A/N: I was attempting a couple of 'speed-writes' here. I'm hoping these help loosen me up for writing a bit! I'm trying to get myself a little less scrutinizing about checking everything, and I was inspired by watching a friend's speed paint to do a couple of faster fics with minimal checking-over. I did do spelling and grammar checking, at least. Hope everyone likes it!
She couldn't believe she was almost finished. Finally.
Lili was at the tail end of her classes which would soon be over-she of course went to a prestigious, expensive and private high school-and soon she would be starting university to major in business studies in preparation for taking over the company after her father retired. She would be going to summer classes at first; while she grumbled, it turned out that the fall would offer her a great chance to serve in a sort of internship with Rochefort Enterprises in Berlin for some months, so it was wisest for her to start now. She was willing enough to take the hit to get to travel later, as she did love travel. It gave her more freedom.
She had finished her exams-for all intents and purposes, Lili was actually an excellent student. She could butt heads with her teachers, and she could definitely be stubborn-and one might think the times she ditched classes to go get into a street scrap somewhere would count against her. She did very well though, usually pulling off high scores on about anything…save a couple of the more boring ones. Lili, while actually decent at math, could not bring herself to care about trigonometry and usually used this time to doodle out possible new moves to her fighting repertoire.
At this moment she sat in her huge room-the air conditioner taking the edge off of the May heat which was a bit worse than normal-looking over electives. She would of course continue with her violin and piano, and she would decide on perhaps another visual art related one. Checking over the languages, she found herself rather quickly checking off 'Russian', without even thinking much of it.
She then paused to look back at her choice with a bit of a sad smile on her face before looking over at the book that had been left there-it appeared to be a sort of military history book-that was in Russian. She would occasionally leaf through it, though she understood all of maybe two words that were taught to her. She didn't know why he left it here. Maybe he had forgotten it.
Has it really been five months? She thought to herself, leaning back in her chair a moment to sip her iced coffee. She looked out the window; while it was still sunny, she could see some storm clouds far away, sort of reminding her of a day like this almost a year ago.
There were no two ways about it-Lili missed Sergei something fierce. She was strong-she cried only a little bit, and then only alone and around the time that he left-but even she had to give a little there. It was only a brief squall; she went on with her life as normal afterward, though she would still think back from time to time.
He left five months ago; right around New Year on a freezing day, snow blanketing everything about. Her father was back, extremely pleased that everything and everyone were safe thanks to him. He had killed four vicious attackers over the summer that could have done the unspeakable to his family. Sergei had other duties though, and his job was up. Lili knew that he would leave-he had to, even if he wanted to forget his duty. Sergei Dragunov did not ignore duty. She knew the affair they had could be not much more than that; an affair. It still stung, though.
She did remember Sergei being particularly…something with her that last night. She couldn't even say. He was never anything close what one would call 'sweet', but that night she felt something else when he touched her, even above what she felt before.
That first night had been…something she would never forget. Even though they stopped at foreplay-it was very intense. She grinned a bit, remembering how much he liked experimenting with pleasuring her.
She had gone back a few times for a week, and then they had decided to do more. After that, the next eight weeks were quite…interesting, she liked to call it. Three or four times a week over the next eight weeks and she was pretty scared they would get caught…but they never did.
She tried not to think about those nights too much…but she allowed the memories to return once in awhile. They quite changed her; she discovered things that she enjoyed that she never thought much about before then. Wondered, perhaps, yes. But after experiencing them…it was something else. Her virginity was lost the week after that first night-that night had been fun, to say the very least. All of them were.
Lili didn't know she liked it a bit rough until Sergei had come along. To be honest…neither did he, it turned out. It wasn't like sex was something he even thought about before Lili. They were careful to apply scratches and the like only to certain parts of the body to try to hide it. It was quite exciting, truth be told.
Shaking her head to look back at the computer, she continued on; knowing she did want to learn Russian. She liked how it sounded. And, maybe…
She quickly sipped her coffee to take her train of thought back, though it was no use anymore.
Lili sighed, walking over to the window to look out with her drink. Five months wasn't the longest amount of time, but it was more the uncertainty of when-or if-she would see him again. There was a guard there now-a twenty-something German fellow by the name of Kristian; he was friendly enough, unobtrusive, and easygoing. A well-built and handsome young man, he was nonetheless fairly dull in conversation, and she sort of doubted his ferocity in the face of attackers like the ones that managed to breach their manor's perimeter. She suspected he may not be able to handle something like that. She would greet him cordially when they met, but there was absolutely nothing there.
He was better than the last one-the fortyish wiry guy whom she was pretty sure she could take in a serious brawl, at least. She even thought her aging butler could have taken him. She was quite glad no one decided to try anything funny when he was the manor's 'special guard'; he was only there a week, though.
It wasn't that she was afraid, but she missed the silent, huge and fearsome presence in the manor. Who turned out to be much more than a common guard. He understood her far more than the rest, even though he rarely spoke about it. He only had to touch her for her to know, since he did not show emotion easily…if at all, with anyone else. He became a friend in that time she could easily say…and then, much more.
She could face facts, though-he did have the means to contact her if he could, but she heard nothing. She didn't expect to-he put his work first. She imagined him somewhere on the battlefield, probably standing on several corpses that he mangled for getting in his way. Sergei was an immensely brutal man-any other person would have been terrified of him, but Lili was made of sterner stuff than that. She was quite glad that she managed to crack through his shell…and that he reached out to her that night during one of her sadder periods.
Turning around and stretching, she decided to go down to the kitchen for a refill. She had more work to do today and she was a bit tired; an iced espresso would perk her up fast enough. She left the room, running into a familiar face as she turned the corner. It was Sebastian, her family's long-running head butler, friend and confidant.
"My lady," he bowed. "Getting your things ready for university?"
Lili nodded. "Slowly but surely."
Sebastian fixed the sleeves of his expensive suit. "Does something trouble you?"
She chuckled. The old man had known the family for three decades and had known Lili her whole life-and he had been around her just as much as her own father. He was a little more perceptive, as well; he could tell when something was bothering her. She chose her words carefully.
"Just thinking of the future. Things are changing."
He nodded. "That they are. You've seem so much quieter as of late."
Lili looked off to the side for a moment; she didn't much realize it herself, but not long ago a couple of her friends had pointed out the same thing. I guess he rubbed off on me in more ways than I thought. She did find she did not need to use words as often to get her point across. She still talked, of course, and could have quite long conversations…but the frequency of these perhaps did go down just a little.
"Maybe I'm just getting old," she joked.
Sebastian chuckled. "You have a long way for that. Just take care." He bowed, leaving her be.
She smiled; she did trust the old butler with about anything-though this, she would not speak of.
It didn't take one of the many kitchen servants long to refill her; she was back up to the privacy of her room soon after to watch the rain blow in.
She shivered, smirking a bit to herself when she thought back again to some of their nights. When one gets used to having some sort of sexual contact about four times a week for two months and it suddenly disappears, it can have a rather frustrating effect on one's mind at times. They had gotten to know each other very, very well in that time. She was very lucky in that…
She shook her head again one last time. She had to stop thinking about this. She doubted anything would come of it. Both of them knew it. In fact, she had been very good at going on with things as per normal; she managed to adjust to being alone again within a couple of weeks. She suspected that maybe since it was about a year ago that he arrived for the first time-he showed up in the summer and ended up staying until the very end of the year. Her father had an extended trip and paid the military even more for his services, though he had to do some traveling in that time.
No matter the reason, she figured that occupying her mind with more university things, and then the upcoming graduation, would help her out. She would likely be back to normal again like she was the week before, or even yesterday. This was a brief few hours of memories, she suspected. She brushed her hand over the book, moving it to the corner of her desk.
Maybe one day. Maybe there is more to this story after all.
She glanced back to the internet, noting a message that popped up. She opened it.
"King of Iron Fist Tournament qualifying matches begin in June."
Lili grinned. Surely, scrapping with a few people would take her mind off of things. Lili wasn't the pining type. She liked to get things done.
Maybe she would bump into a few old faces, too.