A/N: This is just a little idea I had. I have this story called Skycatchers, which I haven’t posted yet. I got this idea from it, and it uses the same characters, setting, everything. I realized it could only work as a one-shot, so I decided to write it as a one-shot. The original story is not slash. Please review.

Just One Kiss: A One-Shot by I’ve-Seen-The-Fairies

He was so beautiful. So beautiful. I remember the first time I saw him. He looked so wild, so… feral. A wild beauty, snarling and struggling against his captors. He was to be my partner, my fellow elite. I wanted to capture that beauty, to tame the wild beast. To calm the disturbed soul of this beautiful elf with the terrible past.

When next I saw him, he was different. Cleaner, and more civilized. That only revealed that he was more beautiful than I could have ever imagined, leaving his former beauty only a shadow. There was a great sadness in his eyes, a pain of long ago. I wanted to hold him, to take him away from the intense pain that so obviously haunted him. The pain that made him moan and sweat and cry in his sleep, something I knew he would never admit to doing.

The first time I heard him speak, speak in his beautiful voice, I thought I had died and gone to the Place of Eternal Bliss. He told me to call him Rai. Rai, I had thought, like a ray of the sun. We could hardly understand each other. I spoke not his language, and he spoke not mine. We taught each other, and soon we became closer. I could hardly control myself around him, his beauty was so great.

And when he fought, oh, when he fought! The wildness was there again. That look was in his eyes, that beautiful, feral look. He looked like he would tear me apart without a second thought. He spun his staff so fast that my sword could barely defend me. I wondered if he would be that wild in bed, if he would snarl and play rough. I wished with all my heart that some day I might find out, but I knew not if he loved me, or if he thought of me as only a friend.

One night he came to me where I sat, overlooking the canyon and thinking about him. It was a full moon, and he looked even more beautiful in the pale half-light. He ever so shyly confessed how he felt about me, feelings of love and lust, passion and longing. He cried then, saying how we could never be. I tried to kiss him, but he pulled away, telling me it was wrong.

I asked him how it could be wrong. He wanted this as much as I did. He told me how the rest of the Skycatchers would never respect us, never follow us, when we were the ones who were trained to lead them. We would be outcasts, and he never wanted to return to that life.

Our relationship was tentative. Never would he let me kiss him, touch him in any way that was suggestive or sexual. He cried often, his terrible past making him insecure and frightened. He told me of the horrid things that had happened to him, in between his sobs of pain. I loved him most in the moments where he lay crying quietly against me, digging fingernails into my chest for the comfort and attention he so desperately needed. I lavished him with as much care and love as I could, although I could only hold him.

One day, the order came. War. He and I were to lead the Skycatchers. We were not ready. We were only seventeen. As we sat astride our mounts on the front lines, the two of us and the rest behind, I knew he was frightened. I knew he could not do this. He turned to me, fear evident in his beautiful eyes. He had to try hard to keep himself from crying in front of the entire army.

“I love you.” He whispered. He could not keep his voice from shaking. He bit his lip. “Can you please… kiss me?”

I shook my head, laying my armored hand on his. “Not here. Everyone will see us. This is not the time.”

“I do not care!” He blurted, a single tear falling down his pale cheek. Then he softened. “I may die here. I want you to kiss me… before I die.” He hung his beautiful blonde head.

I wanted to. I wanted to so badly. But I could not. “You will not die. Later, we may kiss all you wish, but we are in front of the entire army. This is not the time.”

“Please,” His voice was shaking worse. “Just one kiss?”

“Just one kiss.” Unheeding of the thousands of Skycatcher behind us, I leaned over and kissed him.