Intense pain enveloped his right shoulder, throbbed through his shoulder blades, and pinched into his stomach. He felt hot; in his bones, in his muscles, in his head. He felt his body shaking slightly; he couldn’t decide if he was hungry or wanted to vomit. He never felt this crappy before. His brain was empty, he couldn’t even figure out why he was like this, and where he was. He sank into the darkness multiple times before he could try to wake up completely – since he realised, he had been waking up some time, he started to get flashes of memories of that day.

     The attack on the Northern Base… The magnetic pole’s collapse… Lu Feng’s and An Zhe’s last look, and the fight Hubbard fought after landing… a long, life-consuming last battle for humanity. A breath-taking sunrise. Black wings.

     Hubbard’s eyes sprang open, and he wanted to sit up immediately as he finally knew, what the last scene was. Or rather who it was.

      However, the pain unexpectedly made him growl. Hubbard fell back on his bunk, and tried to breathe calmly, but his heart raced, and the oxygen he inhaled wasn’t enough. Hot waves swept through his body again.

   “Stay put, or I will tie you down.” 

     Hubbard slowly looked up again, directly at the stained ceiling. He had double vision for a few seconds before his pupils sharpened. Light came from one side of the room where he lay. He immediately knew they had to be in a city ruin because the base had no similar structures in their buildings: a very tall room, a glass balcony door, a huge, broken window with two wings, spacious and full of furniture. On the walls, some patterned wallpapers were peeling off, yellowed by time, greened by mould, and rusted by blood or other fluids.

    He was lying on a divan bed, crafted with vigorous, curved handrests and foot. But the once comfortable sponge on the seat portion aged so badly that it collapsed under him, making the furniture too hard, and uncomfortable to lean on. Right next to him was a similarly carved chair, with a long backrest. It was a familiar chair; he could bet on it, it was the very same one in Tang Lan’s flat.

     Tang Lan was sitting there, elbowing on his knees, looking at him in the bright light with deep, intense black eyes. His face seemed like a statue carved out of marble as if he belonged to this extravagant room from the past.

     Hubbard realised, his lips stuck together, and even when he forced them open, his throat felt completely dry.

   “Where… are we?”

   “Basin 61.”

     Hubbard’s brain was still pretty slow. He was familiar with the name of the place, but he couldn’t link any picture to it.

   “Why?” His question was very vague, and he had much more to ask. “I remember falling with you… how did we get here?”

   “I stole a car, and drove you out. You lost consciousness for a couple of days. Your shoulder… probably isn’t broken, but fractured for sure… perhaps from the uranium bomb launcher’s recoil… well, and the fall. You got some… other scratches… hey, I said, stay put!”

   “I’m staying put, but I want to sit up.” Hubbard indeed tried to move himself with his left elbow – the arm which wasn’t injured that much – but it was hard. The divan bed was very narrow, he had to be careful moving without falling off.

     Tang Lan’s angry sigh was loud, but the next moment Hubbard felt his hands embracing him under his arm and around his torso. He pulled him upright.

     Stars started to dance in front of Hubbard; the pain shot through his spine like lightning, and he lost his breath for a moment. Tang Lan acted as if he didn’t hear, and Hubbard was grateful for it.

     Tang Lan stepped back, and sat back on his chair, his eyes unmoving. He probably wanted to stare a hole into Hubbard’s body. His face was pale, and he also had some scratches, but nothing serious. His black outfit was torn, and Hubbard smelled blood – they didn’t have any more clothes, just the ones they were wearing in the battle.

     At least, Tang Lan did wear them. Because now, that he was sitting, Hubbard realised, his own chest was bare, as his shirt and vest had been taken down. He didn’t seem to feel any coldness, and he saw his wounds. There was a bandage wrapped around his right shoulder, tight and neat, just like how Tang Lan always handled their wounds.

   “Sorry, not the best bandage. I used your undershirt to make one. We don’t have any gauze or medicine.”

     Tang Lan’s voice became a bit raspy. Hubbard looked up again, and now he was staring back at his face. The face he hadn’t seen more than half a year ago. Or rather, the face, that he had seen lifelessly staring at him in the past couple weeks. Tang Lan’s brows narrowed, the corner of his mouth slightly bent down, and his eyes were shining with many emotions.

     Hubbard’s heart pounded faster again, as he sank into his observation of those microexpressions, which the mannequin couldn’t make, no matter how long Hubbard stared at it. After who knows how much time, Tang Lan’s expression loosened; his lips didn’t press so hard together, and his forehead smoothed.

   “I…” Tang Lan had spoken, but he got quiet right after. He blinked a few times, and looked down. His eyelashes covered his whole eyes, Hubbard couldn’t see them anymore. “I bled on you. I’m sorry.”

     Hubbard felt nothing after the confession; it didn’t matter to him.

   “I don’t feel different.”

   “The infection might take up some days to spread… I tried to move you out of the Abyss as fast as I could to slow down the spreading… This is Flatland 1. Even if things have changed in the past few months, it’s still better than the situation in the Abyss. And it’s almost clear of monsters.”

     It made some sense, it was a desperate, yet logical decision.

   “I see.”

     Silence fell between them. The room was quiet, and the outside world was soundless. Hubbard glanced towards the broken window, and saw a portion of a city, and behind them some faraway mountains.

     Now he remembered.

     The camp.

     They often came to this direction with the mercenary team. The garage, where the military kept its training camp, was in this city. Sometimes they’d joined their forces for a hunt or Hubbard’s team was able to help out the soldiers when it was needed. The city had a good geographical area with plentiful resources and good hiding spots, this was the reason the training camp was set up here. Even in old times, monsters rarely came near the city, for the mountains around the huge basin offered much more food to them. But sometimes they would make nests in the buildings, which people had to clear out.

     Now, he saw the mountains in the horizon, colliding with the pale blue sky in the sunlight, and he couldn’t see a single spark of life. It seemed like they were the only ones who had survived the last battle – as if monsters and humans had perished. Maybe that was the case. What if he just died, and this was heaven? Tang Lan was here too.

     Hubbard faintly smiled, looking back at his Vice-Captain, who once again couldn’t take his eyes off him.

   “I’m okay,” Hubbard said. “You were injured too, weren’t you? Do you need my help to take care of it? Was it your wing that broke?”

     Tang Lan’s face wavered, but he didn’t look away.

   “You don’t have anything to say about it?” The man asked, his voice shaking too. “Or ask anything?”

   “About what?”

   “That I’m a xenogenic.”

     He said as if it wasn’t obvious by now. Hubbard’s brain might have been slow, but not this much.

   “No. It doesn’t matter. Have you waited for me? You don’t like it when I’m not around, do you?”

     It was usually Tang Lan who used sarcasm and mocked him. But Hubbard felt his friend’s anxiousness. Just like in the past, a few times it happened when Hubbard simply knew Tang Lan would explode soon. He wanted to ease him.

   “I hope you don’t try to tell me, you knew I was alive, and you’ve come to get me.” Tang Lan’s voice indeed got higher. “I heard that you searched for my body for months.”

   “I’ve searched for you, not for your body.” Hubbard corrected him, but when he took a deeper breath, the pain once again began to rage in his body. His shoulder numbed, but he didn’t show it.

   “People told me you thought I died.” Tang Lan protested, almost as if he was scolding him. “Drop the act.”

   “It’s not an act.” When he said it, Tang Lan snored, and seemed annoyed. His eyes were shining so much, as if he wanted to cry. He was close to his breaking point, and Hubbard fell into his thoughts. It was very rare when Tang Lan was exceptionally upset over something, but Hubbard’s lack of social skills never made the situation better at those times. Nevertheless, he couldn’t choose anything else just to be honest. “… One part of me thought you might’ve died. But I also knew that you haven’t.”

   “Don’t give me this crap again, please.” As Hubbard expected, Tang Lan jumped on his feet, and stepped closer to him. His body language spoke very clearly: he looked down while gasping for air, shaking, his shoulders cramping up, his hands curling into a fist. There was still the option that he will burst out in tears, before his fist would move. Hubbard was ready for the punch, but it still felt inappropriate to take the hit sitting. So he tried to get up.

     This turned out to be the last straw, and when he was about to stand up, an overwhelming power threw him back to the divan bed’s backrest. Fingers that resembled iron handcuffs pinned his left wrist beside his shoulder, while the other hand pressed onto his chest. His lap had been taken over as well; Tang Lan knelt beside his thighs on the bed, making sure that Hubbard couldn’t move.

     The push made him see the stars again for a few moments. Maybe it was his second painful moan that made Tang Lan realise what he had done; the grip on his wrist loosened a little, and the force of Tang Lan’s rage softened with shaking.

     Their faces were very close to each other. Hubbard felt the harsh breath falling onto his lips. It made his mouth dry, and when he reciprocated Tang Lan’s fiery gaze, he was mesmerised. His pupils took over his irises and the white part of his eyes, making the whole eyeball pitch-black. Two big wings stretched out behind him, one of them shrugged; there was a clumsy bandage on it. They were similar to bat wings, just with a four-meter wide wingspan. There were scales too, running the side of Tang Lan’s face to his neck, and on his shoulders.

     He could definitely fold Hubbard into a meatball in a second.

     His evident power, combined with the look, and mixed with Tang Lan’s self-containment, just made him the most attractive beast Hubbard had ever seen.

     He looked ethereal.

     However, Tang Lan was going through a lot at the moment, trying to hold his emotions in. Therefore, Hubbard stayed silent, and just looked at him amazed. Their forehead almost touched, and he felt that his Vice-Captain had a fever too. There was a lot of heat coming from the body towering over him. He made Hubbard’s blood boil. His own strength was already non-existent, he couldn’t calm himself down, and he felt too sick to force himself not to feel this desire. He just let it happen, and swallowed another moan.

   “Enough.” Tang Lan gasped, struggling to speak. “You always do this. You always… act like you know everything better. When you switch, you… just… go after your own stupid head, without listening to me… and you do something reckless. I don’t… I don’t get it. I can’t understand it… It made me so mad that night too… you asshole… it was your fault, do you hear me?”

     Their forehead pressed together, and when it happened, Tang Lan’s voice broke, and he stopped talking. His skin felt like it was burning, and burned Hubbard’s skin too.

   “Then let me explain.”

   “I wanted you to explain, every single time!”

   “I didn’t know how to tell. I wasn’t ready.”

     Tang Lan was still so close, that he only could see those eyes, and nothing else. It was all blackness. Hubbard got lost in the darkness. Thankfully, he never feared the darkness.

   “And are you ready now?” His friend’s voice fluctuated.

   “Losing you made me realise I should’ve told you many things before.” It was time for the truth. No more secrets. He felt calm, and even though he wasn’t sure if he would be able to deliver everything in the right order – he still wanted to try.

     His confession made Tang Lan’s overwhelming presence settle down a bit. He probably didn’t notice, but his body loosened, and descended on Hubbard’s lap completely.

     Hubbard tried his hardest to ignore it.

   “At that night…” Hubbard’s voice was hoarse from dehydration. “I saw something. You said it was like a switch when I changed.”

   “Mh…” Tang Lan growled, and leaned closer to Hubbard’s chest too. “Do you have another personality? What did you see?”

   “I don’t think I have one.” Hubbard paused, in fact, he couldn’t be hundred per cent sure, what was the cause of the visions. “I saw a false future.”

   “Future…” Tang Lan repeated, and briefly leaned back to look at him from a better position. His eyes were sweeping through Hubbard’s face, and were so intense as if he wanted to catch him lying. “You have divinations?” For a moment, he stopped talking before his face loosened, and his eyes turned back to human eyes. “Wait, why do I remember this?”

   “I think I mentioned it to you already,” Hubbard confessed with a nod, but it was a bad idea. His shoulder felt that small movement, and made his upper body throb with pain again. He hissed, while he took a deep breath through his gritted teeth. “I couldn’t explain it.”

     Tang Lan seemed completely confused and suspicious. His bestial attributes receded, and he turned back to human. He seemed tiny without the wings, but he also became paler, and his face showed pain as well.

     Hubbard continued, acting as if he didn’t notice.

   “I’ve had them since I was a child. But…” This was the hardest part: to use the simplest way to describe it. “I’m not sure of what they were exactly. How would you call visions, which never turned out to be true?” Hubbard asked, and Tang Lan frowned upon hearing that.

   “Were they bad visions?” His friend asked uncertainly. Hubbard silenced for a second.

   “No. But yes. I never thought about it.” Hubbard confessed. “They weren’t all bad per se. But most of them I didn’t like. The future, they showed was nothing I wanted. Usually, they showed something negative in my perspective.”

   “Are you sure, they weren’t just nightmares? How do you know, they would be your future, if they’ve never come through?”

     Hubbard carefully shook his head once.

   “I just knew.”

     Tang Lan shallowly sighed, and accepted his answer without trying to argue about it.

   “Okay, then these negative visions… did they show the future generally, or something specific each time?”

   “Sort of. More like my future with you, but often the both of us. In different divisions. In different jobs. Then once I haven’t seen you. Then I saw you in danger. Or I saw you leaving our team. The last time it was on that night…” Hubbard’s voice hurt his throat. He spoke too much, but he still couldn’t end it this way. His fever seemed to be increasing; other waves of hotness ran through him multiple times, making him dizzy, but he looked deep into Tang Lan’s eyes. He didn’t turn away, and forgot to blink. “Last time, I saw you getting a headshot at the city gates.”

     Tang Lan’s eyes widened a little. Then, he bit his lower lips, and looked down.

     There were no flames this time, but they both had high fevers, he could excuse his blush on it. Hubbard panted silently, and this sight really made him unable to speak. He saw Tang Lan like this sometimes, but always ignored it in the past. Now, he had no power over his body. The throbbing from his broken shoulder radiated down towards his erection.

   “So… on that evening… you wanted to prevent me from going back to the base?”

   “Mn.”

   “But we couldn’t possibly stay there forever.”

   “I thought I could figure out something later.”

   “Instead of telling me.”

   “It was a shocking scene. The only thing that I had on my mind was to find a good excuse to stay away from the base.”

   “You would’ve risked our whole team for that reason…” Tang Lan whispered, and once again ramped up his courage to look deeply into Hubbard’s eyes.

   “Yes.”

   “That’s stupid.”

   “It’s worth it,” Hubbard said, for which Tang Lan opened his mouth, and stayed that way. Seeing him up close in this state was starting to become dangerous. Hubbard had never noticed how the redness spread out sideways, enveloping the corner of his eyes, and even the tip of his ears. “When we were younger, I’ve heard many times that I sacrificed my future. But I only had one future. If he goes to the Outer City, I’m following him. If he is in danger, I’ll protect him…”

   “Shut up… just… shut it.”

     Tang Lan hung his head. His fingers once again clenched around Hubbard’s wrist; Hubbard completely forgot about being held down by Tang Lan. The man was shaking so hard that Hubbard’s arm shook with him.

     Hubbard stopped talking. His head was spinning, and everything seemed so hot, it muffled his hearing and his thoughts started to disappear. Yet he felt proud. He finally said everything he needed. Everything else could wait for later discussions.

   “I’m… I’m a xenogenic.”

     Hubbard barely could hear the words, even from this close. Tang Lan’s breath was just as fast as his.

   “I know.”

   “I think I infected you…” Tang Lan choked up. “I wanted to save you, and be your… but now you will…”

   “Then die with me.”

     There was a moment, fleeting yet forever-like moment when they looked at each other again. Tang Lan’s eyes sparkled with tears, but hearing his last sentence, his eyebrows smoothed out. A handsome, light smile appeared on his lips.

     At first, he just pressed his hot forehead to Hubbard’s; then, their noses rubbed to each other’s. This move was soft and warm, not because of the fever; it came from a deeper place, which Hubbard never knew existed.

     However, there was a line, which they had never crossed; a step, which they’d missed taking before: winding up the embers into the raging fire that they had both suppressed until this point.

     Now, that line was crossed. Tang Lan sat on his lap, and kissed him hungrily. He cupped Hubbard’s face between his palms, and pressed his tongue onto his dry lips. He didn’t have to fight to get inside; Hubbard had no desire to show resistance. Tang Lan seemingly wanted to eat him, and Hubbard would’ve died happy if he could’ve been his last meal.

     He never kissed anyone before, but Tang Lan felt like an excellent kisser. It overwhelmed him completely. Not just his mouth, his fingers were impatient too; after successfully performing the intrusion, he danced on Hubbard’s bare chest with them hastily, touching him on points which Hubbard never knew were this sensitive. He was certain, that when he touched himself on his belly button or his side; under his armpit, he didn’t get goosebumps from it.

     He was restless too. His healthy left hand found Tang Lan’s waist, and stroked up and down before he started yanking on the combat outfit to take it down. In this posture, it wasn’t easy to get him naked, but Tang Lan noticed his intentions, and pulled back to remove the thick shirt.

     Hubbard leaned forward with him as if his mouth got stuck on Tang Lan’s lips, or if he held a magnet that attracted Hubbard irrefutably. He couldn’t break away from the kiss, and unexpectedly, the man’s hunger infected him. Or maybe it was because his lips were dry, and he needed more moisture.

     His palm had some calluses, and wasn’t very sensitive, but touching the velvety, burning skin was still an incomparable feeling. Even silk couldn’t be this smooth as the skin was on Tang Lan’s narrow waist. The mannequin was a cheap copy, now he knew. Nothing realistic about it. How did he not notice this before?

     But that fair skin was feverishly hot; every single portion of him from his tailbone to his shoulder blades was burning. The tip of his fingers touched the valley of the spine in the middle of his back, and pressing his palm on it, he pulled Tang Lan closer.

     Tang Lan’s head fell beside Hubbard’s neck, and he suddenly whimpered. With a jerk, he pressed his crotch so heavily on Hubbard’s, that even through the thick fabric he could feel how hard his friend was. He felt his pulsating blood inside his penis; he felt the same hotness in his own member, throbbing just as fast and hard.

     Those sounds he made were like in a dream – but none of his erotic dreams sounded this arousing. It was like that night when Tang Lan got drunk.

     Hubbard kissed Tang Lan on his soft-skinned neck, licked the salty taste, and won another deep moan and an even stronger jerk from his hip. It made Hubbard lose his breath for a few seconds. Tang Lan’s shaky fingers slid down on Hubbard’s stomach, and found his erection, stuck under his pants. It seemed like Tang Lan took this a problem, and with a few clumsy movements, he freed Hubbard from the jail of clothes. Instead, he used his fingers to hold it captive.

     Hubbard unintentionally pressed his teeth on Tang Lan’s neck, suppressing a growl, before his lips started yearning for Tang Lan’s again. He drew a wet line on his jaw, on his cheek, and finally, they merged into a deep, heavy and biting kiss. Hubbard’s mouth suddenly filled with an iron-like taste and rich moisture, but he had no intention of stopping. He only heard a zipping noise and felt some stirring that indicated Tang Lan’s actions.

     He didn’t expect such a raw feeling when Tang Lan pressed his hard member on him. It was similar to when he touched an open wound. Almost painful, yet something that Hubbard wanted much more than how he imagined he would. His body instinctively jerked every time Tang Lan’s fingers slid down, holding both of them in his hand, massaging them with fast movements. His hip was thrusting in the same rhythm.

     Their bodies emitted a suffocating, hot stem, moisture precipitated on their thighs and stomachs, and the fierce beating created wet smacking noises. Hubbard couldn’t even move in this posture, he had no place to thrust, despite feeling the unbearable urge to do it; Tang Lan dominated him completely in the unbridled pursuit of pleasure. He had no control over the situation or even his body.

     Tang Lan lay on his left shoulder, embracing him, digging his fingers into his skin, and hiding his hot face in Hubbard’s neck. To muffle his moans, he pressed his mouth there, but Hubbard could still feel every vibration of the sound as if it travelled through his nerves to reach his brain before directly falling into his throbbing erection, which couldn’t bear the multiple stimulations anymore. 

    His body writhed in its whole, and from the wild movements, his broken shoulder cramped up, and sent an electric shot down his spine, but it only elevated the feeling of his orgasm; as if his vertebras were poked one by one with a tiny needle, rushing down, and bulging out of him.

     Hubbard lost his breath, and twitched a few more times, while the same feeling washed over him in a few more waves before his muscles lost their power. He suddenly relaxed, and fell back to the backrest of the divan bed. Still embracing Tang Lan, he felt the heavy, wildly shaking body pressing on his, but for a couple of seconds, he lost contact with the outside world, sinking into the unexpectedly strong satisfaction. 

     Hubbard gradually came to his senses. The throbbing pain, the stickiness of his skin, his slowly beating heart, his sleepiness, he felt everything instantly, all at once. He became so drowsy, that he almost disconnected from the present. He would’ve done it, if he didn’t notice Tang Lan’s breath. The man’s head fell onto his left shoulder, and gasped for air loudly. It seemed that his body also lost its power, because he was leaning on Hubbard’s chest heavily, shivering. 

     But Hubbard couldn’t keep his eyes open. The satisfaction was still in its fading state, and his fever started burning again, piercing his temples with a headache, which then radiated towards his joints and wounds. Especially his wounds. The pain got stronger in his shoulder as the orgasm didn’t suppress it anymore. His head pressed on Tang Lan’s. It was silent and peaceful, and he felt like this was the first time of him fallen into a dream so easily since Tang Lan went missing.

~�HxT�~

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