Gamaru 22. Hello again~
22: "Your kisses are all I need right now."
"You're leaving?"
The gruff voice startled Totomaru into nearly dropping the clothes he'd only just finished folding. Heart racing, he half turned to look at the man standing in the doorway. "Yeah," he responded, shifting uncomfortably. "Didn't you hear, Gajeel? The guild has been disbanded. So it's time to find something new." He swallowed thickly as Gajeel glowered at him. "For you too, Gajeel."
Totomaru set the clothes down into his suitcase, perhaps taking a little more time than strictly necessary with the task, using the excuse to avoid looking at Gajeel. This wasn't a conversation he wanted to have.
"Bullshit." Gajeel's reply was more growl than speech. "Doesn't mean you have to leave right away."
Frustration bubbled up inside of Totomaru. "Say what you really mean for once, Gajeel," he blurted out. "Why don't you just ask me to... to..."
Silence met his words. As Totomaru had suspected would happen. Gajeel was many things. Being honest about his feelings was definitely not one of them. That fact had been made abundantly clear during their on-again-off-again turbulent relationship, if it could even be called a relationship.
And if Totomaru didn't even have that, then what did he have? His job was gone. His home. Everything he'd worked towards thus far. The threat of prison hanging over his head if he was to ever dip even a toe across the line.
The decision to leave hadn't been a pleasant one to arrive at. But what else could he do? He needed to work to earn money to pay for food, lodging, and a million other things. Phantom Lord had been his employer, and it was no more. He was just thankful the whole thing with Fairy Tail hadn't resulted in more personal consequences for the members of the former guild aside from Jose. Gajeel, too, had escaped the chopping block, despite the torture he'd put the blonde Fairy girl through. Totomaru suspected that the older woman from the Council - Belno - had something to do with that. He had never quite been able to pull the full story from Gajeel about the nature of their relationship and past, but it didn't matter. Not anymore. The point was that he was essentially a criminal now, and there was no chance of being hired in Oak Town for anything with that reputation weighing him down. It was best to pack up and start over somewhere new. Without anyone else from Phantom Lord. Without... without Gajeel.
"And besides, why shouldn't I leave? Phantom Lord is no more. And whatever we were," he gestured vaguely between them, "is over too. Get out of my room."
"No."
Finally, Totomaru looked directly at Gajeel again. "I said get out."
The dragon slayer set his jaw, gazing down at Totomaru with a stubborness that pulled at Totomaru's heart. "Not until I get what I need."
Ah. Of course. Gajeel had just been worried that Totomaru would take off and he wouldn't be able to get what he'd left behind the last time he'd spent the night. This wasn't even about Totomaru. He didn't know whether to laugh or cry at this realization.
"Fine," he replied, turning back to his packing and unable to keep his voice from cracking. "Get whatever you forgot, then get out."
Gajeel's footsteps behind him were almost deafening to Totomaru's ears, only heightening his hyperawareness of Gajeel in his room. He couldn't help it. No matter how much he would like to completely ignore the dragon slayer, it was physically impossible to do so. Too many memories swam in Totomaru's head, with every movement and sound and scent that came from Gajeel.
Then the footsteps stopped immediately behind him. "Hey," Gajeel said, his gruff voice having lost its earlier edge. When Totomaru refused to look at him, he crouched down, the fire mage keenly aware of the heat coming off the other man's body. "Totomaru," he tried again.
He laid a hand on Totomaru's shoulder, with a touch much more gentle than his personality or appearance would suggest. His other hand reached forward and turned Totomaru's face towards his.
Before Totomaru could react, Gajeel's lips were on his. Instinct and familiarity took over, winning against Totomaru's frustration and heartbreak, and he reciprocated the long, undemanding kiss.
When the kiss broke, Totomaru asked, "I thought you said you needed something." No matter how nice kissing Gajeel was, he wouldn't be completely deterred from his decision to leave.
Gajeel's face screwed up in response, more vulnerability written in his features than Totomaru had ever seen there before. "Your kisses are all I need right now." With that declaration, he kissed Totomaru again.
Totomaru let him, abandoning everything else to give himself completely over to this moment between them. It was a goodbye, they both knew it. Things were going to be the same between them anymore once it ended.
But while it lasted... Totomaru would enjoy this, and enjoy Gajeel.
Who knew if he would ever get the chance to again.
