My MMOM Master List 2010
Title: Lighting the Way
Author: Beren
Fandom: Panik RPS
Pairing: Linke/David/Timo
Rating: R
Disclaimer: This is a work of fiction, the real people in it are used without their permission and I definitely don't own them or have any copyright to any part of any of them. I do not believe any of this happened, is likely to happen or should happen it is simply a story created around known facts about those involved.
Warnings: threesome, elves
Summary: Linke did not leave Panik and go to the U.S. because he wanted to; he was told to. Only now, ten years later, have the Elven Elders given him permission to return home.
Author's Notes: Thanks to Soph for the beta.
Word count: 4,394
My Fanfic Listings (LJ) | My Fanfic Listings (DreamW)
Chris had been in the US for nearly ten years when the letter arrived. After the first couple he had given up waiting for it; 'not long' to the Elven elders could mean decades and he had almost forgotten that when he had first been told. Living in Germany, being in a nu-metal band; it all seemed so far away now, but he had never given up hoping that the news would come.
The guilt had never left him; he always believed he caused the breakup of the band because he had been the first to say, 'I'm leaving'. He hadn't really expected any of the others to follow suit, he had just done what he had been told he had to. Living in the human world was a gift granted to him by his mixed parentage, but there were still rules he had to live by. When the council of the elders had foreseen something; he still didn't know what, he had been instructed to leave Germany until the danger was past. He had had no choice but to go.
It wasn't that he had doomed them all to failure, quite the opposite in fact, it was just he had broken them apart and he was never sure what that had done to them. Franky was a famous actor and lived not far from Chris in L.A.; they saw each other from time to time. Jan had his own company that found budding inventors and helped them bring their ideas to life and the market; he was worth a fortune, Chris knew because he had been one of Jan's start up investors and his shares were worth a hell of a lot these days. Juri was producing and managing; he had four bands under his wing last time Chris had spoken to him and at least one of them was going worldwide. That left Timo and David, the two Chris had always felt the most guilty about. They were still making music and not making any money at it because of Timo's principles, but that didn't do them any harm because Timo was a very successful documentary and film maker and David could charge just about anything he wanted for his classical composing skills. David had written the score to at least one of Franky's films.
They were all in contact, they were all still friends, but Chris had missed them all like crazy. Making up excuses as to why he could not return to Germany had become second nature. It wasn't really hard considering his own career; the right person had heard his music at the right time and he was a household name in the U.S., so his schedule was often crazy, but that didn't meant that he didn't drop everything when the letter arrived.
The moment he had seen it he had felt his magic surge like it hadn't done in years. It wasn't that he was unhappy; he had a great life, but he had missed Germany and specifically two Germans so much that something had always been missing. When he'd first read it he'd actually lost the glamour that made him look human, his magic had reacted that much and he'd been on a private plane within four hours.
That was why he was standing outside David and Timo's house with nothing more than a small backpack with one change of clothes and his toothbrush. What his fans would have thought he had no idea, but he was pretty sure even the totally insane ones wouldn't have had time to figure out what he was up to; his management certainly hadn't. With his long black and blue hair he was quite eye catching and they'd made him take off his hat and glasses for the scanner at customs so someone was bound to have noticed, but he hoped they wouldn't figure it out too soon; he liked being anonymous for once.
David and Timo had finally figured out that their friendship was more than that about six years ago when David had almost died in a car accident. David had actually walked away with barely a scratch, but one centimetre to the right and David would have been very, very dead, which had been enough for Timo to wake up and smell the coffee. Chris had known they were paired from the moment he had set eyes on them as a teenager; it was one of his elven gifts and he had been waiting for them to figure it out. He had been very sad to miss their huge coming out party and a year later, their wedding. As with all things, when Timo believed in something he liked to let everyone know and Chris had sent gifts and vids of encouragement, but he had had to stay away. Being on tour had saved him that time.
There was something else he had known since he was a teenager as well, something he had never told anyone. When he had looked at the two grinning boys who wanted a bassist for their band he had not just seen their souls reaching out for each other, he had seen them reaching for him as well and his reaching back. That was what had made it so hard to leave, why at first he had not been able to believe what he was being told to do. The links between souls were sacred to the elves, they were supposed to protect them, and yet all the elders would say to him was that what would be would be and what had to be, had to be. Only his mother had finally convinced him to go.
Now he was here, standing on David and Timo's step, and he wasn't sure if he should knock or not. He had just decided that either he had to knock or go completely mad just standing there when the decision was taken away from him as the door swung inwards.
"I cannot believe you forgot garlic bread," the person on the other side was saying while looking over his shoulder.
Chris had seen pictures of David since he left and they'd even met up once in L.A., but that had been years ago and things were totally different in person. David still had the medium length hair that sometimes looked like silk and sometimes looked like it had never been brushed, at that moment Chris just found himself wanting to reach out and touch, even though he knew he couldn't. When smiling eyes turned and finally looked at him, however, all thought just vanished from his head.
David's eyes opened in surprise and confusion, then recognition and then shock.
"Linke," David said, sounding utterly pleased and then Chris found himself on the end of a very enthusiastic hug.
No one called him Linke anymore; his management had wanted to distance him from his previous image since he made music in an entirely different way now and everyone just called him Chris. Only his friends from the old days still used the old name he had always gone by and it made him feel as warm as the hug.
"Hey, David," he said, hugging back.
"What are you doing here?" David asked, grinning like a loon and dragging him inside.
"I was in the neighbourhood and decided to surprise you," Chris lied as well as he could, speaking German for the first time in ages.
"Timo, we have company," David yelled into the house while dragging him down the corridor.
Timo's head appeared round the doorframe and the moment Timo's eyes landed on him, Timo's face lit up with a huge smile.
"Miracles do happen," Timo said, bouncing into the hallway, "and Chris Linke is back on German soil."
He found himself in a second hug and he hugged back just as tightly. That was it, he was welcomed. David pushed him into the kitchen and made him tea and then basically demanded to know everything about everything since they had last spoken. It seemed he had arrived just before dinner, something he hadn't really thought about, because his time zones were all over the place after the flight, but Timo, who was doing the cooking, didn't appear remotely fazed and just added more vegetables to the pot of what looked like veggie bolognaise.
Chris was introduced to David and Timo's baby; their description, not his, who was a cat named Stripes. Considering the fact that Stripes was pure black and didn't have a solitary stripe on him, it was an odd name, but Chris decided not to ask; sometimes it was best not to know the inner workings of David and Timo's minds.
He even ended up making garlic croustini to go with the pasta dish, since he had been the one who stopped David from going out to buy a garlic baquette. It took him back to old times on the few occasions the band hadn't been able to convince Franky to cook and he found himself genuinely smiling more on one evening than he had done in the last decade.
They sat up late, talking about anything and everything and it really felt like coming home. David eventually insisted they all go to bed when Chris nearly dropped his glass when he came close to nodding off and he gratefully let them install him in their spare room. After using the bathroom he fell into bed and, unlike most nights when he had to wait for his brain to shut down before he could fall asleep, he was out in minutes.
He realised that something was not quite right when he woke up a couple of hours after going to sleep. What gave it away was that there were no lights in the room, but light was definitely coming from somewhere; that somewhere being his skin. That meant only one thing and he scrabbled out of bed, heading for the mirror on the side table. The first thing he realised, after the fact that he was literally glowing, was that his glamour was totally gone. His ears curved up into gentle points, his eyes were lavender and gold and his features were just that little bit sharper; he was, without a doubt in full elf form.
This was not good, especially when he tried to stop whatever was happening and go back to normal and nothing happened. Sometimes at times of great emotional stress, like nightmares (not that he had actually been having a nightmare) he could lose his instinctive ability to hide his supernatural nature, but he could always get it straight back when he realised what was going on. The fact that he seemed to be stuck was not just worrying, it was downright terrifying; he had no idea what was going on.
He had never before glowed, for a start, and his mother had never mentioned that it might happen either. That was apart from what he remembered as being one of the most embarrassing conversations of his young life and when that, mostly repressed, memory surfaced he began to calm down, especially when he noticed that the glow was receding. If most kids thought the birds and the bees conversation was the most embarrassed they could ever be in front of their parents, they had never had the sex vs making love conversation that Chris had been put through. He'd been sixteen, which had just made it so much worse, and his mother had sat him down and told him about the little quirk of elven evolution. When an elf had sex it was mostly just like a human, but when an elf made love, they glowed, the distinction being the level of connection between the act. Not all elves could see the connections between people like he could and, according to his mum, the whole glowing thing was the way most elves knew when they had found their match. Chris had been terrified of sex for about a year after that, until his girlfriend at the time had gone down on him and there had been no glowing.
There had never been any glowing at any other time in his life either, until now, and he suspected that it might have had something to do with what he had been dreaming. Only wisps of the dream remained, but he did remember naked flesh and flashes of David and Timo.
It was then that he realised he shouldn't be in Germany and it was time to go back to L.A.. Coming home had been selfish and he needed to get away as fast as possible before he did something stupid. David and Timo were happy and settled and if he upset that he would never forgive himself. He just hoped that when the glow faded he'd be able to put his glamour back up normally.
The door to his room squeaked and he looked round, terrified of what he might see, but when a black shape trotted across the carpet and hopped up onto the bed he relaxed again. Stripes sat on the end of the bed looking at him with his big green eyes and Chris finally decided he couldn't do anything until the glow abated and walked over and sat down next to the cat, scratching the beast behind the ears as he did so, eliciting happy purring.
"I thought you usually took up half of David and Timo's bed all night," Chris said as Stripes enjoyed the attention.
During the evening's discussions Stripes had come up quite a lot; David and Timo both seemed to look on the cat like a child and Stripes was definitely spoilt. At the thought of David and Timo and bed, Chris noticed the glow on his skin increase for a moment and then recede again; he really had to get a hold of that.
"He does," said a voice from behind him and he froze; "but he batted my face until I woke up; I thought he wanted to go out."
It had never occurred to him that Stripes might not be alone, but David's voice was more than clear and full of confusion. Chris turned very slowly and looked at his friend standing in the now open doorway.
"Oh my ..." David trailed off, voice dying as Chris faced him and for the first time his friend saw his true visage. "You're ... you're ... what are you?"
"An elf," Chris said simply, knowing he couldn't hide it anymore, "well half actually."
"Are you really Linke?" was David's next question, not an unreasonable one really, but it still made Chris' heart catch in his chest.
He nodded.
"Yeah, always been this way," he replied, looking back down at Stripes who just insisted on more petting as if there had been no betrayal at all; "just never had any trouble hiding it before."
When he glanced up again David was looking at him and frowning as if trying to puzzle him out.
"Why are you glowing?" David asked. "Is this why you left?"
There was nothing like two huge questions back to back to make his life even more difficult.
"Do all elves glow?" David's mind was clearly working very fast at the moment as the next question came before he had a chance to even think about the first two.
"Only occasionally," he replied in an attempt to stop the deluge he knew would happen if he didn't stop it, "and no it's not why I left, at least, I don't think so. I was sent away; it's why I haven't been back, I wasn't allowed. The Elders didn't tell me exactly why, just that something had to be avoided. They finally let me come home yesterday."
David had a very fast mind and was a very perceptive person and Chris saw the wheels flying round in his friend's head.
"And the first thing you did was come here," David said, looking at him with that piercing gaze that had sent many a music industry executive running away; "you didn't go to any of your family, you came here. Why?"
It was never the easy question with David.
"I missed you both the most," was the closest to the whole truth Chris felt he could get without causing trouble, or at least any more trouble than he already had.
He didn't make any excuses, pretend it was less than it was, he just looked back down at Stripes and hoped David was at least a little sleepy and not totally on the ball. As it was David padded into the room, picked up Stripes, sat down where Stripes had been sitting next to Chris and put Stripes on his lap. David was wearing the oldest, ratiest, don't hide a thing, PJ pants and a t-shirt that had been washed so many times it was almost see through; Chris had to look away.
"Did you just glow at me?" David asked after a moment.
Chris had been really hoping David hadn't noticed that.
"Could we just gloss over that and pretend it didn't happen?" he asked hopefully.
"What the fuck?" came from the doorway and Chris decided that maybe he should just crawl away and never, ever come back.
Clearly Timo had woken up and come to look for his missing husband.
"Linke's an elf," David said in a perfectly rational tone, "and he was just about to explain why he's glowing at me."
At David's reaction Timo did a bit of a double take, but then walked in and stood next to his husband, placing a hand on David's shoulder. Linke shifted away from both of them as he tried very hard not to react.
"Looks like he's glowing at us," was Timo's observation on the matter.
Chris wondered if dying on the spot was an option.
"Can we just forget the glowing, please?" he was willing to beg if necessary.
He couldn't look at his friends, not with the shame that was going through his mind.
"Why?" David's breath ghosted over his ear as his friend whispered the question to him and he shot up from where he was sitting as fast as physically possible, which for an elf was really fast.
He left David leaning towards empty space holding a startled cat, and he couldn't help noticing the room was brighter and it wasn't even close to dawn.
"Linke," Timo said after a few moments of awkward silence, "is there something you'd like to tell us?"
"No," Chris said very firmly, deciding that he wasn't letting this get any worse, "maybe I should just go, it would be simpler."
David was standing up between him and the bedroom chair when he cast his eyes around to find his bag.
"You think stepping outside looking like that is a good idea?" David said as if logic had anything to do with the current conversation.
"No," Chris replied, since he wasn't an idiot, "but away from here I should be able to get my shit together."
The way David was looking at him would have worried him if he hadn't been doing mental loop the loops anyway.
"Why are we causing this?" David asked in his usual direct manner. "What's going on, Linke?"
He might, maybe, have whimpered a little under David's intense gaze; he really, really needed to leave, but he was trapped. All he could do was watch as David carefully put Stripes down and then stepped even closer to him.
"You know, Chris," David said, the use of his first name making him feel as if the floor was flying away beneath him, "we're not blind."
Then, without so much as asking permission, David grabbed the front of his t-shirt, dragged him forward and kissed him.
"I think that proves why he glows," Timo commented and Chris realised he was surrounded, because the sound came from behind him.
"We made a rule," David said, breaking the kiss just as Timo moved in close behind him and moved his hair out of the way to start kissing his neck; "after my accident, when we realised how much time we had wasted; we always tell each other everything; fantasies, hopes, dreams, everything."
"Last month," Timo took over speaking as David attacked the other side of his neck from where Timo had been playing, "we saw your latest video on MTV; the one where you're semi-naked."
Chris felt his face heating up; his latest music video had been rather raunchy.
"Timo admitted he'd always rather fancied you," David took up the explanation again, "so I admitted it as well. You were always the quiet mysterious one and now we know why."
"Only it went further than that," Timo told him while running a hand under his t-shirt; "David admitted that part first. We've never looked at anyone else, never seriously considered inviting someone in, but we did with you. Seems you've always haunted us. Did you put a spell on us, Linke?"
"No," he stuttered, because David chose that moment to slide a hand into his shorts.
It seemed David and Timo were very sure of themselves and he didn't have the will to stop them.
"Always been a connection," he did his best to explain while his brain was only functioning on a fraction of the blood it needed as the rest went south; "always been able to see it. Hated leaving."
David had very, very clever hands, but then what else could anyone expect from a pianist. For a moment Chris' brain completely shut off as David did something that involved a stroke, a light pinch and a twist.
"Then," David whispered in his ear, "there you were on our doorstep. Through us for a loop for a while; it was all abstract until then."
"Not so abstract now," Timo whispered into his other ear.
Chris was pretty sure he had lost control of the situation the moment he had woken up glowing, but he totally lost the last semblance of control when Timo's hand went down his shorts as well, only at the back, and started fondling his behind.
No matter what the world liked to think, the rock and roll life style was not all sex and other illicit activities and it had been rather a long time since Chris had been intimate with anything apart from his hand. He hadn't had the time or the inclination and so he responded quite vigorously to the attention. Turning his head he demanded a proper kiss from Timo and only broke it when David decided he wanted all of his attention back for a while.
With both of their attentions fully on him, he didn't stand a hope of lasting long the first time and David seemed very, very determined to blow his mind as quickly as possible. The combination of heady kisses and hands in places that were usually his private domain only had him coming with a shout and what probably looked like a small solar flare in no time at all. He would have been embarrassed if it hadn't felt so damn good.
"Ooh, I feel tingly," David said and completely broke the moment; "that's more than a glow, isn't it."
Chris didn't have the brain power for that one, his mother had never gone into details about the glow.
"Don't know," he said honestly, "and I don't care."
He really didn't either; he had other things to worry about, like the fact that he had designs on David and Timo's bodies and hadn't had even a look yet. Falling to his knees, he decided where he wanted to start and yanked down David's PJ pants without bothering to wait for an invitation. There was what he wanted right in front of him, so he reached out and took it, eliciting a rather surprised, but very wanton moan from David. Not wanting to leave Timo out, of course, he ferreted his other hand up into Timo's very loose boxers and had them both right where he needed them. This was going to be fun.
====
"So, Linke," David said as he handed him a cup of tea, "you never did explain the glowing."
That made him blush even though he had himself back under control this morning and looked perfectly normal.
"When elves make love they glow," he said, feeling that he owed them the explanation.
"You glow every time you have sex?" Timo asked, sounding completely incredulous.
Chris laughed at that.
"That's what I said to my mother when she gave me the whole speech," he said, remembering it all too well, "and I'll give you the same answer she did; no, that's not what I said."
Timo looked confused, but David had caught on and smiled at him with one of those breathtaking smiles that David was so good at.
"So, how long can you stay?" David asked, picking up Stripes off the table where the cat was trying to drink the milk from the jug and plonking him in Chris' lap.
"Depends how long you can put up with me," he replied, hedging his bets.
"Like he said," Timo said with a grin that said he had now caught up too, "how long can you stay?"
Chris found himself smiling along with both of them.
"Well my record company have been trying to bully me about breaking into the European market," he said, not sure how long he could swing it, but hoping for a least a few weeks.
Stripes began to pricky-pat his leg, which he took as acceptance.
"Great," David said, beaming at him, "this calls for a celebration. Timo, you get to break out the BBQ."
Timo looked incredibly pleased.
"Don't worry, he only set fire to the house once," David promised cheerfully. "I know Jan is free this weekend because we were going to go hi-fi shopping and last time I spoke to Juri he said something about downtime this month. Timo, didn't you say Franky was over here doing promo for his latest movie?"
Timo just nodded.
"We can have a reunion," David declared, sounding so incredibly happy that Chris began to hope that everyone really was free. "Do you think you can handle that without glowing?"
Chris burst out laughing; he supposed he deserved that.
The End