Flying Swords 20

I had a big hurdle this chapter. Heng and Leander fit together. I know they do. So I have to show that Xi fits Leander too. And where we go from there... yeah, I'm not sure. I'll let you know when I do.

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Leander's shoulders stung from the bird's talons but as he sat up in the shallows of the sluggish river, he realized he wasn't hurt anywhere else. His next thought was of Xi. “Are you all right?” He struggled to free himself from the sucking mud that had trapped his legs.

Xi was laying face up on the bank, one arm half buried in the silt and mud, but he braced himself on a rather large rock that he had barely missed landing on. “What was that?” he asked. Mud dripped from his hair and a clump of slimy grass was draped over his shoulder like the edge of a cloak. The sight was enough to make Leander giggle. Or maybe it was the relief. That was possible.

“Are you laughing at me?” Xi sounded incredulous.

“No,” Leander said, but he didn't even try to disguise the fact that he was lying.

Xi ran his fingers through his hair, flinging off the mud that gathered on his hands. “Before you say anything, you should think about how you look. I think that's a fish on your head.”

Leander reached for his hair, but all he found was more mud. He glared at Xi who was now scooping up handfuls of water and trying to clean himself. “Seriously, though, what was that?”

Leander looked at his shoulder and the four talon marks neatly drawn across it. “I think we got too close to a bird's nest.”

“What the hell kind of bird was that?”

“A very large one,” Leander answered. He looked up the slope and while there was no sign of a bird, all of the baskets were still set high on the slope. Leander would not abandon them to any animal no matter how sharp the talons. However, next time he tried climbing, he was going to have a very sturdy branch in hand and a few dozen vines ready to trap the damned thing.

“I have mud in places mud should never go,” Xi said in a miserable voice. He reached up under his robe, and Leander’s eyes grew wide as he remembered that no one had bought Xi pants. He waded into the deeper part of the river and started rinsing in the waist-deep water. Leander had been about to say something uncharitable and witty, but Creek stripped off his robe without warning. The words died in Leander’s throat.

Xi must have taken Leander’s silence as criticism because he said, “I am not going back to the Nie house covered in mud with sand jammed in places that are guaranteed to chafe. I might still be wet when we get back, but I will be semi-clean.”

Leander looked down at himself and understood the impulse. The Chinese cared about propriety, and no matter how fine his baskets were, nobody would be impressed if he looked like he had swum through mud. On the other hand, he desperately did not want to strip here. “I'm going to wade upstream and find deeper water.”

“Give it a rest. We lived together for years, and I have seen everything you have multiple times. I’m pretty sure all of us have seen each other's altogethers. Do you remember when Miss Tiffany walked in when Ireen had decided to use our bathroom because Tecca was always taking up the girls bathroom?”

“I’d forgotten that.” Talk about stupid people. Tiffany had been a high-school drop out hired as an unglorified babysitter, and she’d been convinced that Ireen would get pregnant from sitting on the toilet while Finn was in the shower. Instead Leander had a few very sharp words about what he would do to Ireen’s hair, her clothes, her homework, and her reputation if she ever came near a naked Finn again.

And then Finn had a long conversation with Leander about possessiveness and bisexuality and boundaries.

That would be why Leander tried to avoid thinking about the incident.

“We were different people back then,” Leander said.  He climbed to his feet, losing a shoe as he tried to free himself from the mud. Before he could retrieve it and stand, Xi was there in all his nearly naked glory. He was wearing the weird underwear that had slits up the outer legs, cloth to nearly the knee on the inner leg and ties on either side of the waist to hold it up.  It wasn’t enough to hide the cut abs or the curves of his muscles or the way water slid over his body.

Leander was a fucking monk these days, but he wasn’t dead. Hell, even if he was dead, he might react to a half-naked Xi with his sharp cheekbones and sharper lines on his abdomen. 

“It’s safer if you stay here. It's not like I'm going to jump your bones, and if I were, we have a perfectly good bed at home. It's weird, the bedroom itself is so tiny that I can cross it in three steps, two if I put a little effort in, but the bed is impressive.”

Keeping his gaze on the far riverbank, Leander said, “I can’t figure out whether we're being disrespected or whether the Chinese just have a different understanding of what a bedroom should look like.”

“I'm happy enough for anything that comes with some privacy.”

Leander winced. He had been so busy feeling sorry for himself that he hadn’t even asked how Xi felt. “I can ask them to open a new bedroom and move out,” he offered.

Xi rolled his eyes. “I didn't mean you, idiot. When I first graduated,” and at that word, Xi made air quotes with his fingers, “they moved me from a student dormitory to an employee dormitory. That was a lack of privacy, but I don't mind sharing with you because I know you're not going to report any treasonous thoughts to our handlers.”

“Your handlers are on the other side of the planet.” Leander struggled to make his words sound like a joke, but the truth horrified him. Some days when Druwolf had asked him to do something particularly heinous, Leander had envied Xi for getting out before his soul was irreparably corrupted. It sounded like there was little to envy.

“I take great comfort in that,” Xi said with a laugh before he waded back into the deeper part of the river to continue washing. “But seriously, strip down and rinse off because I don't care if you were smart enough to put pants under your dress, you still have sand and mud in uncomfortable places.”

He wasn't wrong. Leander didn't bother with the buttons; he pulled the robe over his head and then groaned at the mud that stained his cuffs so badly that he couldn’t see the embroidery. “Great,” he whispered. Leander scrubbed the cloth with his bare hands.  Auntie Daiyu said that even simpletons with a touch of Chinese magic could perform cleaning spells, yet Leander was helpless in the face of dirt. He would have to ask Mother Huiling to get the robe properly cleaned, but Xi was right that he needed to at least get the worst off. Hopefully Mother Huiling and Father Xiaobo would be amused by their adventure instead of thinking that they were completely useless.

He looked up, and Xi appeared to have finished washing his robe, but he was standing in thigh deep water with his back heaving as he took deep breaths. “Xi?” Leander called.  He draped his robe over a nearby rock.

Xi didn't turn, saying, “Yes?” from his spot.

Now Leander knew something was wrong. “Hey what's that?” he shouted. Xi whirled around, his hands already up as though to ward off an attacking bird.

“What the hell?” Leander blurted.

Xi covered his crotch with both hands, although that still didn’t hide the obvious bulge in the thin, white material of his underwear. If anything, the fabric highlighted Xi’s impressive endowments. “You have one, too,” he said defensively. “I assume you know how it works.”

“But you're hard,” Leander said, confused.

“And I assume you knew that that occasionally happens, but again, I might be wrong. Maybe you’re as cold and sexless as people whisper behind your back,” Xi snarled. The words were barbs that sunk deep, and Leander flinched at the vitriol, but he was also aware that Xi was trying to drive him away. He had never been subtle, after all. 

Bracing himself for more insults, Leander waded through the water, closing the distance between them until they could have touched if they had both reached for one another. “I am fully aware of what makes a man hard, I just don't know why you would have that reaction here.” Leander knew what the logical answer was, but it didn't make sense.

Xi rolled his eyes. “Are we going to have another round of Leander's self-deprecating insecurity?” His voice was a growl of displeasure, but he was still hard, and Leander struggled to keep his eyes from straying to Xi’s crotch.

“Are you saying you're attracted to me?”

Xi threw his hands up in the air. “Of course I'm attracted to you. It's not like I kept it a secret when we were young.”

“It was a secret from me!”

“Fine, then everyone except you knew that I liked you, but all you could ever see was Finn. Even when you two agreed to date other people and keep it casual,” Xi’s voice dripped with derision, “you still couldn't look away from Finn long enough to notice me. Face it, at fourteen, you were obsessed.”

With a snort, Leander forced his gaze back up to Xi’s face. “Clearly I was because I couldn't see the betrayal that was coming straight for me.”

For a time, Xi stared at him, and Leander's discomfort grew like a weed in Leander’s chest. “I feel like we talk in circles.” Xi’s voice was lifeless.

“Surprising given that I feel like we have just entered completely new territory.” 

Xi sighed and turned his back. “I don't mean to make you feel uncomfortable. I can move back to the house in town. Give me a couple weeks and I can reach my contacts and move on.”

Leander caught Xi by the arm and pulled him around so they were nearly nose to nose, and that meant they were other anatomy to other anatomy, and Leander now regretted his choice. However, he was accustomed to bluffing his way through distressing situations. “Why are you jumping from me being surprised to running away?”

“Because you don't look pleased at the realization.”

“You idiot. Of course I'm pleased! Who wouldn’t be pleased that someone was attracted to them? You’re as stupidly hot as you are stupid, so of course I’m pleased. But you can’t rearrange my entire world view and all my memories of our childhood and expect me to just.. I don’t know… deal with it. I don’t deal with change well!”

They stared at each other, two idiots standing in a river with mud in their hair and a lifetime of fucking idiocy between them.

Xi spoke softly, “You have a shitty way of showing that you’re pleased.”

Leander made a production out of looking down where Xi had softened considerably. “You’re not looking so pleased yourself.  But are you serious? Men can get erections without wanting to have sex.”

Xi snorted and the sound turned into strangled laughter. “You’re an idiot. When we were kids, you were the one that always held us together as one strange dysfunctional little family.”

“I most certainly was not. Finn was the social one who always charmed people and brought them into our little circle.”

“His charm was superficial. He smiled at everyone; there was nothing important behind the kind words he said and didn’t mean. But you were the obsessed one who held onto the rest of us, even when we were too hurt and damaged to hold onto each other. You made our family work.”

“That's not how I remember it.” Leander had always felt like a side character in Finn’s story, and that feeling had grown worse with each decision Finn made. He got Tecca pregnant, and Leander felt like he shrank. She lost the baby and he shrank more. Finn chose to stay with her night after night and he felt like there was nothing of him left at all. Of course, by then Xi had been taken by the police and Petel had disappeared at the end of junior year.  Ireen had started doing drugs and Karn was so busy studying that he didn’t have time for anyone.

“Your memory is a faulty thing,” Xi said. “Finn charmed people. He charmed everyone. But you were the glue. When you held on to someone, when you took them into your family, you made us believe you would never let us go.”

“Our therapist at our group home would've called that unhealthy attachment,” Leander said, struggling to turn the tone of the conversation using humor, but the words did not come out humorous at all.

“Probably,” Xi agreed, “but for a bunch of orphans who are used to having no one, it felt good.”

Leander ran his fingers through his hair, not sure where to take this conversation. No matter what Xi said, the fact was that he wasn't good with people. Maybe his obsessive tendencies had made some misfit orphans cling to each other more tightly, but that wasn't the same as being equipped for an adult conversation of this nature.

Xi moved closer, resting his palm against Leander's chest. “You were always our heart,” he said softly. “I don’t know what it was like when Finn broke you. Not really. He talked about how much he regretted hurting you, but Finn was never the special one. You were.”

Leander’s heart pounded and heat simmered in his belly, but he had no words. He had never been good with words. As the river flowed past them, Leander stared at Xi, struggling to put the pieces of his shattered world back together. The light started to dim in Xi’s eyes, shadowed by his insecurities and doubt, and Leander lunged forward, sliding a hand behind Xi’s neck and pulling him in for a bruising kiss.

Leander surprised himself.  However, now that he had made his decision, he plowed ahead.  His other hand found the small of Xi’s back and pulled their bodies closer.  Leander’s cock hardened as Xi undulated against him. Xi gasped and arched his back, breaking the kiss.

“Are you sure?” Xi asked.

“You started this,” Leander said, suddenly unsure whether Xi wanted this.

“I’ve been in love with you since I was thirteen. By the way, that makes you the idiot for not noticing.”

“Asshole,” Leander said, but he pulled Xi toward shore.  Xi grabbed his robe from a rock and led them to a patch of grass with roots set deep into the soil.  “I… Creek,” Leander whispered.

Xi’s smile turned soft and he tossed his robe aside before pressing himself to Leander’s body, allowing the heat to gather between them.

Leander’s heart thumped so fast that he feared having a heart attack, but it would be a wonderful way to go. He ghosted hands over Xi’s damp skin, sliding his fingers over muscles. Heat gathered in his gut and his cock was harder than it had been in years. Lust had become an obstacle to overcome with a few quick strokes, so this bone deep need, this urge to climb all over Xi surprised him.

When Leander moved to kiss Xi, he half-feared he would be rejected. Instead, Xi’s mouth met his with an answering hunger—no hesitation, no tentative touches, just two bodies moving as if this had always been meant to happen. Heat spread through Leander’s chest, and he tightened his hold around Xi’s waist, reveling in the softness of Xi’s lips. 

There was desperation in it, too, a sense that if Leander moved wrong, something fragile would shatter. When Leander didn’t deepen their kiss, Xi bit at Leander’s lower lip, teasing and then letting up when Leander gasped. The world shrank to just the two of them and the earthiness of the river bank and the crisp sharpness of wet rocks and the heat of the sun filtering through the trees far above on the top of the slope. Xi’s fingers stroked Leander’s hair, then slipped to his jawline, thumb tracing the stubble while Leander traced the curve of Xi’s spine. 

Leander lost himself in the moment in a way he normally only lost himself in his plants. Thoughts came slowly and time was anchored only through the drumming of his heart. When the need for air finally forced them apart, Leander gasped, his entire body trembling.

Xi broke into laughter, the sound low and a little hoarse, and then he pulled Leander to the ground. The river and the sky and the entire fucking insane world had shrunk to just this moment.

Leander’s hands slid beneath Xi’s strange underwear, brushing the hot, hard cock hidden underneath. But then he froze, not sure how far Xi wanted to take this–not sure how far he wanted to take this. Leander pressed his forehead to Xi’s and whispered, “I don’t know what the fuck we’re doing.”

Xi laughed. “Me, neither.” His fingers trailed up Leander’s inner thigh before pulling at the waist of his pants. “But I’m willing to figure it out. Are you?” Xi’s hand paused at the waistband, and Xi looked into Leander’s eyes.  This close, Leander could see the flecks of gold in his eyes–the uneven pigment of his iris, the patience and deep well of emotion. He’d never been able to read people well, but at some point, Xi had slipped close enough that Leander understood him.

It was terrifying.

“Yes,” Leander whispered.  Before he could second guess his decision, Xi stripped him of his pants.  Leander gasped, and Xi gave him a wicked grin before leaning over him, pinning Leander to the damp ground, and for once the awareness of the plants under him was a distant thing, muted by the heat that gathered between them.

Leander pulled the tie on the side of Xi’s underwear, appreciating the simplicity of the traditional garment. No elastic. No fly or jock cup, just one little pull and the fabric falls away. Leander was a fan. And now he could reach his goal. He ran his hand up the pulsing hardness of Xi’s cock, feeling powerful as his touch made Xi suck air through his teeth and arch his back. 

Xi gazed down at him, one hand braced on the ground and then other resting on Leander’s chest. “You are fucking perfect.” The way he said it–his voice strangled–Leander could almost believe him. Then Xi leaned down and kissed him again. The world seemed to tilt dangerously, as if he had been unplugged from gravity and the only thing holding him steady was Xi’s weight holding him down.

After a time, Xi pulled Leander’s underwear down, and Leander kicked it free, determined to find traditional underwear with those easy-pull strings. Xi kissed him with a desperate collision of lips and lust and need. Tongues met, retreated, advanced, battled, and smothered any complaint he might have made. He hadn’t thought a kiss could shatter him, but Xi’s lips were everywhere—teasing, nipping, soothing, demanding. Whenever he tried to breathe, Xi was there, capturing his breath, his laughter, his small gasps of pleasure and disbelief. Every protest or hesitation dissolved under the relentless onslaught.

Then Xi was gone, and Leander was gasping for air like a fish stranded on land. Before he could complain about being abandoned, Xi bend down and licked a stripe up Leander’s cock.  Leander dug his heels into the grass and thrust up into the air, but Xi pressed him down, firm hands on his hips.

Leander was sweating and straining against those infuriating hands that trapped him as Xi kissed his inner thigh before trailing a string of kisses over his stomach and up to his nipple. Each kiss was a brand, and the heat sank into Leander, marking him–changing him forever.

Leander straddled him, and wrapped his hand around both shafts, pressing their heat together, and Leander’s breath stuttered at the sensation. Xi’s grip was callused and sure as he stroked them together. Leander tried to bite back the groan that rose in his throat, but the sound escaped anyway, mingling with the rhythmic slap of flesh and the bubbling whisper of water flowing over smooth stones. Xi buried his face in the crook of Leander’s neck, and nibbled his collarbone before sucking a bruise to the surface. It was hard and hungry and painful.

“Stop it,” Leander grumbled.

“Sir, yes, sir,” Xi said with a laugh. He kissed the too-warm skin before he started thrusting slowly.  Electricity danced through Leander’s body until he trembled, not able to control his own reaction. Leander dug his fingers into Xi’s back, pulling him down so their bodies pressed close. Still, Xi kept up his same tortuous slow pace, their cocks trapped in that strong hand as he tormented them both.

Lust stained every part of Leander until he slipped free of time and existed only for the pleasure that slowly built until it was near intolerable. Xi’s hand worked them with unerring precision, and each motion seemed to unravel a thread inside Leander’s body. He wanted to speak, to make a joke or at least plead for mercy, but he couldn’t find language; there was only feeling, only the want that had always been there, dormant and ignored, now rising up in him like a powerful tide that refused to let go. He’d always seen himself a tree—staid and calm and enduring in the face of drought and hardship, but he burned far hotter. He tried to anchor himself with the smell of river and the discomfort of the grass beneath him, but even that was swept away by Xi’s touch. The air buzzed with insects, somewhere a bird called out, but it was only a distant hum that didn’t matter as long as Xi’s hands were on him.

“I need… I…” Leander struggled to form coherent thoughts, but maybe Xi could read his mind because he sped up, driving Leander down into the grass with every thrust. The green scent mingled with their own heavy musk and Leander’s eyes closed as he threw his head back in ecstasy. 

Xi shouted, and the sound tipped Leander over an edge into his own orgasm. Pleasure filled him until he felt overstretched and his whole body throbbed before it all released in a tsunami of pleasure that washed away the world. Leander was frozen, locked in place as he floated on the aftershocks.

“Holy fuck,” Xi whispered.

“The fuck part is right. I’m not sure that was holy.  It was, however, fucking awesome,” Leander said once he’d found his voice again.