Love sick no more

33. Photo lab

Rain was in the photo club's dark room, developing photos he had taken during the previous week. His brows were furrowed, his heart conflicted. What was he going to do about Kit? He hadn't seen the younger boy since his friends had opened his eyes to the boy's feelings for him. He had given the safe prints out of his photo shoot to Ten, asking him to give them to Kit.

One by one, the other club members left, but Rain stayed behind, his hands busy. Even though most of his photos were taken with a digital camera, he enjoyed the process of developing photos from film, and the steps it took to transform negatives into full prints. Today, his motions were mechanical, and he eventually went outside to take some fresh air. Rain stood at the railing outside, not seeing the view in front of him.

"Rain?" he heard, and before he could react, Kit was already hugging him, with a sunny smile on his soft red lips.

Despite his inner conflict, Rain didn't pull away. But why couldn't he take his eyes off Kit's lips? "Where did you come from?" he managed.

"We had some group work that went late, and I saw you here when I was passing by. What are you doing?"

"Developing some photos the old fashioned way. I got a bit behind on that work," Rain said, gently disentangling himself.

"Can I see? Could I try? I've only seen how it's done in old movies?"

Rain couldn't say no to Kit's pleading face.

"Come on," Rain said and held the door open for Kit. The dark room was lit by only a few red light bulbs, and Kit's impressed, "Cool!" made Rain laugh.

When Rain started to show Kit the steps involved, he was still nervous, but the process calmed him down. Kit's obvious focus on what Rain was showing him also helped, and soon Rain relaxed. He showed Kit the steps a few times, then let Kit take over. There was an almost complete silence, just the sound of his heart beating, and the soft swirling noise of the prints being flushed in the different solutions.

Rain was almost in a trance. When he finally came to his senses, he felt the heat of Kit's body against his chest. He hadn't noticed when they had gotten so close to each other. Kit was standing between Rain's arms, his back to Rain, and Rain had his hands on Kit's. Their hands moved in slow sync, rinsing the print in the last pan in the series.

Rain's hands slowed and his heart sped up. Kit stilled as well, and took a deep breath. He turned to look at Rain, who was startled to find their faces so close to each other, their lips only an inch or two apart. Kit's lips trembled, then he craned his neck, and closed the distance between them, brushing his lips softly against Rain's.

Shocked, Rain couldn't react for a moment. His breath whooshed out of him, and Kit moaned against his lips. Blindly, Rain claimed Kit's lips with his own and wound his arms around the shorter boy. The kiss deepened until Kit's tongue licked Rain's lower lip and dipped in. Rain groaned, his heart trying to leap out of his chest. Just then he heard the door open, and with a shocked gasp, he pushed Kit away. Kit fell against the table, the shallow pans sloshing their contents on the table.

"Rain!" Kit yelled, and Rain grabbed the boy before he could fall.

"Hey, Rain, you're still here?" another club member asked. "I think I left my phone here." Then he took in the scene. "You alright?"

"Just an accident," Rain said, trying to sound calm. "Kit wanted to see the developing process. He was just leaving." Rain pulled the boy after him and pushed him out the door. His last view of the boy were his huge, dismayed eyes, and trembling red lips. Rain let the door bang close, and let his head drop against it. Shia!

By the time Rain left the club, Kit was gone.

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A/N: 

The image is from the Secret Love Puppy Honey series, season 2, episode 6. The scene in the show is an obvious inspiration to this scene in my fan fic.