people were gone. He murmured along with whatever was playing on the radio, sipping his diluted coffee, and he felt content. All he had to do now was to wait for a few more hours, and a few hours felt like laughable nothing to him. He murmured along with the radio, and turned off the engine when it was finally almost dark. He started counting minutes out loud, his mood greatly improved, when to his astonishment, a slick, black car zoomed down the empty street, flew into the driveway, came to a jerky, impatient stop, and Robert couldn’t breathe for a few seconds when he saw Stratos getting out of it and all but running towards the front door of the house.

When he realized that he wasn’t seeing things, he started cursing in a low, hissing voice. Finally, almost an hour later, he managed to calm down somewhat and kept watching the house, feverishly hoping that Stratos would leave again any minute now.

He was right; thirty minutes later, Stratos did leave the house, except he wasn’t alone – his damn kelari was with him, and Stratos held his hand with so much determination that Robert immediately knew that both of them wouldn’t come back until at least Sunday morning.

He grasped the steering wheel so tightly, he felt like he almost broke it. He was too close to his goal, he thought with helpless fury. He was too close to his goddamn goal to give up right now. He threw the car in gear and followed Stratos down the dark road, not caring about the consequences in the slightest. He was too bloody close, and he would be damned if he didn’t go through with his plan. He wasn’t sure how he would do it, but he was not giving up.