A/N: Based on littlemissmulan2011's picture, found here: littlemissmulan2011 .deviantart art/ As-Long-as-your-Mine-302791248 [Just remove the spaces!] The line, "Please, Mr. Lightyear" also belongs to her. ;P
Kinda takes place in the world of BLoSC, but I tried not to go into much detail with that, 'cuz I didn't want to have to put this in the crossover story section. Mira has like one line, but you don't even see the other characters. Which may seem weird, since I barely even mention them, but the story is mainly revolved around Buzz and Jessie, anyway. So, it's better that all the focus stay on them. ;D
Also, sorry about the way the story is set up. I considered deleting some of the paragraphs about when Jessie first arrived at Star Command, but I thought it was better you understood Buzz's exact feelings towards her, just so he didn't come off like a complete jerk sometimes, lol. I hope the story is easy to keep up with, elsewise.
Thanks so much for reading!
Disclaimer: I do not own Toy Story, Buzz Lightyear of Star Command, or any of its characters.
It was late at night, but you wouldn't have guessed that as Buzz stood, wide awake, pacing around the cabin on his spaceship. He made a swift glance at the panel near his door, which marked all the rooms on his ship, pointing out which ones were closed and which ones still opened.
Judging by the lateness of the hour, all but his cabin should have been marked with a clear glowing red block, but upon second glance, he noticed two bright green squares, rather than just the one.
He barely had time to notice who's room was still unoccupied when a voice spoke up behind him.
"Captain Lightyear?"
Buzz felt his stomach flip as he recognized the voice. He looked over his shoulder, trying to look as busy as possible. She stood in his doorway, her hands clasped together in front of her. She was still wearing her spacesuit, though her red hair was out of its normal purple hood, and tied back in a braid.
"Miss Pride," He nodded at her. "You should be asleep. We have a busy day tomorrow." He was lying, of course. He had no idea what was planned for tomorrow, as most of their jobs lately had been assigned to them by the late morning.
"I can't sleep," She admitted, unclasping one of her hands to mess with a loose piece of her hair.
"You should still be in your cabin," He practically ordered, turning back to a random map on one of his counters.
"Er, yes, sir," She said, almost in a mumble. "But first, I was kinda hoping we could talk about what happened..earlier today?"
Buzz froze in place at her words. He had been afraid of that.
See, in all his years of training, Buzz had never met a cadet quite like Jessie. All space rangers were taught to be firm and stand their ground, but Jessie, having already been born with those attributes, only strengthened them with training.
But she also tended to stray from the rules, time to time. While, Buzz, on the other hand, revolved around them. And he never had a problem trying to keep that up...that is, until he met Jessie Pride.
The moment he saw her when she came into apply - saw her emerald eyes bore into his, never wavering or faltering - until finally he looked away and broke the gaze, Buzz knew she was going to cause trouble for him.
He never had any problem with any of Star Command's rules before Jessie showed up. One of the simplest rules he could obey was not to date other rangers on the force. No one had ever really struck his interest, even before he joined Star Command.
But Jessie was different. It was worse when the Commander placed her on his team. Buzz tried to change his decision, but without a proper excuse, it was useless. He didn't give up, though.
For months, he tried to rid him of her in any way he could. He tried placing her on other teams; teams he was sure would never interact with his own, but there were never any openings. He tried to find any slight mistake Jessie made and mark her for it; to penalize her off the force for however short a time, but she was too good at her job, which made finding a mistake was near impossible.
Eventually, Buzz gave up and decided to enjoy having such a remarkably talented teammate. Mostly because he had run out of ideas. For the most part, he had no trouble in thinking of Jessie as only a partner.
And it wasn't as if flirting was a problem, since he was pretty close to clueless when knowing how to. But he couldn't keep himself from the thoughts that entered his mind almost every time he quite sight of her.
Things stayed light between the two for a while. Buzz tried to keep any interaction between Jessie and him rare, making Mira an unofficial messenger for the both of them. After a couple months, though, Mira no longer cooperated, and Buzz found himself constantly working by Jessie's side. Which turned out to be much simpler than working with her from afar. Most of the time.
"Mr. Lightyear?" Jessie questioned, breaking the captain from his trance. "Did you hear what I said?"
Buzz's back stiffened again as he thought about the events to which Jessie was just referring to.
It was hours ago. Buzz and his team were assigned to clear rock formation's near Jupiter and Saturn, to keep the planet's from rotating to close to one another. It was a dingy job. One usually given to newly appointed cadets. But nothing exciting or important had happened that day, and since Buzz's team was already out and about, the Commander assigned them to the job.
Buzz let being captain get to his head sometimes, so he was often sour about having to work under such conditions, when in reality, one should be glad no battles were breaking loose off in space somewhere.
He stubbornly set up in a corner of a large rock piece just far enough away from Jessie. The others were working atop other rock's not too far away. Sometimes it was easy to work closely with the new cadet, and sometimes it wasn't. Buzz was feeling the latter option today.
It didn't matter, though, because seconds later, he heard Jessie scream. He looked in her direction and saw her dangling off the edge of the large rock. From what Buzz could tell, she had accidentally poked at the floating rock wrong, causing a piece she was standing on to crumble instead.
Buzz quickly ran to her side and pulled her up. She could have easily flown out of this disaster herself, but being a cadet-in-training, Jessie still had another six months before she earned her jet pack and right to fly.
Buzz placed her on the rock in front of him, letting her catch her breath. After a few short breaths, she looked up, smiling. Her face was still flushed from the experience, but her smile was bright enough to cover that. "Thank you..Captain Lightyear."
She still had trouble addressing him formally, but Buzz noted she was getting better at it. He felt himself smiling with her. He sometimes hated how contagious her smile could be. This was not one of those times. "It was my pleasure."
He suddenly realized his strange choice of words. "Not that I take pleasure in you falling, of course. What I mean is, you-I..." He sighed. "You're welcome."
Jessie giggled. "I knew what you meant."
Buzz relaxed again and chuckled, too, realizing her unique laugh was just as contagious as her smile.
They were quiet then. Her breathing grew softer, but somehow a bit more ragged. Buzz watched her as she shut her eyes, her head still upright. He found himself tilting his head closer to her's, his body leaning forward ever so slightly. Then, suddenly, when their faces were just a few inches apart-
"Hey guys, is everything okay?" Mira said, breaking the two apart. "We thought we heard screaming."
Buzz pulled back instantly. If the others had noticed they just interrupted something, they didn't let on. The captain left quickly, without another word, as Jessie stood up and started to explain to the others what had happened.
It wasn't as if anything could have happened between them, of course, as they were both outside in space, therefore safely inside their helmets. But what scared Buzz was that, for that moment, he didn't even care. As if he was actually considering pulling off his helmet – and risk losing oxygen – just to kiss those lips, for even a short second.
"I don't know what you're talking about," Buzz said finally, still as a rock, when he came back to reality.
"I think you do," Jessie said. She knew he didn't want to talk about it, but she persisted, anyway. Buzz was the kind of person who would just let things lie. Jessie was obviously not.
"Even if I did, it doesn't matter," He insisted. "So, I suggest you drop it."
Jessie was taken aback by his tone, but she didn't let that stop her. "Captain," She said lightly, reaching for his shoulder, in attempt to turn him around.
Before her hand could even touch him, Buzz grabbed her by the wrist and spun around. He was trying to be firm with her, but he kept his hold gentle. She looked a bit shocked by the sudden contact, though her eyes never lost focus of him.
He blinked and lowered her hand, feeling her small wrist between his fingers. He rubbed his thumb along the inside of her wrist, curiously. It felt strange to him, as he rarely ever touched anything, let alone skin, without his gloves on.
Jessie closed her eyes, enjoying the feel of his fingers brushing her bare skin. "Please, Mr. Lightyear."
Buzz wasn't sure what she meant by that, but he found himself sliding his hand up, interlacing his fingers with her's, without ever letting go of her hand. His hands slightly brushed her red hair, which was surprisingly soft, considering the lack of product they had on the ship, and the amount of time it usually spent inside a helmet.
Turning his gaze away from it, he moved both their hands toward her face, till his thumb was pressed lightly against her cheek.
She gasped quietly at the touch. "Buzz.." She whispered. It was the first time he'd heard her speak his first name out loud.
And that was all it took. Everything he had tried to prevent in the last six months faltered, as he hastily pressed his lips against Jessie's in a passionate kiss. He drove all the emotions he had so desperately hid away into it, almost knocking the couple off their feet, as he pressed the cadet up against the left side of his cabin.
Muffled beeping noises erupted from the wall, making Buzz realize he had accidentally pushed Jessie into the rooms panel. His eyes quickly popped open at the sound, as if he just understood what was happening.
Then, before anything else could happen, he forcefully pulled away. Jessie gasped, trying to collect her breathing, though it was obvious she would have kept kissing him long after her breath gave out.
Buzz tried not to look at her. He realized their hands were still interlocked and quickly yanked them apart. Jessie's gaze was disoriented; confused.
"I think you should go back to your cabin now, Miss Pride," He said, turning away.
She blinked, still trying to piece together what had happened. When Buzz didn't waver, her face fell. "O-okay." She walked towards the door, turning around at the last moment. "I'll see you in the morning, Captain Lightyear."
He winced when he heard her purposely use his formality name again. After a moment, he turned back around and watched as the green light on the room panel - the one beside Jessie's name - switched to red. He closed his door, as well, watching the last green light disappear from the panel.
He slumped against his closed metal door, wondering if Jessie was doing the same thing. He might as well have stayed there. It was obvious he wasn't getting any sleep tonight. He found himself replaying the last events over and over again in his head. He groaned, forcing his head backwards, hoping the contact with the hard metal would rid him of such thoughts.
"If I didn't know any better," Buzz muttered to himself, looking towards the ceiling. "I'd swear that girl was a temptress, trained by Zurg himself, sent here to torture me."