1 - FAREWELL

//Gold and amber, shining through
Swear by the moon; I'll wait for you//

Soft hiss of waves on the man-made beach, the warm salt water curling around their bodies. Pale hair blending in with the sand underneath it, eyes the deep gold color of the false sunset that had faded away hours ago. Those eyes seemed to darken a little, the pupils dilating like opening mouths in pleasure, reflecting the tiny pinpoints of light that now dotted the ceiling of the biodome.

//Silent treasures, hidden blushes
Soft surrender...to discover//

Eagle's moans were warm honeyed breath on Lantisıs bare skin. The tall Cephirean moved deeper into the boy's slender body, and Eagle arched his long neck, his lashes fluttering in pleasure.

"Ah, sweet stars...Lantis..."

The only reply Lantis made was to tighten his arms round Eagle and rock more slowly, in and out, his face pressed against the cool hollow where neck met shoulder.

A tiny gasping sob escaped Eagle's throat, and Lantis lifted his head a little to gaze down at him. The boy's face was flushed with desire, his lips slightly bruised with Lantis's kisses. His gold eyes looked huge in the artificial moonlight. After all the things they had done, all the months they had spent together, he still looked like a virgin. Lantis smiled. Shyly Eagle reached up to stroke Lantis's wet black hair back from his face. "I love you," he whispered.

Strong arms slid around his shoulders, and Lantis kissed him again, deeply.

//Feel the wings...we whisper and sigh
As the angels glide on the touch of our skin//

Lantis ran his hands slowly down the length of Eagle's body, and the boy responded with a very satisfying groan, pushing his hips upward. Lantis closed his eyes and thrust again.

This was heaven...the wet sand underneath them, the water rising and falling around them in unison with their own languid rhythm. Lantis could almost imagine he was back home, in the warmer regions of the Crescent Bay perhaps, wrapped in nothing but moonlight and seawater and Eagle's delicious embrace.

But that was where he was going tomorrow, wasn't it? Back home...only without Eagle. And without his friend, his lover, was anywhere home any more?

He had forgotten the mind link between the two of them. Eagle opened his lovely eyes and gazed at his friend with concern. One hand reached up and drew Lantis close. Eagles lips brushed his ear tenderly. "Don't think about it now," he whispered, beginning to nibble a little on Lantis's ear. "In fact," a warm tongue traced the shell-like contours of the ear as Lantis moaned, "don't think at all..."

//A fragile voice I hear,that trembles and deceives
The deep blue oceans in your eyes
Desire grows inside//

"Ah, gods, Eagle..."

Lovingly the young Flight Commander kissed him again, his hands stroking Lantis's face and the sides of his neck, whispering breathlessly in Lantisıs ear as they began to rock just a little faster against the wet sand. Lantis's vision was beginning to glaze a little at the edges. He could hear the low thick murmur of Eagle's voice blending with the hissing of the waves.

"I've always loved you, Lantis...since I first met you and looked into your eyes...ah, those blue, blue eyes...like the sky of your lovely planet...so...deep...swallowing me...ah, deeper..."

//Veils of mist, covered kisses Swear by the moon: I want you//

Eagleıs body was beginning to tremble in his arms, and Lantis himself was beginning to tense as he stroked Eagle more and more inside. The boy's body was arched against his own, slender hips thrusting against Lantis's. He shifted his legs a little higher upward so as to sheathe Lantis further inside himself. The soft skin of his inner thighs slid wetly against Lantis's sides, making him gasp.

Their breath was coming in pants now, their movements faster and harder with each thrust. Lantis buried himself in his young lover over and over, listening to the beautiful voice plead with him, the resonance of Eagle's voice somehow humming through both their bodies.

"Deeper, Lantis......mmmm, yes, please, dear friend, devour me...oh, Lantis, Lantiiiiiis...aaaaahhhhnnnnnnn..."

//Pearls of steam...and the dance begins
Free the heat, make us stronger still//

Eagle's moans were growing into cries, and Lantis flung his head back as he drove into the boy again. His body lying full length on top of Eagle's, he slid a hand down to wrap around Eagle's shaft. The boy gasped and took hold of Lantis's shoulders as he reached down with his other hand, deft fingers dancing up and down Eagle's slender pale length like an instrument.

"Ah...ah...Lantis--" Eagle thrust helplessly into his hands, his lashes fluttering blindly, his body surrendering to Lantis's devotions. Lantis in turn was rocked with pleasure as he felt Eagle's body clench tightly around his deeply-buried shaft. Each time Eagle pushed himself into Lantis's hands he took Lantis deep inside him, to the root, and Lantis shut his eyes and abandoned himself to the onslaught of sensation and the wonderful sound of Eagleıs passionate cries in his ear.

"Ah...Lantis...oh, my beautiful dark knight...Lantis...harder ...oh, *harder*... Lantis!!! Aaaaahhhhhhhhuuuuunnnn ...ahh ...GODS ...! LAAAAAAAANNNTIIIISSS..."

The moonlight and the water rose in one great wave, drowning him in the brilliant gold of Eagle's eyes.

//No more promises; we are here tonight
Come together in sweet firelight//

They lay still afterwards, basking in the gentle glow of the moon and of their pleasure, Lantis's head tucked comfortably under Eagle's chin. He closed his eyes, savoring the slow rise and fall of Eagle's chest, and nuzzled a little at the soft hollow of the boy's throat.

"Do you think we'll catch a cold if we stay in the water tonight?" asked Eagle softly, after a while.

Lantis chuckled a little. "Maybe. I tried it in this beach on the southwest part of the Crescent Bay with my brother, when we were teenagers. We were too tired to change...we'd been swimming all day...so we slept in the water. The next day we were sneezing like crazy, and Clef and the Princess had to take turns scolding us."

The thought hurt. He remembered: *My brother is dead. The Princess is dead.* Eagle slid a hand under his chin and tilted it up to kiss him softly. Lantis let him.

"I guess we won't spend the night, then," whispered Eagle. His lashes pressed against Lantisıs cheek, and trembled. Lantis felt a hot tear slide down into his mouth.

"Eagle?"

//Here until dawn sets us both apart
A love thatıs true...swear by the moon
I live for you, for you
For you, for you, forever for you//

"I'll miss you," whispered the boy, hiding his face in Lantisıs shoulder. "You--you're the only one I ever...I..."

"I loved you first, too, Eagle," murmured Lantis, trying to comfort the weeping boy with gentle kisses along his cheek and jaw. "But I have to go back, you know why."

"I know." Eagle turned to meet Lantisıs mouth with his own. "I'm sorry. Itıs selfish of me, but I was sort of hoping you would stay...give up on the Pillar system. But I suppose...you *have* to go. Letıs just not discuss that any more...I want to savor this last night..."

"So do I," agreed Lantis quietly.

//Precious hours, fires dying down
While the night gives way to clear morning light
Perfumes gracing the senses of our souls//

Eagle's arms wrapped round him again. He drew the boy closer and they lay for a while longer, the waves rising and falling round their naked bodies, before reluctantly drawing away from each other and standing up.

They dressed each other slowly and tenderly, trying to brush the sand from each other's damp skin with their towels. Then they left the biodome and went back to Eagle's home on his hoverbike, never saying a word. Even in the shower the both of them were too tired to do more than gently clean sand and salt off each other's skin. Wearily Lantis climbed into bed with his lover for the last time, and Eagle sleepily held out cool arms for him. He sank into the welcoming embrace and was asleep almost immediately.

//A love that's true...swear by the moon
I'll be here for you, for you//

"Take the hoverbike," said Eagle the next day.

Lantis gazed at the boy he loved, resplendent in the green, gold and white of his dress uniform. Eagle's pleasant, polite mask was in place again, and only the fact that he wouldnıt quite meet Lantisıs eyes gave any evidence of his true feelings.

"I would have lent you FTO," he said lightly, "but Zazu would have been rather annoyed with me." He chuckled a little as he lifted the clear green-tinted plate of crystal: the key to the hoverbike. "Besides, I think this is faster than that creature of yours." It was another sign of his distress that he referred to Lantisıs horse that way; normally he was fascinated by it.

"Eagle..." Lantis's throat seemed to have closed; he couldnıt say another word.

Eagle lowered his gaze. Lantis watched his lashes tremble a little on his cheeks as he said softly, "It was your decision. I know that neither I nor anything else can change your mind."

Then he smiled a little, and remarked almost dreamily, "I've decided something too."

"Decided what?" asked Lantis.

Eagle smiled again, that sunny, impenetrable smile of his, and said: "A little secret."

Lantis wasn't to know what he meant until months later, when Cephiro was embroiled in battle...and he, Eagle and a mysterious carnelian-eyed girl from another world right in the middle of it.

But now Eagle had come close for one last kiss, and Lantis was not even going to try to fathom that last comment, or wonder any more about the future.

*I love you, Eagle...*

*I know. I love you, too.*

*Goodbye.*

*Take care, Lantis.*

//For you, for you, forever for you...
I'll be here forever
Forever...for you...//

2 - ANY OTHER WAY

//Calling 'cross the blue
It's all I do
One day you'll come back to me
It's a secret of the sea
I'll always love you...always//

"You gave him my bike," growled Geo. His fists clenched and unclenched against the wall.

Eagle lowered his gaze. He was leaning up against the wall, with Geo only a few inches from his face. They had been in that position several times, but this time Eagle wasn't wide-eyed and stammering, or sly-eyed and teasing, which were his normal reactions depending on his mood. His gold eyes looked faraway, and dull. They looked dead.

Geo gritted his teeth. "You gave *him* MY bike!" he yelled.

Eagle turned away. "Sorry," he mumbled. "I'll give you mine, when it's fixed. I just...needed yours, and I couldn't wait because Lantis was...leaving...." His normally rich alto died away into a rough whisper, and he put a hand up to his shoulder, clutching it and curling up on himself.

Geo's anger drained away like sand through his fingers. "Eagle..." His hand came up to stroke Eagle's cheek, as it had done so often before. Before they had stopped belonging to each other. Before *he* had come.

Gently Eagle pushed Geo's larger hand away. Just that touch, that brush of Eagle's slender fingers against Geo's rough ones, was enough to make Geo's breath come fast and dry in his throat. But Eagle gave no sign of recognizing the touch. He rose and glided away, down the corridor toward his apartments.

//I see
Floating on the ocean
Somewhere under the sun
Your golden skin
In cypress and blue//

It had never been clear to Geo just how Eagle did that, that drifting walk that seemed as if his feet barely touched the ground. Ever since Geo could remember, Eagle had always seemed to float everywhere he went: his liquid step, his cape flowing out behind him, his expression turned inward as if he were contemplating something important--which he usually was. Some trend-crazy Autozam teenagers, hoping to be noticed by the president's son, had tried to copy his floating stride by attaching mini-suspensors to their ankles or boot fastenings, to keep them just a tiny bit off the ground. But it was a poor imitation; they had none of Eagle's absentminded grace. It was one of the things Geo loved most about his best friend.

Tonight, though, there was wrongness in every movement. Every line of Eagle's body seemed etched in misery and fatigue. His head tipped listlessly to one side and his shoulders drooped as he made his slow, smooth way across to his rooms.

It had been a long day. First thing in the morning Eagle had rushed off on Geo's bike (without even a "thanks for dressing me" to Geo, who had fussed over his coat for fifteen whole minutes), just to say goodbye to that Lantis. Then he came back without the bike, but Geo hadn't had a chance to ask about it all day because the palace was packed with bigwigs who'd come to celebrate the military festival. And now it had turned out that Eagle had given Geo's *own* bike, the very same one on which he'd taught Eagle to ride, to LANTIS! That... that poker-faced magician from the garden world!

Geo slammed his fist against the wall, earning a reproachful look from a passing servant. He leaned his head against the cold synth-stone.

"Weren't you happy with taking my Eagle?" he murmured, squeezing his eyes shut. "Did you have to steal my bike too? You planning to run away with *all* my treasures? Take the GTO while you're at it, 'jack my mech too, go on....Meat-eating magician."

He wished Lantis *had* taken everything else. He would give up his precious bike and his even more precious robot...if he could have just kept Eagle.

//I hear
Waves that come rolling in
Fleetness of wings
A sound is missing
A sign from you//

The door to Eagle's room was sliding open before Geo even realized he'd gotten there. He took his hand off the print plate that opened the door and went in.

Eagle had dragged all the potted plants in the room around his bed, making a thick green bower that swallowed his slender form. Geo caught the flash of gold and creamy-white as the boy shifted in his huge bed.

"Geo?" said the Supreme Flight Commander faintly.

Was this a bad idea? Geo went over to the bed, pushed his way through green fronds and thick leaves. A few flower petals fell on the sheets as he sat down next to Eagle. The boy was curled into a ball in the middle of the bed, clutching a pillow. The dark blue pillowcase had an even darker damp spot. Eagle's eyes were puffy, his face and lashes wet.

Automatically, Geo reached out and stroked Eagle's pale fluff of hair. This time the boy did not pull away, but scooted closer until his head was practically nudging Geo's thigh.

Geo bit his lip, hard. How many times had the two friends rolled around in this bed, exchanging secrets and stories? How many times had he dreamed of taking Eagle here? Of making love for the first time, savoring Eagle's wonder and delight in the first kiss, the first breach, the first orgasm?

All that was gone now. Lantis had taken that too.

//I may never know
Where you did go
Whatever took you from here
On the currents that run deep
I'll always love you...always//

"Do you want me to go?" Geo asked Eagle, even though the boy had now pillowed his head in Geo's lap.

"No!" Eagle clutched Geo's knee. "I'm sorry I pushed you away, Geo. I was tired and I wanted to sleep...but I got here and now I don't know if I can sleep by myself...." He began to sob, quietly.

Gently the older man pulled Eagle into his arms. Eagle buried his face in Geo's chest and began to cry in earnest. "Don't go," he sobbed. "You can't leave me, too. I'm so lonely."

*Let me tell YOU about lonely, my love.* "I'm not going anywhere," he murmured, tightening his arms round his friend, kissing the pale gold hair. "I'm not leaving. I'll never leave." *You're the one who left me!* But he couldn't bear to accuse his golden boy, not now.

Eagle drew back, gulping like a child. "Geo," he whispered. "I've never asked you to...but...but now I... Would you..." His fingers reached up to Geo's face, shy but hungry, desperate for someone. Anyone. "Please. I want to forget...."

"Me too." Geo bent his head, covered Eagle's mouth with his own. It was salty, instead of sweet as he'd always thought; salty with tears, but soft and warm and the heaven that Geo had always imagined they would be.

//We would sail into that big sky
Forget about the time
On the wind we would ride
Watching wild birds sweep and glide//

"Let's forget, Eagle." Kicking off his boots, Geo lay Eagle on the pillows, crawled onto his best friend, kissing, tangling tongues, his hands moving in trembling strokes down Eagle's chest, to the frogging of the jacket he had fastened so carefully that morning. "Let's forget there ever was someone besides you and me," he whispered against Eagle's willing mouth. "Let's forget that someone else became your best friend, and your lover, before I could."

"What? Geo..." Those meltingly deep golden eyes searched his, confused. "You were always my best friend."

"That isn't all I wanted to be," said Geo bitterly, pulling one fastening so hard that both of them heard the snap of parting threads. "You don't know...I had to watch your eyes light up, every time he came into your line of sight. I had to watch the way you reached for him, and leaned into his touch. Once I saw you two kissing in here...." Geo bit his lip hard again. "I would hear you...making...having...and I wanted you so badly my palms would ache. But I could only ever be your best friend, because of *him*."

"Geo," whispered Eagle, running his fingers through Geo's spiky black hair. "You *love* me."

"I always have, Commander." Geo got the jacket undone, and Eagle got up on his elbows to help get it off more quickly. The white throat rising out of the cream-colored undershirt was too lovely to resist. Geo lavished soft, tender bites on it, making Eagle writhe underneath him.

The pants proved a bit more difficult, and Geo was trying to get the panel lacings undone when Eagle cupped Geo's face in his hands and tipped his head up.

"What happened?" asked Eagle sadly, stroking Geo's face and smoothing his hair, for all the world as if he *was* Eagle's lover. Well, tonight, he was. Before the cold eyes of the stars, tonight *he* was Eagle's lover. Alone. No longer forced to one side, or watching on the sidelines, trying to be happy for his friend, and secretly jealous as all hell.

"I was ready to take the next step, before he came," he said roughly, leaning his forehead against the fair, high one. "I was just waiting for the right moment. Then I would tell you, and ask you to take the next step with me." His chest ached like he'd been trying to breathe without air. "I know you would have said yes, Eagle. You would have been mine. I was just waiting. I wanted it to be perfect." His eyes burned; his vision blurred. "It would have been perfect."

//I'll linger just a little more
Drifting on a foreign shore
Spend my nights waiting out the tides//

"I love you, Geo," said Eagle wistfully, and tears began to slide down Geo's face too, as they kissed desperately, Eagle's arms sliding up Geo's shirt as Geo finally freed the laces and slid the pants down Eagle's slender thighs. Geo's rough hands cupped Eagle's tight, silky-skinned bottom and pulled him closer. He could feel Eagle's young erection rubbing through his own pants. His thighs were so soft, but the muscles beneath were supple and firm, shifting as Eagle spread his legs for his friend.

"I love you, Geo." In the dreams, he always said that, cried it out or murmured it tenderly into Geo's ear in the dying afterglow of the dream sex. But it sounded different now, and Geo knew the words would never be the same for him as they were for Lantis.

"Tonight..." He dug his teeth into Eagle's clavicle, just by his shoulder, and Eagle shuddered in pleasure. "Tonight you *did* say yes. Tonight you're mine. Just for tonight, Eagle." Tears pooled in the hollow of Eagle's shoulder. Geo looked up, saw Eagle open his mouth to say something, and overrode it. "Please, Eagle, just grant me one thing. If you like, I'll never mention this again. I'll never ask for another night with you. We'll go on friends just like we always were. I'll give you my embrace, my shoulder to cry on, my right arm. You can tease me all you want and I won't hold it against you..."

He pressed his lips to Eagle's lips, his cheekbone, his temple. "Just, please...love me like you love Lantis. Love me like I love you. Just tonight, my Eagle, my sweet Commander...please love me...."

Eagle kissed him then, and this time Geo could *taste* the difference. "I love you, Geo..." whispered Eagle again, burying his face in Geo's neck, and when he said it this time, it was as it should have been.

//Calling 'cross the blue--it's all I do
One day you'll come back to me
It's the secret of the sea
I'll always love you
I may never know where you did go
Whatever took you from here
On these currents that run deep
I'll always love you
I'll always love you
I'll always love you//

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