Title: Beyond the Blue Event Horizon

Author: Omnicat

Spoilers & Desirable Foreknowledge: Studio Bones's Darker Than Black.

Warnings: Extremely vaguely described sex.

Characters & Relationships: Misaki x Hei

Summary: The choices they'd made apart had united them; now chance has done the same. / 598 words

Author's Note: AU for Gemini of the Meteor. Enjoy!

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Beyond the Blue Event Horizon

Blue.

His eyes are blue. Dark, dark blue, like the night sky used to be.

Misaki doesn't know whether the name she calls him is real. Maybe it is; he has always been bold. Maybe it isn't; he is shrewd too. But when she looks in his eyes, she remembers trips to the countryside when she was a girl, to a place – what was it called? – where there were no city lights and no skyscrapers. The stars seemed to double, triple, quadruple, the further they left the hazy city light behind them.

When her head rolls back and she gasps for breath, there is a moment when the blue of his eyes overlays with the firmament above, and she thinks she sees those old skies from her childhood.

Then the colours change, the glimmer fades, and the cloudless country sky with its fake stars looks like the city's.

It feels almost as if it's a sign.

Getting older, moving to different places. Growth and change, not loss and sacrifice. Maybe.

Now is not the time for metaphors and contemplation. Her mind is jumbled, incoherent, all her focus claimed by her body. But she has been a cop for too long to stop her mind from racing now. Searching for leads, connecting dots, questioning appearances – this man grinding against her and twitching beneath her hands was once her most wanted suspect. Not letting her guard down when he is so close is the only natural thing to do. The only sane thing.

This man, entranced by her body like it is a foreign delicacy, could have been a friend, too, once. They were so close to becoming friends, even through the veil of suspicion that, like cobwebs of intuition, she had never been able to shake.

But then – it had been inevitable, then. She, an ordinary human, a policewoman; he, a Contractor, chained to the Syndicate's goals. They both knew it was coming.

She does not know what they are now. What does this make them?

Naked, hot, sweaty, short of breath. Intimate beyond imagination – cheek to cheek, bodies aligned, joined.

At least there are no more lies between them. No more hide and seek. Whatever this is, it is genuine. Two people, an approach, a smile – a reunion between like minds in a playing field that is, for once, if only for now, empty of anyone but themselves.

Tonight they are not a cop and a Contractor breaking character on a blanket at the water's edge. Just Misaki and Li, as outrageous, dreamy-eyed, idealistic – she laughs breathlessly into his hair, slides a hand along his shoulder, and he presses a kiss to her jaw, finds and suckles on a sensitive piece of skin – as absurd as they have ever wanted to be.

Who says the new stars are fake, anyway?

Maybe this is the perfect moment for metaphors and contemplation.

Eventually they will have to talk. Not like what they did before this, the shocked silence of a vacation disturbed, the curt, tense affirmations, the careful rationing of words until the things left unsaid finally told them that said too many words would only get in the way, spelled out action. Misaki will not forget that, even when he fills her body and pleasure fills her mind. But it's okay.

This is what they have chosen and everything they are fighting for. This is the dream and the proof. It is bigger than either of them, yet for the moment all theirs. The thing they chose independently, finally united, confirming, celebrating. Coexistence. Not conflict.

Oh no, not conflict.

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PSAN: Comments on older fics will always remain welcome. :)