When Worlds Collide

Five

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A/N: And here is another one!! Wow! This one has some Yaoiness in it too! Thank all of you and to Victoria Wolf, without you I would probably have stopped writing this completely until I got back in the states. Anyways! Hope that you like this and don’t forget to review!

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Rand looked to Mat’s back as he softly put Rin down in his bed roll, carefully covering her up before

turning around to face him. The Dragon Reborn flinched as he looked into his friend’s troubled face, “Mat,” he softly whispered.

Mat held up his hand and waved the unanswered question away, “It’s just that she’s so sad. She’s facing too much pain for this Sesshoumaru-sama of her’s to be a lie. I don’t know what to do Rand.”

Rand tired to give his friend a smile, “She’ll be fine, Mat, I think that she’s stronger then we give her credit for.” Then he really did smile, “She can stand up to Nynaeve, you know.”

The darker haired boy grinned back, “This is true. You should have seen her face when I found Rin crying on her room floor. The woman’s face was so flushed that I thought it would burst. To think a little girl got the best of her...” His words were cut off with boughts of laughter coming from the both of them.

“If you two boys are done giggling, I would like to get some sleep,” the Wisdom hissed at the two which only seemed to make matters worse. For the boys just laughed all the harder.

Mat didn’t know why it was so funny all he knew was that if Rand kept on laughing then there was no hope for him to stop. Laughing with someone was so contagious it hurt. He reached out and grabbed onto Rand’s shirt and pulled him close burying his face into his friend’s chest trying to stop the uncontrollable chuckles.

Just as suddenly as the laughter started, it stopped and Mat found himself still panting for breath against the Dragon Reborn’s body, his hands gripping the soft, fine fabric of his red coat. Rand took a deep breath and wrapped his arms tighter around the shorter boy noticing how nicely the firm, strong body of his most bestest friend fit against him. Fit better than any of the three girls fawning over him and somehow that one simple embrace felt more thrilling than the bed tumbling he did with his women. Mat moved to shift away and he held on all the tighter, “Don’t,” he voice was desperate, “please.”

Mat stiffened then moved his head to peer up at him, trying to see if anything was wrong with the other boy, “Rand, are you alright?” he asked with more than a little desperation of his own.

Rand shook his head, auburn locks slightly shifting with the movement, “Just let me hold you, just this once.”

The shorter of the two sighed and rested his head once more on the Dragon’s chest contiplating his words. The request was a simple one, only the strangeness of it was vast. Why Rand suddenly felt the need for human contact with Min, Elayne, and Aviendha so readily available was beyond him. And as the minutes went by he slowly relaxed against to other boy, his arms around him felt wonderful and calming, it seemed that every thing was right in the world, even if it was just for now.

Rand breathed in the sent of him, wrapped it around like a warm blanket and let it consume him. This was all he had ever wanted, he realized. Someone who knew him, who, no matter what had happened was still standing beside him as a friend. But now, holding Matrim Cauthon in his arms, he wanted more than to be just his friend. He wanted to hold the beautiful boy in his arms at night, feel his body next to his, and share secret kisses in dark corners with him.

Rand slowly brought one of his arms between the two of them and gently cupped his friend’s cheek, his fingers adding little pressure to his jaw to softly guide his head away from its resting place on his chest. Mat obeyed with a slight start, “Rand, what --?” the question was cut off as he looked into Rand’s blue eyes, dark with something he had only seen on barmaids right before he took them. Did Rand mean to kiss him? But why? He was a boy? Boys don’t kiss other boys, do they? He didn’t think so, he had never heard of such a thing. And on top of that they were still in the middle of the camp, Light knows who could be watching, he didn’t think that a fight between him and Rand’s three women would be a good thing.

Rand soothingly smiled down at his friend’s wide surprised stricken eyes before leaning down, his lips just barely touching the other’s. As if on cue, Mat’s own mouth opened just slightly, letting the Dragon Reborn know that his kiss was accepted.

“Everybody wake up!” the yell came from Perrin, rushing through the forest, throwing stealth and all its various forms to the four winds.

Mat’s eyes snapped wider as he jumped away from his friend and tried to look his most innocent, “What is it?”

Rand already had his flame-like sword drawn just as Perrin broke through the forest and into there camp as the big man gasped for breath, “Something is approaching. Fast!”

He had just gotten the words out of his mouth when the being cleared the tops of the trees and landed right in the middle of the camp, also right in the middle of Perrin’s axe, Rand and Lan’s swords, and Mat’s spear. The figure growled, a noise issuing low in his throat that sounded more like a rabid dog than a human trying to be threatening. Golden eyes, much like Perrin’s, glowed bright in the light of the half moon as he crouch and flexed his fingers showing off long deadly claws.

Mat blinked first taking in his eyes than the rest of him only to look oddly down at the person’s bare feet. Who on earth would run around without any covering on their feet? “What do you want?” he managed to get around his observing to ask the question that was on everybody’s minds. He heaved his spear just for affect.

Golden eyes rolled up in the back of his head before settling on the humans that surrounded him, “Please,” he taunted, “Drop your shit before someone gets hurt. All I want is the fucking sword and the girl. Hand ‘em over and no one gets their asses kicked.”

Perrin’s grip on his weapon tightened, a action that did not go unnoticed by the intruder. “So be it,” the man hissed, leaping high in the air, impossibly high for a human, claws racking the air readying for the attack as he descended down upon them.

“Inu-Yasha!” came the shrill cry as a girl also ran into the camp, “Osuwari!”

The beads that hung around the man’s neck glowed briefly in the moonlight, temporarily blinding the crew. “Woman!” the man shrieked right before he paused in mid air than crashed to the ground.

“Osuwari! Osuwari! Osuwari!” the small woman cried, stomping her foot at each word, and with the work the crater under the man got bigger and bigger, slowly pounding him into the ground. The necklace of purple beads and bone white teeth glowing each time. The girl then smiled and bowed slightly to as she looked to the inhabitants of the camp that the hanyou had stormed into.

“I’m really sorry about this,” the girl said, a slight embarrassment could be seen on her flushed cheeks, “Inu-Yasha is quite brash and rude by he means well, really he does.”

“Kagome!” came a male voice from not to far away and shortly after that a female’s, “Kagome-chan!”

Rin burst through the crowd and gripped onto the woman’s legs, “Kagome-sama!!” she wailed and when the rest of the Inu gang burst into the small area of Rand’s camp silence issued shortly after.

“Rin-chan?” a small form, covered almost head to toe in cloth.

Rin blinked large brown eyes at the small bundle of cloth, “Shippo-chan? Is that you under all of that?”

Now it was the rest of the Inu gang to blink, but it was Inu-Yasha who spoke, “Where the hell is Sesshoumaru, brat?!?”

TBC...