a slow glowing dream

Characters: Sherry Blendy, Lyon Vastia

Summary: Why was she still trying to run?

Inception AU

[Part 1/6]

I.

She had been in Crocus for three weeks when he found her and she knew instantly that everything was about to get extremely complicated. It became obvious the moment he strolled into the little café at the corner of two busy streets and headed straight for the table where she sat in the sun, pink hair gleaming as always and sunglasses on her nose.

He still looked the same and for some reason, this hurt more than it should have. But she was no longer eighteen and desperately in love with a man who could hardly care less about her and her feelings. She had grown up and she had other goals in life than to work for him and to prove over and over that she was deserving of his attention.

She was more than that and as he had never seen it, it was his loss and not hers.

It would have been easier saying no if she was not still in love with him but it seemed like her once-upon-a-time-promise to love him as long as there were stars at the sky had turned into a curse. Back then, she would have gladly sold her soul for the idea of him coming to look for her, of him telling her that she was needed.

Now, she would – just as gladly – have sold her soul for him turning around and walking out of her life, for him to leave her alone with his far-too-complex-to-work plans and ideas that were more than just a little crazy.

But he did not show any mercy as he pulled back a chair to sit down on the other side of the table. "You had us running all over Fiore," he said and she sighed.

"Get to the point," she demanded because the faster he would dish out whatever offer he had to make, the faster she could reject it and forget that he was still out there – and she could go back to pretending that she was long past caring about him and his ambitions.

(She really was not.)

"There is a job," he said, waiting for her reaction. "The team says they can't do it without you so … would you consider coming back?"

She snorted and nearly spilled her coffee over her pretty creamy white dress. "How long have we worked together?" she asked as she flipped her braid over her shoulder. "Actually, don't answer this or you will make me feel old. The point is, you know my answer to this question. I'll not return. I'm done with the team, done with your plans, done with all the work in the shadows. Yes, I know that I said that I will stay as long as you want me. But really, I was sixteen then."

Sixteen and blindly in love.

"It doesn't have to be like then," he replied as he slid the usual brown envelope over the table. "Seriously, I know that I was a bastard back then … but this time, I can keep the promise I make. I can protect you, I am stronger now than I used to be."

"It wasn't a matter of your strength that I was beaten like a newbie during the Galuna Assignment," she snarled, her face darkening with the memories. "You chose not to come to my aid because you and your goddamn man pain was more important to you than my life. Heartfilia nearly killed me. Granted, she had no clue what she was doing. But you know that I was vulnerable. You chose to sacrifice me for your goddamn ego."

She had spoken up, she had finally said what had bothered her for so long and she was rewarded with the feeling of relief. It was not that she hated him for his decision, it was more that she had no longer interest in working with him. It had been five years since she had left the team, since she had started to pursue her own career. She had accepted that it would never be as funny and interested again but she could live with a glass that was half empty, really.

So, why now? Why did he have to pop up after five years of peace to barge in and disturb all she had build up? He had played her for fools once, she remembered this because she always remembered. And she did not wish to forget because there were many men like Lyon Vastia out there and she really wished to stay away from his kind.

So why was she considering to accept the offer? She knew better. She knew far better than to give in to the temptation that was working with the old team, again. The idea of going back was plain ridiculous, she had been so very, very happy to get away from it all. But leave it to Lyon to make her want to reconsider all of this again.

(Because she had never been able to predict him, he had always surprised her.)

She exhaled before she poked the envelope with her forefinger. "What sort of job?" she asked after a moment because she had always been too curious for her own sake. "And I swear, Lyon, if this is not worth my time, I will end you."

"Your favourite kind of job," he replied, shrugging. "The complicated kind, the kind where you have to dig deep to get the information you want. Exactly the kind of thing you seem to have specialised in since you left the group. Don't act surprised, you knew we're keeping an eye on you."

She raised her eyebrow. "I can't believe that I am asking for this," she muttered. "Who else in on this job? Because, in all honesty, the old team wasn't the best one you could come up with."

"If you are on, we have Jura as the Architect, my as the Extractor, you as the Point Woman, Yuuka would be the Chemist and Tobi as the Forger," he said. "It would be a good team, you know that."

She closed her eyes and thought.

She remembered the first weeks on her own, the first weeks when she had been lost, when she had had no place to go to. Lyon's team had been her home, always, because she had once left all behind to join. It had been an unhappy time on her own, the colours of the flowers inside the dreams she visited had never been as beautiful as the ones the old Architect of Lyon's Team, a man called Zalty, had created. And it had always rained, too, and so she had hated it, a lot.

But she had managed to pull through, managed to make a name for herself rather than being the Point Man of Team Lyon. People had asked for her, had offered high sums for her to be on a job because she had never let a job fail. Everything that concerned a job was in her head and she had gotten just too good at using instincts of others to her own advantage, playing them like dolls.

This was how she had gained the epithet The Puppeteer.

"In case that I should decline," she started after another sigh, "who would be point man?"

"I have done more than enough assignments with you to have copied the basics," Lyon replied as his eyes narrowed. "It would be, of course, not as elegant as using a full team where everyone has experience with what he or she is doing. However, I cannot force you, can I?"

She smirked slyly. "If the situation was less sever, Lyon, I'd love to see you try," she said amused as she crossed her arms. "Nonetheless, what do you need me for, exactly? You and I, we know my weaknesses and my limitations. If you need me for a Second Level Dream, you can forget it."

"Your dreams became too instable, I know, because of what happened in the Galuna Affair," he nodded. "But actually, yes, I need you for this kind of dream. I trust you, after all."

"Because I never failed you," she said, her cheeks pale and her tongue burning with declarations of eternal love her younger self would have voiced. But this younger self had not been relevant for five years – she had learned to keep her thoughts to herself.

He nodded, as uncomfortable with the topic as she was. "You were the first one I ever recruited," he confessed although they both knew how it was and how little it actually mattered anymore. "It … call me sappy but it wasn't the same without you. You kept the team together in your own, rather weird way. It was hell after that failed job … Tobi died in the dream and Yuuka hated me."

She flinched and threw him a pitying look. "Ouch," she said with yet another sigh. She remembered the last time it had happened, back before the Galuna Assignment that had screwed up so much. Back then, after being thrown back to the first level of the dream, she had had to shot Tobi from behind to get him to wake up. It had been an experience she would never be able to shake off completely. Because no matter why, shooting a friend was something she had sworn she would never do. But it had been necessary to get them all out of the mess they had gotten into.

"You see why we need you back, yes?" he asked as he rose and pushed his own sunglasses back onto his nose. "The envelope included a plane ticket. The flight goes tomorrow evening. You have some time to think about this, read the job description, sleep a night over this and … I hope we will see you tomorrow. Jura and Yuuka said they'd work either with you or they'd do it without a point man … in the end, you are still their first choice."

Sherry smiled as she sipped her coffee. "Tell Jura I said hello," she said with a wave. "And that I am happy that he found a decent team this time around … god knows what the messed up team we were on two years back did to my poor nerves, in all honesty, I was surprised to learn he didn't quit the business entirely … after that job, I would have understood if he had."

And then, after emptying her cup of coffee and throwing some coins onto the table, she grabbed her bag and sidestepped Lyon before she disappeared in the crowd. She knew that she would accept the offer. If Lyon was considering it worthy, the pay had to be good.

And it could hardly be that terrible to work with them all again.

Famous last words.