Happiness III

Ancient lovers believed a kiss would literally unite their souls, because the spirit was said to be carried in one's breath. ~Eve Glicksman

Hayzel stood in front of the house, taking time to reflect upon all the work they’ve done on it. The last few months have seemed to go by in a blur. He couldn’t believe how far they had come in restoring the house. For him, it had been all work and no play. Carter was always finding something silly to do. After he finished wiring the main hallway, he brought in a stereo. One day while they were painting with Token, the decided name for the Togepi, Carter spontaneously came from behind and made Hayzel dance around with him. The boy couldn’t remember laughing that much in his life.

Hayzel found himself starting to believe in his silly superstition about Token. …though, as they had gotten closer to finishing the house, Carter seems to be distancing himself a little. It’s almost as if he didn’t want to finish the house.

Letting out a sigh, the boy shook the thought from his head, at least for the moment, and carried Token inside. “Carter! Are you in here,” he called out, ascending the grand staircase to the upper level of the mansion.

A muffled voice sounded out in response from deep corner of the upper level. Walking room to room, he poked his head into each room, searching for Carters’ displaced voice.”I can’t find you! Which room are you in?”

This time his voice was slightly more audible, but Hayzel still couldn’t make out what he was saying. After a moment or two a large pounding came from the ceiling, causing the boy and Token to jump in fright. Looking up they noticed a small string that lead up to the ceiling.

Hayzel being easily frightened immediately thought it was that it was a spider but after further inspection, he found it to be a draw string to a trap door that lead to the attic. Tugging on it a bit, the door came down gently and Carter leaned over a with a grin.”Took you long enough, it’s a sauna up here!”

Hayzel blushed a bit, noticing that Carter had pulled off his shirt and was wearing his overalls at his waist. Reaching down for the other’s hand, Carter hoisted me up into the attic with him. Unable to get his footing, the boy fell against Carter’s chest, making him flush harder and for the first time, he saw him in a full blush too.

Sighing a bit, Carter gently held Hayzel in his embrace and turned his attention beyond the window. As they stood in silence, the last few sun rays for the day brushed against the man’s face for a moment before slowly dying out. After what seemed to be a eternity of just the two of them standing there, Hayzel finally broke the silence,”Umm…Carter, shouldn’t’ we be on our way….”

Finding a safe place to stand, he went tried to lift himself up but was quickly pulled back into the other’s embrace.”Hayzel…I finished…we don’t have any more to do now…’

Perking up, the boy gave the other a soft smile, “That’s a good thing right? It means we can go home?”

Carter resisted facing Hayzel and tried to find the words he wanted to say. He desperately wanted the other to go off with him, somewhere far away. He knew that returing to Olvine would only undo the progress he had made with Hayzel“I have..another project in Azalea. Will you accompany me there?”

“Oh? Another project?”

“Yeah…an old friend needs a favor. Think you could come with me? It is on the way…sort of.”

“Of course. I haven’t been to see Azalea in quite awhile and I don’t want to go home alone. It will be fun. Maybe will see Bugsy!” Hayzel smile quickly faded, remembering that his childhood acquaintance had a rather…obsessive love for Bug Pokémon, where as he feared them.

Giving Hayzel a small smile he picked up his work materials and led Hayzel out of the mansion and home to pack. As he made his way to the truck, he peered up into the sky and watched as a star flew by overhead. Closing his eyes he made a wish that Hayzel would stay with him and be happy forever.

Storm clouds hung low over the quiet town of Azalea, sending large thick rain drops upon it. Hayzel and Carter had decided that they’d spend their last day exploring the Slowpoke Well and unfortunately on their way back to the Cutting Master’s house they got caught in the middle of the storm.

Hurriedly, Hayzel ran through puddles towards a small roofed in picnic area followed closely by laughing Carter. “Heh. Just our luck Hayzel, at least it held off till we got out of the well, otherwise we’d probably have drowned.”

“I guess it could have been worse…but I still don’t like being wet in clothes you know…” the other said as he twisted the front of his shirt in an effort to ring it out. “Least we don’t have to deal with these random rain storms once we’re back in Olivine. Not that I mind them, I just rather not be in them.”

Carter’s face immediately changed, and he began to withdraw a bit from Hayzel. Noticing the other’s sudden attitude change the boy carefully walked up behind him and laid his hands on the other’s shoulder before resting his head on the center of the man’s back. “Carter…you’ve been acting really upset for awhile now…did I do something wrong…?”

Quickly, Carter turned around and took Hayzel into his embrace. “I’m sorry…I didn’t mean to make you feel like that. It’s just…something has been on my mind. I need to ask you something…it is hard for me…,” he said tightening his grip around the other a bit. A long pause of silence began to grow between them, almost is as if time itself had stopped. Lifting Hayzel’s chin, his green eyes locked onto the other’s and then his face drew in close.

Suddenly felt as if Hayzel had run out of breath. His face became hotter as Carter held his body against his and continued to kiss him, longer than he had ever done before. Head spinning, he took the next available chance he got to get a gasp of air and clung onto him with his remaining strength.

”You okay,” Carter whispered softly, only getting a small nod from the other in response. A bit out of breath, he looked down at Hayzel, “Would you…go with me to Kiboun?”

“W-where,” replied the other, shaking a bit from the previous intensity.

“It’s a distant reigon…I’m going to help build up an old part of a town so they can use it for housing and restore the community.”

Hayzel felt Carter’s grip tighten a bit more. Not used to this side of him, he stood completely still. “Carter…I…I don’t know…I’ve never been completely on my own before...”

“But you aren’t on your own…you have me.”

Blushing harder Hayzel slid his hands up the other’s chest and delicately gripped his shoulders once more. “I’ll…I’ll go with you.”

Backing up a bit, Carter beamed down at the blushing blond and kissed his forehead, “You have no idea how much that means to me.”

Hayzel gave Carter shy smile and looked up into his face and carefully leaned up, hovering an inch from the other’s face. Smiling, Carter leaned back on a bench and pulled Hayzel into another kiss.

Watching silently from a spot underneath a tree, a slowpoke watched as Carter wrapped his arms around the other. As the scene started to become slightly more intimate, it gave out a yawn and rolled onto its back.