"MAYBE"

A Birthday Present for Cain

By: Plushii

DISCLAIMER: The beautiful, lovely, wonderful, and sexy Cain and Abel (and Ethos. And Starfighter universe) belong to hamletmachine. I am merely playing in her sandbox.

"The fuck do you think you're doing?"

It's a growl, and it's too soft, and it's coming from behind him. Abel turns, startled, to find Cain standing close, close, always too close. Instinctively he coils back, bringing both of his hands up towards his face with fingers curled in an expression that Cain will never admit to thinking is incredibly fucking cute.

"Cain?" Abel asks softly, as if he might be some kind of fucking hallucination instead of the real thing.

"In the flesh, sweetheart. What the fuck do you think you're doing?"

For a moment Abel doesn't answer, and then his shy expression takes on that inner strength that Cain doesn't know the origins of (and isn't surehe wants to know the origins of), but wants to own. Cain wants to own it almost as much as he wants to own Abel; almost as much as he needs to own Abel.

"I told you to leave me alone."

"I heard you the first time, Princess, but here I am. Going to do something about it?"

Abel looks agitated, and then, inexplicably, resigned. "Why are you here?"

"I was looking for something that belongs to me: Skinny little bitch with a cut lip and a beautiful ass."

Abel stares on with a muted expression, as if he is less than amused by the assessment of himself, and when he opens his mouth it's to simply say, "Go away, Cain."

"Tell me what the—"

"—fuck I am doing is none of your business, Cain. Go away."

Cain stares at the stubborn set of Abel's lips and the slight tilt of his jaw that Cain has learned to mean Abel means business. When he wants to be gentle, he always reacts the opposite, and when he thinks to reach out and stroke Abel's hair, he twists it up roughly in his fingers instead. Cain jerks Abel's head back and flicks his tongue against the navigator's top lip, detouring to nibble on the scar he left behind to remind Abel of his place.

"You're going to regret this, Abel."

Abel draws in a shaky breath, his body already reacting to Cain's proximity as he wills himself not to press in any closer and finds himself doing so anyway. "Maybe," he whispers, and Cain lets him go.

Abel waits until he's sure Cain is gone to turn back around, and nearly chases after him when Ethos bubbles over with laughter behind him.

"What did you just say?"

"I asked if you liked cats."

"I fucking hate them. Only pussy I like is yours when my dick's in it."

Abel is beginning to wonder why he bothers. Every conversation that begins with Cain ends with Cain's cock and being fucked by it.

"Can you be serious for a minute, Cain? Please?"

Cain leans across the mattress to bring his fingers under Abel's chin and tilt his head back just enough to grant Cain access to those delectable fucking lips. Cain kisses him, and Abel resists until he's not resisting anymore, and Cain is left to breathe husky laughter against the navigator's mouth.

"This isn't serious enough for you?"

Cain catches at one of Abel's hands and brings it to the growing, hard thickness of his eager cock, and Abel trembles in anticipation. He's almost lost to want and need, but Cain always somehow forgets to count on the fact that his Princess is stubborn as fuck.

Between trembling lips, from beneath lowered lashes, and between quickening breaths, Abel murmurs, "Well... if you don't like cats, then do you like... dogs?"

"There's only one fucking bitch that I want to own," Cain whispers, and he fucks Abel until the navigator howls.

The days come and the days go, but tonight is different than any other night.

Tonight, when Cain returns from another late night, expecting to find Abel curled up asleep, he finds the studious navigator wide awake.

"Why are you still up?" Cain growls, and Abel looks up from his work with a smile that makes Cain want to fuck him all over again.

"Happy Birthday," Abel says softly, pushing his belongings away from their 'bed' and getting slowly to his feet.

Cain freezes, staring at the navigator before slowly circling the bed to stand on the side opposite of Abel. "Thanks."

"Ethos helped me get the records," Abel continues, though tentative, as if waiting for Cain to snap. When the fighter continues to stare, Abel takes it as encouragement to continue, closing some of the distance between them with slow, steady steps. "We thought a lot about what to get you, but in the end we couldn't settle on anything."

"Is that why you were sneaking around and asking me about cats and fucking puppies?"

Abel blushes, floundering for a moment in his own embarrassment, and then he surprised Cain with laughter.

"Yes," he whispers, and averts his eyes away.

"I don't want a fucking pet, sweetheart."

"I know," the navigator says, and he lifts his eyes up to study Cain once more. It's so rare, these moments, when Cain seems as full of awe and wonder for Abel as Abel always feels for him. "You can't bring a pet into space anyway."

"Then what?"

Cain reaches out for Abel when he's close enough, pulling him in tight against his chest when he's overcome with a need to hold him- needing to breathe him. Abel brings his arms around Cain's shoulders and leans in to kiss him. Cain is as responsive as ever, taking what Abel meant to be chaste and devouring him until Abel can't remember left from right or up from down; where he begins, and where Cain ends, and why it's so important that he remembers the fact that they are two very different people.

Cain no longer exists.

Abel no longer exists.

"Tell me, baby. What did you get me?"

Cain's hands are already undoing buttons and clasps, working Abel free of so many restraints, and when Cain's hand closes around his cock, Abel almost forgets what his gift to Cain was in the first place.

Abel lets Cain tumble him into the bed where they twist and they turn, losing everything they are and finding everything they want to be in each other. The moment is so perfect that Abel forgets to breathe, and Cain resurrects him with a searing kiss as the universe combines into one, small, tangibly finite space of breath between them and explodes around them.

When they're done, they lay side by side, relearning how to breathe together, and Abel reaches out one hand to grab at Cain's and lock their fingers together. Cain holds on tight, and when Abel remembers how to speak, he finally gives Cain his birthday gift.

"I love you."

The silence is deafening, lasting long enough for Abel to catch his thoughts jumping between thinking that Cain never heard him or wishing he could disappear with his confession.

Finally Cain moves, rolling onto his side, his upper half on top of Abel as their lips come together with a magnetic force neither of them can deny.

"You're going to regret this, Abel." Cain whispers.

"Maybe," Abel replies, and this time he doesn't try to resist.

AUTHOR'S NOTES: Please be gentle! I know there is some OOC, but this is my very first time writing Cain/Abel, I did it without a beta, and I did it right as I was bitten by the Starfighter muse who thought it was a lovely idea to bother me when I have work in the morning.

I hope you enjoyed it! :) Reviews would be appreciated!