A/N: In this story, Hikaru is 20 years old and a college student at the University of Tokyo. Eagle is fully recovered from his illness and is awake. For the past six years, after the Pillar System was abolished from the land of Cephiro Hikaru along with Umi and Fuu have been periodically visiting their friends traveling back and forth from Tokyo to Cephiro. Eagle and Lantis both equally have romantic interest in Hikaru, but she is seemingly oblivious to their romantic feelings for her. Her love for them is currently suspended in a familial state, and Eagle and Lantis want to get across to her that their love for her is not familial love but romantic love. They've been dropping subtle hints to Hikaru here and there but to no avail. They just haven't found a successful method to convey their feelings to her quite yet.
Title: Goodnight Kisses
Rating: T
Summary: Post-Mangaverse A/U. Lantis, Hikaru, and Eagle are on a short journey to Meru Temple to return a Rune Circlet to its proper resting place. On the way there they get caught in a rainstorm and have to seek refuge at an abandoned cottage for the night.
Hikaru along with her friends Umi and Fuu were visiting Cephiro when it was October in Tokyo around the time of the month that they would typically come to visit. Master Mage Clef had a special Rune Circlet which needed to be returned to the temple it belonged to so he turned to Hikaru, and asked if she could do a favor for him by returning it to Meru Temple. She gladly accepted his request Fuu and Umi offered to accompany her, but Eagle and Lantis effectively talked their way into joining Hikaru on her journey, and that they would protect her in Fuu's and Umi's stead. Eagle even said that this little journey would be good exercise for him after laying in his medical bed for many months recovering from his illness.
Evening
Hikaru and her companions Lantis and Eagle were traversing through the Etoile Forest when ominous thunderclouds began to roll in, and the color of the sky soon began to fade from its reddish-pinkish hue to a dull grey.
"Looks like a huge thunderstorm is steadily rolling in." Eagle remarked. Hikaru and Lantis looked up towards the sky and agreed. Eagle looked towards his companions and said, "I think it would be wise to find shelter from this storm for the night immediately."
A few moments after Eagle said that a crackle of thunder erupted and the rain began to fall from the sky. First in the form of a drizzle and then it swiftly picked up speed changing into a hard pounding storm full of fury. Hikaru, Lantis, and Eagle began to trek through the forest in a fast moving pace hoping to come across a suitable shelter from the panging falling rain.
As they were running Lantis to the best of his abilities was trying to shield Hikaru from the rain with his black cloak. She put up a slight protest against him doing so but he didn't adhere to them.
They continued running for a little while until Hikaru spotted a two-story cottage nestled within the middle of the forest in the distance. "Look, a cottage!" Hikaru shouted out.
The cottage looked like it had been abandoned for quite some time as a sizeable amount of moss covered the front exterior of the cottage. Hikaru and her companions reached the cottage's front door in just a handful of more steps since first spotting it. Upon reaching the cottage's entrance they were all nearly almost out of breath.
Hikaru knocked on the front door politely before turning the door knob. The door to the cottage swung open with ease accompanied by an eerily loud creaking noise. "Pardon the intrusion", Hikaru said as she crossed the front door's threshold. Eagle and Lantis soon followed suit closing and securing the front door behind them after they entered.
The three of them stood in front of the doorway completely drenched from the pouring rain outside. Not only was their hair dripping wet, but their clothes were now clinging so close and tightly to their bodies and for some in all of the wrong places. Their shoes were a muddy mess and they all decided that it would be best for them to take off their shoes and leave them to dry by the front door, so that they wouldn't drag mud all throughout the cottage's wooden floors.
The rainstorm outside was very severe. Loud claps of thunder continued to resound one after another for a period of time. Hikaru set her light brown knapsack, which she was carrying on her back down on the ground before venturing further into the living room area of the cottage. She quickly spotted a fireplace and a couple of dry logs sitting on a rack on the right side of the fireplace.
"I'm going to go ahead and start up the fireplace." Eagle and Lantis were just then entering the cottage's living room.
The previous resident or residents of this cottage must have left these logs here or felt like they didn't have any use for them.
Which was perfect because it's just what Hikaru needed to get a good warm fire going. She placed and stacked the two logs on the rack into the fireplace and channeled her fire arrow spell with her willpower to ignite them and give life to a respectable burning fire that would soon heat up the entire room.
Meanwhile, Lantis and Eagle decided to survey the cottage's interior and other rooms. All that they found were empty rooms and some broken furnishings. Ultimately, nothing of use before both of them decided to return to the living room where Hikaru was.
Hikaru sneezed while she rubbed her shoulders to keep warm. "Hikaru you need to get out of those wet clothes before you catch a cold." Eagle said with a concerned look on his face.
"I think that piece of advice would apply to all of us." Lantis added in.
Hikaru nodded in agreement.
"I'll make a clothes line near the fireplace that we can place our wet clothes on so that they can dry." Eagle whipped out some wire that he had stashed on him and got to work on creating the clothes line near the fireplace using two of the dust-covered lamp stands which he found sitting in the far right corner of the living room.
Hikaru ran back over to the entrance of the cottage to grab her knapsack before rejoining Lantis and Eagle. "My brothers packed a few blankets in my bag before I departed Tokyo."
She opened the largest storage compartment of her knapsack and took out three large navy blue blankets. The other two extra blankets were originally intended for Umi and Fuu but this situation called for all three's usage. Hikaru proceeded to start making their makeshift bed near the warm fireplace she first put some distance between the area where she would set up the bed from the clothes line Eagle had made earlier. She laid one fully unfolded blanket on the floor and layered another one on the top of it this blanket would serve as the cover. She then rolled the last remaining unfolded blanket into what would serve as one long big pillow.
After she was done she decided that it was definitely time to get out of her soaking wet clothes. She was too preoccupied making the bed that she didn't have time to notice that Eagle and Lantis were just about finished stripping out of their drenched clothes. Both of their backs were turned towards her.
The mere view of the bare backs of their torsos and lean toned bodies would've have been enough to send any girl into a frenzy. Lantis had stripped down to his light inner armor garment which were the equivalent of black light cotton pants. Eagle was sporting something similar except his pants were a dark grey color. Their hair was still dripping wet from the rain. Droplets of water from their drenched hair dropped down onto their now exposed bare skin. They both did to the best of their ability to shake out most of the water still clinging onto their hair drying it in the best fashion that they could.
Hikaru could feel her face turning beat red as she averted her gaze from them. Her heart was pounding like crazy, but seeing exposed half-naked men was not a new experience for her she had three older brothers, but seeing Lantis and Eagle from that view coupled with the atmosphere present within the room made this quite a whole different situation.
She had to take a brief moment to recompose herself clearing her thoughts before she continued her task at hand. Hikaru first untied the complimenting crimson red ribbon of her satin red long-sleeved button down shirt before undoing the buttons on her shirt to reveal a red sports bra. Next, she unzipped the side zipper of her black knee-length pleated skirt. Hikaru was sporting red boyshorts panties underneath the skirt she was wearing. Lastly, she untied the red ribbon holding her lengthy braided hair together, and shook her long silky red hair free of its braided form before wringing out some of the excess rain water from her hair.
She grabbed her white brush from her knapsack before gathering her wet articles of clothing to hang on the clothing line. She then turned on her heel back to where Eagle and Lantis were.
As she turned to face them she saw that Eagle and Lantis were staring at the fireplace. Hikaru hanged her clothes on the clothes line before sitting down near the fireplace to brush out the tangles from her hair.
From the corner of his eye Eagle could see what Hikaru was doing and decided to offer her his service. He walked over to where she was sitting before crouching down in front of her. "Would you like for me to help you brush your hair?" He offered while giving her one of his endearing signature smiles.
Hikaru gave him a small smile before answering, "Sure."
Eagle then proceeded to gently take the brush from Hikaru's hand and sat directly behind her before he began brushing it. Being within this close proximity of her hair he could smell a faint strawberry scent oozing from it. He found Hikaru's hair to be extremely beautiful, it was soft to the touch and he loved to run his fingers through it. Meanwhile, Hikaru was thinking to herself that Eagle was really good at this, and the sensation of him running his fingers through her red locks strangely felt good.
Lantis was discreetly watching them from a different spot within the room. He couldn't help but to be very observant of how much Hikaru had matured and blossomed into a young lady. "Why can't you understand and see how I feel about you?" He thought to himself.
When Eagle was just about to wrap up brushing her hair Lantis made his way over to the bed Hikaru made with the blankets she had brought with her. He climbed under the blanket which served as the cover waiting for the other two to join him.
"There all done", Eagle said while handing the hairbrush back to Hikaru. "Thanks, Eagle." Hikaru then walked back over to where her knapsack laid and placed her hairbrush back into it.
She then headed towards where the bed was and Eagle gestured for her to take the center spot of the bed, which she did before he climbed in after her taking the other outer spot. Lantis's back was turned to both of them when they both got in the makeshift bed. Hikaru laid on her backside and closed her eyes to go to sleep.
Once Eagle was completely settled in he softly called out to her. She opened her eyes and turned on her left side to completely face him. He was turned on his right side directly facing her. In addition to that his eyes were directly aligned with hers and his face was just a few inches away from hers. This sudden closeness initially surprised her. From this close up view she could see all of Eagle's handsome defined features.
"I remember you talking about from one of your earlier visits to Cephiro a traditional custom from your home world that you refer to as a goodnight kiss."
Her gaze was still interlocked with his intense one. The way he was looking at her shell-shocked her she couldn't even string together a cohesive response. "Well," Eagle said while slightly tilting her chin up with his hand, "I'd like to try one", he continued.
Hikaru could feel her heart racing at an alarming rate when Eagle started to lean in closer closing the distance between their lips. She could've stopped him, but the fact of the matter was that she didn't want to stop him. When his lips finally made contact with hers her eyelids slowly closed as did his.
Eagle's kiss was slow, gentle, and very sensual it was like he was trying to savor every part of the kiss until the bitter end, when it was time for their lips to break apart.
"Goodnight, Hikaru."
"Goodnight, Eagle." She replied embarrassed. Eagle let out a small laugh. "You're so cute." His comment just made Hikaru's blush turn an even brighter red than it already was.
Lantis cleared his throat. "I'm still here and awake." He said with a hint of annoyance. The sound of his voice knocked Hikaru out of her daze. She hastily turned on her other side so that she was directly facing him to apologize for disturbing him.
And when she did Lantis was waiting for her as she was met by his azure eyes. "Lantis-", Hikaru couldn't completely finish her sentence because she was silenced by his lips. She didn't even put up any resistance at all because she melted into his very passionate kiss as soon as their lips came into contact. She was swept up by a whirlwind of emotions. Buried deep within her heart she was starting to realize that the love that she feels towards Eagle and Lantis was definitely not familial, which was being exposed to her through her kisses with them.
When Lantis's lips were demanding further access Hikaru's lips parted eagerly for him. If Eagle's kiss was considered the appetizer then Lantis's would definitely be considered the full main course.
Lantis was the one to break off the kiss first much to his dismay. Both of them were about equally out of breath after that senseless kiss. "I wanted a goodnight kiss, too." He said before turning on his side to fall asleep. He figured that Eagle concocted this little plan of his to express his true raw emotions regarding Hikaru, which was masqueraded as a goodnight kiss. He was a brilliant strategist after all. He also knew in part that Eagle did this to lighten the atmosphere, and to create an equal chance opportunity for himself as well. Lantis silently sent his gratitude towards Eagle.
Hikaru turned again so that she was laying on her back. She could see from the corner of her eye that Eagle was supposedly sleeping. She slid her face even further under the blanket cover while she tried to fully comprehend what just happened.
She wasn't that young naïve girl anymore she was now a young woman in college. As her thoughts were drifting back towards Lantis and Eagle her feelings regarding them shouldn't have come as such an alarming surprise. As Hikaru probably knew submerged deep down within the recesses of her heart subconsciously the love she harbored for them was one of romantic interest and not familial.
She just couldn't quite admit it to herself she needed some kind of jolt to hit her; to make her realize the reality of her situation and the truth about how she truly felt about them.
One thing was for sure Hikaru was going to have trouble sleeping that night, and it wasn't because of the thunderstorm currently wreaking havoc outside.
A/N: Okay, I know that this is kind of cliché, but to be perfectly honest I've always wanted to write a fanfic like this. It's a classic story of a person knowing the truth all along, but not willing to admit it to themselves upfront until something or namely someone gives them a wake-up call.