The five were ringed around the sorcerer, Gazpacho, in his open-aired Keep, surrounding him. And trying not to twitch as he giggled. Gateau wrinkled his nose. Damn sorry excuse for a sorcerer, skinny bastard, with a shock of disgusting hair-- he swore they were getting funkier every time. He made a mental note never to rank sorcerers as full-blown ugly until they reconstituted aging flesh with what appeared to be orange seaweed. Ugh.

When the sorcerer attacked, none of them blinked. It was easier than thought, lapsing into movement sure as breathing, dancing around his sizzling energy bolts in familiar counterpoint of shout and jump and response.

"After you," Tira said, double backflipping to avoid a bursting powerbolt aimed at her.

"Oh no," Marron was insistent, voice calm though he was at a flat run. "I wouldn't dream of it."

Gateau glanced sidelong at him, saying nothing, unable to keep from smiling.

"If you two don't mind?" Chocolate purred. Tira nodded to her sister, suppressing giddy laughter. She didn't even get a chance to fling her monofilament line, though, for the evil mage flung his sure-kill EnergyBall of Doom, or whatever it was he'd called it, at Carrot. Gateau hefted his fist with a tight smile, watching as the little twerp grinned, sucked it all up, and transformed. His thundering animal laughter shook the rock-hewn arches, and Tira turned to Chocolate as if to say, "I told you so."

The monster moved on surprisingly agile feet, standing between his companions and the sorcerer, grinning with huge sharp teeth. "Don't," Carrot said, with a minotaur-chuckle, "mess with the sorcerer Hunters."

And then the world caught fire.

There was the sickening crunch of stone walls falling down, the sizzle and angry screech of sorcerous magic, like a dragon gone mad and hungry to eat them all.

Any sorcerer Hunter knows what to do at such moments.

"Run!" Gateau's voice rode the back of the shrieking fire. Tira and Chocolate did not hear, already fleeing back across the rock bridge in pinkish blurs of motion, sending a scree of pebbles clattering down to the greywater moat far below. The fire seemed to swallow their muffled screams, matched voices of panicked disbelief. "Darling!" "Carrot--!"

But the one Gateau had aimed his voice for hadn't budged. "Damn you, Marron, run!" he shouted again. Just a handful of running steps and he'd clear the arches on the cliffside, make it through to the relative safety of the bridge-- but he still wasn't moving, standing in the leaping flames, a motionless pale figure through the green sorcerous smoke. Insanity.

"C'mon, Marron-chan, party's over," he mumbled under his breath, forcing his breathing to remain shallow in the hot acrid haze.

But as he steeled himself to step closer to Marron-- closer to the heart of the fiery tempest-- the din of the blaze seemed to change key, resonating an awful minor chord that threatened to burn the mind right out of his skull. What the Magic--?

Then he knew, maybe from the look on Marron's face. Carrot's zoanthropy-- somehow it had backfired. The minotaur had, in turn, been absorbed into the fire, his energies gone to feed the inferno.

And Marron was going to go after him.

Ah, shit.

He held his breath and lunged for the long-haired magician. No way he was going to lose another partner, and certainly not like this.

"Gotcha," he said, powerful arm around Marron's shoulder before he could walk any deeper into the furnace. He found himself smiling, for all that he was trying to forget that at any minute his clothes could catch fire. "What in hell are you doing?"

Marron started, the magic shield around him crackling, then blossoming thinly to enfold Gateau, too, in its protective aura. "Gateau, something's wrong," he said, sounding for all the world like he were discussing dinner plans.

"Nee?" Gateau managed to sound equally conversational. "What say we head out and view it from a distance, where it's a little less steamy?"

Marron shook his head. "My brother's in trouble."

"So what else is new," Gateau said dryly. "That little turnip is always--"

Only yards away, but invisible through the maelstrom of fire, Carrot screamed. Distinctly enough that it didn't take Marron's brothersense to hear it.

"Niisan!" Without thinking, Marron lifted a handful of wards-- three too many, Gateau thought, he's overdoing it-- and moved.

Only to be stopped by a strong pair of arms flung around his waist. "Wait, no! You'll get hurt. Marron!" Gateau held him as Marron spun with all his-- not inconsiderable-- strength. But Marron was the one to stumble, falling into the larger man, surprised at his rock-firm immobility.

He nodded numbly, as if Gateau's words finally made sense, his fingers working in the thin stiff leather of Gateau's jerkin. "We have to do something."

"Right," Gateau said tightly, his voice brooking no argument. "But we are a TEAM. I can't let you do this alone--"

Marron interrupted, his golden eyes dangerously alight. "Then come with me."

There was little to say to that, running through the glare at Marron's heels, the magic-aura around them offering only blisteringly thin shelter from the searing heat.

Carrot was, apparently, on fire, long angry tongues of flame licking at his horns, casting all of him in macabre red dancing shadows.

"Niisan!" Quicker than thought, Marron lifted a hand, and his ofuda ward seemed to drink in the conflagration. The very ends of his hair were smoking dimly, his fingertips glowing with whiteheat as his mageborn power thirstily soaked in the sorcerous blaze.

Involuntarily, Gateau gasped, and found the air cooler, less full of stinging smoke. The minotaur roared, his voice more annoyed now than afraid, and turned its ponderous head on the two Hunters who stood at his feet. Marron wobbled a little, smiling tiredly up at his brother. Carrot, grateful as only a twenty-foot monster can be, ferociously stomped the smoldering remains of that ill-begotten sorcerer.

Until he heard the approaching skitter of his other teammates' footfalls.

"Good work, Darling," Chocolate murmured, stretching her garrote between her elegant gloved hands. "But now it's time to play."

Tira was giggling, tossing her abundant pink curls over one shoulder. "Oneesama's right... Mr. Hot Stuff."

The Minotaur whimpered.

They didn't seem to notice Marron limping towards the bridge, his lips moving silently. Gateau, head cocked, recognized the words as a simple healing spell-- whispered over and over and over.

"Oi, Marron," he said easily, over the familiar din of the Misu sisters beating the snot out of the elder Glaces brother. "Need some help?"

Marron sank weakly to one knee, panting. "I'm fine, Gateau. Just my-- feet--"

Gateau hissed through his teeth. The soles of Marron's thin shoes had been burned clean through. At the comforting sympathy of Gateau's smile, Marron moved to stand, but the world was spinning unsteady--

Later, none could say just what had happened. Gateau, who was right there, had his arms out to catch and steady the mage; the girls and the freshly de-zoanthroped Carrot were barely five steps away.

But Marron was unconscious before he lost his balance, his head lolling heavily onto his chest and his long fantastic hair tangling around his hands, his spent ward fluttering uselessly to the ground. Everyone was strangely unable to move, as he, in terribly vivid slow motion, keeled and fell from the bridge.

"Marron!" Four voices in unison.

Gateau had barely inhaled to leap off after him when a suntanned blur leapfrogged over him-- Carrot, launching himself bodily off the bridge after his fallen brother.

"Don't!" Carrot heard Gateau's warning, felt a strong hand brush his ankle, unable to get hold, and then he was falling terrifically fast, arms spiraling ungracefully, hollering the whole way down. "Marron, you idio--!"

Sploosh.

He hit the moat headfirst, pushing himself downward and never so grateful that Chocolate had taught him how to swim. The water was murky, and so cold it made his teeth hurt. Damn it, where in hell was he? Frantically his fingers searched the weedgrown moat.

There! A sweeping touch that was softer than waterweeds, the floating splay of Marron's hair. He surfaced, coughing, with an armful of sodden brother.

Of unmoving brother.

"Marron, oh fuck it, Marron, come back to me." He pounded on his chest with more urgency than efficiency, and paled when moatwater trickled greyly from Marron's motionless lips. His voice got quieter. "Ototo no baka." Shaking fingers pushed the hair back from Marron's face. "Damn you, brother, you KNOW I never got the hang of resuscitation. That was Chocolate's specialty..." But he cradled the back of Marron's head with one hand and tried it anyway.

Gateau, skidding out of the tower at neckbreaking speed, cleared the gates in time to get an eyeful. He found that he'd stopped running, simply watching. Wishing that Marron could have seen it, the way that Carrot held him as he sought to breathe his own life into his brother's lungs.

Or the wild, fierce joy undisguised on his face when Marron started coughing.

Remembering to breathe himself, Gateau jogged the distance between them. Neither noticed him. Carrot was laughing as he helped Marron to his hands and knees, hand protective on the small of his back as he heaved water helplessly.

"Niisan," he breathed, finding himself wrapped in brotherlove arms and still alive.

"Big Mama, Marron, don't DO that to me!"

"I promise," he said weakly, in the middle of a cough. "I always knew I shouldn't drink."

Carrot, watching his brother's teeth chatter, wished he had more warmth to give. "Daijoubuka?"

Marron nodded, his eyes closing, allowing himself to lean all his weight on his brother.

By then the girls had emerged from the stronghold, tripping over each other in their haste. Chocolate's eyes were wide, and Tira just wrapped her arms around Marron, not saying anything. His lips were still a little blue, and he was shivering. Carrot still hadn't let him go, chuckling shakily into Marron's hair. "Shit, Marron, you scared the pants off me."

Chocolate smoothed Marron's bangs, fondly, and her voice was dry. "Good work, Marron, you know how long I've tried to get those pants off him."

The quality of the silence changed, deepening. Maybe at that instant they all realized that Carrot wasn't wearing any pants-- or anything at all, for that matter, fresh from his Change-- and that his whole slim naked body was wrapped around his brother.

Marron was too cold to blush, but he flicked his eyes embarrassedly to Carrot's face-- and Carrot was looking at him. Really looking at him. For a long unspeaking moment, their gazes held.

Carrot opened his mouth, but Tira draped her slightly singed red cape around Marron, snugging herself underneath his shoulder to help him sit upright. "Good thing Gateau knows mouth-to-mouth," she said with a wobbly laugh.

The blond Hunter blinked, realizing the obvious assumption. Of course.

The brothers looked away from one another.

Marron shifted surreptitiously, leaning more heavily on Tira. Only Gateau noticed the hurt in Carrot's eyes. But Chocolate was looking keenly at her darling and Gateau knew when to play along. Giving them his best macho grin, he said, "Well, hey, how am I supposed to resist such pretty lips?"

And they all laughed, group dynamic restored. Chocolate, good-hearted, dropped her blue overshirt over Carrot's head. "Dry off, Darling." She batted her eyelashes, and Carrot huddled miserably small in her borrowed shirt, trying to meet Marron's eyes. "Don't want you to catch a chill."

Marron couldn't look, not at that form so familiar-- and so forbidden. Chocolate's shirt was barely long enough for modesty, revealing the honey-dark skin of Carrot's legs, the webbed shadows at the intersection of his thighs...

He closed his eyes, falling into an uneasy slumber.

Marron started awake rather violently, the world a jumble of incomprehensible images. "!?"

"Good morning to you too, Marron-chan," Gateau said with a smile. "Glad you're still with us."

Marron blinked away the sleep fuzzing the corners of his mind. He was-- warm. Propped against a treetrunk, wearing his own sun-dried clothing, his hair only damp at the ends. The morning seemed very long ago.

He peered down at Gateau, who appeared to be doing something complicated with his hands. "What-- are you doing?"

"Bandaging your foot," he said, matter-of-factly, winding the strip of soft cloth around the ball of Marron's foot, careful not to tug too hard against the damaged skin.

Marron furrowed his brow at him, eyes following the slow meticulous wrap of bandage. He shivered a little, the memory of blurred heat and pain dissipating under Gateau's careful ministrations. The other memories-- of bone-deep cold and drowning-- he couldn't bring himself to think about, just yet. "You needn't mummify me."

Gateau couldn't help but grin, he looked so indignant. "Look, I just don't want anything to happen to your feet, man. You walk on those things."

Ruefully Marron tried to wiggle a toe, but the other man captured it and gently worked the fabric around it. "Not any time soon I don't," he said sadly. "Not with those tying me down."

"Oh, stop griping. I'll carry you if I have to." Gateau winked.

If possible, Marron looked even more mortified. "You'll do no such thing, Gateau. I'll--" But the word was swallowed into a wincing gasp as Gateau smoothed fingerfulls of healing salve over the heel of his other foot. "Oh," was all he said, through tightly clenched teeth, and Gateau knew it had to hurt something awful just by the pitch of his silence. But the herb concoction was tingling effectively, the blistered skin feeling just noticeably smoother, cooler.

Marron was biting his lip, and Gateau realized he was staring. "Oi, Marron, you okay?"

Marron looked indulgently at him, or tried to, but another stinging application made him hiss and close his eyes. "Why do you always ask me that?"

~Because nobody else does,~ Gateau thought. ~Because someone has to worry about you the way you worry about--~ That path of thought fell abruptly off a cliff in his head, and he backpedaled furiously. "'Cause your toes are all clenched up," he teased him.

Marron blushed.

Feeling emboldened by his non-complaint, Gateau gently fingered one slender toe-- Magic, but he had the finest feet, even burnt and sore-- from its tight curl, softly rubbing salve on it.

Gateau thought at first he wasn't reacting at all-- until he realized that Marron's absolute stillness was his reaction. He was holding his breath. Gateau beamed, coaxed another toe out, and then another. Marron had just started to smile--

"What happened to my brother?" he asked abruptly.

Gateau winced at the rawness on Marron's face, betting that that ungrateful little turnip didn't even know someone cared so much for him. "He's fine," he said gently, working cool ointment into each angry-looking burn till the skin no longer felt so ravaged. "We dried his clothes, too; he's sleeping off the exertion."

A relief nothing else could duplicate settled over Marron's fine-boned features, and Gateau felt his heart twist. "Aa. Good."

"Hey," Gateau tickled an exposed stretch of skin. He had him here, and now was as good a time as any to broach the topic. He aimed for a light-hearted smile. "How come you never say my name like that, huh?"

Marron blanched. "What?"

His smile was a little broader. "The way you holler for your brother. Not even after that fiasco with the Siren Sorceress--"

A slender smile touched Marron's lips. "When I rescued you?"

"--when you saved my ass," Gateau went on as if uninterrupted, winking. "And you wouldn't let me out of your sight for a whole week."

Marron raised a hand to Gateau's hair, smoothed back the thin bronze-blond bangs. "I worry about... all of you."

"Hah," he snorted, coming to the end of his syllogism. "Not even then, after that disaster, did you say my name like that."

"Gateau," Marron began, but Gateau rolled his eyes.

"And certainly not that tone of voice. The 'hush it, Gateau, or I'll stuff these bandages in your ear' tone of voice."

Marron chuckled, which is what Gateau had hoped for. He ran a long palm against the ball of Marron's foot, to sustain the laugh, maybe make the dark-haired mage squirm a little. It worked.

"How much you want to bet you'd not even sound like that if I had you panting on your back and begging for more of me, all of me, oh Gateau, please--"

It was familiar enough, the flirtation, the easy warm touch of Gateau's hands. But Marron's smile froze. Gateau saw it, saw the tingling blush creeping up his ivory-pale cheekbones. There was his answer.

Marron's mind throbbed. He opened his mouth, rather desperately, wishing the words would be born of their own volition.

The other man rested a surprisingly tender hand across his lips, eyeing him closely. "You needn't, you know. I already know." ~I've seen the way you look at him. I've heard you when you think no one is listening.~

Stammering gratitude tried to fall from Marron's tongue. "It's been with me for so long," he murmured, his eyes flicking away. "He-- he kissed me once, when I was barely fourteen. It was only a child's trick, but..." His fingers ghosted across his lips. "Such a treasured touch." His voice died and he looked ashamed. "Gateau, I--"

Gateau wanted only to ease that fragile frown. "Hush it, Marron. It's all right. It's safe with me." ~No one else has overheard you touching yourself. I've-- made sure of it.~ He exhaled slowly. "Love is always... a gift." And he leaned in just those few inches and kissed him, delicately.

Marron, knowing a gift when he was presented with one, kissed him back.

Gateau's hands, continuing their healing regiment, had reached the littlest of Marron's toes. He slid his salve-slick finger between the relaxing muscles, and the mage let his eyes slide closed, forbidden images coloring the darkness behind his eyelids.

Gateau grinned, catching the tiniest whimper that escaped Marron's lips. Now who'd have guessed Marron was a foot person? For that matter, how long had Gateau had a thing for feet?

As long as they'd been attached to Marron, he suspected.

"Feeling better?" he smiled amiably, trying to ignore the ripples of sensation still shivering through his fingers. He patted one foot-- exceedingly well-bandaged, if he did say so himself, and the world again felt rather normal. Traveling comrades, of course they would help heal each other's ailments, and this brisk morning was altogether too sunny for anything out of the ordinary. None of that heady thick chaos that seemed to happen when Marron's skin made contact with his.

Well, almost none of it. Marron smiled, shyly. "G-Gateau?" His voice was unsteady, and Gateau felt the tremor in his blood again. "Arigatou. But-- did you have to wind the bandage all the way up to my knees?"

Gateau looked sheepish. "Maybe I got a little carried away."

Someone laughed. "Can't let those feet get cold, now can we?"

At the sound of his brother's voice, Marron went completely still, his face expressionless. "Thank you Gateau. For your help. I--" And altogether too quickly, he moved to stand.

But Gateau still had him by the ankles.

Marron, who was by no means ungraceful, sprawled clumsily into Carrot's waiting arms.

"D'you need some help with him, Gateau?" Carrot sounded amused, eyeing his sibling as if he'd start a fight. "'S he giving you trouble?"

Marron stiffened, agonizingly aware of the warmth of Carrot's hands. "Gomen."

"Hey, hey, easy, turnip," Gateau tossed Carrot a sympathetic smile. "You just got the living shit kicked out of you. Take it slow. He's a handful!"

Marron tried to straighten himself, his feet feeling dim and far away through the layers of bandaging. "I--"

"Ugh," Carrot grunted, helping his younger brother shift his weight to lean comfortably against him. "You're not as light as you used to be, ototo."

"Oh, so he's darker?" Gateau chuckled, deliberately misinterpreting Carrot's words, for Marron's cheeks were indeed staining a slow rose color in his embarrassment.

Marron made a small noise, looking helplessly to Gateau, who was only smiling. "Niisan--"

Then the girls, exhibiting a well-developed sense of timing, were there, Tira with a long pole of fish over her shoulder, and Chocolate dropping to one knee to make clucking noises over Marron. Chocolate and Carrot helped Marron sit and arrange his feet so they didn't pain him. Playfully determined as usual, the redhead couldn't resist trying to feel Carrot up, hands moving deftly around Marron's chest. Carrot was wriggling against Marron's hips, protesting loudly and trying to hide in the relative safety of his younger brother's shoulder.

Marron felt light-headed.

"We're back," Tira looked-- apologetically?-- at Gateau. Gateau narrowed his eyes in a smile. The younger Misu was a canny girl; and he was suddenly unsurprised that she had discerned his attraction.

He gave her a smile, lifting her hard-earned fish. "Thanks for the provisions, Tira-love. Much appreciated."

"Oi, Gateau!" Carrot was a shadow against the firelight, a wavering backlit form crunching through leaves to meet the taller man at the pile of firewood. When he got close enough that no one ringed round the fire could hear, he didn't mince words. "What's wrong with Marron?"

Gateau's eyes were already adjusted to the evening light, watching keenly as Carrot squinted up at him. He lifted a heavy log to turn to kindling, kept his voice flat. "You mean other than his feet?"

Carrot hmphed. "I mean what's wrong with him wrong with him. Why's he so... down?"

"You tell me," Gateau said, evenly. "You seem to have a theory."

"He's very quiet tonight." There was a calculated easiness to Carrot's voice, and Gateau could tell he was trying to con some information out of him.

He swore it wouldn't work, and smiled. "More quiet than usual?" he asked pointedly. "I'm surprised you noticed." One sharp *chop* and the hollow clatter of perfectly halved wood. By the dim fire-cast light, the angle of Carrot's profile said that he was thinking. Dangerous.

"He's got something on his mind. I can just tell, you know. But I can't tell what."

Gateau wanted to laugh. "Can anyone tell?" The sharpest insight of them all, and the most damn inscrutable. "You've got to dive deep if you want to make any sort of sense out of him, you know." He imitated Carrot's self-assured tone of voice, wryly-- as if he could read Marron any better than the rest of them. "That boy is deeper than a Limpid Pool of Time."

~Dive deep,~ Carrot's mind echoed, his hands tingling with the chill memories of searching desperate in clinging moatweed. ~Dive deep.~

Into the lengthening silence Carrot threw another question. "Do you love him?"

*Thunk!* Gateau missed his aim, rather badly, chopping the firewood into awkward lopsided chunks.

~Question answered,~ Carrot thought, not really feeling like he'd learned anything at all. ~How will he play that off?~

So much was mutually unspoken in the group that each had gotten used to the silence-- but Carrot was certainly the last person on the Continent Gateau had thought would ask him that.

"Oh, sure I do!" he sounded suitably sarcastic, but rubbed selfconsciously at his hand. Damn. That was going to hurt. When was the last time he'd missed that badly? "Why else would I wrap him up from his feet to his elbows if I didn't love the guy? Besides, it's a lot easier to love a warm, well-healed Marron than a chilled footsore one--"

But Carrot wasn't buying it. He advanced a few steps, watching him pick woodsplinters from his hand. "You know what I mean, Gateau. I saw you kissing him."

~Do you even know what you're asking, turnip?~ Gateau could not read the expression on the younger man's face. "What, you can't imagine that anyone could love that charbroiled half-drowned wretched little brother of yours?"

Carrot opened his mouth like he wanted to defend him, shut it again. "You do love him."

Gateau shut his eyes. Maybe he did know what he was asking. "No, Carrot. I don't. I never wanted anything so simple as love from Marron."

"What do you mean?"

He flashed him a grin. "Just what I said. Why settle for love when you could get something so much more complicated? Marron's got more facets than--"

He interrupted again. "Oh, I get it." His voice wasn't the slightest bit teasing, though the words stung. "You mean you do love him, but he doesn't love you. Which makes it difficult."

Difficult? ~You don't know the half of it, veggie-boy.~ "Hey, it's no skin off my nose. It's not news to me that he's in love with someone else."

Carrot was practically in his lap, how quickly he jumped and grabbed Gateau's shirt collar. "Marron's in LOVE?" Pure incredulity, brown eyes mere inches from cool blue ones. "THAT'S what's wrong with him??"

Oops. Gateau wanted to bite his own tongue off. How long had he lived with the knowledge, if he started assuming that everyone knew? Dammit.

Disbelief was written all over Carrot's face, his eyebrows drawn together like ravenwings, making his face look sharp, predatory. "Big Mama," he breathed. "What's next?"

"Hush it," Gateau said tightly, "unless you want to have the man himself over here wondering what's wrong with you." He pried the slim fingers from his clothes, but Carrot still clung to his hand, as if to some precious thread in a labyrinth. "It was bound to happen, turnip, he's as human as the next guy."

"Aw, fuck." Carrot made a face. "Don't give me that. He's an ice cube! He's--"

Skittering chills walked up Gateau's spine. "Heh. He would have been an ice cube, but that you fished him out of the drink in time."

That quieted Carrot. His face was oddly sweet as he looked up, entreating. "But-- but Gateau. I'm his older brother. I mean, love? Don't you think he would have-- told me, or something?"

Gateau couldn't meet the earnest hurt in those eyes. All he could hear was a breathless voice, breaking around a name that was not his own. Sounding so absolutely lost in it, whether with his hand between his own thighs, or standing in the midst of a roaring inferno. ~Niisan...~

"He's a grown man, Carrot. He can make that decision for himself." But he was lying and his voice sounded thick.

Carrot sulked, dropping Gateau's hand. "You're no help," he mumbled, talking half to himself. "Marron can't be in love. I thought he didn't even like girls! Oh, geez. It's not one of the girls is it? I mean, he can have them, but he'd be so..." Carrot searched for a word. Gateau, bemused, had resumed chopping wood. "Protective! Not really the sort to make a move or anything-- heh, there can only be one Love Machine in the Glaces family, after all-- but he'd be so devoted! If Marron were in love," Carrot was on a roll, "I bet you he'd never lay a finger on his woman, but he'd follow her everywhere till he was a hundred percent sure she was... absolutely... safe. Oh." His voice had lost its momentum, and he was silent for a long moment.

Idly, Gateau wondered if two and two were equaling four, in whatever crazed thought process passed for Carrot's brain. "Why ask me questions if you know your brother so well?"

Carrot frowned, apparently fascinated by his knuckles. "Is it Tira? She'd understand-- his quietness and depth and shit." He looked hurt. "Better than me, for sure."

Gateau, who had already said too much, was afraid now of saying too little. "Aa. But only you're his brother." Carrot's head snapped up, and Gateau smiled at him, for all that his own heart was hurting. "Here." He unceremoniously dropped an armful of wood into Carrot's startled hands. "Take these over to the fireside, will you, turnip? Don't-- let the fire get low." There was a moment between them, earthbrown eyes meeting glasspale blue ones.

"Aa," Carrot said at last, hefting the firewood easily. "I... won't let the fire go out."

There was something about the narrowness of Carrot's eyes, or the way he was not quite smiling, and Gateau thought he felt the embers of something stirring to belated life.

Or at least he hoped so.

The fire was all but dead, sputtering unnoticed to the starstrewn sky, the team asleep on the moss-soft forest floor. Chocolate, head tucked under Tira's chin, was murmuring softly in her dream; Gateau was sawing macho logs, flat on his back.

Marron was leaning against a tree, keeping the first watch. Alone with his ache. As usual.

And thinking. Also as usual.

Of a time when he'd been fourteen, still unaccustomed to the height that was quickly growing on him, and even more uneasy with the chaotic confusion of his hormones.

He had woken, shivering. He knotted his sheets in his fingers, keeping his eyes open and whispering relaxation words to himself. It would not quiet his heartbeat.

His older brother was still sleeping, curled oblivious in his bunk, clutching the blankets to his chest.

Marron's muscles tensed, not daring to close his eyes lest he miss any movement of his brother's-- what if Carrot should hear him and wake? What if--

What if his youthful face would smile a little, lips parted and hands questing over his skin hungrily-- to give that which Marron sought, all fumbling and uncertain, to give himself.

Oh, it felt so shamefully good, imagining it were his brother's touch wrapped around him, sending fire more potent than any magic along his veins.

Knowing that if he should gasp his brother would hear...

He wept, that first time he touched himself, for wanting something he didn't know how to want. Forbidden by the blood he held dearer than his own life.

Marron closed his eyes.

Lancing bright behind his lids as if seared from phoenix wings, was an image of Carrot standing brave and tall and laughing.

"Niisan," his traitor voice said, though he bit down on his lip.

"Marron?" Carrot's voice was groggy with sleep. "Daijoubuka?" Marron tried-- with little success-- to stop the hitching sobs, to hide the dampened stain on his sheets. "I'm fine," he murmured, unconvincingly.

Carrot unwound himself from his sheets and padded over to Marron's bed. He rested warm hands against his brother's pale forehead. "Nightmare again?"

Marron wanted to nod, to accept the easy lie, but he couldn't. Carrot's hands found the wetness of his robes. To Marron's humiliated gratitude, his older brother didn't laugh, just beamed. "Aww, Marron! Nothing to cry about, ototo!" Playfully he stripped the robes off his brother's shoulders, gathering them into a messy pile on the floor, and helped Marron get his leggings back up to his hips. "Better?"

He nodded numbly, not even beginning to know how to say thank you. "Niisan?"

"Kinda freaky, the first time, nee?" Carrot was on familiar territory, and completely at ease.

Marron had his knees pulled up tight to his chest and was trying to remember something so simple as breathing. He blushed.

"When was the last time you had to help me out of my clothes?"

"Not since you had the Fever that time." He eased him back under the blankets, gently. "Then gave it to me."

Marron chuckled softly. "I remember."

Carrot yawned. "Go back to sleep, ototo? Now that you know it's not the ending of the world?"

Marron wished for words, to lie again and say he was still frightened, or to tell the ultimate truth and just see what his brother would say.

But his face must have said volumes, for Carrot smoothed back the hair at his temple and looked down at him fondly. "You need company? Rather not sleep alone?"

Marron's blood pounded, but he managed to keep his voice its usual tone, which is to say, straddling the line between child-treble and the deeper timber of a man. "If-- it's not an inconvenience, Niisan."

Carrot giggled into Marron's shoulder, settling himself behind his younger brother with his arms loosely around him. "Where DO you get those big words? Shouldn't let you read all those books..." He yawned again, raising gooseflesh on the back of Marron's neck with the warmness of his breath. "We're going to be stiff as hell in the morning. Hm. Guess I don't mind, squirt."

Marron closed his eyes and had to smile. "I don't mind either, Niisan."

"Marron? Daijoubuka?"

The mage stiffened, too battle-canny to jump out of his skin, but severely startled. He hadn't realized his eyes had drifted closed, the fading pattern of the last fire-embers burned into his eyelids.

And he certainly hadn't realized anyone else was awake.

Gods but he was glad for the cover of dim starlight; his color was rising. He felt embarrassed enough being caught still and pensive beneath the spread of trees, much less than if he'd actually been doing what he'd been imagining-- he clamped down his thoughts ferociously.

"I'm fine," he said, altogether too quickly.

"Nightmare again?" Carrot's voice was little more than a whisper, pitched only for his brother's ears. He lifted a hand to feel his brother's forehead.

Marron thought his heart would break. Such perfect echoes of his memory. Gold eyes met brown ones, and flicked away. Marron, again, could not lie. So he bit his lip, and said nothing.

"Marron, what's wrong? If anything's gotten to you, I'll take care of it. I swear."

The younger Glaces dipped his head a little so that the midnight-dark fall of his hair would obscure his expression. He closed his eyes with a shivering sigh. "Thank you, Carrot, but I don't think--"

Carrot, to Marron's absolute and utter surprise, hiccuped.

Marron's head came up quickly, staring. He couldn't breathe, aching with still greater déjà vu. Carrot grinned through tightly clenched teeth. "Oi, Marron. Do you remember? When we were kids?"

~That very next night, Niisan. I have not forgotten.~ A thin affirmative smile was all he allowed himself. "Locked in the Stellar Vaults overnight, and trying not to get caught. I got the hiccups."

Carrot shook with a handful of swallowed spasms. "What did we-- do, then? To-- make them stop?"

So vividly Marron remembered the dimness of the Vaults, Carrot's hand over his mouth and commanding him to hold his breath. Obedient, he had done as he was told, till he saw stars and had to gasp into Carrot's palm, blushing. His brother's hands had been warm and firm... and more than a little damp from nervousness.

Laughing, Carrot had made soft growling noises into his neck-- the sort that a guy would make to terrorize a kid brother, to spook him out of his hiccups. But Marron's shivering had not been only born of fear, though he was terrified his brother would hear the chaos of his heartbeat.

When they thought that surely they'd be caught, Carrot had thought of something. Marron had opened his mouth in surprise when Carrot's hand went away, and started with a shudder when it was replaced by something warmer and yielding and--

His heart had stopped.

…And so had his hiccups.

Carrot had highfived himself like a simpleton, cowering again at the clattering noise he had made in his triumph. Marron hadn't dared to speak, his lips numbly moving together.

And now all over again Marron didn't dare speak, all the color draining from his face. He was afraid to answer, afraid not to.

But truth, as usual, triumphed.

"You-- you kissed me, Niisan."

Carrot's eyebrows shot together. "I did?" he said, without the emotion Marron had expected to hear. Something more akin to... curiosity. "Did it work?"

Marron swallowed. "Rather well."

Hic. "Oh. Kissing? Well. Um..." Carrot scrunched down against the treetrunk, trying to make himself small. "I guess Chocolate would like that, nee?" He didn't sound very enthusiastic.

Cheerfully unbalanced, Marron suggested helpfully, "Would that scare you, Niisan? Perhaps that is what you--"

Carrot shivered. "No, thanks. I'd slug her if she tried it. Maybe..." He put on his best innocent expression, interrupted by another volley of hiccups. "It's a brother thing? It's gotta be-- you-- that scares me?" Hic. "You sure scared me today, ototo."

"Niisan?"

Carrot's mouth tightened and he met Marron's eyes almost sadistically. "Watching you fall off that bridge, seeing your hair all spread and floating around you--" His breath caught. "Thinking that I'd let you fall."

Marron did not want to break that laden silence. It had never occurred to him that Carrot would hold himself responsible. Their fights were always dangerous; that was the way of the Hunter. "Niisan?" He folded his hands into his sleeves. "Don't blame yourself? I don't."

Carrot was earnest, seeking to touch Marron's face but never quite reaching him. "Thinking that I wouldn't be able to save you."

Marron's smile was rueful. "That is why we are a team, Carrot. That Gateau can do what you cannot."

Underneath the hiccups, pride fought briefly with embarrassment and trepidation on Carrot's face, and Marron-- not knowing what was going on-- watched in bewilderment. Pride won, of course. It was important that his little brother know just who had saved his ass.

"Gateau, nothing," he whispered, looking at his knees. "You were already heaving water by the time he got there."

Something hot and fluttery lodged itself behind Marron's heart, and he couldn't close his eyes for the look of fierce satisfaction on his older brother's face. "Niisan?"

Carrot touched him at last, squeezing his shoulder, other hand just tracing one alabaster cheekbone. "Yeah." He leaned nose-to-nose with a speechless Marron, his face bright and sharp in his intensity. "Team-schmeem. That was me."

Marron's brain wasn't operating properly, the waves of pure heat radiating from Carrot's fingers, the sweet familiar pinesmoke scent of him.

And another, particularly loud hiccup.

Trying not to let his breathlessness show, Marron put a hand over his brother's mouth. Agile fingers shushing him, Carrot obeyed. Feeling oddly old and acutely aware of his brother's lips, Marron murmured, "You want me to frighten you again?"

Marron could have sworn Carrot was laughing, his breath coming hard, but he was lost in the negative-image of the moment and couldn't stop. To have his brother here-- so close-- so-- His fingers traced Carrot's profile, as he lowered his head to his brother's neck and whispered into the ticklish skin. "Are you afraid of this, Niisan?"

A younger Carrot, in the silhouette of Stellar shadows, had mussed the fall of ebony hair that was just starting to grow past Marron's shoulders. "Still scared, ototo? Don't be."

Marron, heart awhirl, had leaned tentatively against him in their hiding place. ~Not scared, oh, Niisan, not scared...~

Now, by the last scattered sparkings of their campfire, his older brother's skin was dancing beneath his touch. "Not afraid, ototo, not afraid--"

"Then you won't mind, Niisan, if I..."

"Marron, please--"

Mouths met, neither knowing who moved, as if their lips had always been close enough to touch-- as if they'd always shared such a brother-kiss between them.

Marron had just convinced himself he was dreaming when Carrot folded his arms around his shoulders, drawing him tightly against his chest. The embrace was more enthusiastic than practiced, and the two of them tumbled side by side to the leafy ground.

"Is this--" Carrot panted lightly, barely breaking the kiss, "--what you want, ototo?"

He was blindly grateful he didn't need to say much more than yes, nodding deliriously into his niisan's touch. "What I've always wanted..."

Carrot chuckled, tickling Marron's lips. "Heh. You always were too good at keeping secrets."

"Afraid you knew me too well." Not quite able to smile, every nerve in his body singing, Marron's fingers twined in his brother's hair, following the scalloped curve of his ears, fascinated by the small gasping sounds Carrot was making.

"Not well enough," Carrot said, soundly. "Damn, Marron, your hands--" He captured one of them, kissing Marron's palm. "You have the most incredible fingers. All that magic you've learned..." He punctuated each word with a long slow suckle of each of the fingers he was praising. Marron whimpered, helplessly. "You--" Carrot grinned ferally. "You touch yourself with these fingers."

His brother flushed, and Carrot pressed on gleefully. "Yeah, yeah, ototo. This is not a surprise to me. I used to watch, you know."

Marron made a face, laughing ruefully into his brother's neck. "Niisan-- finding out my secrets were never secrets at all..."

Carrot giggled, sitting up and drawing his brother into his lap, leaning him back against his chest. "And it used to turn me on something awful." Greedy hands worked the catches of Marron's robes. "C'mere, you."

"Niisan!" Marron gasped, his control slipping. "What are you doing?"

"Touching you," Carrot smiled, finding very physical proof of Marron's desire and teasing it through the fabric of his leggings. "Why, don't you like it?"

Marron's breath hitched in his throat, his voice husky. "Like it?" His world was unraveling, his legs spreading and his hips rolling involuntarily into it.

Carrot's fingers moved more slowly against his brother's sex and the mage swallowed a moan. "You want to say something, little brother?" Carrot's smile was brilliant.

Marron was biting his lip, his face buried in Carrot's neck as he shook his head.

"Ah ah," Carrot scolded. "You whisper a name when you touch yourself."

Betrayed, and deliriously so, Marron felt himself succumbing. "Do you-- believe everything you hear?"

But Carrot's fingers had delved beneath his clothing and found what they were looking for, not teasing or subtle in their touch, but firm, deliciously so. As his brother's head fell back, he kissed the back of Marron's ear, nuzzling into the spill of his long clove-scented hair.

Marron's voice turned into a long slow moan, eyes squeezed shut. "Nniisannn..."

With his other hand, Carrot explored Marron's chest, tracing the faintest curve of his hipbone, the indent of his navel. "Nn, you're ready for this, aren't you, ototo? So hard."

Marron sighed open-mouthed into Carrot's cheek, years of untold secrets evaporating with his breath. His legs raised of their own accord, his body rocking into Carrot's knowledgeable fingers. "W-wait," he managed to gasp. "Want to-- touch you." He untangled his fingers from the handful of grass he'd been clutching, and pivoted around tentatively, to face his brother, his hand seeking and uncertain, undoing clothing, feeling for an arousal to answer his own--

Carrot, Marron's nimble magician's fingers finding the heat between his legs, made the most amazing noise.

Draping his knees over his brother's thighs, Marron pulled himself chest to chest with him, close enough that their fingers collided and sex kissed slick sex. Marron saw stars, golden eyes quivering half-shut, unwilling to miss the look on Carrot's face as he learned his brother's length-- so like his own, and yet so giddily unfamiliar-- and made him shiver.

"Nn, GOD, ototo, where did you learn to-- ah-- where--" He couldn't finish the sentence, the muscles in his legs tight and shaking. Marron, balanced in his lap, felt every tremor lancing like mage-flame through his veins, felt every panted breath as if it were his own. The frantic clamor of their heartbeats meshed, till neither could tell who was pleasuring whom, overwhelmed with it--

And then it was magic in his body, something firebright and stronger than their Hunter team bond thrilling through them, along their shared blood. Marron felt the power building behind his eyes, saw it mirrored in the look on Carrot's face.

Lips parted and shoulders trembling, Carrot whispered raggedly, "Fuck, Marron, it's bigger than I am-- my head's going to explode--"

"Don't stop... Carrot... I will hold you-- if you'll hold me--" Marron hushed assurances into the shadow of Carrot's ear.

That, even deeper beneath than the currents dissolving around them, made Carrot smile. "Of course, little brother." He winked.

All it took. "Niisan!" The magic spun out of him like dragonwings or creation, the force of it turning the word into a spell, spoken as if with a tongue of flame.

With his own name skirling blinding bright from his brother's lips, Carrot came too, both of them spilling release onto each other's slowing hands.

Carrot slid down the treetrunk to lie in the grass, eyes still closed, none of his limbs responding properly to his commands. "Mmm," he purred, his voice sending thrumming sensation through the pulsing sated rest of his body.

And Marron's, too, apparently, for his younger brother chuckled. Carrot opened his eyes to see Marron leaning over him, propped on one elbow with his other hand tracing delicate circles on Carrot's upturned face.

"Niisan?"

A slightly frantic smile. "Yeah?"

"How long have your hiccups been gone?"

Carrot grinned sheepishly into the hollow of his brother's elbow. "Oh. Hiccups? Yeah." Marron would have sworn he was blushing. "I, uh. I never had the hiccups, ototo."

And Marron found inexplicable tears welling in his eyes, unable to keep from saying it. "I love you, Niisan."

Carrot reached up and gathered his brother next to him, arms and legs curled round each other, clothing in a discarded heap. "Such fierce devotion." His voice was thick, and Marron was awed to see the unaccustomed sincerity on his brother's face. "I don't deserve you, little brother." His fingers tickled the nape of Marron's neck, tangling in his hair.

"That's irrelevant," Marron said softly, trusting his voice to say what his heart had wanted to for so long. "Because I do love you."

Carrot's smile was wobbly, but held. "I love you, too, Marron."

Marron's face was positively shining. "Then I am the luckiest person alive."

"Niisan?"

Snicker. "Now what?"

"Should we-- put clothes on?"

Carrot snugged his brother closer to him, hand protectively on the small of his back. "You cold, ototo?"

Happy sigh. "Not really."

"Then no worries. What are they going to think?" Giggle. "That you slept with me?"

Marron had to smile, his heartbeat tripping up a little. "Well, Gateau would know."

That prompted a genuine laugh. "Hah. Gateau. He was damn good enough about keeping watch--"

At the word 'watch,' Marron flushed crimson. "You're not saying--"

"Hush it, ototo," Carrot covered his brother's lips with his own-- not a single life hanging in the balance, only the fine sweet savor of each other's taste-- and prevented him from saying another word.