Disclaimer: I don't own Xiaolin Showdown. If I did I would have an island where all the hot men have to walk around in tight, shiny pants.

Warning: this story contains m x m relationships. If you are not comfortable with same sex material don't go any further. You've been warned, kiddies.

Okay, I've been bitten by a bug. The little challenge I wrote made me wanna write something more…um, savoury, I suppose. This is me just meandering. I'll start writing on my other stories when I feel like it.

I apologize for the messy format, is just not cooperating with me as of late.

Enjoy!

Big Blue Sky

By Ansuz

The sky burned as the sun set, and clouds wreathed its brilliance; cool, benign, slow things mysterious as the mists. Raimundo strove higher, his element one with the roiling, burning cold realm around him, and tightened his grip on the one who didn't belong here. The one who was not meant to ascend these steps, to be so close to the divine with flesh and a heartbeat. The pull of the earth drove the one mad, a child of earthly things, helpless in this aloof world.

Jack was screaming, but the wind tore his voice away and his terror was mute in the vast chasms of the sky. Rivers of air gave him no capricious pleasure. The swaths of cumulous and cirrus didn't prod his imagination. The blazing banner of a dying day blinded rather than warmed him. He clutched Raimundo's hand, the ground an abstraction of memories and racing colours. It swirled beneath his feet, incredibly remote.

Raimundo laughed. "Scared, Spicer?" He was the wind, and the wind was him, and he could speak more clearly here than anywhere else.

Jack couldn't reply. Up was down and down was up. Even the air was different—unruly, hostile. He could barely gulp enough into his lungs as it hammered past. He was utterly at odds with this place, vulnerable in more ways than a human being should know. He could only look at the ground, so powerless and far below.

And then something happened more terrifying than leaving the ground.

They returned to it.

Raimundo dived down, past the high, cold winds, past the towering anvils of storms and the lithe caress of cloud, back down towards that spiralling blender mess of green and gold and blue. Jack couldn't even scream. He just watched. There was no softness to be asked of the sky's translucent wilds, so he just squeezed his eyes shut and imagined himself somewhere else, where ground was beneath his feet and wind was languid, rustling through the trees.

Whatever balm that image might have held was suddenly torn away. Raimundo's dry grasp was gone, replaced by rushing emptiness.

Jack opened his eyes in time to see earth careen towards him. Every detail ingrained itself into his mind: the greenness, the fields, the house, the glossy water. That was death to him.

But exhilarated laughter intervened. Jack was suddenly drifting instead of plummeting, and Raimundo caught him before he hit the ground. The game-winning save. The last ballsy play.

Only solidness brought Jack back. He opened his eyes and gazed at the stitches of Raimundo's sweater. His mind felt far away, still half-way up in the sky, too far away even for anger. Vaguely, Jack knew it was unseemly for Evil Boy Geniuses to be scared. But his body wasn't listening to him. He felt so heavy and lifeless.

"You're shaking," Raimundo murmured into his hair.

Jack looked down at his dangling feet. It was hard to shape words, as if he were drawing them from rubber. "I don't think I can stand up," he admitted to Rai's shoulder.

"Then don't," he replied and his patience told Jack he was sorry.

The sun set before his heart stopped fluttering under his ribs. It panicked, trying so hard to get out it hurt. Jack tried counting, but that was too hard, so he just listened to Raimundo's voice. He told Jack lots of things—everything—until both of them could stand.

Jack wobbled, but stood on his own feet, and managed a furious glance in Raimundo's direction. "You're such a show off!"

Rai preened under the lashing. "Stop whining! You love it."

The look he received was worthy of Chase Young. He knew he would have to fight for any more affection in the days ahead, and the thought excited him. One thing Jack did well was hold a grudge. And one thing Raimundo couldn't resist was something he couldn't have.

Jack looked at his house to hide his expression. "Whatever, loser. Next time you wanna play hookie use the front door…y'know, like a normal person." He fingered the straps of his heli-pack. "And I'll fly on my own from now on, thank you very much."

Raimundo bowed saucily. "You'll be back for another ride."

Jack blushed and walked back to his house. "Pervert," he grumbled, and his blush deepened when Raimundo began to laugh.

end (not really).

:3 Mm, yummy. R+R always appreciated. Ok, me hungry—am going to go eat junk food now. Will write next chapter when hunger satiated and am 500 pounds heavier.