Work Text:
"I love you."
Clef couldn't stop his breath from sounding like a chuckle. "You keep saying that like a broken record. Are you ok, Konny?"
"I'm saying it because I want you to know it. I love you, I love you so much."
They were standing on the rooftop. Clef was leaning on the rails, he could feel the cold metal on his back. Kondraki was leaning towards Clef, his hands gripping the rails tightly on either side of him. Clef didn't feel trapped. Not with Kondraki.
"I love you." Kondraki said again, kissing him on the side of his nose. He let out another chuckle and lent another kiss on his chin as a way of telling him not to stop. "I love you, I love you." Each kiss was getting closer to his lips. Each kiss was making his heart flutter harder and harder. Each kiss was feeding into the guilt in the back of his head, the voice he had gotten better at tuning out screaming at him.
They were breathing the same air, their noses were touching. The last kiss left their upper lips so close to each other, he could feel it with every minor head movement.
"I love you." Kondraki repeated, and Clef had to pause. He thought about the man standing so close to him, opening his heart for his broken soul to see. He thought about the feeling in his chest, one he hadn't felt in over thirty years.
Then, he said it.
"I love you too."
It was quiet, so, so quiet that if Kondraki was standing a centimeter away, he would not have been able to hear it. Alas, he wasn't, and he wasn't breathing anymore, neither of them were, the air between them getting colder, colder, colder.
Until laughter emerged from Kondraki. It started out small and breathy, but evolved into a full-blown laugh, the kind that shakes the person after their friend falls down the stairs. It was filled with relief, the feeling radiating from Kondraki in such strong waves that Clef felt it in his core. Perhaps that was his own relief. It didn't matter.
In one moment they were laughing, in another their lips interlocked in a kiss so passionate, it would put all its predecessors to shame. They parted and met again in a playful dance, never leaving one another for long. All good things came to an end, however, as Kondraki pulled away to rest his forehead on his.
"Say that again?"
"You heard me."
Kondraki leaned in to kiss him again, but this time, Clef met him halfway through. It was less passionate this time around, lazier, but it didn't make it any less enjoyable, not in the slightest.
"I love you." Kondraki whispered again. Clef answered, "I love you too.". It wasn't audible at all this time, just a breath and the movement of his lips. Again, Kondraki was close enough to know.
This led to another shower of kisses, and with each one, he thought. Love was pain, he thought. It was a weakness, he thought. It was foolish, he thought. It made him vulnerable, he thought. It opened him to manipulation, he thought. But it all went away as he melted into the next kiss, his arms reaching towards Kondraki's neck, his hands finding his hair tie and sliding it off, his fingers tangling in his hair. All his worries fell apart as he breathed him in, Kondraki, Kondraki, Kondraki...
Love was not pain. Not with Kondraki.