Trinity Blood: Aromatherapy
YAY! This was written for sharkcowsheep as part of the Yuletide.org's NYR challenge. Most of what I can remember of TB is the novels by Sunao Yoshida, so forgive me if this isn't relevant to the anime!
Title: Aromatherapy
Fandom: Trinity Blood
Rating: PG-13
Pairing: Abel x Alessandro
Word Count: 1,845
Sighing heavily, Alessandro turned back toward the windowpane and placed one bare hand against the glass. The winter air from outside made the glass cold as the ice that sheathed the gardens and walkways of the Vatican City below, but for just a moment he was unconscious to the cold and to everything else, so deeply lost in thought was he. He shuddered slightly as his mind went over yet again the stresses that plagued him this night, when he should be able to enjoy the dark sky and glittering stars. But he saw only the storm that raged within, keeping him from thinking of much else. Though he knew quite well that he was mostly no more than a pawn, life was still more than a bit stressful with the thought of holding the highest position in the Vatican
The small puffs of condensation his warm breath made against the glass were suddenly fascinating, and he focused on drawing small circles in it with his fingertip until he heard the door behind him open and then close, and he turned reluctantly away from his momentary distraction.
“Oh, Father Nightroad,” he said in acknowledgement of the silver-haired man who had just entered the room. He did not want to feel resentment for the bumbling priest, but he had been enjoying his rare moment of solitude before this appearance. He had been half counting on Caterina to interrupt it, and the fact that it was Abel surprised him. “Umm… do you need something?” he gave the tall priest a nervous glance, despite his benign appearance.
“Nope, Your Excellency. Caterina just sent me to check on you,” he gave Allesandro and lopsided grin and moved forward slightly, hitting the edge of a table covered in books and parchments. He fell forward, slamming his face on the table’s edge with a sickening crack, and lay flat on the floor for a moment. Alessandro bit his lip and leaned forward slightly, wondering briefly if the priest was dead. But then suddenly he had popped back up, clutching his nose with one hand and blood spurted from between his fingers. “Oops,” he muttered, looking slightly embarrassed at disgracing himself in front of the Pope.
“Are you okay…?” the nose looked like it was bleeding quite a bit, and Alessandro felt faint at the sight of how much blood was spurting out between the older man’s lean fingers.
“Yep,” Abel gave a disarming wave of his free hand. “It happens all the time… you get used to it!” he took his hand away from his nose, and Alessandro winced at the very sight of it. It looked like it might be broken.
“Are you sure?” he asked timidly. “It looks pretty bad,” instinctively he moved forward and leaned down at bit to scrutinize the wound, and his hat fell from his head, knocking against the bloody mess that had once been Abel’s nose. Abel squealed girlishly at the sudden pain, and Alessandro bit his lip again. “Sorry!” he squeaked. His voice cracked slightly and he promptly went red, turning away and fumbling around on the table for something to help stop the bleeding.
“Oh, that’s okay…” Abel whimpered softly. “It was an accident!”
Alessandro had never felt quite so stupid as he scrambled around the table. Of all the ridiculous, clumsy things he had done, he had probably never looked this much like an idiot doing any of them. He finally found a handkerchief somewhere among the scattered books and turned back to the fallen priest, kneeling before him where he sat on the floor (he was too short to be able to reach while sitting himself). He gingerly reached out with the white cloth and brushed gently at the other man’s nose with it. He winced, and Alessandro winced with him like a mirror.
“Sorry…” he whispered, brushing at some of the stray blood on the area above Abel’s lip and then pressing the cloth delicately to the nose, holding it there. The two sat in still, but somehow not uncomfortable silence. There was little to do but either avoid the priests eyes or go for an approach of staring, but Alessandro felt awkward doing either. He opted instead for stealing quick glances every now and then and pretending he wasn’t awkward doing that as well.
Alessandro began to notice, however, through his brief glances, that Abel had a rather infectious smile. He couldn’t help but feel it creeping involuntarily across his own lips, tiny at first but growing like a crocus come springtime. It poked out from under that thin, metaphorical snow that was his stress and spread its small violet blossom bit by bit. Being so close to the silver-haired man filled him with an odd, suffocating feeling, something warm and unfamiliar. There was something so benevolent and comforting about Abel’s very presence that Alessandro could feel the tight coils of responsibility slowly letting go of him. He could breath once more. It might have had something to do with the light, clean scent emanating from the priest, which was every bit as soothing as the scent of stress release candles.
“Are you alright?” Abel asked him out of the blue, and his voice startled Alessandro, though he managed not to jump. He prided himself in this.
“What?”
“Well, you seem a little tense,” Abel observed candidly. “I imagine your job isn’t easy, so it probably gets stressful, but you seem a little more tense than someone your age should ever be…”
Sighing softly, Alessandro nodded. “I know I don’t make many decisions on my own, and I know I shouldn’t really feel so much pressure because it’s not like I’m a real ‘leader’ anyway, but sometimes I gets so scared of letting everybody down… especially Caterina. She’s done so much to get me where I am, but I feel like I don’t even deserve it…” immediately, Alessandro wished he had kept his thoughts to himself. These were such personal matters, and he really didn’t know why he was spilling them so readily to Abel. But there was no taking words back, and he averted his eyes from the now concerned-looking priest and stared halfheartedly out the picture windows.
“I know it might not mean much coming from me, but I think you’re doing a fine job,” Abel told him. And then, in an unexpected display of tenderness, his fingertips brushed the side of Alessandro’s face as he pushed a lock of brown hair from his eye.
Alessandro wasn’t sure why, but he was unspeakably touched by the action. His stomach quivered unexplainably, and slowly he brought his eyes to meet Abel’s. They sat like that for a moment, as though linked by some bizarre force that would not allow Alessandro to look away, no matter how ridiculous he was starting to feel. Without so much as a second thought, abandoning all thought of sanity and sense, he leaned forward and placed a light kiss on Abel’s lips.
Almost immediately, Abel flushed a brilliant scarlet, and Alessandro followed suit, glancing away and doing his best to pretend it hadn’t happened. “Why did I do that?” he agonized, wishing he could melt into a puddle on the floor. When he finally found the courage to look back at the other man, he was staring at him slightly open-mouthed
“Y-Your E--”
“Please just… call me Alessandro?” the young Pope whispered, much to his own surprise. These words were far too bold to be coming out of his own mouth, but he was powerless to stop them. “I don’t like titles they… make me feel even farther away from people,” But it was impossible to feel far away from Abel at this moment, despite the awkwardness and the shame at kissing him without even bothering to ask. This moment just felt so… intimate, with all the quiet tenderness shining in the priest’s eyes.
“Alright--” Abel swallowed. “--Alessandro.”
Their lips met again, and this time Alessandro wasn’t exactly sure who instigated it. But Abel’s mouth was warm, his hands were tender, almost fatherly against his hair, and his soft scent buried itself in Alessandro’s consciousness and slowly melted away all of his stress. This all left him limp and slightly confused at how he could possibly be actually kissing someone, and how they could willingly be kissing him back. This didn’t feel real; it had some kind of floaty, ethereal quality to it, too glittering and unspoiled to possibly be anything but a dream.
But there it was, the reality of Abel’s lips pressed softly into his, the slight wetness as they parted and he felt breath on his lips. The warmth of Abel’s tongue as it brushed his and he shuddered, clinging to him tightly and doing his best to keep his breath regular. He swore his heart was about to explode out of his chest as he kissed clumsily with all the obvious teenage awkwardness he was so terrible at hiding. The sudden arousal was alarming to him, and he pawed desperately at Abel’s shoulders and then slid his hands down as he slowly went with it, feeling the bony curves of Abel’s body beneath his robes.
Abel was painfully thin under Alessandro’s touch, and he was almost afraid he would hurt him if he wasn’t gentle. His hands found Abel’s hip bones, prompting a low moan from deep in the priest’s throat. This sent impossible amounts of heat to Alessandro’s groin, and he was almost afraid to keep going. He could feel Abel’s hands touching him tenderly, and for a moment both of their eyes opened and locked. They were frozen in time, in the center of this moment which was both wrong but inevitable, on the edge of the abyss of passion that could prove impossible to escape. But slowly, taking more initiative than he ever had in his life Alessandro closed his eyes and pressed onward, allowing his hands to travel farther down Abel’s body…
The sunlight that fell harmlessly onto the bed through the window was the first thing that awoke Alessandro. As he sat up slowly, he rubbed the sleep from his eyes. One glance beside him told him, to his own surprise, that the previous night’s events had not been a dream. Abel lay mostly under the covers, glasses discarded, still peacefully asleep. Alessandro had to stare at him for a moment to reassure himself that this was reality before he could calm down.
Moving slowly so as not to wake the sleeping priest, Alessandro moved timidly over to his side of the bed and slid against him, nestling his head into the warm place beneath his chin. He knew that there would be consequences later, and he knew that things could not always be this perfect. But for once, stress eluded him. He smiled and allowed his eyes to close as he slowly pressed his face into Abel’s chest and breathed him in, slow and sweet. For just a moment, their two souls intertwined in peace.
Feedback, plz? *puppy eyes*