Just Going For A Ride
After the Pulsians are freed from stasis, Lightning picks Fang up for an innocent afternoon ride on her velocycle. FLight. T.
I have no idea if I'll have time to continue this, but I needed a creative break from work and class for at least one weekend.
Disclaimer: Square-Enix yatta, yatta...
The idling hum of her velocycle died as Lightning turned the key and plucked it from the ignition. She set the kickstand, and the cooling engine hissed for a few seconds longer, the satisfied purr of a well tended machine.
She looked across the street at Sazh's house, rolling the keys between her fingers absently. The pilot had done well for himself in the three years she was away. Well enough to have plenty of room for their Oerban friends when they woke from crystal stasis.
A years-old coil of tension loosened in the soldier's chest. They were all back now. Finally. Serah and Vanille were safe. Fang was alive and free.
A fresh ribbon of more personal anxiety wrapped itself around her heart. Lightning stood suddenly with a graceful twist to dismount. She popped her helmet off and smoothed her pink spikes in the handle mirror, bulldozing her uneasiness with physical action. Her attraction with the Pulsian had been powerful and eventually undeniable when they were on the run for their lives. What they would be in a peaceful world was anyone's guess. Had they just found a fleeting affirmation of life in each other's arms when everything around had screamed that they were doomed?
Lightning locked her helmet to her bike and slipped the keys into a tight jean pocket. Her boots scuffed the dusty street, and she looked up as she crossed, wondering if Fang was looking out a window for her arrival.
She never would have guessed it, but looking back the Katzroy-and-Oerba household wasn't so surprising. Sazh was a family man, quick to care for new people, especially a certain redheaded castaway. Fang and Vanille were used to an already generous definition of family in their orphanage and village. They probably would all have felt awkward not living together in Sazh's two-story townhouse. As it was, the home buzzed with constant activity, and when Light stepped up to the door, she heard energetic voices dancing behind it.
A smile flickered on her face, and a sudden, selfish thrill spiked in her chest at how her sister and Snow had called off their hasty engagement. She still had Serah to share her own home with.
Lightning raised her hand to knock when the door whipped open with a whoosh of air. She cocked an eyebrow at the shining green eyes that greeted her while her fist hovered uselessly. "Lightning!" Vanille threw her arms around the taller woman. "You're early!"
Light took a step back from the force of the hug and wrapped her arms gently in response. "Yes, traffic was better than I thought," she managed to say with rapidly constricting lungs. 'Etro's Champion squeezed to death by Cheerleader,' a newssite blogged in her head. The irony would have made her laugh if she had any air left to laugh with. And that irony only made her want to laugh more with air she didn't have. And that irony— Suddenly, the girl released her. Light reeled for a split second and took a refreshing deep breath. 'Area Woman survives Deadly Hug Assault.' A much better read.
"Come in; come in; come in!" Vanille hopped inside and spun to yell up the stairs, "Fang!" She turned back to Lightning, multi-tasking conversations with practiced skill. "Do you want a drink? – Fang! Lightning is here!"
The soldier followed her in and clicked the door shut behind herself.
"I'll be down in a minute!" a voice replied from the second floor, and Light schooled her features against a smile threatening to cut through at the sound of Fang yelling. She wasn't that far gone was she? Lightning was an impervious warrior who left decimation and ruin in her wake. She wouldn't smile just because a woman she had spent years trying to wake from a crystal prison was now in the next room raising her voice in a trivial, everyday, living and breathing argument...
Lightning wiped her boots on the entry mat, and looked up as Vanille bobbed closer. "We have sun tea and kava juice and water?"
"I'm fine, thank you."
"Have a seat." Vanille waved her towards the open living room where Sazh sat in his recliner, grinning at them. The older black man raised his beer to say hello as they entered. The sports game he was watching played quietly on a wide TV, and he knew better than to try to interrupt Vanille playing hostess. "Do you like blitzball? I think one of the teams is winning," she enthused.
Light's lips quirked in amusement. "That tends to happen." She sank into the couch near Sazh's recliner. And sank and sank. For a second she could have sworn she was being swallowed by a cleverly disguised pillow flan. Light bent in half to scoot forward and set her feet back on the floor, thankful that Fang hadn't witnessed that impressive display of sitting down. The laughter glimmering in Sazh's brown eyes was bad enough. She'd have to be careful around this couch.
"Offer her a drink!" yelled an accented voice from upstairs.
"I did!" Vanille defended with a tiny stomp of her foot. Lightning stifled another grin. She and Serah had a similar way of communicating between rooms. "I'll just go help," the redhead told her cordially. "Back in a jiffy! Help yourself to Sazh's chips." Vanille whirled to the stairs. "I thought you were ready?"
Angry feet clomped across the wooden floor and up the steps, followed by emphatic, muted voices. Lightning cast a glance at Sazh. "Is it always like this?"
"Only when one of them gets excited."
"So, yes." He smiled in reply and held out his bowl of chips. "You like having them here," she observed.
"They liven things up, that's for sure."
Lightning took a chip and ate it in a couple of polite bites, catching the crumbs with her free hand. She glanced around for a trash bin and, spotting it behind the end table, leaned over the side of the flan couch to brush her hand off. After a failed first attempt, she twisted and slid back to her perch on the front of the cushion. Another close call.
The sounds of the game mixed with the sounds of distant Oerban conversation to fill the living room. Sazh was usually one to make small talk and put people at ease without them noticing. Lightning had caught onto his game after the fifth night of his fireside stories during their journey. But, even knowing what he was doing, it had helped smooth the tensions that built up in the group throughout the day. His silence now was unnerving, and she felt like he was watching for what she would do. Measuring her. Light wove her fingers together and cleared her throat. "Where's Dajh?"
"Making a spaceship out back with his friends. No one's allowed to see it until they're done."
Light made herself ask him how he'd been the last few years, and after a while it felt natural to talk to him again. He was a friend. Not some distant coworker or stranger in a bar. She actually cared how he'd been and relaxed into the conversation.
"Hope came by last night to see Vanille," he told her with a spark of mischief in his eyes.
Her eyebrows rose. It was hard to picture the woeful boy she'd known making moves on the cheery redhead, though he had always been rather charmed by her. "He grew up fast while we were away."
Sazh nodded. "He's a man now. Taking my girl out, so I had to warn him," he pointed his beer bottle at Lightning in a reenactment, "'Make me a grandfather, and I'll shoot your boys off.'"
A laugh burst from her before she could stop it. Light put a hand up to cover her mouth. "I wish I could have seen the look on his face."
"Oho, it was priceless. Face as white as his hair." Sazh leaned forward to pat his hand on her shoulder and squeeze it. "And here you are. Taking my other girl out..." His hand tightened to a painful grip, and a murderous shadow fell across his face. "I'm sure I can adjust my aim for the hands. It's the hands, right?"
Lightning's mouth gaped like a fish caught in his net. "We're friends, Sazh. I'm not going to..." to run my hands up the smooth thighs that taunt me from beneath her sari... "t-to seduce her," she finished lamely. Light shoved the traitorous images from her mind, praying she hadn't blushed enough to give herself away. He was giving her the Deadly Dad Speech, and from the look on his face, he meant it. She would really have to walk around with stumps for arms.
"Uh-huh." He let go of her shoulder but didn't break his dark gaze. "Even when we were l'Cie and you two had just met I wouldn't have believed you. Then you go off on a quest through time and some cosmic netherworld to bring them back to us? Ha! I'm no fool, soldier girl. So I'll just say again, don't jump the gun," he pointed his bottle, "or you're gonna be on the uncomfortable end of mine." He held her eyes sternly, and she wondered just how much he knew of their history. They had been circumspect, hadn't they? "I don't want to see either of you hurt just 'cause your hormones can't wait for your hearts to build a real bridge of connections. Okay?"
Lightning's temper rose in a spiral, quickened by doubts and instinctive self-defense. Did he really think she was just here for some long overdue action? "I didn't go through a 'cosmic netherworld' just for a lay, Sazh. All I have to do is walk out my front door to find that if I want it. Not that I do that. Or that I have a problem with it. I—" Light huffed and snapped her mouth shut. Spilling the details of her lovelife. Exhibit A for why talking was a mistake. "We're just going for a ride."
"Uh-huh."
A tense silence fell between them, and Lightning found her hands smoothing the wrinkles from her sleeves. She took the suddenly-too-warm jacket off and watched a commercial for hypersoda intently. The annoying one with high-pitched, singing sheep. She made a mental note to look for a video game with sheep that exploded in violent bursts of wool and blood. A wolfish grin spread on her face until the commercial changed, and she rubbed the angry crease from her forehead with a sigh. She didn't really want to shoot hordes of annoying sheep, did she? She layed her jacket on the front of the cushion beside her, too far out to be swallowed in the couch's depths. It would be her luck that fluffy little sheep were the one animal Fang thought was too cute to kill no matter how off-key they were.
There was a lot she didn't know about the Pulsian. She knew the brunette was so impossibly beautiful that just the sight of her made her breath stop. That she was brave and strong and loyal and funny and irritating and unforgettable. And what else? What would she be like now that everyone was safe? No fal'Cie. No magic or destiny. Just ordinary people living their lives. "What kind of bridge do you think connects us now?" Light asked quietly. "A fake one?"
Sazh looked at her with surprise, and his face softened at her honest question. He had taken Fang and Vanille into his home. Into his family. But he was still her friend. And he knew how hard it was for her to let even a fraction of vulnerability show. "I know you have feelings, soldier," his deep voice soothed. "Being torn apart like that, you couldn't live with it, but that doesn't mean you know how to live with being together yet either."
She shook her head, studying her palms. "Fake isn't the right word. What I mean is—" A thump from upstairs silenced her. After a few strained seconds with no one bustling down the stairs her shoulders loosened. "I mean, is it just me?"
A slow chuckle echoed deep in his chest, and she frowned. It was definitely the least funny thing she could think of, and he was chuckling. "I wouldn't waste my impressive gun speech if it was just you, Light. Hell, half of me thinks I should threaten to protect your virtue instead."
Lightning smiled as his words lit a torch of hope that chased her doubts back like wraiths into the shadows. "I can protect that myself," she joked.
"But will you?"
"I'd rather not."
His eyes narrowed dangerously, and the blood drained from her face. Exhibit B.
Sazh bent forward to pull a wooden gunbox from beneath his chair. He kept it under his chair? He pulled a key from his pocket and inserted it into the lock without breaking eye contact.
"Whoa, okay. I'll protect it." She held her hands up to calm him, looked at them for a second, and suddenly tucked them under her legs into the pillowy cushion. Now she understood. The flan couch was there to engulf her safely away from the gun-wielding maniac. "We're just going for a ride."
.
"You're changing?"
Fang craned her neck to the side to see her orphanage-sister's disapproval shooting from her bedroom doorway. She hopped to keep her balance while slipping into a pair of distressed jeans. The tears had a way of tearing much larger if she wasn't careful with her toes. "I don't want to look too eager," she groused.
The redhead closed the door behind her in case Lightning got the bright idea to come upstairs, and she crossed her arms, eying Fang's half-dressed state critically. "You have to show something to make them want more."
"Yeah, but not too much. It's a delicate balance." Fang shimmied the jeans up her thighs and buttoned them across her flat stomach. She had known Vanille wouldn't take it well. The girl had been thrilled for an excuse to drag the older Oerban out shopping, and now none of the 'sexy' new shorts or blouses would see any action.
Fang snatched a low-cut tank top and a slim dress shirt from her closet. She pulled the tank on and caught Vanille's narrowed eyes as the truth clicked into place in the girl's quick mind. "Sazh sent you back up here."
The brunette nodded with a surly frown and whipped the snap-buttoned shirt behind her back to slide her second arm in and shrug it onto her shoulders. "Said he'd have to take me shopping himself if I had 'nothing more than that to wear'."
"Hmph." The redhead propped herself up on Fang's bed with a pout. "Well, you'd better hurry before he gives her the shotgun talk."
Fang froze in sudden horror. "Oh gods..." Her clothes might not be the only ones not to see any action if Sazh pulled his overprotective father routine again. He wouldn't do that to her, would he? V-blocked by her own provider. It would be just like him.
Their little redhead was only 19; she needed protection from lecherous boys. Fang had enjoyed doing the job a little too much back home and welcomed Sazh's reenforcement. But Fang herself was a grown woman. She could pick her own lovers. Hell, Fang was the lecherous one most of the time.
Her scowl deepened, and she dropped to hands and knees to search through the haphazard pile of footwear in her closet.
"Not so funny when it's your date, is it?" Vanille goaded. The brunette swore she could hear a taunting smile on the girl's lips.
"It's not a date." officially... "We're just going for a ride." Fang leaned back triumphantly with her target sandals and sat on the floor to buckle them on.
The huntress' ears barely caught the redhead's muttered, "A ride on her fingers."
"Vanille!" Maker, I hope so...
"Like that isn't why you're always mooning over her." Vanille kicked her legs idly from her seat on the foot of Fang's bed. "You used to stare at her before she woke up when we camped on Gran Pulse."
"'Cause it was the only time she wasn't scowling." Fang rose swiftly to her feet and started snapping her shirt closed, each pop a nail in the coffin for her sensual dreams for the day. "And I didn't stare. I..." she searched for a non-creepy phrase, "looked at her face for a short while. Go pick some earrings for me. Something silver and dangly. And I don't moon. I'm a dragoon, for Etro's sake. I'm a fearless hunter."
Vanille hopped to her feet with a loud 'clomp' and quickly plucked a pair of light, chandelier earrings from the jewelry on Fang's dresser top. She turned to the older woman, making moon eyes and tilting her head to the side. She held the hooks against her ears and feigned, "'Oh, Lightning... I told you not to come for us but secretly always wanted you to. Don't these make you notice my fearlessly delicate neck?'"
Fang shot her a crooked glare and deftly stole the earrings from the girl's hands. "Some help you are." Vanille smirked as the brunette slid the hooks into her ears and turned to her, holding her arms out. "Will this get past the old man's inspection?"
The redhead held a finger to her pursed lips, deep in fashion thought. With a sudden toothy smile, she nodded brightly. "Yes! And you can ditch the button-up once you're outside."
Fang took a last look at herself in the dresser mirror. Smoky eyes and rakish, dark hair. Full breasts and long, lean legs. Who could resist? Yet the soldier had resisted for weeks as l'Cie until the night it looked like they would more surely die than live the next day. Now what mortal peril would bring her to her bed? What was more, everything about the two women seemed either perfectly aligned or perfectly complimentary, and Lightning didn't spend much time with anyone outside of work. She could just be lonely. The confidence in her marine eyes wavered. "What if she's just being friendly?"
"By the gods, Fang!" Vanille threw a gaze to the heavens and started pushing her towards the door. "Lightning isn't friendly. She goes after what she wants and ignores everything and everyone else in the world. Just inviting you means you could probably go straight to her place and have your way with her until her next work shift."
The brunette's hand paused on the doorknob as she lost herself in that idyllic daydream. "I'd let her sleep for a couple of hours," she mused.
Vanille smiled sweetly and said, "Shot. Gun. Talk."
Fang yanked the door open and rushed for the stairs.
.
Lightning leapt from the plush couch at the first sound of swift, light footsteps approaching, and Sazh suppressed a proud chuckle. He was pretty sure he had scared her chaste for the day.
Until she locked eyes with the brunette, and Fang stopped, spellbound, on the bottom step. "Hi," the Oerban said softly. Huskily. He frowned at the wanton invitation in her voice. Making her change was pointless if she was going to use that tone.
"Hi." Light replied, sweeping her eyes up the Pulsian's body. No, making her change wasn't pointless. It was brilliant. Did that shirt have buttons? "You look nice." Sazh leaned forward, and Lightning startled at the ominous creak. She darted her eyes at him. "Uh, in a very...nice way. For a ride. A bike ride." She cringed. Perfect... And gripped her jacket in both hands.
Fang sauntered over and pulled her away by the hand, dropping her eyes to the pale woman's halter top. "You too." She tossed a roguish smirk at Sazh. "Don't wait up, pops."
He pushed up from his chair as they made a rapid escape. "'Wait up?' It's one o'clock, girl." He caught the screen door as it swung shut, and called after them, "You have her back for dinner, sergeant!"
Lightning cast a wide-eyed look back as Fang led her across the street. Sazh let a slow laugh bubble out and stepped inside. The door clipped shut behind him.
Vanille shook her head with an adorable frown. "You enjoy that far too much."
"It's my job to enjoy it, kiddo." He ruffled her hair, and she smiled in spite of herself.
"Dad!" Sazh perked up as a chaotic drumbeat of boys shoes echoed through the kitchen. Dahj appeared in the hallway and ran up with his friends in tow. "Dad, come look!"
If their beaming faces were a sign, the top-secret spaceship was the most amazing use of cardboard his backyard had ever seen. Vanille beat him to a reply, crying "Let's go!" The young ones took off, and he smiled, feeling the warmth of their contagious energy fill his chest.
There was a feminine vibrance his home had missed since his wife passed away. He thought he was just doing the right thing, taking the Oerban's in, but the girls had quickly poured their spirit into cracks in his heart he hadn't known were still laying open.
Sazh walked through his now muddy kitchen and sighed happily. She called me 'pops'...
.
The color slowly returned to Lightning's face as they reached her velocycle safely. Fang checked over her shoulder to make sure the old man wasn't spying and said, "Oi. It's warmer than I expected out." She caught Light's blue eyes and then lost them to her chest as she snapped the buttons of her shirt open at a deliberate but not quite seductive speed. She slipped it off her shoulders, and Lightning met her eyes again with an assertive spark that left Fang's mouth suddenly dry. "Got somewhere I can put this?" She held the shirt up between them.
Lightning considered the bunched up cloth for a moment before giving the brunette her disarming, enigmatic look. "You might want to keep that on until we get where we're going. The air is colder by the beach." Light slipped her bike jacket on.
"So it's not just a ride."
"It is." Pink lips quirked in a small, sly grin. "A ride with stops."
Fang snapped her shirt back on with a grin of her own. It would tear back open conveniently enough if she could undo whatever terror Sazh had implanted in the pink-haired woman. She took the helmet Lightning offered her. "I don't remember agreeing to anything but a leisurely, below-the-speed-limit roll through gentle hills."
The soldier swung her leg over the velocycle and looked up at her with the crystal blue eyes that had haunted her years in stasis. "Get on the bike, Fang." The rasp in her voice sent a jolt between Fang's legs, and Lightning fired up the bike with a twist of the key.
She slipped her helmet on and straddled the bike behind Lightning as the soldier clipped her own helmet tight. Fang scooted up against her back and wrapped her arms around Light's slim waist, enjoying the warmth pressed fully against her front. Fang took a deep breath as the low hum of arousal started to play in her veins. They had only been this close a few times, and each time left the Oerban's brain seared with fantasies of Lightning naked and writhing in pleasure beneath her.
Light heeled the kickstand up and took off smoothly but quickly enough for Fang to instinctively squeeze tighter and pull forward a fraction more against the seat. Did she do that on purpose? The street rushed past them as fast as one of Fang's flights on Bahamut, and the brunette's heart started to pound with exhilaration. Maker, I hope the last stop is her apartment...