Author: Pirate Turner
Rating: PG
Summary: Bobby corners Hank after he's come home from the Avengers.
Warnings: Slash
Word Count: 1,196
Date Written: 21 June, 2011
Disclaimer: Robert "Bobby" "Iceman" Drake, Doctor Henry "Hank" "Beast" McCoy, all other characters mentioned within, Avengers, and the X-Men are & TM Marvel comics and Disney, neither of which are the author, and are used without permission. Everything else is & TM the author. The author makes absolutely no profit off of this work of fan fiction, and no copyright infringement is intended.
Bobby stopped just inside the bedroom he had slipped into without permission to admire the scenery. He had never seen anything stranger than the man he loved, or more beautiful, and every time he saw him, his breath caught and his heartbeat quickened. Merely watching him scamper across the rooftop made his coldest ice melt. He knew Hank knew he was there from the way his furry, blue ears twitched, and yet he did not look up.
Inside Hank was frozen, but outside he fought to maintain a calm appearance. He finished the page he had been flipping when his beloved came, unannounced, into his bedroom with his claw and forced his eyes to stay on the page as though he was unaware of his presence. Perhaps if Bobby thought he did not know he was there, he would regain his intelligence and abandon him as he should, but he could no more be unaware of his beloved Robert than he could of the cool air blowing over his thick, blue fur.
"Hank," Bobby called, watching his love hanging upside down from his toenails and pretending to read.
Hank cleared his throat and turned a page he hadn't read. "Robert, what brings you here?"
Bobby folded his arms above his chest and kicked the door shut behind him. "You know why I'm here," he stated.
Hank gave a weary sigh and laid his book down upon his monkey bars. He swung down to meet the one person in all the world whom he'd most rather avoid than ever face again, though he was also the one he loved more than anything else in the whole of existence. "I should have known this would happen," he remarked. "A wise man once said that the trials we try the hardest to forego will still always find us for today always eventually becomes the tomorrow we sought to escape."
"Don't sweet talk me," Bobby countered, his brown eyes meeting the eyes that had once been the sweetest pair of baby blues he'd ever seen but were now yellow orbs. "Just tell me the truth."
"The truth is a many quandered thing - "
"Hank," Bobby cut in warningly. The temperature in the room dropped dramatically, and Hank shivered despite his fur.
"What do you want me to tell you, Bobby?"
"Just tell me the truth. Why'd you leave?"
"We both know why I left."
"You were running," Bobby remarked, stepping before him and cutting off any chance he had of running. If he tried to avoid answering him honestly any more this night, he'd wrap him in ice and make him sit until he'd either said what he wanted to hear or given him the news that would permanently rip apart his world. Hank's gaze fell from his. "But now you're back. I can forgive you for running. We all have. But where does this leave us?"
"You have an open door," Hank replied quietly, his watery vision downcast as he fluttered a massive paw at the door that was, in actuality, closed. "Take it."
"I don't want an open door!" Bobby exclaimed heatedly, tears filling his eyes as well. Damn it, why couldn't the man see how much he loved him, how much he'd missed him, how much he needed and wanted him and always would? "I want you!"
Hank's eyebrows rose. "Truthfully?"
"Of course, you big, dumb, blue ass! I swear, for the smartest mutant in the world, you can be a real dumb ass sometimes!" Hank met his gaze at last, and Bobby's own tears stilled in surprise at the shimmering tears he saw reflected back to him. "The question is: Do you love me?"
"I love you no less than - "
"No riddles, Hank. No puzzles or quotes. Just the truth. Just answer the question!"
Hank's next sentence was the most basic word Bobby had ever heard him utter, and yet it was also the most beautiful thing he'd ever heard. "Yes!"
Bobby ran into his arms, and Hank caught him. They squeezed each other so hard that Bobby thought his ribs might break and his lungs cease to breathe, and yet if he had died that way, it would have been the most glorious way to go. He had never been happier, and Hank's loving, flowery words of how his love for him stretched beyond the furthest stars, would always last for far beyond infinity, and all the other quotes of true love and adoration he could remember only added to his happiness. He barely knew what he was saying, but the one thing he understood most of all was also the one thing that mattered the most in all the world to him.
Hank loved him! He still loved him! Despite being blue, despite having gone off and gained fame first as a wrestler and then as an Avenger, despite having left him behind and then come trudging home with his proverbial tail tucked between his fuzzy butt cheeks, Hank still loved him! "Hank," Bobby murmured into his fur, "just shut up and kiss me!"
"As you request, my dearest Robert," Hank purred. Sweeping him up into his arms, he pressed his lips to his in a maddening whirlwind of a kiss scorching with passion and love. Had Bobby been truly made of ice, he would have melted on the spot, but instead the brightest flame that he would ever know, the flame that his beloved Hank had given him since first they'd caressed, blew blazingly hot and warmed him through to the very tips of his curling toes. Still kissing his love, Hank swept him onto the top of his monkey bars with grace the likes of which even the most skilled dancers could only dream, and there, in the truth and heat of the night, they discovered the most fun either of them had ever had on top of a jungle gym as they made sweet love throughout all the night and strove to make up for all the time they had missed.
Even then, deep inside the back of his mind, Bobby knew that one day Hank would leave him again, but now he knew, too, that he would eventually come back to him. Whenever that happened again, and no matter how many times it happened, he would always be there waiting for him. He loved Hank, and he'd always be there waiting for him to stop running from him and just love him throughout all the years, no matter how short or long, they lived.
And even beyond, he thought with a wry grin as Hank's fangs gently nibbled his neck. Even after he was long gone and dead, he swore, his ghost would haunt his beloved for they were meant to be together, and no matter what pulled them apart temporarily, in the end, they would always come again to be where they belonged: together and maddeningly in love! Destiny and love dictated that they be together. One day, even if it only came to pass after his own death, they would stay together, and from that day forward, Bobby would always be at home with his beloved in their own happy paradise.
The End