A/N: This a short one-shot fanfic about Ine and Spitfire in the time period between the fight within Sleeping Forest and the begining of the manga. So enjoy and don't forget to review! :)
It was a calm evening with an imminent sunset already changing the sky's colors. That seemingly endless sky that had always attracted living beings towards it throughout ages, that sky that gave an ardent desire to fly and touch the clouds at least once. Humans, unlike birds, never had been given the ability to fly freely in that sky and had forever been bound to the ground. But those chains could be broken, if only for a second, they could be broken. What a dream that was… to fly high in that blue sky. But not all knew the limit, not all knew to stop before they ended up as Icarus; with a broken body and a broken dream.
A flash of red jumped through the sky. Though the sky looked as if it was burning it couldn't live up to the expectations; that man's hair were the flames themselves. For a second he seemed suspended in the air as if he was flying. Only his orange-colored hair danced gently in the breeze and his T-shirt rippled in the fresh wind. But that barely lasted and, faster than the blink of an eye, he flipped graciously as if aided by the wind itself and landed on his ATs. His posture was nearly perfect; he was obviously not new to this. The problem was his foot that seemed damaged; he had cringed slightly under the pain as he landed.
He was out of breath already. 'I'm really losing my touch…' he thought as he slowly skated towards a water bottle resting on a cement wall. He took big gulps while observing the various graffiti "embellishing" it. Some would call it art but it only looked like a bunch of doodles and filthy words to him. Well, it was better than some ordinary grey wall anyway.
That was the moment when he heard the sound of applauding behind him. "Spitfire, I think you're getting rusty… but your riding is as captivating as it always was." He didn't need to turn around to recognize the smooth voice. The voice he would only hear in his dreams lately and the perfect face that came along with it. Still facing the wall, he answered, "What brings you here Ine? I thought you had cut all your ties with Sleeping Forest and Genesis…" His accent made his voice even more attractive.
She got closer and let a hand trail down his biceps and a shiver ran down his spine at the touch of her cold fingers. "You'll catch a cold at this time of the year with only a T-shirt on…" she murmured. He sighed and grabbed his long black coat on the ground before putting it on and finally daring to face her. Her hair was the only thing that had changed considerably; it was now blonde and rather than swirling on both sides of her head, it only did so only in the back. She was wearing a doctor's outfit as if she had decided to come see him on a whim and high heels which weren't very appropriate for her workplace. Her chest was as voluptuous as ever and her outfit didn't seem to let that go to waste. The fact she had sunglasses on intrigued him. He put his hands in pockets before pointing out, "There isn't much light around here. I think those are useless." He pointed to the object in question with a slight movement of his chin.
She sighed and took them off. "I'm here to speak about a serious matter if you don't mind…" He nodded and followed her to a nearby ravine and they sat on the border of it, not daring to look at the faraway bottom. The grass underneath was wet due to the rain that had lasted all day but Ine didn't seem to mind the chilliness of it all. "You say I might catch a cold… but what about you?" he asked, smiling warmly. She was indeed wearing a skirt but she couldn't feel the cold around her; he was next to her and warmth always seemed to irradiate from him, both physically and psychologically. Well, for her, just a smile on that handsome face of his was enough.
They hadn't seen each other since the incident with Kilik. While Spitfire had decided to side with Sora and was now helping Simca in Genesis, Ine had decided to create her own team; Tool Toul To, a neutral team of tuners. So this was the first time they met after all that had happened.
She scoffed and shook her head, "I'm not as fragile as you may think. Besides, it's not that cold…" The second part was barely audible, "N-not anymore…" But he heard her nevertheless and reached for her hand. He intertwined his long fingers with hers. It had been such a long time since she'd had contact with him, since back when she was his tuner. Even now she wondered if he had ever felt the same way about her as she feels about him. Has he ever seen her as more than a tuner and a comrade? 'Ugh, why am I always like this around him? I feel defenseless… and I think he sees it,' she thought as she could feel her cold hand start to become warm thanks to his.
Ine cleared her throat, "I was initially just planning on checking up on you, but I can already see that something is wrong with your foot. Has it been like that ever since that day?" A pained look could be seen one his face for an instant before it turned into a fake reassuring smile, "Yeah… But I'm ok, there's nothing that can be done about it anyway." He spared a look to his orange ATs and seemed to detail the flame pattern as if he would never see it again, not looking up again. He felt childish for doing so but couldn't help it.
She inched closer to him and clung to his arm, "Let me be your tuner again! If I can't do anything about your foot at least let me tune your regalia. I can bet that you haven't been able to use it properly ever since. Don't you want to be back to your old self?" She looked deeply into his red eyes, fearing his answer.
"Ine! You know my fake wax wings are already done for!" He realized he was getting too irritated so he went back to using a more calm tone, "I'm ok like this; my place had always been on the ground… I was just too concentrated on looking at the fleeting clouds to realize it." She didn't answer, tightening her hold on his arm instead; she felt as if he would disappear if she ever let go. He could feel her pressed against him and couldn't avoid her for much longer. Spitfire sighed and looked at her properly. Those blue eyes… they were exactly like the day he had left her in that room to go to what turned out to be the downfall of Sleeping Forest as they knew it. How did he manage to always hurt her like this? How did he always end up being the cause of the pained expression on her face? And her lips, her pink and pompous lips… Why had he been an idiot, holding back for such a long time?
Ine let out a surprised yelp that was muffled by the man's lips covering hers. She couldn't believe this, it was too unexpected. At first, she tensed in his strong arms but came back from her shocked state and kissed him back. He pinned her down to the wet grass below and whispered to her ear, "Let's tune, shall we?" And he took off his troublesome coat.