Slipping Away, a Tragic Kames fanfic

Chapter 1

Sitting on the bonnet of his grey Skyline, James Diamond pushed his hair up off his face, looking out over the ocean. A soft breeze had dishevelled his hair slightly, but he didn’t care. The palm trees gave a little bit of shade in the late afternoon sun. In just moments, his boyfriend would be with him and everything would be okay again. Smiling as Kendall’s familiar silver Volvo pulled into the dusty car park next to him, he opened the door and greeted his boyfriend with a soft kiss to the lips. “Hey babe.”

Kendall smiled, blushing slightly. “Hey yourself.” He grabbed James’ hand in his and led him over to the base of the palm trees. 

“So what are the plans for the rest of today?”

“Well, I thought we could watch the sun set together. Maybe a little cuddling, maybe a bit of kissing.” He watched as James’ cheeks grew rosy pink. “Fuck. Hold on a second, I forgot the blanket.”

James watched as the tall blonde bounced back to his car, his long, lanky legs covering a lot of ground quickly. He laughed at the unusual forgetfulness of his boyfriend. James took a little glance out at the waves again. You could smell the sea in the air, and the sky was just starting to turn a tangerine type of colour, making the clouds go slightly pink. He glanced back, waiting for his boyfriend to come bounding back. Kendall ran back fast, getting only a few metres away then stopping, clutching at his chest and panting heavily. James grew worried, and covered the short distance to his boyfriend. “Kendall, are you okay?”

Kendall took a few shallow breaths, and replied “Uh-huh”. James still wasn’t convinced, and tilted his lover’s head up so he could see his face. Pain coursed through Kendall’s chest, and even though he was keeping a brave face for James, he failed. James could see the pain in Kendall’s eyes, along with the other giveaways that something was wrong – Kendall’s skin was very flushed, he was breathing really shallowly and was sweating up a storm. Kendall was normally healthy as a horse… he never got sick. Returning his eyes back to his boyfriends’, James asked worriedly. “Kendall, what’s wrong?”

Kendall puffed, standing up straight. “My chest just hurt a little, that’s all.”

James was not convinced. “Has it happened before?”

“Um, yeah... a few times.”

The brunette gave the blonde a concerned look, then accepted it was all okay. He grabbed his boyfriends’ hand and started to lead him back under the palms, when Kendall faltered his step and stumbled into James.

Standing him back up, James looked Kendall in the eye, and he looked a little dazed and disoriented. “Maybe we should go home… you don’t look so good.”

Kendall ran a hand through his hair, and reluctantly nodded his head in agreement groggily. They both hopped into James’ car, deciding on coming back in the morning to pick up Kendall’s, and made their way back to the Palmwoods. The blonde softly rested his head against the glass, and James smiled as he returned his gaze back to the road for the short ride home.

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Back at the Palmwoods, Carlos was playing videogames on the couch, kicking over the bowl of popcorn as he tried to pass a particularly hard level, wildly flailing when he failed for the eighth time. “Logie!” he called across the apartment, waiting for the smart boy to come and help. 

The raven-haired teen emerged from his room with a groan of disapproval, annoyed that he was being interrupted while trying to finish his chemistry assignment. “What is it Carlos, I’m busy.”

“I can’t get past this level!” He looked at the smart boy, pouting his lips a little for emphasis. “Can you help me?”

Logan looked around the room, seeing that no one was there, and stepped toward the couch where the latino was seated, pinching the bridge of his nose in frustration. “What’s the problem?” 

“I can’t get the zoomy thing past the space balls and I just blow up.”

Logan looked at the confused boy, quite baffled by what he had said. Carlos looked at Logan with the puppy dog eyes, trying to get the smart boy to help. “Fine. Play it and let me see.”

Carlos’ face lit up, and he quickly pressed the restart level button. After dodging just a few asteroids, he once again crashed and burned. Logan stroked his chin for a second before quickly replying. “Its just simple physics. Mass times acceleration equals the force of gravity-“

“Can you explain it in words I understand!?”

Logan looked critically at his helmet-wearing friend. “You need to go faster, and take the wormhole on the left instead of on the right.”

The look on Carlos’ face was like as if someone had told him the secret of life. Jumping up and enveloping the smart boy in a tight bear hug, the latino cried out “Thanks Logie!”

Before Logan got the chance to protest, the apartment door swung wide open and James strolled in, Kendall only a step behind him. “Whoa, are we interrupting something?” James said with a sly smile.

Carlos and Logan took one look at each other, and then jumped over opposite sides of the room, cheeks thoroughly red. “I-I’m just gonna go finish the h-homework t-that I forgot to d-do” Logan quickly said, making a quick beeline for the room he and Carlos shared. Carlos hastily ran through the door yelling something about hanging out with Lightning down by the pool. James chuckled at the antics of his best friends, shaking his head slightly. “So Kendall, I guess we have the apartment to ourselves for a while…” The brunette turned back towards the couch, seeing his boyfriend lying horizontal on the couch, shielding his eyes from the light of the room with his arm. Carefully lowering himself onto the garish orange couch next to his boyfriend, being careful not to sit on any part of him, James brushed his fingers through the blondes’ long bangs. “Are you okay baby?”

The blonde stirred a little, slowly dropping his arm to lie on his chest, squinting his eyes. “Yeah, I’m ok. I just have a little headache, that’s all.” James really felt for his boyfriend. Whenever Kendall got sick, which was very rarely, he would always get hit by it hard. He grabbed the blondes’ hand, rubbing his thumb along the back of it supportively. “I’ll go get you some aspirin.” 

Kendall smiled. “Thanks baby.” The brunette brought him a glass of water and the two pills, which went down swiftly. James could see how tense Kendall was, so he rubbed the blonde’s back to try to ease the tension in his body. Kendall relaxed, resting his head on James’ shoulder. “You wanna watch a movie Ken?”

The blonde nodded his head, stifling a yawn, and James chuckled. “How about we get you to bed instead?”

“Mmmhmmm.” The blonde mumbled, settling further into James’ side. The brunette smiled at his lover again, and carefully slid his hands under him, picking the blonde up and cradling him in his muscular arms. Walking down the hallway, he placed a soft kiss to the blondes forehead, carefully lying him down on the bed. Knowing that Kendall would have trouble sleeping, he climbed into bed with the blonde, and cradled him in his arms.