<< DESERT ROSE - Faouzia >>
It had been ten years since Kai had laid eyes on them. Ten long years since he'd seen his face and now he would be forced to behave as though they had been on a fun hiking expedition just moments before he fell.
And he knew what would happen now.
His oldest and closest friend, the reason that he had fled to Asmarata in the first place, was going to descend that rope and throw his arms around him.
Rameses Hadiyyah came into view, the muscles beneath his tanned skin straining against the rope and everything about him was exactly as Kai remembered. His mature, handsome face, his curly black hair, his broad shoulders, and those eyes that were roaming over him in concern, seeming to pierce through his skin.
Not all Artifacts were a physical object, some vanished the moment they were touched, possessing and implanting itself into that singular part of your body.
Kai could still remember the way he had screamed when Rameses found his Artifact, and it had implanted itself into his eyes.
His eyes were brown when they were young but the power had altered them beyond recognition to an unnaturally clear, pale blue, like two chips of ice.
And right now, as Kai stared back at him and attempted to calm the pure, bitter sting of hatred he thought he caught a hint of fear in his steady gaze.
"Kai..." He grabbed him, pulling him in and wrapping his arms around his shoulders, "Are you ok? Are you hurt?" His deep, husky voice murmured in his ear, sending a shiver down his spine at the feeling of his warm, hard body pressed against him.
'I'll kill you. If it's the only thing I do now I'm back, I'll fucking kill you.'
Kai swallowed back the words he wanted to say; 'I hate you', 'you ruined my life', 'you could have had any other woman', and replied, "Yeah, I'm alright. Thanks Rami."
He breathed in. Rami smelt like pine and woodchips and the familiarity of him weighed his heart down with every assault to his senses.
Rameses let go swiftly, as though he hadn't meant to grab him in the first place, but when his eyes caught the small wound on his temple and the grazes over his bronzed skin, his fingers reached out and hovered over the minor injury.
"Liar. You're hurt." He stopped short of touching his skin, his fingertips barely an inch away.
"Phew! That's a long way down." Genevieve exhaled, brushing the dirt from her shorts.
Rameses dropped his hand entirely when he heard her voice and put distance between them, a muscle twitching at the edge of his square jaw when she threw herself into Kai's arms.
"Kai, baby! Are you sure you're ok? You really scared us."
He felt his stomach flip, a wave of disgust washing over him. She sounded so fake. How had he never even noticed? Was it always this obvious what they were doing behind his back or did it only seem that way because he knew?
He disentangled himself from her, casting his bright, hazel eyes to the floor without looking at her obnoxiously pretty face and sleek, mahogany hair, "I'm fine." He mumbled, struggling to add his usual exuberant energy into his tone.
Rameses stared at him a little harder when he heard the strange edge to his voice but after a moment's pause he turned away, "Let's get going, there's an exit down this way." His eyes shined a little brighter as he pointed through the left tunnel.
"Oh! Say, Kai, did you find it? Was your Artifact back there? I saw an altar but it was empty." Genevieve asked, threading her fingers through his as they followed Rameses down the tunnel.
Kai allowed her to take his hand. He'd leave her soon, but it would look odd to do it now. It was best to play along before Rameses caught that something had changed in him. He wanted him unaware and his guard down.
"No. I was mistaken I guess, there was nothing there, it must have been someone else's." He shrugged, the useless golden amulet burning a hole in his back pocket.
*
When they stepped out of the cave an hour later, Kaius froze as the scent of pine and forest vegetation hit his nose. The air was so clean and all he could see was green; the forest in front of them, the mountain at their backs.
It had been so long since he'd seen the forest of Sekhet that he was tempted to fall onto his knees and kiss the ground beneath his feet.
'Because that wouldn't make me look like a crazy person in the slightest.'
So instead, he tore his eyes away, his heart aching in his chest at all of the other things he would finally see again.
'My dad, my sister, my bike, the market...how did I forget. Where was all of this when I was deciding if I wanted to live or die? How could I forget about everything that I'd been missing for over a decade.'
They made their way back to camp in relative silence; Genevieve prancing ahead with little concern and Rameses trailing close behind him.
A part of him could feel those eyes boring through his back but he paid it no mind, his attention drawn to the forest, seeing everything around him in a new light.
The low hanging branches with emerald, star-shaped leaves that draped down onto the forest floor, the vivid moss that covered every rock and trunk, even the stream they had crossed a hundred times before seemed more beautiful to him than it ever had.
He brushed his hazel eyes with the edge of his sleeve before the tears that pricked at the corners could fall, and that sharp gaze at his back could notice the expression on his face.
But even as he forced his way through a quick evening meal by the campfire, halfway back to their market town, a wide grin plastered to his face whilst Genevieve prattled on about all the things she wanted to do together over the next few weeks; he could still feel those eyes glancing at him from time to time.
His nerves were fried by the time he bid them goodnight and crawled inside of his single tent.
Why did he keep staring? Did he know something was wrong? Had he always been watching him like that?
*
A few hours later, Kaius was lying across the makeshift cot inside of his tent, his eyes trained on the entrance. He refused to fall asleep around them when he was out here alone. So when Rameses pulled the canvas aside to check on him and crawled inside, Kai closed his eyes and kept his breathing even.
"Kai…are you asleep?" He whispered and Kai could feel how close he was, his body heat was already touching his skin in the enclosed space.
'You'd like that wouldn't you? I'll never let my guard down around you again you slimy bast-'
Warm lips grazed against his own without warning and Kai was forced to use every ounce of his willpower to continue feigning sleep.
His breathing steady even when rough fingertips brushed gently against the small wound on his temple and running through his blonde hair.
His face, still and unmoving even when the lips returned and brazenly pressed a little firmer to his own.
All the while he was sure that he knew he was awake, he had to hear it too, right?
How could anyone miss the sound of his heart crashing in his chest and the shake that crept into the last note of every exhale?
A part of him even felt an inexplicable primal urge to grab the back of his head and kiss him back, but his body was frozen in place.
'Gods no. Don't move. Don't you dare. You hate him, you hate him, you hate him...' He chanted, over and over inside his head.
"I thought I lost you today. Frighten me like that again and I'll fucking kill you." He drawled, whispering against his ear in a way that raised every hair on his body.
It took everything inside of him not to shudder at the sound of his husky voice. He had never heard him use this tone before; low, seductive and drawling like rough velvet against his skin.
'...what the hell is happening? What the fuck is this?'
The flap of the tent rustled at his departure and Kai immediately sat bolt upright, staring with wide-eyed shock at the entrance. And then, with a shaking hand he touched his fingertips to his lips, a tingling sensation left in his wake.
**