TITLE: "CROSSFIRE"

AUTHOR: Alison M. DOBELL

FANDOM: "Harsh Realm"

PAIRING: PINOCCHIO/HOBBES

RATING: NC-17 M/M *SLASH*

STATUS: New.

ARCHIVE: Yes. Just let me know where.

FEEDBACK: Welcomed

SERIES/SEQUEL: Standalone story

The usual disclaimers apply. No infringement of copyright is intended.

"CROSSFIRE"
A "Harsh Realm" slash story
Written by Alison M. DOBELL

They had not meant to get separated. The encampment was a large one and as usual they had split up to get the supplies they needed. Pinocchio was pleased to be able to augment their dwindling supply of ammo but no one had any gas. Hobbes met up with him and looked around for signs of Florence. She had Dexter with her and they spotted her in the distance haggling over tins of food. Hobbes grinned. "How the hell does she do that?"

Pinocchio swivelled round to see what he was talking about. Watched the one sided conversation, the hand signals and motions of Florence's head. Universal in any language. He grinned. "Nobody can out-barter, Florence."

He noticed a couple of people were starting to take notice of them and leaned in to Hobbes. "Come on, Hobbes, let's make a move. We're starting to draw attention."

"Have you ever thought that maybe you're just a paranoid son of a bitch?"

He gave Hobbes a sour crooked grin, alleviated only by the humour in his eyes. "Yeah, but you know what they say Hobbes. Just because you're paranoid it don't mean they're not out to get you."

Hobbes chuckled and nodded. They left the encampment and began to make their way back to camp knowing that Florence would do the same. It was a tried and tested formula that had served them well in the past. As they left the camp behind and went deeper into the forest, both of them started to relax. Half an hour later Pinocchio was beginning to think that Hobbes was right when suddenly a burst of gunfire had them diving in different directions as they were caught in a crossfire. Pinocchio swore. Hobbes rolled over to his right hoping to get a view of whoever was firing at them. Pinocchio rolled to the left, gun blazing. Hobbes turned his head, but could no longer see his friend. Started to move across to the left to see if he was alright. Pinocchio saw the glint of sunlight flash through the tree canopy and spotted the rifle turning to aim at Hobbes. He swore. The stupid idiot was moving right into the gunsights. There was no time to warn Hobbes, no way he could get a clear shot at the sniper, so he did the only thing there was time to do. He opened up with a hail of gunfire and ran across towards Hobbes, shielding him from the spray of gunfire cutting up an angry swathe at his feet. A bullet grazed his forehead, another caught him in the side. He gritted his teeth and yelled to Hobbes to get down.

The silence that followed was painful to his ears. Pinocchio stumbled to his knees, one hand holding his bleeding side the other trying to keep his rifle pointed in the direction of the gunfire. His head was aching, blood dripping from the graze along his left temple and getting in his eye. He shook his head to clear his vision and almost passed out. The next thing he knew Hobbes was next to him. Gently Hobbes eased him to the ground and started to check him over. Pinocchio tried to get up but Hobbes gently held him in place. "Don't move, you're lucky that bullet wasn't another inch to the left or you'd be a dead man right now."

"Thanks Hobbes," He said sarcastically. "Anybody ever tell you that you have a lousey bedside manner?"

Hobbes grinned at him and dabbed at his forehead with a handkerchief. "Only you, but then you are an ornery son of a bitch."

Pinocchio said nothing. He felt dizzy. Sick. Hobbes peered anxiously down at him.

"Hobbes?"

"Yeah?"

"Did they get away?"

Hobbes shook his head. "No."

"You find out who they were, who sent them?"

He shook his head. "Nope You shot one and I got the other. Both digitised before I could question them. They're probably bounty hunters." He paused as he began to undo the buttons on Pinocchio's shirt. Concerned about the growing crimson stain in his side. Pinocchio hardly noticed.

"That was a pretty stupid thing you did back there." Hobbes said quietly.

Pinocchio felt the dizziness pass and wondered what Hobbes was talking about. "What do you mean?"

"You make lousey body armour."

For a moment neither man spoke. Both knew what Hobbes was alluding to now. How could Pinocchio explain how important he was? Without Hobbes the prophecy was not worth a damn. Harsh Realm would just be a glorified grave yard. And every sorry son of a bitch trapped in it would be left with no way out.

Hobbes had his shirt open now and could see that the bullet wound was midway between his waist and his left hip. He realised he would have to take his clothes off him to get to the wound and if the bullet was still in him would have to remove it. He did not want to risk forcing Pinocchio to continue on to the camp. Did not want the man losing any more blood if he could help it. Hobbes glanced around and spotted what looked like a good place to shelter. Carefully he half dragged and half carried his friend then set about gathering wood for a fire. Pinocchio was starting to shiver. "What the hell do you think you're doing, Hobbes?"

"What does it look like? You're injured so I'm lighting a fire then gonna see what I can do about the bullet wound."

"I'm okay, Hobbes. Just get Florence."

He paused, looked at his friend. "You might not last that long." He said simply.

For a moment Pinocchio said nothing. Too stunned for words. "Jesus, Hobbes, don't ever go into the medical profession."

Hobbes frowned. "Why not?"

"Just don't, okay? Trust me, people don't want the first words out of the doctor's mouth to be telling 'em they're gonna die."

"That's not what I said..." His voice trailed off and he swallowed. "Sorry."

"Forget it, I'm just cranky."

That amused Hobbes. He had a fire going quickly then carefully stripped Pinocchio's camoflage trousers off him. He slid his boxer shorts off next to get his first good look at the wound. Pinocchio gritted his teeth as Hobbes' probed gently round the wound, trying not to shiver despite the fire. Hobbes looked at him. "I'm gonna turn you on your side for a couple of seconds to check if the bullet went through."

"Just do it Hobbes."

Hobbes nodded and rolled him gently onto his side. Pinocchio shut his eyes and hissed sharply, gritting his teeth to stop himself crying out in pain. It was a relief when Hobbes gently rolled him on to his back again. Hobbes rumaged in his pack for his canteen. "You're lucky, Pinocchio. The
bullet passed right through."

Pinocchio grunted to show he heard him. Hobbes paused and looked down at his friend. His eyes were closed and he was starting to sweat. He had lost some colour and had to be in pain. As if feeling eyes on him Pinocchio opened his eyes and pinned Hobbes with those vivid blue depths. He thought he would drown in them. With an effort he swallowed slowly. "How do you feel?"

"Like I've been shot, how the freeking hell should I feel?"

Hobbes grinned, reassured by his friend's grumpy reaction. He undid the canteen and began to wash out the wound, his hands so gentle as he washed the blood from the site and began to dress the wound. Pinocchio did not make a sound apart from the occasional soft grunt when Hobbes' fingers pressed a little too hard. Hobbes mumbled an apology and settled the makeshift bandage round Pinocchio's midrift, apologising softly as he lifted his hips to get the bandage around him, his eye travelling down the sweat soaked body and noticing him properly for the first time. Pinocchio was silent, watching Hobbes face in the firelight as a tentative hand moved up from his wounded side and gently feathered across his skin. He shuddered at the sensation of Hobbes' fingertips. Hobbes raised his eyes slowly and locked on Pinocchio's. He paused but when Pinocchio did not say anything gently resumed the motion of his hand, outlining Pinocchio's muscles, his eyes flicking up under his long lashes to watch his friend's expression as he explored. Reading the body's responses as if it by braille. Sensitive fingers, so gentle, so curious. Pinocchio held his breath shocked at the ease with which Hobbes was turning him on. Hobbes stroked his chest then sucked his fingers and drew them over his nipples before rolling them between his fingertips until they hardened to his liking. Pinocchio had difficulty finding his voice.

"What do you think you're doing, Hobbes?" He asked so softly that it tickled the hair on the back of Hobbes' neck.

"Exploring."

"Is that what you call it?"

Hobbes lifted his head and with his free hand gently pressed Pinocchio back so that he was lying flat again. His head dipping so he could lick Pinocchio's nipples and enjoy the shudder as he nipped them with the flats of his teeth. His eyes drifted slowly down Pinocchio's body, his fingertips sliding down his chest and abdomen, carefully avoiding his wounded side, until with a turn of his hand he raked his nails slowly up the length of his sleeping cock. Pinocchio hissed and felt himself jerk. Hobbes smiled and drew his hand back up, dragging his nails back up the foreskin making his partner shiver again as he continued to harden. "Close your eyes, Michael."

The sound of his Christian name on Hobbes' lips did weird things to his insides. "How the freeking hell can I close my eyes when you're touching me like that, you bitch?"

Hobbes chuckled at the huskiness in his partner's voice, drew a hand up the inside of his leg and began to caress his testicles. Pinocchio shuddered deeply, his cock throbbing with the force of the blood pumping through it and now rock hard, his body trembling. "Oh God, Hobbes..." He groaned.

"Ssshhh, just let me do this for you."

"Do what? Kill me? It's not enough that I had to get freeking well shot..."

Hobbes ignored him and continued to stroke and gently squeeze the heavy sacs, watching Pinocchio's face with an intensity that made Pinocchio's face flush. Hobbes loved the rising colour, leaned in and breathed a kiss upon his lips as his mouth sagged open in surprise and in response to the increased pressure of Hobbes' hand. He could hardly breathe. Surprised to
feel Hobbes' tongue slide inside his mouth, the action of his hand on his testicles making his gut tighten with excitement. As he caressed him Hobbes' teased his thumbnail along the sensitive foreskin, not giving more than the most fleeting attention to his penis as his actions made his partner hotter and hotter for him. Hobbes teased, titilated. Lips, hands, tongue. Even his breath. Everything was fair game.

"What the hell do you want from me, Hobbes?" Pinocchio gasped weakly, the words squeezed out of him now thick with want. Eyes growing hazy with lust. Soaked in perspiration, the air thick with his scent.

Hobbes smiled and dipped his head, his tongue flicking out to lick slowly up his straining cock. Pinocchio shuddered deeper this time, jerked and began to leak. The creamy cum forming a white cap that fascinated Hobbes. He licked it off slowly, allowing the rough pad of his tongue to caress the weeping head, the tip of his tongue teasing slowly back and forth across the sensitive slit making him leak harder.

"Oh God, Hobbes..."

Hobbes lathed down the throbbing gristle and began to lick his testicles, the hand that cradled them moving further under him. He lifted Pinocchio's hips a little, his tongue washing all around the sensitive sacs, leaving his penis aching for lack of attention, his mouth sliding over one testicle and sucking it up in his mouth like a gobstopper. Pinocchio was arching upward, his eyes closed as the sensations rocked through his body and set him alight with need and desire and a primeval lust that was driving him absolutely nuts. Hobbes knew exactly what he was doing to him, wanting him so sensitised he would scream for him as he came. None of that stoic silence bullshit. He was a man with a mission now. Hobbes wriggled down lower, his hands holding Pinocchio's hips off the ground. Just a few inches but enough. Carefully he eased his legs over his shoulders. Better. Now he could use his hands again, his attentions devastating his partner who was so close to losing it now. Nothing that came from Pinocchio's lips made sense, not a single word escaped unfragmented. Hobbes loved it. Loved how his touch was stringing him out, the body jerking and trembling to his slightest touch, his penis leaking so hard now as Hobbes' intensified his suction on his testicles. He stroked the weeping cock, smiled as his partner's hips flew up to encourage the touch of his hand, but Hobbes had other plans. He ran his fingers over the weeping head, coating them in his cum then slid a finger up into the crack to gently breach him.

Pinocchio jumped then shook. Incoherent words forming curses as he realised what was happening. "Fuck you, Hobbes!"

Hobbes grinned, licked his lips and hoped for just that. Another finger joined the first, Pinocchio bucking wildly as the penetration coaxed passed the tight ring of muscles and struck his prostate. He cried out. Tears running down his face, his hips pounding empty air, his body jerking and
spasming as Hobbes worked on him without mercy. Weeping he came, the sticky jism spraying up his stomach and chest while Hobbes sucked on his balls and pressed a third finger up the tight channel and brought him screaming to the cliff edge then threw him off. He laid him down gently. Pinocchio so wasted he just lay insensate, body trembling, eyes closed, breathing ragged. Hobbes smiled lovingly at him, settled down to slowly lick the jism off him, his tongue making languid passes over sticky cooling flesh. The sweat on his partner's face making him glisten and shine in the firelight.

"You were beautiful," Murmured Hobbes as he licked him clean, his mouth taking in his flaccid penis and sucking it gently with utter delight. Pinocchio could do nothing. He was wasted. A complete wreck. His body a boneless sprawl trembling with aftershocks. The pain in his side forgotten in the heat of unearthly passion. What the hell was Hobbes thinking? And why did it feel so freeking good he wanted to die rather than give this up? Shit. He was turning into a freeking whore. Hobbes' fuck toy.

Pinocchio lost consciousness in Hobbes' arms. Hobbes content to continue washing him clean with his tongue, his hands caressing him as he slept. Enjoying the taste of him, the scent of him filling him with a deep desire. Unable to stop touching him, a look of wonder on his face, love in his eyes. A passion he had carried for so long in his heart finally sated. Brought out into the open and acknowledged. From here on there could be no going back. He stroked his partner's sleeping face, kissed his closed lids, washed the sweat off his face and neck then kissed and nipped him. His heart soaring when Pinocchio murmured and moved slightly in his sleep. Hobbes loved him so much. Wanted him so fiercely it frightened him. And to think he had almost lost him. Tears pricked his eyes and misted his vision. Those bullets had been meant for him. His wonderful, volatile partner had deliberately put himself in harm's way to save him. Again. His hands stroked him reverently, warming the cooling flesh as he watched him sleep. A leg gently sliding over his right leg, avoiding the injured side. He nuzzled in close to Pinocchio's neck, kissing him and sucking his earlobe, whispering words of love as licked his ear. Starting to get horny all over again. With an effort he forced himself to stop. To snuggle in close to his partner and draw their jackets up over them for warmth. The fire was dying down but he did not want to move away from Pinocchio to fetch more wood. The fire he had shared with his friend would be enough. Hobbes knew he should sleep but that would mean not being able to watch Pinocchio sleep, and right now there was nothing he wanted more than that.

Wrapping the coats gently around his partner he lay on his side and watched him, a hand gently stroking his face. His fingers following the contours as he memorised every inch of him. He thought his very heart would break for love of him. With a sigh he laid his head on Pinocchio's chest, smiled at the strong rhythm of his heart and with a yawn of deep content he allowed his eyes to flutter and close.

Pinocchio woke in darkness. Wondered what had disturbed him. There was a chill in the air and he shivered. A sound caught his ear. Slowly he remembered what had happened. Hobbes. Loving him with the kind of abandon he had never shared with another man before. Just thinking of Hobbes made him worry about his absence. Where was he? "Hobbes?"

The faint noise stopped. Pinocchio frowned and tried to sit up. A groan eased from tired lips. The pain in his side raging now. His discomfort brought Hobbes to his side. His voice anxious and strangely muffled in the dark. "You okay?"

"I wondered where you were."

Hobbes did not answer but drew back the coats to look at Pinocchio's wound. The bandage was soaked with blood. He cursed softly. Pinocchio did not know how he knew but he sensed that Hobbes was upset. Wished he could see his face properly in the darkness. "Hobbes?"

"Yeah?"

"Sit down a minute."

"S'okay, I gotta go and get some water. Need to re-dress that wound."

Pinocchio reached out and snagged his sleeve. "Stay."

Hobbes hesitated. Wasn't strong enough to walk away. He sat next to Pinocchio and looked at the ground. Pinocchio frowned, wondered what in hell was the matter with him. "Hobbes? Is this about last night?"

"What do you mean?"

"Do you have regrets?"

Hobbes wanted to laugh. Regrets? His only regret was that Pinocchio would never let him do this to him again. How was that for regret? Concerned when he said nothing, Pinocchio struggled into a sitting position. He hissed with the pain. Hobbes tried to get him to lie back down. "No Hobbes, I want to know what's wrong."

He raised a hand and touched his friend's face, alarmed to feel tears. His heart lurched. "What the hell's the matter, Hobbes? Did you think I was freeking dying?"

Hobbes shook his head.

"Then what?"

Hobbes swallowed awkwardly. Pinocchio cradling his face in his hands, his thumbs rubbing gently back and forth through his tears. Part of Hobbes was surprised when his partner did not let him go. "I was thinking this would probably never happen again." He confessed in a small frightened voice.

It made Pinocchio's heart lurch with pain. "Oh Christ Hobbes, how could you think that?"

There was a small sob like sound from Hobbes. "Then you don't hate me for taking advantage of you?"

Pinocchio smiled in the darkness. Drew Hobbes close then gently kissed him. Hobbes felt his heart open up with a joy beyond description. Pinocchio drew back slowly. "I love you, Hobbes, okay? That answer your freeking question for you?"

Hobbes' mouth dropped open in surprise. Loved him? Pinocchio? Pinocchio chuckled, still holding Hobbes face in his hands as if reluctant to let him go. "What, cat got your tongue Hobbes?" He teased softly. Then as Hobbes sat in wonder, Pinocchio gently kissed his eyes, his cheeks, his lips, his throat. Words of love falling like crisp leaves in the fall, papering Hobbes with kisses and drying his tears with his lips.

"You love me?" He asked in a hushed voice, from a throat that ached and a body that rang with passion every time his partner touched him.

"Yeah. Who would have thought?"

<Yeah, who would have thought?> Certainly not Thomas freeking Hobbes that was for sure. Pinocchio paused. "So are we gonna do something about this, Hobbes?"

"What did you have in mind?"

Hobbes could almost hear the smile in Pinocchio's voice. "As I recall you pretty much had your wicked way with me last night."

Hobbes grinned. "I did, didn't I?"

"Yeah, you did." Hobbes felt Pinocchio's hot breath on his neck. "My turn now."

He was surprised. "You're injured."

"Never stopped you, Hobbes."

Hobbes flushed. "No, but..."

He felt Pinocchio's hands begin to undress him. Hobbes shivered with anticipation. "Come on, Hobbes. I could use a little help here."

He grinned and began to strip off, Pinocchio slowing him down so he could kiss and caress each newly exposed piece of flesh. He was so hard by the time they got his pants off him that Pinocchio laughed. Indignant, Hobbes was about to protest when a callused hand gently took a firm hold of him. His breath caught as Pinocchio settled into such a beautiful rhythm then leaned in to kiss him. Hobbes' heart fluttered. He loved this man so much. Cared for him in a way that was frightening but too wonderful for words. Pinocchio broke off his kiss just long enough to issue an order. "Now lie back Hobbes and spread your legs...."

Hobbes shuddered with pleasure. Wondered how Pinocchio was going to manage this in his injured state. He need not have worried. Pinocchio lay down carefully, got himself settled as close to Hobbes as he could then urged Hobbes to face him, his hand picking up the pace as he deepened his kiss. His other hand guiding Hobbes to take care of his own erection. Hobbes was so excited. He panted in Pinocchio's ear. "How are we gonna do this, Michael?"

Pinocchio shivered at the sound of his name on Hobbes' lips again. He paused in his kiss just long enough to mutter, "Carefully, Hobbes. Carefully. Then once we meet up again with Florence and I'm healed I'm gonna fuck you so hard you'll come every time I look at you."

Hobbes laughed, his humour suddenly muffled as Pinocchio kissed him again. His cock leaping eagerly up into every stroke of his partner's hand. Hobbes sighed into his partner's mouth. He did not have to die to go to Heaven. He had found it in the arms of his friend.

* * * * *
END