Heartfelt Truths & Monkey Bar Fun (X-Men; Bank; PG; #296: Stranger)

[orlidepp.livejournal.com]

Working Title: Heartfelt Truths and Monkey Bar Fun
Author: Pirate Turner
Fandom: X-Men
Pairing: Bank (Bobby/Hank)
Rating: PG
Word Count: 500 -- after being sliced majorly from an 1100+ story, hope it's still good
Prompt: #296: Stranger
Warnings: Slash, Early fic
Summary: Bobby confronts Hank after he comes home from the Avengers for the first time.
Disclaimer: All characters belong to Disney and Marvel, not me, for if they were, the Bank love would never stop.

He had never seen anything stranger than the man he loved, or more beautiful, and every time he saw him, his breath caught and his heartbeat quickened.  Merely watching him scamper across the rooftop made his coldest ice melt.  "Hank?"

Hank cleared his throat and turned a page he hadn't read.  "Robert, what brings you here?"

"You know why I'm here."

Hank gave a weary sigh and laid his book down upon his monkey bars.  He swung down to meet the one person in all the world whom he'd most rather avoid than ever face again, though he was also the one he loved more than anything else in the whole of existence.  "I should have known this would happen.  A wise man once said that the trials we try the hardest to forego will still find us for today always eventually becomes the tomorrow we sought to escape."

"Don't sweet talk me.  Just tell me the truth."

"The truth is a many splendored thing -- "

"Hank -- "

"What do you want me to tell you, Bobby?"

"Just tell me the truth.  Why'd you leave?"

"We both know why I left."

"You were running, but now you're back.  I can forgive you for running.  We all have.  But where does this leave us?"

"You have an open door.  Take it."

"I don't want an open door!"  Damn it, why couldn't the man see how much he loved, missed, needed, and wanted him and always would?!  "I want you!"

"Truthfully?"

"Of course, you big, dumb, blue ass!"  Hank met his gaze at last, and Bobby's own tears stilled in surprise at the shimmering tears he saw reflected back to him.  "The question is: Do you love me?"

"I love you no less than -- "

"No riddles, Hank.  No puzzles or quotes.  Just the truth!"

Hank's next sentence was the most basic word Bobby had ever heard him utter, and yet it was also the most beautiful thing he'd ever heard.  "Yes!"

Bobby ran into his arms, and Hank caught him.  They hugged and clung to each other desperately as Hank's loving, flowery words of how his love far him stretched beyond the furthest stars, would always last for far beyond infinity, and all his other quotes of true love and adoration floated around Bobby's delightfully dazzled mind.  "Hank," Bobby murmured into his fur, "just shut up and kiss me!"

"As you request, my dearest Robert," Hank purred.  Sweeping him up into his arms, he pressed his lips to his in a maddening whirlwind of a kiss scorching with passion and love.  Still kissing his love, Hank swept him onto the top of his monkey bars with grace the likes of which even the most skilled dancers could only dream, and there, in the truth and heat of the night, they discovered the most fun either of them had ever had on top of a jungle gym as they made sweet love throughout all the night and strove to make up for all the time they had missed.

The End