Last chapter: Let the past flow away downstream (the story's title)
Note: Yay! Last chapter. There is a lot of stuff going around here. A drunken colonel for example and a lot of Van x Raven sentimental mush-mush. Pls. allow the Law of Suspension of Disbelief. Liquor could do anything. YAY!!! I done it!! I've finished this ficcie after nearly two-brain dead months!! *cough cough* Now to move on to the next levah!
~Ravenous
*****
"Do you really think he has truly had given up to work in the GF for good?" Raven looked down at his mug as Karl poured half of the bottle's content in it.
Raven is inside the Imperial Army Colonel's headquarters. Although it was Karl's intention to drag the brat into the interrogation room, he thought it would make the scenario much worse than it is now. His brother, Thomas has another bound gauze on his head, always getting his head injuries from every skimirish with his DiBison. This is the second time around Raven injured him, and he will be raring to argue with him---especially now there is also Irvine along with him, who wants to demand an explanation WHY Flyheight won't come out of his room for an explanation. All of them want answers.
He intended to talk one on one with the person known to have hard mercenary edges, well, ONCE have hard mercenary edges. Karl shivered as he recalled seeing Raven cry when Van left after the heated fight. When he demanded his presence at his quarters, the boy foolishly followed like a meek lamb---and THAT really freaked him. He even sat there still like a vegetable, and his pale face almost next to being sorry as Karl grilled him with questions. The answers are strange and odd, and he nearly fell off his chair when Raven confessed that he and Van were lovers. Not knowing how to react on the situation, he resorted to an oddment which he knew could bring out the truth from the boy and the same time drown both their disappointments and miseries.
"That's what Thomas said." Colonel Karl Lichen Schubaltz raised his fifth tankard of beer and leveled a stare at Raven. He drank deeply, and then said, "I don't understand why Flyheight has to be so angry. I'm doing it for his own good. He knows it's hard to find reliable people in the force these days."
Raven frowned into his mug. "Fratenizing with the enemy. Accusing him right in front of every one else to see, suspecting 'collaboration' and arresting him suddenly without a valid reason---of course he will quit." He was quiet, thinking all he had done wrong, and how he could fare better expressing his feelings towards Van without having to tender it with his prick. In a weak moment he began to think about the stars and began to sing an angsty song called 'Bring me back to Life'
The colonel dropped his beer and slammed his hands all over his ears. "Cease, you damn brat! Bloodying my nose was enough torture for one day!"
"Can't sing," Raven declared.
The colonel shook his head, and then pounded the heel of his hand against an ear.
"I should have written him poetry." Raven murmured.
Karl was concentrating on pouring another round and spoke as if Raven hadn't. "I only want the best for Flyheight. He makes an excellent and responsible member for the GF team, and I least expected him to have such undesirable 'involvement' with an enemy. Couldn't you see his better off if you leave him alone?"
"Well, what if it's our destiny to meet? No one can avoid that. And for a point, I don't kill women and children, and he bloody knows that my feet aren't cloven."
The colonel's intense green eyes narrowed. "Where did you hear that?"
"Don't ask, Schubaltz. You would just try to choke the breath from my lungs again, and I'd have to break your arm this time. God only knows how he would react to that."
"You're right." Karl gently touched his swollen eye and winced. "Never has been in my whole life have I seen Van Flyheight so angry with me."
"Yeah. He has the patience of a saint."
Karl scowled and tipped his tankard for a large drink, and then he said, "He must have a wealth of patience. He spent a week with you."
"I'm an ass." Raven admitted,
"Yes, that you are," Karl agreed. "But a very damned painful and twistedly determined ass to that. I had to hire four of my men in their red horns to take you down. They refused to take you down on a second time."
"Me or Zeke?"
Karl shuddered. "Don't remind me of that organoid, it keeps on hitting with my brother at least once a day." (courtesy of episode: emperor's holiday :P)
Both men exchanged identical looks, and then the colonel laughed. "If it weren't for Flyheight, Raven, I might shoot my head just to call you 'buddy'."
Raven rubbed his bruised chin and wince, "Yeah, you're quick old man."
"Who's old?! I'm only 27!" Karl frowned and puffed out his chest, "I'm as strong as I was four years ago at the defeat of the deathsaurer! I graduated at the top of my class in top military honors! I'm only 23 when I became a Major and command fights in the battlefield! Now I'm holding the 1st Panzer division, and before the fall of my zoid in New Helix I---" he raised his fingers and tried to snap them. He couldn't do it. Frowning, Karl took another drink, and then belched. He tapped his chest with his fist. "That's better, now where was I?"
"---the fall of your zoid in New Helix?" Raven supplied gloomily.
"Yes! I can knock a pilot even how advanced his zoid weaponry are from his unit! I can pleasure a lady, two in fact, and I can down a hogshead and a bottle of whiskey and still walk a straight line!" He raised his mug high.
Karl's eyes rolled back and he passed out face down on the table.
Raven stared. Karl was snoring. He picked up his tankard, and then the colonel's and dumped the contents to his. "No sense wasting good liquor," he muttered, then stood and stumbled out of the hall.
He walked down the passages of the military base like a maze, opening a door after another room to room and another hall way. Ten minutes later he found the room he sought. It took him five minutes to light up the room, and then slumped into a small rigid metal chair that squeaked under his weight and rested his elbows on a desk. He searched the top, and then opened a carved wooden box.
"Aha! I knew this would be in here." He grinned, and then took out a piece of thin parchment, a filling pen and a precious pot of ink.
Raven stared at the blank parchment, took a deep breath, and then picked up the pen. He snapped the top off the ink pot, squinted one indigo eye, and tried to fill in the empty pen as he bring the pot nearer to its small hole.
Seven tries and much concentration later, he hit his target. And with his next breath he began to write.
*****
Van Flyheight lay in his bed beneath some blankets and stared at the dark ceiling. His room is high, atop the 2nd floor of the officer's headquarters, isolated to the farthest right. A place for thought. A place for him to curse his foolish heart out.
He missed drifting all of a sudden, recalling how he missed the stars- --he missed the fresh night air. He sorely missed Raven lying next to him all the time---
If only the bastard didn't backstabbed him. Enemy is always an enemy, there is nothing he could do about that. Not unless he had to prove it---prove he is sorry. If he will prove it, how?
A loud crash followed by a couple of 'oof' sounds accompanied more by thuds sounded from outside. He sat upright and listened sharply. There was nothing, only quiet. The sound had awakened Zeke whose head was perked expectantly.
'Must have been my imagination---' he thought. "Go back to sleep, Zeke.'
"Mrnrrfff!" he purred.
He lay down again and snuggled deeper under the covers of his bed with Zeke beside him, who is by the floor. A moment later a pebble bounced across his opened window. Zeke leapt up and made an sharp grunt, looking around in full-alert and then chased the pebble across the room.
Very slowly, Van swung out the bed and, back pressed to the solid wall, slipped through the window and stopped. A handful of pebbles flew through the opening.
"Pssstt!" More pebbles pattered the cemented floor.
He stuck his head out of the window, "Raven?" he whispered.
He stood in the empty military yard below with a lamp held high in one hand, Shadow his dark organoid is with him, and with the looks of it, they had knocked down a couple of watch guards.
"What are you doing? How did you get out of your de--"
"Shhhh!!!" he raised a finger to his mouth. "Can you hear me?"
"Of course I can hear you! You're shouting!"
"Good." He stood a little straighter, and then weaved slightly.
"You're drunk, Raven."
"Nothing that I can handle, it's just a bottle or two." He stumbled slightly, and then held a piece of parchment up near the lamp. Too near. A corner of the parchment suddenly flamed. With a curse, he dropped the paper and stomped out the flame, then shoved the lamp to shadow's grip, and bent down and picked up the parchment. He squinted at it, and then puffed out his chest. He nudged shadow to hold the lamp high, as he stretched the parchment out and shouted, "Ode to this coincidental opposition!" (For hint: check out title in 1st part -author)
"What?!" Van braced his hands on the window ledge. Zeke joined him and peered down as he leaned outside.
"Oh, Van Flyheight, thoughtful and fair----" Raven flung his arm out wide and nearly knocked the lamp in Shadow's grip, the organoid grumbling annoyingly. "---which the sunset made shine of his deep ebony hair."
'He is spouting poetry', he realized. Sunset made shine of his deep ebony hair---'it's so lovely when he said that.'
"Your eyes with its deep onyx gaze--- gracefully set against on your wonderfully tanned face."
He felt his face flush, and a smile crept to his lips.
"Mrvmf?"
"Shut up Zeke, he is reading me poetry."
The silver organoid sweat dropped.
"And to see you blush red, how I want to bed---" Raven paused, "---you. Don't bid me adieu."
Van frowned.
"I dream of you dressed like that as a soldier," he bellowed, referring to Van's red and gray lieutenant outfit. "---instead of my own Genobreaker!"
Van leaned back against the solid wall, his hands to his stomach, trying to contain an urge to laugh.
"Your manhood as pink as a pig----"
His mouth dropped open, his manhood as pink as a 'PIG?'
"And the wet sex that flows taste like honey figs."
Van clapped a hand over his mouth and chuckled, his face flushing bright red. Damn! Raven is making the whole world know what they did!
"And as sure as I can fart, you will always have my heart!" Raven finished proudly.
By then Van is sitting down the floor, holding his sides and laughing so hard that tears streamed down his eyes. He wiped then, still chuckling as his mind's eye still saw Raven standing in the military yard, where anyone could and probably had seen him, spouting the worse poetry he'd ever heard so loudly that he could have been heard in whole Zi.
It had grown strangely quiet outside. Van let go of his sides and got up. He looked out the window. The yard was empty.
"Raven?"
He heard a soft grunt. Van gripped the ledge and leaned farther out the window. Raven struggled half-way up with the half-rusty ladder found about in the base's storage area. He had a long red rose clenched in his teeth.
"Raven, be careful! The ladder doesn't look very---"
A loud scratching crack pierced in the air. The ladder wobbled for an instant, and then slowly fell backward. There was a shout of surprise, and the ladder hit the ground with a thud, sending other goods falling and tumbling down the ground. The goods rustled and Zeke crawled out of the window and jumped through the other packed up boxes by the wall, grunting and sniffing him out.
There was a moan. Raven cursed. Van blanched. In minutes, the people hearing the commotion near Flyheight's headquarters quickly lighted up the whole base and sounded the alarm. There were soldiers every where and they surrounded the whole area, very perplexed and finding things odd--- to see the dazed gray-haired youth with his black organoid carrying a rose in his mouth and Van Flyheight hurriedly climbing outside, panicking. All the while, the rest of the gang still sleeps soundly, and the Imperial Army Colonel still snored.
*****
Raven's stitches have been neatly placed the next day in the infirmary section, amid the reluctant people in the base that took him in. Hadn't it been for Van's persistence, the gray-haired pilot might never have taken the treatment. Van was in the infirmary room all the time, looking about worriedly and never left his side, crying his eyes out that he killed him. Outside the room, the colonel walked to and fro guiltily, Irvine reading a magazine, and Thomas cursing about silently. The lieutenant can't do anything to console Miss Fiona, who seems sickly worried of Van's actions as she sat beside Moonbay outside with the group by the waiting area. He finds nothing to fault but the commanding higher officer in charge, his brother.
"Colonel---no, I mean Karl! Why did you let Raven escape! He could have killed Flyheight last night!" He whined, not necessarily concerned about Van, but because Miss Fiona is direly worried lately of the younger boy's actions. It seemed he have 'more' than sympathy with Raven.
"He didn't attempt to kill Flyheight." The colonel muttered, giving his brother an embarrassed but commanding glare. "He said---" pausing for awhile, Karl was sure he was still sober when he talked to Raven after a couple of drinks. "He said he is going to read him poetry."
"POETRY?!"
Everyone gaped at the ashen blonde colonel, who seems to be irritated with the surprised glances. After all, Raven is the last person in the whole Zi who would consider writing and reading a poem. He is pretty curious himself, "Yes, he told me 'I should have written him poetry.'"
"Goodness, Karl! You might have been drunk---"
He whipped a glance to Thomas that stopped the latter from continuing. "I'm not YET drunk when I heard him say it. I'm trying to cover my ears from hearing him sing 'Fly me to the moon'. Definitely, I'm very sober."
"Raven SINGS?"
The colonel just shrugged. Maybe the liquor had brought about a side of Raven that others haven't seen before. To be honest, Karl himself is the only person to know the 'secret' between the two rivals---he considered himself lucky that Raven hadn't told anyone so far about his ramblings before he passed out. 'I can pleasure a lady, two even!' he recalled saying, and a couple of more embarrassing words that he swore he can't imagine even telling his younger brother. 'Goodness, what will happen if THEY find out?'
"YES, he sings---well, he is drunk so probably that's why he sang." He muttered irritatedly, hoping not to press the conversation much longer. He got other duties to attend, but he can't leave since he is the one in charge in Raven's capture.
"I wonder what it means when someone gives a red rose?" Fiona whispered, that catches the attention all of them. Her question is off the topic, but it saves Karl's skin from anymore pesky questions coming from Thomas.
"Why, Miss Fiona!" Thomas attention zoomed to 100 percent at the blonde zoidian. "Giving a red rose is also as same as proposing one's love---" He said, almost blushing. "---it's a symbol of romantic affection."
Her cherry red eyes widened in an unnatural and worried degree. "Is that why Raven was seen with a red rose in his mouth outside Van's headquarters?"
"WHAT?"
Irvine fell from the place he was sitting, and the rest exchange shocked glances, all except the Imperial Army colonel.
"How come you are not surprised?!"
"I didn't see it coming." Karl muttered, tilting his cap to his eyes. "Besides, it's a crazy idea." He said, blocking the infirmary room's window. Fiona's face slowly crumbled and looks really worried right now, to which the lieutenant can no longer bear, Karl is trying to hide something.
He said Raven wants to read Van a poetry, then he sings his heart out with 'Fly me to the moon', then Fiona points out that the gray-haired youth was found tumbled down in an attempt to climb in Van's room-with a red rose in the mouth. A little all too suspicious
"Why don't you let me inside? I want to see it for myself!"
Karl stood stiffly in front of the room. His eyes commanding, his arms crossed to his chest. Obviously irritated with his brother's lack of ethics.
"I ask your permission, Colonel, sir!"
Karl still didn't budge.
"I demand to see what is really going on!!" he stubbornly pressed, but Karl pressed two arms firmly in front of him. "You are not to disobey my order, Thomas. There is nothing in here you want to see."
Probably because of Fiona's distraught appearance, Thomas must have drawn a lot of superhuman strength and threw his weight against his much bigger brother, forcing the door to open. Surprisingly, it was unlocked, and Thomas came crashing in through the infirmary room.
The others came streaming inside the room, only to find the biggest shock of their lives. Raven and Van were atop of each other in the infirmary bed in a scandalous position. Raven was underneath, his head bounded by thick gauze, and the brunette is kneeling in front of him, whose pants are almost undone and the other pilot's pale hands clutching the cheeks of his rear. Thomas sudden 'intermission' jolted them both, that Raven caught a part of his gauze between Van's trouser zipper, causing his head to be stuck just between there.
Van's onyx gaze widened in surprise, bringing about a sudden flood of embarrassment in his cheeks. "G-Guys!" he gasped, trying to jump off the bed. He felt a tight snitch, and a mild curse coming from Raven.
"Van! My stupid gauze is stuck in your pants!"
"Pull it!"
"Easy for you to say,"
"V-Vaa---You---having-s-s-with HIM?!" Thomas loosed all his color and nearly went mental at the sight of them. Fiona let out a mild shriek and fainted, falling to Thomas arms. Moonbay covered her mouth to prevent a shout from coming out, and Irvine dropped his jaw. It was Karl, who still remained as cool as a cucumber who is the first one to break the ice.
"Don't tell me I didn't warn you people," he said tersely. Then tossing a pocket knife to Van, "Here," he said, as he starts to turn pink. "Cut that gauze off your----it's embarrassing for everyone to see." Then he glanced at the fainted Zoidian, "---and it seems will be needing an extra bed too."
"You KNEW all the time?" Moonbay finally spoke, looking at the colonel furiously. "Why didn't you say so?"
"I didn't know how you people would react."
"React?! REACT, we are emotionally scarred now, thank you very much!" Thomas snapped, holding the fainted zodian in his arms. Karl had already mastered selective hearing from Thomas and ignored his brother's complains. What he worries now, is how Van would make everyone understand on what they have 'seen.'
"Umm, Van when you learned that you're ah - umm, you know--" "Well, I think it's after 'victory' the party." The boy finally replied, then glancing up to the speechless Irvine. "Right, 'sugar bear'?"
Raven chuckled, as he pulled the loose gauze off. 'Sugar bear' is a cute nick name after all.
"H-Hey!" Irvine retorted, noticing the angry glances glowering from everybody. "It is a joke! Everyone knows it! You are joking right? I mean you and Raven? Come o--"
"It's your entire fault IRVINE!!" everyone shouted angrily.
*****
Later that night,
"You are alone."
"I'm used to it," Raven said softly, his indigo orbs drifting to the night sky. Stars-he is always fascinated with them, it brings back the much peaceful memoirs of his then uncorrupted past. "So how was Shadow?"
"He's fine, Zeke just get quite jealous when he's around." Van replied lazily, leaning over the railings, joining the gray-haired pilot outside the hangar. "So how's your head? The stitches I mean."
"Never been better," he made a serious disposition, then looking at his tanned face. "It just needed a little kiss to get the boo boo away."
Van blanched then flushed, and seeing that reaction, Raven let out a roar of laughter. He caught him there.
"It's your fault Raven! Now I can't face my buddies for a month!" he muttered, his cheeks burning hot with embarrassment. Raven said the same thing when he woke up into the infirmary room; Van gave him a quick kiss on the forehead, and that kiss lead from one thing to another, fighting dominance who will straddle to the top.
"So was Irvine," Raven replied, "-guess it was him to blame for all this that happened, eh?"
"Nah," the smaller boy replied, then silently, leaned his head lazily to Raven's shoulder. "I think it's even a little before that I guess, but he apologized anyway after I explained him my story." Then they lay silent for awhile.
In a few minutes they began to talk again, like old friends would. Van mumbled something about the gang being disappointed but not upset, that Fiona is sad but same time happy just to see Van is satisfied with his decision, and Raven remarked how Irvine and Thomas made awkward glances--- amused especially when Thomas screamed like a girl when he appeared from behind, shouting 'Don't try to grab my ass, you dickhead!'.
"Can't fault him with that," Van sighed, "But I think deep within his heart he is happy, he stands a chance with Fiona now."
Raven rolled up his eyes, "Yeah, that is---without stammering at first."
They idly glanced again outside the hangar, the decision Raven made, to surrender himself willingly, have granted quite a celebration for almost everyone in that base, and probably everyone in Zi. So happy in fact, that they are setting off fire works. This someone had triggered an effect on Raven's injured head
"I remembered who I am, just about now!" Raven gasped, the impact of the bursting firecracker gave him a sudden memory rush. "My name is M---"
Then came ANOTHER sudden burst of a fire cracker
"Uhhh---now, I forgot!" he scratched his head, "hrrr---"
"Dr. Dee says there is a possibility of you having selective memory loss," Van said, seemingly amused by Raven's confused reaction. He starts to chat incessantly, "Literally, it would take more than such fall again if you want to retrieve the rest of your memory. I think shock therapy would help, it's only a bit painful though, and they used it for amnesiac psychos---"
Raven took advantage of the open mouth and kissed Van so deeply, that the other boy gasped and was almost rendered breathless from it. "I had to admit then, I am a psycho." He whispered against his soft mouth, and the two both softly chuckled as the festive air.
They watched the fireworks for awhile; Raven then lightly nudged Van by the shoulder. "I want to show you something---" he whispered to his delicate ear, and then lightly tugging the youth behind him, they climbed by the roof top. Once reaching there, they leaned down and glanced at the night sky, there were fewer fireworks, but at that portion you can see the stars. "I remember how long before, I would go and gaze above the stars. My father will talk to me that we came from a blue planet from not so far away from the Milky Way. I like that story, since it's the last loving memory from him and my mother."
"-and you told your father how much you hate Zoids, Raven."
His indigo eyes drifted to the stars above, as was his thoughts. "Yeah, I sure do."
"So if you really hate zoids so much, how come you still pilot them till now?"
Raven blinked, come to think of it, the other youth has a point.
"Psyche!" Van laughed, and mock punched Raven on the shoulder. The gray- haired pilot frowned, but his irritation quickly evaporated upon seeing the genuine happy smile on Van's face. "I don't know either!" he softly chuckled, but he was partially serious, "I think it's just wanting to get even I guess."
The brunette snuggled closer to him, his dark onyx gaze leveled up to meet his far-away watching indigo eyes. "Nothing you do Raven would bring them back you know. Just honor them that they may find peace, they do something that they don't regret and they die doing it. Do you think if they are alive right now that they will be happy just seeing you destroy military bases and take so many lives?"
Van took a deep breath, waiting for Raven's reaction. The taller boy has faced him as he talked, and as usual, his expression is in control and thus unreadable. He hates it when he stares at him like that, so he continued. "Raven, I know also what is like to lose a father. God, he died in the battlefield in trying to save your life! But I didn't resent him for doing it---"
He was surprised when Raven reached out a palm to stroke his cheek, he was almost smiling. "Hush, you don't have to explain everything." He whispered, brushing a finger to his lower lip, that the boy felt a strange sensual shudder that weakened his knees. "I have one thing to say, the same words I told to Col. Schubaltz."
He likened the pale palm caressing his cheek, so he snuggled closer, "Yeah?"
"I'm an ass."
Van lifted a slender eyebrow, but an amused glint was evident in those dark depths. "Why so? I know you are a pain in the neck-but,"
"Listen, Van." Raven admonished gently, "I'm an ass. I finally realized now, that how glad I feel when I say it-because it is the truth. All my life I'm blinded by my own fury, my own hate. I have become nothing but a mercenary who followed orders, and yet knew nothing much in life---so much I don't know that in the end, I didn't know what's the reason why I keep on fighting. I don't have much to believe in."
"Raven---"
"All I know, is I have to keep on confronting you. Facing you in battle, seem the biggest fulfillment in me. Of course, bloody hell I always want to win. But I realized it has something in you that's why I wanted to keep on seeing you again."
"Oh, Raven. That's the sweetest thing I ever heard from you." Van cooed, as if trying to get the other pilot in a lighter mood. There are times Raven have been so deep in confessing his feelings, but it was never been like this. "You mean, you already have a crush on me even before? Why didn't you say so?"
Raven gave him a look then whumped him lightly at the head, "Because I was so confused about my feelings for you before, you moron! Its all your fault, you get into my head so much-it intoxicates me!" The brunette stopped, then blushed, inched away and sat up, not knowing what to say. He didn't want to let Raven see he is blushing. 'He seriously said he had feelings for me even before?'
Raven sat up with him, and sighed. "Alright, I admit to that. I think I was drawn to you because you have something that I hoped I had. I want a life Van, you had your friends who care for you, and I have none. You had something to believe in, and I don't. It's like I have won the battle but lost the war." He looked at him, his gaze filled with nothing he sees before. As if it was looking through the eyes of a lost, and hurt little child.
"That's why I need you, Van." He said, as if he was sorry for all the bad things he did, then pressed his lips to his, a soft pleading one, as if searching for some warm longing and comfort in him. Van responded, and parted his own mouth welcoming the wet heat then holds Raven close. They kissed briefly for a few minutes, when another firecracker burst loudly-almost dangerously near to their direction. With that, they were both jolted back to reality, pulling off each other's grip. "Ah fuck! Can't the fools have some sense and play around elsewhere?" Raven snapped, his old persona seemingly to itself.
Van grinned, "So does your memory came back now? Or do they have to fire another one again?"
Raven looked back at him, then with a shrug. "I will lose more of it anyway if they did."
"Hmmm, Raven?" he glanced up from his shoulder, "I wonder, will you ever remember?"
"I guess so, someday--" he paused, "Maybe not now, or maybe sooner or later. We don't know. But I know you can help me along the way to heal myself, maybe then-it would return." He glanced at Van, inched closer to him and lightly kissed him to the nose, "You are going to show me what it's like to really live, sugar bear."
Van pouted, "Stop calling me sugar bear! It makes me sound like some damn sweet pastry." And Raven laughed, and Van followed good-naturedly.
"You know what I thought of now? There are things much important in the world that I want to make up to you." Raven smiled, "You know what it is?"
"Just let the past flow away down stream."
"Besides that," he grinned, a small wicked one. His figure leaning over closer to Van's. Too close, that with just a tap, Van will fall down and he'll land atop of him. He kissed him daintily by the skin of his neck, "I always want to see you moan on a heightened orgasm while looking at the starry sky as I make love with you underneath the noisy fireworks."
"You ARE an ass." Van said, but he was smiling ear to ear. And with the care free attitude, they both chuckled and held each other close, abandoning the world.
~END~
- wahh!! *Brings out boxes of tissue and blows* I think I just did it! Too much cootie sweet mushiness! *scratches cooties away* I hoped you liked it! Please review! Hopefully not yet the last--- *drags her ass to 'the mercenary who loved' and 'tourniquet'*
Note: Yay! Last chapter. There is a lot of stuff going around here. A drunken colonel for example and a lot of Van x Raven sentimental mush-mush. Pls. allow the Law of Suspension of Disbelief. Liquor could do anything. YAY!!! I done it!! I've finished this ficcie after nearly two-brain dead months!! *cough cough* Now to move on to the next levah!
~Ravenous
*****
"Do you really think he has truly had given up to work in the GF for good?" Raven looked down at his mug as Karl poured half of the bottle's content in it.
Raven is inside the Imperial Army Colonel's headquarters. Although it was Karl's intention to drag the brat into the interrogation room, he thought it would make the scenario much worse than it is now. His brother, Thomas has another bound gauze on his head, always getting his head injuries from every skimirish with his DiBison. This is the second time around Raven injured him, and he will be raring to argue with him---especially now there is also Irvine along with him, who wants to demand an explanation WHY Flyheight won't come out of his room for an explanation. All of them want answers.
He intended to talk one on one with the person known to have hard mercenary edges, well, ONCE have hard mercenary edges. Karl shivered as he recalled seeing Raven cry when Van left after the heated fight. When he demanded his presence at his quarters, the boy foolishly followed like a meek lamb---and THAT really freaked him. He even sat there still like a vegetable, and his pale face almost next to being sorry as Karl grilled him with questions. The answers are strange and odd, and he nearly fell off his chair when Raven confessed that he and Van were lovers. Not knowing how to react on the situation, he resorted to an oddment which he knew could bring out the truth from the boy and the same time drown both their disappointments and miseries.
"That's what Thomas said." Colonel Karl Lichen Schubaltz raised his fifth tankard of beer and leveled a stare at Raven. He drank deeply, and then said, "I don't understand why Flyheight has to be so angry. I'm doing it for his own good. He knows it's hard to find reliable people in the force these days."
Raven frowned into his mug. "Fratenizing with the enemy. Accusing him right in front of every one else to see, suspecting 'collaboration' and arresting him suddenly without a valid reason---of course he will quit." He was quiet, thinking all he had done wrong, and how he could fare better expressing his feelings towards Van without having to tender it with his prick. In a weak moment he began to think about the stars and began to sing an angsty song called 'Bring me back to Life'
The colonel dropped his beer and slammed his hands all over his ears. "Cease, you damn brat! Bloodying my nose was enough torture for one day!"
"Can't sing," Raven declared.
The colonel shook his head, and then pounded the heel of his hand against an ear.
"I should have written him poetry." Raven murmured.
Karl was concentrating on pouring another round and spoke as if Raven hadn't. "I only want the best for Flyheight. He makes an excellent and responsible member for the GF team, and I least expected him to have such undesirable 'involvement' with an enemy. Couldn't you see his better off if you leave him alone?"
"Well, what if it's our destiny to meet? No one can avoid that. And for a point, I don't kill women and children, and he bloody knows that my feet aren't cloven."
The colonel's intense green eyes narrowed. "Where did you hear that?"
"Don't ask, Schubaltz. You would just try to choke the breath from my lungs again, and I'd have to break your arm this time. God only knows how he would react to that."
"You're right." Karl gently touched his swollen eye and winced. "Never has been in my whole life have I seen Van Flyheight so angry with me."
"Yeah. He has the patience of a saint."
Karl scowled and tipped his tankard for a large drink, and then he said, "He must have a wealth of patience. He spent a week with you."
"I'm an ass." Raven admitted,
"Yes, that you are," Karl agreed. "But a very damned painful and twistedly determined ass to that. I had to hire four of my men in their red horns to take you down. They refused to take you down on a second time."
"Me or Zeke?"
Karl shuddered. "Don't remind me of that organoid, it keeps on hitting with my brother at least once a day." (courtesy of episode: emperor's holiday :P)
Both men exchanged identical looks, and then the colonel laughed. "If it weren't for Flyheight, Raven, I might shoot my head just to call you 'buddy'."
Raven rubbed his bruised chin and wince, "Yeah, you're quick old man."
"Who's old?! I'm only 27!" Karl frowned and puffed out his chest, "I'm as strong as I was four years ago at the defeat of the deathsaurer! I graduated at the top of my class in top military honors! I'm only 23 when I became a Major and command fights in the battlefield! Now I'm holding the 1st Panzer division, and before the fall of my zoid in New Helix I---" he raised his fingers and tried to snap them. He couldn't do it. Frowning, Karl took another drink, and then belched. He tapped his chest with his fist. "That's better, now where was I?"
"---the fall of your zoid in New Helix?" Raven supplied gloomily.
"Yes! I can knock a pilot even how advanced his zoid weaponry are from his unit! I can pleasure a lady, two in fact, and I can down a hogshead and a bottle of whiskey and still walk a straight line!" He raised his mug high.
Karl's eyes rolled back and he passed out face down on the table.
Raven stared. Karl was snoring. He picked up his tankard, and then the colonel's and dumped the contents to his. "No sense wasting good liquor," he muttered, then stood and stumbled out of the hall.
He walked down the passages of the military base like a maze, opening a door after another room to room and another hall way. Ten minutes later he found the room he sought. It took him five minutes to light up the room, and then slumped into a small rigid metal chair that squeaked under his weight and rested his elbows on a desk. He searched the top, and then opened a carved wooden box.
"Aha! I knew this would be in here." He grinned, and then took out a piece of thin parchment, a filling pen and a precious pot of ink.
Raven stared at the blank parchment, took a deep breath, and then picked up the pen. He snapped the top off the ink pot, squinted one indigo eye, and tried to fill in the empty pen as he bring the pot nearer to its small hole.
Seven tries and much concentration later, he hit his target. And with his next breath he began to write.
*****
Van Flyheight lay in his bed beneath some blankets and stared at the dark ceiling. His room is high, atop the 2nd floor of the officer's headquarters, isolated to the farthest right. A place for thought. A place for him to curse his foolish heart out.
He missed drifting all of a sudden, recalling how he missed the stars- --he missed the fresh night air. He sorely missed Raven lying next to him all the time---
If only the bastard didn't backstabbed him. Enemy is always an enemy, there is nothing he could do about that. Not unless he had to prove it---prove he is sorry. If he will prove it, how?
A loud crash followed by a couple of 'oof' sounds accompanied more by thuds sounded from outside. He sat upright and listened sharply. There was nothing, only quiet. The sound had awakened Zeke whose head was perked expectantly.
'Must have been my imagination---' he thought. "Go back to sleep, Zeke.'
"Mrnrrfff!" he purred.
He lay down again and snuggled deeper under the covers of his bed with Zeke beside him, who is by the floor. A moment later a pebble bounced across his opened window. Zeke leapt up and made an sharp grunt, looking around in full-alert and then chased the pebble across the room.
Very slowly, Van swung out the bed and, back pressed to the solid wall, slipped through the window and stopped. A handful of pebbles flew through the opening.
"Pssstt!" More pebbles pattered the cemented floor.
He stuck his head out of the window, "Raven?" he whispered.
He stood in the empty military yard below with a lamp held high in one hand, Shadow his dark organoid is with him, and with the looks of it, they had knocked down a couple of watch guards.
"What are you doing? How did you get out of your de--"
"Shhhh!!!" he raised a finger to his mouth. "Can you hear me?"
"Of course I can hear you! You're shouting!"
"Good." He stood a little straighter, and then weaved slightly.
"You're drunk, Raven."
"Nothing that I can handle, it's just a bottle or two." He stumbled slightly, and then held a piece of parchment up near the lamp. Too near. A corner of the parchment suddenly flamed. With a curse, he dropped the paper and stomped out the flame, then shoved the lamp to shadow's grip, and bent down and picked up the parchment. He squinted at it, and then puffed out his chest. He nudged shadow to hold the lamp high, as he stretched the parchment out and shouted, "Ode to this coincidental opposition!" (For hint: check out title in 1st part -author)
"What?!" Van braced his hands on the window ledge. Zeke joined him and peered down as he leaned outside.
"Oh, Van Flyheight, thoughtful and fair----" Raven flung his arm out wide and nearly knocked the lamp in Shadow's grip, the organoid grumbling annoyingly. "---which the sunset made shine of his deep ebony hair."
'He is spouting poetry', he realized. Sunset made shine of his deep ebony hair---'it's so lovely when he said that.'
"Your eyes with its deep onyx gaze--- gracefully set against on your wonderfully tanned face."
He felt his face flush, and a smile crept to his lips.
"Mrvmf?"
"Shut up Zeke, he is reading me poetry."
The silver organoid sweat dropped.
"And to see you blush red, how I want to bed---" Raven paused, "---you. Don't bid me adieu."
Van frowned.
"I dream of you dressed like that as a soldier," he bellowed, referring to Van's red and gray lieutenant outfit. "---instead of my own Genobreaker!"
Van leaned back against the solid wall, his hands to his stomach, trying to contain an urge to laugh.
"Your manhood as pink as a pig----"
His mouth dropped open, his manhood as pink as a 'PIG?'
"And the wet sex that flows taste like honey figs."
Van clapped a hand over his mouth and chuckled, his face flushing bright red. Damn! Raven is making the whole world know what they did!
"And as sure as I can fart, you will always have my heart!" Raven finished proudly.
By then Van is sitting down the floor, holding his sides and laughing so hard that tears streamed down his eyes. He wiped then, still chuckling as his mind's eye still saw Raven standing in the military yard, where anyone could and probably had seen him, spouting the worse poetry he'd ever heard so loudly that he could have been heard in whole Zi.
It had grown strangely quiet outside. Van let go of his sides and got up. He looked out the window. The yard was empty.
"Raven?"
He heard a soft grunt. Van gripped the ledge and leaned farther out the window. Raven struggled half-way up with the half-rusty ladder found about in the base's storage area. He had a long red rose clenched in his teeth.
"Raven, be careful! The ladder doesn't look very---"
A loud scratching crack pierced in the air. The ladder wobbled for an instant, and then slowly fell backward. There was a shout of surprise, and the ladder hit the ground with a thud, sending other goods falling and tumbling down the ground. The goods rustled and Zeke crawled out of the window and jumped through the other packed up boxes by the wall, grunting and sniffing him out.
There was a moan. Raven cursed. Van blanched. In minutes, the people hearing the commotion near Flyheight's headquarters quickly lighted up the whole base and sounded the alarm. There were soldiers every where and they surrounded the whole area, very perplexed and finding things odd--- to see the dazed gray-haired youth with his black organoid carrying a rose in his mouth and Van Flyheight hurriedly climbing outside, panicking. All the while, the rest of the gang still sleeps soundly, and the Imperial Army Colonel still snored.
*****
Raven's stitches have been neatly placed the next day in the infirmary section, amid the reluctant people in the base that took him in. Hadn't it been for Van's persistence, the gray-haired pilot might never have taken the treatment. Van was in the infirmary room all the time, looking about worriedly and never left his side, crying his eyes out that he killed him. Outside the room, the colonel walked to and fro guiltily, Irvine reading a magazine, and Thomas cursing about silently. The lieutenant can't do anything to console Miss Fiona, who seems sickly worried of Van's actions as she sat beside Moonbay outside with the group by the waiting area. He finds nothing to fault but the commanding higher officer in charge, his brother.
"Colonel---no, I mean Karl! Why did you let Raven escape! He could have killed Flyheight last night!" He whined, not necessarily concerned about Van, but because Miss Fiona is direly worried lately of the younger boy's actions. It seemed he have 'more' than sympathy with Raven.
"He didn't attempt to kill Flyheight." The colonel muttered, giving his brother an embarrassed but commanding glare. "He said---" pausing for awhile, Karl was sure he was still sober when he talked to Raven after a couple of drinks. "He said he is going to read him poetry."
"POETRY?!"
Everyone gaped at the ashen blonde colonel, who seems to be irritated with the surprised glances. After all, Raven is the last person in the whole Zi who would consider writing and reading a poem. He is pretty curious himself, "Yes, he told me 'I should have written him poetry.'"
"Goodness, Karl! You might have been drunk---"
He whipped a glance to Thomas that stopped the latter from continuing. "I'm not YET drunk when I heard him say it. I'm trying to cover my ears from hearing him sing 'Fly me to the moon'. Definitely, I'm very sober."
"Raven SINGS?"
The colonel just shrugged. Maybe the liquor had brought about a side of Raven that others haven't seen before. To be honest, Karl himself is the only person to know the 'secret' between the two rivals---he considered himself lucky that Raven hadn't told anyone so far about his ramblings before he passed out. 'I can pleasure a lady, two even!' he recalled saying, and a couple of more embarrassing words that he swore he can't imagine even telling his younger brother. 'Goodness, what will happen if THEY find out?'
"YES, he sings---well, he is drunk so probably that's why he sang." He muttered irritatedly, hoping not to press the conversation much longer. He got other duties to attend, but he can't leave since he is the one in charge in Raven's capture.
"I wonder what it means when someone gives a red rose?" Fiona whispered, that catches the attention all of them. Her question is off the topic, but it saves Karl's skin from anymore pesky questions coming from Thomas.
"Why, Miss Fiona!" Thomas attention zoomed to 100 percent at the blonde zoidian. "Giving a red rose is also as same as proposing one's love---" He said, almost blushing. "---it's a symbol of romantic affection."
Her cherry red eyes widened in an unnatural and worried degree. "Is that why Raven was seen with a red rose in his mouth outside Van's headquarters?"
"WHAT?"
Irvine fell from the place he was sitting, and the rest exchange shocked glances, all except the Imperial Army colonel.
"How come you are not surprised?!"
"I didn't see it coming." Karl muttered, tilting his cap to his eyes. "Besides, it's a crazy idea." He said, blocking the infirmary room's window. Fiona's face slowly crumbled and looks really worried right now, to which the lieutenant can no longer bear, Karl is trying to hide something.
He said Raven wants to read Van a poetry, then he sings his heart out with 'Fly me to the moon', then Fiona points out that the gray-haired youth was found tumbled down in an attempt to climb in Van's room-with a red rose in the mouth. A little all too suspicious
"Why don't you let me inside? I want to see it for myself!"
Karl stood stiffly in front of the room. His eyes commanding, his arms crossed to his chest. Obviously irritated with his brother's lack of ethics.
"I ask your permission, Colonel, sir!"
Karl still didn't budge.
"I demand to see what is really going on!!" he stubbornly pressed, but Karl pressed two arms firmly in front of him. "You are not to disobey my order, Thomas. There is nothing in here you want to see."
Probably because of Fiona's distraught appearance, Thomas must have drawn a lot of superhuman strength and threw his weight against his much bigger brother, forcing the door to open. Surprisingly, it was unlocked, and Thomas came crashing in through the infirmary room.
The others came streaming inside the room, only to find the biggest shock of their lives. Raven and Van were atop of each other in the infirmary bed in a scandalous position. Raven was underneath, his head bounded by thick gauze, and the brunette is kneeling in front of him, whose pants are almost undone and the other pilot's pale hands clutching the cheeks of his rear. Thomas sudden 'intermission' jolted them both, that Raven caught a part of his gauze between Van's trouser zipper, causing his head to be stuck just between there.
Van's onyx gaze widened in surprise, bringing about a sudden flood of embarrassment in his cheeks. "G-Guys!" he gasped, trying to jump off the bed. He felt a tight snitch, and a mild curse coming from Raven.
"Van! My stupid gauze is stuck in your pants!"
"Pull it!"
"Easy for you to say,"
"V-Vaa---You---having-s-s-with HIM?!" Thomas loosed all his color and nearly went mental at the sight of them. Fiona let out a mild shriek and fainted, falling to Thomas arms. Moonbay covered her mouth to prevent a shout from coming out, and Irvine dropped his jaw. It was Karl, who still remained as cool as a cucumber who is the first one to break the ice.
"Don't tell me I didn't warn you people," he said tersely. Then tossing a pocket knife to Van, "Here," he said, as he starts to turn pink. "Cut that gauze off your----it's embarrassing for everyone to see." Then he glanced at the fainted Zoidian, "---and it seems will be needing an extra bed too."
"You KNEW all the time?" Moonbay finally spoke, looking at the colonel furiously. "Why didn't you say so?"
"I didn't know how you people would react."
"React?! REACT, we are emotionally scarred now, thank you very much!" Thomas snapped, holding the fainted zodian in his arms. Karl had already mastered selective hearing from Thomas and ignored his brother's complains. What he worries now, is how Van would make everyone understand on what they have 'seen.'
"Umm, Van when you learned that you're ah - umm, you know--" "Well, I think it's after 'victory' the party." The boy finally replied, then glancing up to the speechless Irvine. "Right, 'sugar bear'?"
Raven chuckled, as he pulled the loose gauze off. 'Sugar bear' is a cute nick name after all.
"H-Hey!" Irvine retorted, noticing the angry glances glowering from everybody. "It is a joke! Everyone knows it! You are joking right? I mean you and Raven? Come o--"
"It's your entire fault IRVINE!!" everyone shouted angrily.
*****
Later that night,
"You are alone."
"I'm used to it," Raven said softly, his indigo orbs drifting to the night sky. Stars-he is always fascinated with them, it brings back the much peaceful memoirs of his then uncorrupted past. "So how was Shadow?"
"He's fine, Zeke just get quite jealous when he's around." Van replied lazily, leaning over the railings, joining the gray-haired pilot outside the hangar. "So how's your head? The stitches I mean."
"Never been better," he made a serious disposition, then looking at his tanned face. "It just needed a little kiss to get the boo boo away."
Van blanched then flushed, and seeing that reaction, Raven let out a roar of laughter. He caught him there.
"It's your fault Raven! Now I can't face my buddies for a month!" he muttered, his cheeks burning hot with embarrassment. Raven said the same thing when he woke up into the infirmary room; Van gave him a quick kiss on the forehead, and that kiss lead from one thing to another, fighting dominance who will straddle to the top.
"So was Irvine," Raven replied, "-guess it was him to blame for all this that happened, eh?"
"Nah," the smaller boy replied, then silently, leaned his head lazily to Raven's shoulder. "I think it's even a little before that I guess, but he apologized anyway after I explained him my story." Then they lay silent for awhile.
In a few minutes they began to talk again, like old friends would. Van mumbled something about the gang being disappointed but not upset, that Fiona is sad but same time happy just to see Van is satisfied with his decision, and Raven remarked how Irvine and Thomas made awkward glances--- amused especially when Thomas screamed like a girl when he appeared from behind, shouting 'Don't try to grab my ass, you dickhead!'.
"Can't fault him with that," Van sighed, "But I think deep within his heart he is happy, he stands a chance with Fiona now."
Raven rolled up his eyes, "Yeah, that is---without stammering at first."
They idly glanced again outside the hangar, the decision Raven made, to surrender himself willingly, have granted quite a celebration for almost everyone in that base, and probably everyone in Zi. So happy in fact, that they are setting off fire works. This someone had triggered an effect on Raven's injured head
"I remembered who I am, just about now!" Raven gasped, the impact of the bursting firecracker gave him a sudden memory rush. "My name is M---"
Then came ANOTHER sudden burst of a fire cracker
"Uhhh---now, I forgot!" he scratched his head, "hrrr---"
"Dr. Dee says there is a possibility of you having selective memory loss," Van said, seemingly amused by Raven's confused reaction. He starts to chat incessantly, "Literally, it would take more than such fall again if you want to retrieve the rest of your memory. I think shock therapy would help, it's only a bit painful though, and they used it for amnesiac psychos---"
Raven took advantage of the open mouth and kissed Van so deeply, that the other boy gasped and was almost rendered breathless from it. "I had to admit then, I am a psycho." He whispered against his soft mouth, and the two both softly chuckled as the festive air.
They watched the fireworks for awhile; Raven then lightly nudged Van by the shoulder. "I want to show you something---" he whispered to his delicate ear, and then lightly tugging the youth behind him, they climbed by the roof top. Once reaching there, they leaned down and glanced at the night sky, there were fewer fireworks, but at that portion you can see the stars. "I remember how long before, I would go and gaze above the stars. My father will talk to me that we came from a blue planet from not so far away from the Milky Way. I like that story, since it's the last loving memory from him and my mother."
"-and you told your father how much you hate Zoids, Raven."
His indigo eyes drifted to the stars above, as was his thoughts. "Yeah, I sure do."
"So if you really hate zoids so much, how come you still pilot them till now?"
Raven blinked, come to think of it, the other youth has a point.
"Psyche!" Van laughed, and mock punched Raven on the shoulder. The gray- haired pilot frowned, but his irritation quickly evaporated upon seeing the genuine happy smile on Van's face. "I don't know either!" he softly chuckled, but he was partially serious, "I think it's just wanting to get even I guess."
The brunette snuggled closer to him, his dark onyx gaze leveled up to meet his far-away watching indigo eyes. "Nothing you do Raven would bring them back you know. Just honor them that they may find peace, they do something that they don't regret and they die doing it. Do you think if they are alive right now that they will be happy just seeing you destroy military bases and take so many lives?"
Van took a deep breath, waiting for Raven's reaction. The taller boy has faced him as he talked, and as usual, his expression is in control and thus unreadable. He hates it when he stares at him like that, so he continued. "Raven, I know also what is like to lose a father. God, he died in the battlefield in trying to save your life! But I didn't resent him for doing it---"
He was surprised when Raven reached out a palm to stroke his cheek, he was almost smiling. "Hush, you don't have to explain everything." He whispered, brushing a finger to his lower lip, that the boy felt a strange sensual shudder that weakened his knees. "I have one thing to say, the same words I told to Col. Schubaltz."
He likened the pale palm caressing his cheek, so he snuggled closer, "Yeah?"
"I'm an ass."
Van lifted a slender eyebrow, but an amused glint was evident in those dark depths. "Why so? I know you are a pain in the neck-but,"
"Listen, Van." Raven admonished gently, "I'm an ass. I finally realized now, that how glad I feel when I say it-because it is the truth. All my life I'm blinded by my own fury, my own hate. I have become nothing but a mercenary who followed orders, and yet knew nothing much in life---so much I don't know that in the end, I didn't know what's the reason why I keep on fighting. I don't have much to believe in."
"Raven---"
"All I know, is I have to keep on confronting you. Facing you in battle, seem the biggest fulfillment in me. Of course, bloody hell I always want to win. But I realized it has something in you that's why I wanted to keep on seeing you again."
"Oh, Raven. That's the sweetest thing I ever heard from you." Van cooed, as if trying to get the other pilot in a lighter mood. There are times Raven have been so deep in confessing his feelings, but it was never been like this. "You mean, you already have a crush on me even before? Why didn't you say so?"
Raven gave him a look then whumped him lightly at the head, "Because I was so confused about my feelings for you before, you moron! Its all your fault, you get into my head so much-it intoxicates me!" The brunette stopped, then blushed, inched away and sat up, not knowing what to say. He didn't want to let Raven see he is blushing. 'He seriously said he had feelings for me even before?'
Raven sat up with him, and sighed. "Alright, I admit to that. I think I was drawn to you because you have something that I hoped I had. I want a life Van, you had your friends who care for you, and I have none. You had something to believe in, and I don't. It's like I have won the battle but lost the war." He looked at him, his gaze filled with nothing he sees before. As if it was looking through the eyes of a lost, and hurt little child.
"That's why I need you, Van." He said, as if he was sorry for all the bad things he did, then pressed his lips to his, a soft pleading one, as if searching for some warm longing and comfort in him. Van responded, and parted his own mouth welcoming the wet heat then holds Raven close. They kissed briefly for a few minutes, when another firecracker burst loudly-almost dangerously near to their direction. With that, they were both jolted back to reality, pulling off each other's grip. "Ah fuck! Can't the fools have some sense and play around elsewhere?" Raven snapped, his old persona seemingly to itself.
Van grinned, "So does your memory came back now? Or do they have to fire another one again?"
Raven looked back at him, then with a shrug. "I will lose more of it anyway if they did."
"Hmmm, Raven?" he glanced up from his shoulder, "I wonder, will you ever remember?"
"I guess so, someday--" he paused, "Maybe not now, or maybe sooner or later. We don't know. But I know you can help me along the way to heal myself, maybe then-it would return." He glanced at Van, inched closer to him and lightly kissed him to the nose, "You are going to show me what it's like to really live, sugar bear."
Van pouted, "Stop calling me sugar bear! It makes me sound like some damn sweet pastry." And Raven laughed, and Van followed good-naturedly.
"You know what I thought of now? There are things much important in the world that I want to make up to you." Raven smiled, "You know what it is?"
"Just let the past flow away down stream."
"Besides that," he grinned, a small wicked one. His figure leaning over closer to Van's. Too close, that with just a tap, Van will fall down and he'll land atop of him. He kissed him daintily by the skin of his neck, "I always want to see you moan on a heightened orgasm while looking at the starry sky as I make love with you underneath the noisy fireworks."
"You ARE an ass." Van said, but he was smiling ear to ear. And with the care free attitude, they both chuckled and held each other close, abandoning the world.
~END~
- wahh!! *Brings out boxes of tissue and blows* I think I just did it! Too much cootie sweet mushiness! *scratches cooties away* I hoped you liked it! Please review! Hopefully not yet the last--- *drags her ass to 'the mercenary who loved' and 'tourniquet'*