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person4Title: Why Wait?
Fandom: Captain Planet and the Planeteers
Pairing: Wheeler/Ma-Ti
Notes: Written for Day 3 of June Fic-a-Day. The story is set five years after the time period of the cartoon, for the sake of having Ma-Ti not be a twelve-year-old.
It seriously wasn't supposed to be this way.
Wheeler was a 100% Grade-A American man, not some fruity rainbow-wearer. It wasn't like he cared if anyone else was like that--it took all sorts to make a world and all that, and The Planeteers would work their butts off to help other people learn to accept that when it was needed--but he wasn't supposed to be one of them. He wasn't the type of guy whose eyes would stray from the hot blonde Russian girl with a personality as great as her looks to a scrawny boy who'd only just grown past being jailbait.
But it wasn't like he could help it. Ma-Ti's whole power was all about touching people's hearts. Every time they needed to communicate over a distance, every someone on the team got in trouble and the others needed to know to come help them out, every time they summoned Cap, there was the feeling of Ma-Ti within him as the kid passed on whatever messages he was carrying. It was the only thing Wheeler had ever felt that came anywhere close to being as warm and comforting as his fire.
It wouldn't be so embarrassing if it wasn't obvious that Ma-Ti knew. Every time he needed to use his powers to contact Wheeler's heart for some reason he gave him this look that said he knew every last feeling Wheeler had hidden away in there and was perfectly fine with them. But he never said anything, and Wheeler sure wasn't going to be the one to bring it up just in case he was wrong about Ma-Ti knowing, so it looked like things were going to stay they way they'd been forever.
At least, he did until the day Ma-Ti cornered him when they were both alone, not even Suchi there to listen in on them.
"Wheeler," he said, his apparently fixed on Wheeler's left ear instead of his face. "You do realize that I'm seventeen now, don't you?"
"I was at your birthday party, kid," Wheeler said with a laugh, trying his best to sound cheerful and normal and like he still saw Ma-Ti as the twelve-year-old little boy he'd been when they'd first met and had never had a single dirty thought about. "Hey, if you're about to start hinting at wanting a better present, go bug Gaia about it, not me. If she paid us, I'd be able to afford decent gifts."
"Oh, no! It's only that I thought perhaps, well... Seventeen is the age of consent where you come from, yes? I'd assumed that was what you were waiting for."
"'What I was waiting for'..." Wheeler repeated slowly, his cheeks growing so hot that he would have bet his fire wouldn't be able to beat it, making him feel as stupid as a preteen with his first crush.
"I'm sorry, I did mean to let you choose when we'd talk about this. But it's been such a long time since I first sensed this," Ma-Ti tapped Wheeler's chest with his ring as illustration, "and... I'm a little tired of being patient!"
"So, I wasn't just imagining things, huh?" Wheeler asked, bowing his head and inadvertently bringing his forehead down almost close enough to rest against Ma-Ti's. "You really did know all this time?"
"Please forgive me, Wheeler. It's not as though I meant to pry, but there are some things it's difficult not to feel when I'm using my power to contact someone."
"Nah, nah, it's cool," Wheeler reassured him, then suddenly laughed, reaching out to wrap a hand around Ma-Ti's wrist. "Well, if you're cool with it, then okay! I guess it's time to stop waiting."
And when he tugged Ma-Ti forward to finally find out what kissing him was like he had to wonder what the hell had taken him so long.
Fandom: Captain Planet and the Planeteers
Pairing: Wheeler/Ma-Ti
Notes: Written for Day 3 of June Fic-a-Day. The story is set five years after the time period of the cartoon, for the sake of having Ma-Ti not be a twelve-year-old.
It seriously wasn't supposed to be this way.
Wheeler was a 100% Grade-A American man, not some fruity rainbow-wearer. It wasn't like he cared if anyone else was like that--it took all sorts to make a world and all that, and The Planeteers would work their butts off to help other people learn to accept that when it was needed--but he wasn't supposed to be one of them. He wasn't the type of guy whose eyes would stray from the hot blonde Russian girl with a personality as great as her looks to a scrawny boy who'd only just grown past being jailbait.
But it wasn't like he could help it. Ma-Ti's whole power was all about touching people's hearts. Every time they needed to communicate over a distance, every someone on the team got in trouble and the others needed to know to come help them out, every time they summoned Cap, there was the feeling of Ma-Ti within him as the kid passed on whatever messages he was carrying. It was the only thing Wheeler had ever felt that came anywhere close to being as warm and comforting as his fire.
It wouldn't be so embarrassing if it wasn't obvious that Ma-Ti knew. Every time he needed to use his powers to contact Wheeler's heart for some reason he gave him this look that said he knew every last feeling Wheeler had hidden away in there and was perfectly fine with them. But he never said anything, and Wheeler sure wasn't going to be the one to bring it up just in case he was wrong about Ma-Ti knowing, so it looked like things were going to stay they way they'd been forever.
At least, he did until the day Ma-Ti cornered him when they were both alone, not even Suchi there to listen in on them.
"Wheeler," he said, his apparently fixed on Wheeler's left ear instead of his face. "You do realize that I'm seventeen now, don't you?"
"I was at your birthday party, kid," Wheeler said with a laugh, trying his best to sound cheerful and normal and like he still saw Ma-Ti as the twelve-year-old little boy he'd been when they'd first met and had never had a single dirty thought about. "Hey, if you're about to start hinting at wanting a better present, go bug Gaia about it, not me. If she paid us, I'd be able to afford decent gifts."
"Oh, no! It's only that I thought perhaps, well... Seventeen is the age of consent where you come from, yes? I'd assumed that was what you were waiting for."
"'What I was waiting for'..." Wheeler repeated slowly, his cheeks growing so hot that he would have bet his fire wouldn't be able to beat it, making him feel as stupid as a preteen with his first crush.
"I'm sorry, I did mean to let you choose when we'd talk about this. But it's been such a long time since I first sensed this," Ma-Ti tapped Wheeler's chest with his ring as illustration, "and... I'm a little tired of being patient!"
"So, I wasn't just imagining things, huh?" Wheeler asked, bowing his head and inadvertently bringing his forehead down almost close enough to rest against Ma-Ti's. "You really did know all this time?"
"Please forgive me, Wheeler. It's not as though I meant to pry, but there are some things it's difficult not to feel when I'm using my power to contact someone."
"Nah, nah, it's cool," Wheeler reassured him, then suddenly laughed, reaching out to wrap a hand around Ma-Ti's wrist. "Well, if you're cool with it, then okay! I guess it's time to stop waiting."
And when he tugged Ma-Ti forward to finally find out what kissing him was like he had to wonder what the hell had taken him so long.