(Author's note: I had written this for Christmas, but then I realized it wouldn't be finished in time for that special day. So, here it is a few days late. This is a one-shot crossover fanfic. And if the reception for this is positive and people like it, I may consider either doing more one-shots featuring these two characters or perhaps even a full-blown chapter series.)
The most wonderful time of the year had finally arrived. And everyone everywhere was hard at work getting the decorations ready, with Farebury having seemed to have been the first one to truly get into the holiday spirit, having decorated the town in ribbons of red and green with cutouts and wooden crafted statues of an elderly old man with a flowing curly beard that reached down to his chest, donned in a red and white outfit with a red hat that had a golden cross in the center and a curved golden staff at his side. This elderly man being known as 'Sinterklaas', and was the figure of this particularly special holiday.
The snow had started light as a leaf but then continued to drift down in immeasurable numbers until at last in almost no time the ground was completely blanketed.
Now, with Winter at its most daring and dangerous, almost everyone with half a wit was dressing quite appropriately for protection against the elements. That's not to say that most people didn't already dress quite warm, but with howling winds gradually building up and snow drifting down at an alarming rate with no signs of stopping even amidst the covered ground, well, everyone was dressing in double the layers now. All except for one person: A teenage girl with long blonde hair that was fixed up into a ponytail with a few strands of braided bangs. She dared to challenge in the cold in a rather skin-abundant outfit that was more fit for summertime than it was wintertime and seemed to be little affected by the unforgiving cold.
Lady Jessica was the only surviving heir of the Albert family. She once had an older brother named Alistair who guarded the sacred Tower of Alexandria but was ultimately murdered when he was impaled by the wicked sorcerer named Dhoulmagus who had used his magic to render Alistair's body immobile.
It was the early morning and a fusion of colors had made up the sky with sapphire blue tints and some beautiful magenta which mingled with the blue, giving a rather spectacular sight for anyone who was fortunate enough to witness it. Jessica had woken up only mere moments ago, although she did have a thought to sleep in a bit since there wasn't much excitement these days and the days of adventuring with Eight, Yangus and Angelo were long over since their journey had concluded about two years ago.
Jessica gave one short stretch, something that caused her chest to bounce even despite the fact she was wearing her more 'proper' black dress that traveled down her knees and stopped just above her ankles, and the matching white neck-length blouse with a red bow-ribbon wrapped around the center. After all, with how cold it was outside, she wasn't going to even try to wear her cleavage-cut dress that showed off her mature curves.
Jessica was seated before the fireplace that was straight across from the reading table that her mother was usually found seated on. Her arms were stretched out just a bit, with her hands hovering a good few inches over the burning flame of the fireplace, trying to warm herself up just a little bit more.
"Jessica," her mother called to her from the reading table she was seated at in her favorite chair. "There are some presents under the tree over there. There's a few for you, and they aren't just from me."
While Jessica appreciated the thought of others feeling inclusive of her around the festive season, she couldn't help but feel a creeping sense of disinterest and lack of enthusiasm about it all. After all, there wasn't very much that she had been wanting. And the things she did want? Well, she felt even attempting to have those things would be quite intrusive on her end and a bit selfish.
But regardless, the young noble wandered towards the corner near the bookshelf and looked at the large tree that nearly kissed the ceiling.
Underneath the twinkling tree was a numerous amount of gifts all wrapped in boxes of varying colors, and neatly wrapped in bows.
Jessica sighed and leaned forward and picked up one of the gifts that had her name written on it. Of course, even if she wasn't particularly ecstatic about Christmas, when she saw who it was from she couldn't help but curve her lips upward.
"To Jessica," she read the small tag. "From Eight, King Trode and Princess Medea."
The names causing a bit of Christmas spirit, Jessica started to undue the bow from the box and then carefully tear off the emerald green wrapping paper which bore the banner of King Trode's castle. And then when she saw what was inside, Jessica just gasped with a hand coming to cover her mouth with closed fingers.
What had been put in the box, neatly folded was a beautiful dress that was crafted from the finest of silk. It was a beautiful dress if ever she had seen one, and the dress was a beautiful sapphire dress with embroideries of gold and ruby. The cups of the dress seeming to be about half an inch more than the one on the dress she usually wore out when adventuring, the very same one that her mother often chastised her for wearing, but still probably not quite sufficient enough to cover her developed chest.
While a bit of curiosity was getting the better of her, Jessica couldn't help but momentarily return to her room and change into her brand new dress. It fit perfectly on her and was twice as smooth and pleasing to the feel than her other two dresses she mainly wore. And after this, she returned back to the Christmas tree and spotted another one which was for her and wasn't from her mother; it was another one that again had her smiling.
"To Jessica, from Yangus." She read the tag.
She removed the bow and tore the paper and then opened it; curious of what Yangus may have given her for Christmas.
She had to admit, she noticed Yangus wasn't quite as experienced with wrapping as Eight, King Trode or Medea and his handwriting was pretty bad, which wasn't much of a surprise. But still, she wasn't particularly worried about something so simple.
Soon the box was lifted, and Jessica, initially smiling, quickly had her smile fade as what she received wasn't quite what her imagination was leading her to believe. But even still, it was impossible not to feel happy or smile, and it soon returned to her face again while she lifted up the note and read it.
"Oye, love. 'ow you been? Sorry 'bout this crummy pres'ent right 'ere. I wasn't really sure wot to get ya...So admittedly, I panicked a little an' just did wot came to me. I know it ain't much, but I 'ope you like me present."
Jessica giggled and held up the crude set of dolls that were obviously done unprofessionally by hand; dolls that were a set of Yangus, Eight the 'Guv', Angelo and King Trode; all of the important people who Jessica had spent a year traveling with.
She held them against her heart and hugged the small set of dolls, releasing a sigh from her lips from the yearning she felt to see her friends again.
But as she did hug the dolls, her eyes caught sight of another present. And Jessica stared at it not quite sure how she felt when she saw who it was from, although this didn't last quite long and Jessica placed the dolls down and reached for the box with red wrapping paper and a purple bow on top.
"To Jessica...From Angelo."
She tilted her head as a thousand questions began to cloud up her mind; knowing Angelo, this could very well be something...Well, not so modest. The thought of opening the box and discovering what her present from him was, was enough to make the poor redhead want to slap a hand against her forehead in dismay. She could only hope that if it was something vulgar, her mother wouldn't see it.
"All right, Angelo," Jessica said hushedly. "I'll give you the benefit of the doubt..."
Bracing herself with an exhale, she unwrapped the bow first and then started to carefully tear off the wrapping paper. Once those two were both off, the moment of suspense came and her hands hesitantly reached for the box, nearly trembling as she lifted the top and unveiled whatever could have been inside the box from the playboy Templar.
"W-well..." It certainly wasn't what she assumed it would be.
Neatly coiled up like a snake, was a brand new whip in mint-condition.
The whip put every other whip she had in her collection to shame, and was actually in her favorite outfit's color scheme: The base being red, with the lashing part that was used to crack against the enemies was purple. And the awe didn't stop there; the whip seemed to be encrusted with quite a number of small diamonds which reflected the light around her...And lastly, she could see an engraving around the handle that read: 'Jessica Albert. May you never forget the time and memories that we built together, and always draw strength from these dear moments.'
Here she had been expecting something ridiculous and questionable like a new bunny suit to wear around, and one that was much more revealing at that. But no, Angelo had actually sent her something that was beautiful in so many ways. And the little message that had been engraved onto the whip by, she assumed he himself. She found herself wiping her eyelids from the overabundance of emotions from the gifts she had received from all of her friends. The two that made her feel the most emotional, being Yangus' badly home-made doll set, and Angelo's whip.
Jessica hugged the gifts against her form tightly and dropped her head downward, silently sobbing.
She never saw any of them anymore. And while she still wrote to Eight and received letters back from him from time to time, it was becoming increasingly sparse now since he had been moved up in rank at the castle and was becoming busier than he ever had before. And Angelo and Yangus, the letters from them were becoming the most less out of everyone, although she couldn't help but feel joyful whenever she was written something by them, even when Angelo's letters bore a bit of perverseness.
She stopped herself in her overwhelmed state, then shook her head and rose herself from the floor: She wasn't particularly concerned about the other presents she may have received, since those three were the ones from her friends and the ones that truly mattered to her the most, but for the sake of being kind, she would still open the other gifts and see what they had in them.
The other fits Jessica received didn't hit her hard...And while she did appreciate the thought, she had little interest in the contents of what was inside. One of the gifts seemed to hold the least bit of interest to her, and that one was from one of the servants who was always found in the dining area who had told Eight when he first came to Alexandria and spoke to her, that she wasn't very fond of Jessica and didn't like her because of her unfriendly demeanor towards the other servants of the household.
Even her own mother who had given her some rather luxurious gifts, seemed hollow and just devoid of any real heart behind them, even if Jessica felt that maybe her mother was trying.
Jessica sighed at the different gifts, but the only ones she cared for was the ones from her former traveling partners.
"Well, did you get anything nice?" Rosalind asked her daughter with a lift of her lips.
Jessica tried to sound gleeful and cheery. "Oh, yes, I did. Thank you for the gifts, Mother."
Rosalind nodded. "I thought you would enjoy that new dress and the earrings. You look so beautiful in them."
Jessica's eyes gazed down at the whip and the dolls she held against her new dress-covered body.
And Rosalind also took notice of the gifts.
Rosalina's expression wasn't a pleasant one when she saw the dress, due to the fact that her daughter's breasts were on display for all the world to see. She had already chided Jessica in he past for her adventurer dress she saved up for and wore out the day Rosalind banished her from the Albert residence.
"Who were those from?"
"These?" Jessica motioned downward with her chin. "They're from my friends who I traveled with when I left Alexandria. The dolls are from Yangus, the dress is from Eight, King Trode and Princess Medea, and the whip is from Angelo."
"King Trode giving gifts?" Rosalind sounded a bit surprised and amused. "Well, isn't that something."
"It's Christmas," Jessica reminded. "It can change even the most peculiar of people."
But then both of their attention went towards the fireplace, whose flames were starting to go out.
"We're going to need more firewood if this snow doesn't settle," Jessica's beautiful, mature mother, Rosalind, spoke with a bit of a scowl. "Oh, it's times like this I think perhaps it would have been wiser if I had two fireplaces built.."
Jessica tore her eyes away from the fireplace and cast those orange hues onto the face of her mother, who in fact looked like a near-middle-age version of herself, minus Jessica's voluptuous bust. "I could go out there and gather up some firewood. Or I could use my magic to keep the fire going."
"You'll only tire yourself out if you try to utilize your magic," her mother huffed. "I wouldn't forgive myself if you were to use up all your magic and were to become incapacitated from that."
Jessica couldn't help but offer a light smile.
There was a time she and her mother always seemed to butt heads, but ever since her adventure had come to a close, the two were able to put all their past worries behind them.
"Then, it's settled," Jessica finalized. "I'm going to go and look around for some wood before the fire dies out."
"...I really wish you would let one of the servants do that," her mother persisted.
"Mother, it's fine. I'll be, all right, okay? I'm only going out there to get some firewood, then I'll come right back. It won't take long at all."
Without giving her mother a minute to speak another word, Jessica walked to her room and put away the doll set given to her by the former bandit, Yangus. And then she pulled out a belt from her dresser and wrapped it around the waist of her brand new sapphire, gold and ruby cleavage-cut dress, attaching her pouch to it and then the whip from Angelo that she coiled around a buckle/strap attached to her belt.
Jessica headed to the second-story of the house, which was the downstairs where the dining room was located as well as the various other rooms, some of which were bedrooms to the other servants. And upon reaching the final stair, the mansion guardsman who stood perfectly positioned in place wielding a round shield and a spear, moved to the side after seeing her coming through.
"Good morning, Lady Jessica," he greeted. "Are you going out?"
"Good morning. And yes, I am." Jessica answered.
"Lady Jessica, I cannot stress enough how unsafe it is to be wandering around outside in this kind of weather. ….But I'm not going to try to stop you. Just be careful, please?"
"Don't worry, I'll be fine. I've been in worse situations than a bad snowstorm." Jessica remarked with a soft grin.
She approached the door of the two-story mansion and headed out. Jessica then wandered around the very small town of Alexandria until she came to the weapon shop and the item shop, which were both located right near the entrance of the town and she headed out of the safety of her village, out into the dangerous plains that connected to the forests of Farebury and Trodain.
The storm was growing. And seeing the building harshness, Jessica was almost having second thoughts on even coming out here. But she would rather be the one putting herself in the nipping fury than having the servants go out into this cold chaos and risk their lives.
Just as Jessica started to make her way past the hill, and to the bridge that was once destroyed thanks to Dhoulmagus when he infiltrated Alexandria and murdered Alistair at the tower, as luck would have it...Monsters started to make themselves known.
Appearing before the busty redhead was a total of four enemies. And while Jessica had dealt with the likes of the monsters in Alexandria, she had never before seen these exact monsters.
As if it wasn't bad enough she had ended up in the path of monsters that were foreign to her, things were made all the worse that the monsters had already sensed her presence and got a sneak attack in on her before the teenage sorceress could even react. And Jessica was victim to a Crack spell that had more oomph than she was expecting from a starter-spell. The ice shattered all around her, shards falling to pieces on her face.
Her attacker was a strange slime with colors consisting of green and red.
The attack had hit Jessica for a total of 52 damage, which was quite alarming.
The next of the monsters to attack was gorilla-like creature with horns on the sides of its head, and one horn protruding out of the middle of its temple. The gorilla's body appearing to be white and green stripes, while a Christmas wreath hung around its neck.
The holly-jolly themed gorilla quickly bolted towards Jessica, two strong hooks colliding with her face simultaneously and again, much like the red and green slime's Crack attack, took down a whopping amount of her HP from just those two punches alone.
By the time their attack had reached its conclusion, poor Jessica was barely even managing to stand at this point, and, leaning forward, she had clenched her teeth together with both eyes closed from the pain of the magic attacks and the physical blows she had taken; her face showing signs of the damage with pierced skin over her cheeks and one bruise under her left eye from the punch of the gorilla.
This was a battle she realized she wasn't going to be able to win; not when they got the preemptive strike against her.
But luckily for Jessica, just when things were starting to look quite bleak, snow was kicked up from the ground and went flying towards the eyes of the monsters, temporarily disabling their vision. This turn of events caused Jessica to turn her gaze to the right, and it was then that she saw standing beside her a face she hadn't seen in a few months.
"...Rikku?" Jessica quietly mumbled.
It was her. And she had been wandering around the snowy plains, making a long journey to Alexandria. And luckily she had reached her destination just in time to help a rather overwhelmed and outnumbered Jessica.
Jessica was used to seeing the other female in her usual outfit which consisted of most of the blonde's athletic form being shown off; the yellow bikini top and brown super-short miniskirt that showed the yellow G-string which clung to her hips, that had a yellow belt with two pouches for items around it. And the rather long red and yellow scarf that reached past her ankles and brushed against her laced puffy nearly-shoulder-length sleeves.
But her outfight was different this time; much more provoking and gave a great air of power and strength off.
The Warrior's outfit still retained Rikku's headband, only now instead of the blue it usually was the headband was red with a big purple stripe centered in the middle. Her outfit was one that consisted of a dark blue and red bodysuit with yellow trims with gray fold-over top showing quite a bit of her cleavage, and brown and red fingerless gloves. Her clothes decorated with silver buttons. And in place of the large white and blue shoes, they were replaced with knee-high brown and red fold-over boots with thigh-high black socks. But the one thing that really stood out to Jessica and she couldn't help but stare at was the reddish pink thong with silver buttons, that replaced where those brown shorts reached up to. This, in turn, leaving the blonde partially exposed and showcasing quite pleasing round hips and a bit of derriere cheeks.
Resting in a single hand, tightly gripped by her glove-covered hands, was a sword with a blade of aqua blue and a deep purple with three sharp edges. The edge which the blonde held it, onyx with a gold bottom: The Crystal Sword.
"You look like you could use a hand," remarked the spunky teen with a tad of teasing in her voice. "Just stand back, I got this!"
Jessica was in no position whatsoever to argue. But at least with Rikku there to take the front lines, it would give her the time she needed to cast a healing spell and cure herself of the damage that she had taken in that sneak attack. She was very thankful for this.
In a swift movement, the blonde had rushed forward in that same hunched-forward position she was in, and sent a quick slash towards the gorilla-esque monster, making short work of the creature and defeating it in one single blow.
"Easy as pie!" Rikku shook her head with a quiet giggle.
Of course, the monsters weren't going to go down without a fight of their own. And as Jessica cast Heal on herself to restore a marginal amount of health back, the monsters set their sight on the newly arrived Rikku and started attacking.
It was the red and green slime first, who used the same Crackle spell from before and hit her with the powerful ice-spell while it stood there with those annoying googly eyes and wide-smile.
Then it was the round red, ornament-like monster who simply started spinning towards her in a swift roll and hit the blonde in the stomach, again mowing down her health.
Lastly, there was the case of the green fur-covered monster with swirly looking eyes and razor-sharp claws on its fingertips. That one also attacked, and attacked the blonde in a feral barrage of swipes, adding onto the damage that was already dealt by the slime and then the Christmas ornament-like monster.
Finally, came Jessica's chance; and the busty redhead spread out her arms in an abrupt manner, causing her large breasts to bounce upward as if gravity-less and she summoning down a giant meteor-shaped ball of flame that rained down on the last remaining three enemies and in turn resulting in a giant wall of smoldering flame spiraling upward like a mighty beam or beacon.
Having successfully defeated each of the enemies, Jessica gave a soft sight in relief and turned her gaze towards the blonde who was holding herself up using the sword she was leaning against. Rikku had taken quite a bit of damage in her sudden rescue, but at least now the battle was all over with. ….Well, that one anyway, because both of them knew that that was most likely only the beginning of more long battles since the monsters never really knew when to quit and leave poor travelers alone.
"Are you all right?" Inquired the British-voiced redhead. Jessica quickly rushing up to the blonde teen and draping an arm around her, dark orange eyes peering at the swirled green ones of the other who was visibly panting in near exhaustion.
Rikku tried to put on a facade for the sake of the other and forced on a cheesy grin, her abundance of rapid-release energy practically radiating off of her. "Hey, it's me you're talking to! Rikku. I've got enough energy to keep me going, and going, and going. And a few dumb monsters aren't gonna take me down!"
Jessica grinned. "Of course." But then it quickly faded, the look of worry from only seconds ago returning. "You had me worried. And...I could have handled it you know; I'm pretty tough myself."
"I was going for the knight in shining armor moment," Rikku joked. "But I guess my princess didn't need my help."
Jessica bit her lip softly; she couldn't really deny the fact she was in quite the spot when Rikku had arrived and if it wasn't for the spunky female, she would have most likely have been lying on the ground KAYOED. Jessica instantly swallowed. "...Maybe I was in a bit of a pickle."
Rikku didn't say a word in response, instead, she gave a flirtatious wink.
Placing an arm around the shoulder of Rikku, Jessica took a careful step forward, only to hesitate the other foot until she took a brief glance at the other female. Then she took another step forward and began to wander away.
"You've been staring a lot," Rikku remarked while a little tease rolled off her tongue.
"W-what do you mean?" Jessica's heart-thudded; eyes widening in size.
"I've caught you looking at my butt a few times," Rikku answered with a little smirk.
Jessica's face went as red as a cherry when Rikku had stated this. She was hoping that the other didn't notice the ogling she had been doing while the other was fighting the monsters on her behalf, but it seemed all of her overzealous attention didn't go unnoticed and Rikku had caught sight of her own eyes staring in complete undivided attention at the exposed cheeks and hips and that silver-buttoned reddish pink thong that the brown shorts didn't nearly reach up to.
"Hey," she said. "It's all right. I'm not gonna tell anyone, Jess. Just hope you don't mind me staring, too."
Jessica didn't think her face could get any redder at that point, but it was so red now that almost no white color was left in her cheeks and she truly did look like a cherry at this point. "I-I...uhh..."
"Just kidding!" Rikku quickly said.
Jessica's eyebrows knitted together and scoffed. But the noble sorceress continued back towards Alexandria, with her plans for firewood briefly halted; Rikku's safety was more of her concern than getting firewood, and she wouldn't forgive herself if the other were to fall in battle because she was so negligent about getting her back to town where she could take a moment to breathe and rest again.
They arrived near the big upside-down U-shaped entrance of Alexandria. And the three-boarded twin-windmills were slowly rotating around the entrance as the two walked towards the wooden-walls. Then the two entered and stood straight across from the weapon and armory. They walked past the garden near the large log-cabin by the entrance and then finally came to a stop at the bench that rested between the bridge that led to the inn, and the pound next to it that had grass and lily-pads growing out of the water. And that was the place Jessica carefully sat Rikku down at, before taking a seat by the blonde herself.
"Are you sure you're all right?" Jessica questioned once more before reaching into the leather pouch that clung to her waist. She then pulled out an herb from the pouch and moved her face closer towards that of the other.
"I'm totally fine," Rikku assured with a light boop to the nose of the redhead using her index finger.
"I'm sorry. I get a bit too worried sometimes; I guess I take after my mother in that aspect."
Jessica reached the herb up to the green-eyed blonde's mouth, but Rikku lightly pushed her hand away and took it from her, plopping it into her mouth and then munching on it until it was nothing more than a green pile of mush in her mouth and then swallowing it. All her injuries were gone almost instantly, and she had all of her energy back again to the fullest.
"So what were you doing out in the wilderness," Rikku reached her arms up into the air in a stretch.
"I was trying to gather firewood for the house. It's pretty cold out here, and our fire is about to go out."
"Why don't you just use that little nifty fire spell of yours?" She tilted her head.
Jessica sighed. "My mother doesn't want me using up too much of my mp doing magic spells."
Even if she hadn't gathered the firewood she needed, it was still an unexplainable feeling to run into the other again. Jessica hadn't seen her in what felt like an eternity, but at last, she was reunited and it felt just like old times again.
"You're gonna freeze out here, ya know." An elbow hit Jessica in the side.
"Look who's talking," Jessica teased. "A beautiful girl running around only minimally dressed."
"Oh, you wanna go there?" Rikku's face inched closer to her and she stared at her piercingly. "What about you, 'Lady' Jessica; running around with your boobs hanging out through rain, shine or snow."
"W—what-" Jessica scrambled for words after a brief scoff. "And what of you? The most amount of clothing I usually ever see you dressed in is a skirt that's so short its miracle it doesn't show your rear-end. And a bikini top that-," but she was cut off by a sudden gale of contagious giggles.
"What's so bloody funny?"
"Oh, I just missed getting to goof off with you like this." Replied Rikku who reached an arm around the neck of the mage and practically had Jessica's face smothered into her still growing and much smaller breasts.
"T-the feeling is mutual," Jessica gasped. "N-now, maybe we should just go in."
"Before we do, I was wanting to ask you something. This may be a trivial question, but why the change of look? I've always seen you dressed in your other outfit." Jessica said.
"Oh, my Thief look? Well, I decided to try out a new dressphere. I changed when I was walking along and spotted you. You looked like you were in a pinch, so I wanted to be sure I could take down one of those monsters before they got you. So I choose this; the Warrior. So that's why my outfit's different."
"Well, that answers that question. Anyways we should head ba-,"
"LADY-JESSICA!" Someone shouted from her from far off into the distance, just outside the plank walls of Alexandria.
Jessica broke her face away from Rikku's sturdy grasp and shot her eyes towards the entrance of Alexandria where she saw a shirtless, hairy man wearing a yellow mask with bull-horns on the side of it, running into the town with firewood stacked up to his neck and nearly tumbling out from his elbows and armpits.
"Lady Jessica! I know you've been runnin' out 'o wood, so I thought I'd go get some more."
Jessica couldn't help but smile. "You didn't have to do that. …. But still, thank you so much."
"Looks like your problems are solved." Said Rikku.
Huffing and panting, the man dressed in only black leather pants ran up towards the two before he bolted right past them and made a straight-shot right towards the somewhat dome-shaped three-storied mansion but was then halted in place by two guards who were recently hired for extra protection for the Albert family by Jessica's mother.
"I bet the guards are going to give him a bothersome time," Jessica remarked, shifting her eyes to the direction he went.
"What guards?" Rikku blinked.
"Aren't the guards inside the mansion? When did you get new ones?"
"My mother hired them about three weeks ago. She's still a bit paranoid for our safety."
"When you have a daughter who can kick butt, and light pants on fire?"
Jessica slipped out a chuckle. "She's still a mother."
"Well, if they're going to be giving him a hard time, maybe you better head over there."
"You're coming with me." Jessica reached for Rikku's arm and pulled on it when she went to get up; something that caused the green-eyed girl to let out a fast but humorous 'eep'. Then they walked along the yellow trail surrounded around the sides by green patches of grass and made their way straight towards the entrance of the Albert mansion where they bore witness to a rather hostile display involving the guards practically threatening the man who had carried the firewood. Something that didn't sit well at all with Jessica who furrowed her brows and tightened her jaw.
"Excuse me, but what's going on here?"
"Lady Jessica?" Both men spoke together as one.
"Why are you giving this poor man such a hard time? He has come on my behalf, carrying firewood to keep the cold at bay and away from the mansion. Do you really mean intrude on my wishes?"
An audible gulp could be heard from both of the guards. They realized that they could be in very big trouble for going against the wishes of Lady Jessica, and the thought alone had plainly sent a sense of dread into them. And almost instantly they lowered their raised spears and slapped the wooden ends against the ground with the spear-head sticking straight up into the air as previously.
"Our sincerest apologies, Lady Jessica. We had no id-,"
"But I've been tellin' ya that this here wood was fer Lady Jessica!" The man in the horned mask said.
"...Is that so?" Jessica took a step forward, intimating the two guards. "You kept giving this poor man lip even after he told you the reason he was trying to enter the mansion? You two should be ashamed of yourselves for such disgusting behavior."
Rikku's eyes darted from Jessica to the guards, then back to Jessica and the guards again.
"P-Please, forgive us Lady Jessica! W-we didn't mean to start any trouble."
"You want mercy?" Jessica's voice roughened. "Then I think you owe this poor man an apology."
Jessica, Rikku and the highly-muscled hairy man in the mask could see the look of defeat on the faces of the two guards. And the guards dropped their heads.
"We're sorry for giving you so much trouble. ….Please, proceed to the mansion."
The two guards moved out of the way of the entrance and stepped off to the side.
"Apologies accepted." The man said before he entered the Albert's residence.
Rikku was smiling up a storm. So much so that Jessica was almost sure her smile alone could melt every hill of snow covering the ground. And then the bubbly blonde gave a strong and sudden slap against Jessica's back that had the sorceress jumping in place and turning to gaze at her with a most quizzical expression on her face.
"See, this is why I love you. You're not afraid to speak up, and when you do you're all like: Rawr, rawr! I'm gonna bite your head off if you don't stop being a big meanie!"
Jessica attempted to stifle a smile, but it was no use.
"What can I say? I've never been one who could stand seeing an injustice. There was a time in my life when I did stand by idly and I never said a word when I saw something, even when I knew it was something wrong and I should have said something. But, I think as I grew older, I changed. Maybe it's thanks in part to being around Alistair for so many years, and seeing how he stood up to others when we were but children."
Jessica's eyes wandered towards the ground and she reached a hand up, rubbing against her shoulder. Whatever look of harshness was previously on her face, melted away and was replaced by crushing sadness.
"It's hard dealing with him gone like this. And...To make matters worse, this is my second Christmas I'll be spending without him there."
A hand softly reached for her shoulder and placed against it.
"I'm sure he wouldn't want to see you sad, either," said Rikku. "
Jessica gave a nod and then they proceeded towards the staircase where the one guard who guarded it stepped away when he saw Jessica was coming by. And they climbed up the stairs before reaching the top and spotting the man who was already starting to place more fire into the fireplace while Jessica's mother watched on with a handkerchief pressed up against her tingling nose.
When the man was done, he placed the rest of the fire against the wall and brushed his hard calloused hands against one another dusting them off.
"All done, Lady Jessica! You an' yer mother an' servants will be good fer a month."
"Thank you so much for what you've done," Jessica approached him and stopped. "But there's one thing I want to say: Please be careful out there. The monsters around Alexandria seem to be much stronger than they were before and more-so than that: I've been seeing many types I've never seen before."
When Jessica had said this, her mother's eyes shifted towards her and she lowered the handkerchief.
"Oy," the man uttered. "That is indeed a bit of a problem. If that's the case, maybe I should stay here in Alexandria fer a while until I head back to Lasgrinia."
With that, the man turned to leave and waved to Jessica's mother whom he gave a bow of respect to before heading down the stairs and returning outside of the mansion.
Rosalind's eyes bounced from her daughter to Rikku. And she tapped her fingers against the empty wine glass that was resting beside a half-full bottle. "It's been quite some time since I've seen you," her words were directed towards Rikku who was standing beside her daughter a little...Too close for her own taste.
Rikku grinned and gave a thumbs up. "Oh, you know me; treasure hunting all over the place and raiding treasure chests, kicking monster butt and...Well, that's about it really."
"Just as informal as ever as well..." Rosalind mumbled to herself exasperated.
"Mother. I ran into Rikku while I was fighting some monsters. She got hurt, so I brought her back here into the clear where I could cure her of her injuries. ...I'm hoping she will stay in Alexandria for a while before she leaves again. With it being Christmas and all."
A cold breath of air expelled from the attractive but aging noble's lips. "Very well. But I don't want her spending the night here. If you want to spend extra time with your friend, you can rent the INN across from here and near the pond and stay there for the night."
Jessica couldn't believe it. After all of this time of her and her mother getting along and seeming to see from eye to eye, here she was back up to her old antics again. She was being just as difficult and overbearing as she had in the past and was now being flat-out rude and hostile. This of course made the young sorceress clench her teeth, but of course, she didn't restrain herself from what was on her mind since anyone could tell you that was something Jessica NEVER did.
"I thought we were getting off to a good start here." Jessica's hands hit her hips. "But here you are just acting like your usual self again. And being harsh to her, of all things. She's a good person, and she's saved me more than once when I was either too overconfident or was sneaked up on by monsters."
Rosalind simply shook her head.
"Talking back as usual, hmph. Just get out."
"You know," Jessica's voice grew quite thunderous. "I've never imagined you would pull a little stunt like this on Christmas of all times. But here you are treating her like she's some undesirable off the street. How dare you even treat her like that! I've made friends with a thief from the lowest of the low of towns on the face of this Earth, and even he had more kindness and consideration for others than you!"
A look of nervousness and fear started to set in Rikku's spiraled green eyes, and she backed up, hearing the increasing volume in Jessica's voice; hearing her RAISE her voice in a way she never heard before. It was scary. No, more than that. And she could almost feel the adrenaline that must have been pumping through the bosomy sorceress' body.
"You're so snooty sometimes!" And that was the last word to spill from Jessica's mouth.
Rosalind's mouth was gaping wide open; her eyes almost as big as the Christmas tree leaning in the corner. But then her jaw shut and she was moments away from flaring her nostrils.
"Just go. GET OUT!"
Jessica didn't offer a verbal response. The other response she gave her mother was a gesture, and the gesture was one that many would consider quite offensive. The gesture in question was a backward slap of her hand, which was a dismissal that was the equivalent of: 'Whatever.'
A brown cloth boot stomped against the ground as Jessica's anger reached its boiling point. And she threw her attention away, casting her eyes to the wall as she started to walk off. She no longer had a desire to be anywhere near her mother who had finally gotten on her last nerve.
Rikku gave a wave to Rosalind, despite her hostility towards her and walked over the furious Jessica who was making her way to the stairs, trying to calm the mage down by placing a hand behind her back.
"Hey, hot stuff," Rikku attempted to attack her with a pun. "You okay? You seemed pretty riled up."
Rikku's attempt to pun her didn't go unnoticed by Jessica and the young noble gave a snort which she instantly regretted and felt embarrassed about. But it didn't change the hard expression on her face, nor the noticeably loud stomping she was doing with her arms tight at her sides.
Really, she didn't even want to talk. She was afraid she would end up snapping at the other in that moment of anger she was feeling towards her mother, Rosalind.
"Just a bit ticked off." Jessica honestly answered. "I thought my mother and I were off to a good start, things had seemed to change drastically between us. But it seems that I was wrong once again."
Rikku wasn't sure what to say at this point. So instead of trying to bring comfort of some kind using words, she thought up a way to take Jessica's mind off of everything. And then there went the blonde grinning up a storm again while she reeled the other in against her side using her arm.
"Have you ever had a snowball fight before?" Rikku inquired.
Jessica's face softened and was replaced by puzzlement. "Yes...Alistair and I used to have them all the time, with Bangers and Mash joining in for the fun, too."
"Hah! Well, great. Because you and me are gonna have one."
Jessica smiled and nodded.
They were outside in only a short while. And then they navigated around the town until they had headed towards the entrance/exit and headed off into the outskirts of Alexandria. But they didn't stop here, as Jessica planned taking them near Port Prospect near the beach that lied at the half-way point between Alexandria and there. And of course this went without saying that a long line of battles stood in their way, but this time they were getting the first-strikes instead of being ambushed by the enemies. That made things much smoother than before and despite how difficult the monsters had started becoming the further they went on, they were managing fairly well together as a two-person team.
Then they arrived there, by the beach.
There the two stood, on top of the large rock formations that separated the grassy hills bearing the dirt-road path leading to Peregrin Quay and Alexandria. Only now, due to the winter time, not a speck of grass could be seen and the rocks themselves were even submerged under the snow. And the sands of the beach? They could see even from the brown rocks that the sand also had been covered in snow. Although The leafless palm trees that were only a few in number on the small beach were only partially covered with snow.
Jessica and Rikku carefully wandered down the rocks and their feet touched the snow-covered sands of the beach.
"Nice place," Rikku remarked while gazing around. "And a perfect one for a snowball fight."
There was a long moment of silence and both Jessica and Rikku stared at each other. But this was something that was only going to last a short time, until both would, as swiftly as possible, reach to the ground and start to mold the snow into snowballs. Although Rikku seemed to be the faster of the two in creating one, and before Jessica could throw hers, there came Rikku's smashing into her face and causing the noble to almost lose her footing.
"You were a bit too slow there." She teased.
"True, but..." Jessica launched the snowball and hit the blonde in the bust with it.
Rikku instantly jumped in place as the cold snow touched her smaller breasts at the cleavage. She shivered and shook her head, hugging her form.
"Oh, so that's how it's gonna be, huh? Well, it's not going down like that!" Rikku dramatically cried.
Rikku formed another snowball as swiftly as she could, then held it up and flung it at Jessica's exposed curves, hitting her right in her shapely breasts with the snowball and then pointing an index finger and busting out into laughter that almost had her doubling backward.
Jessica's brows furrowed, but truthfully she was almost breaking out into laughter herself. But she kept her laughter on the inside for now.
Jessica bent over and went to make a snowball of her own. However, as she did so, her eyes caught those spiraled green eyes leering at her. She tossed her eyes to Rikku who instantly went red and darted her eyes away off to the side when caught. But Jessica gave a hushed laugh at the peek the other had taken of her chest.
While Rikku was distracted, SMACK! A snowball had flown towards her and struck her in the mouth.
"H-hey, not fair I wasn't ready." Rikku childishly said with a downward flail of her arms.
"Perhaps if you weren't so busy staring at my breasts, you would have foreseen that one."
Rikku gasped; her lip eyes growing twice as big. Yup; she had seen that she was looking.
"All right, you're getting it now!" And the blonde gave a rather humorous war cry, charging towards the busty redhead at full-blast. Jessica gasped at this, and took a step back, but was unable to really get away before she was pounced to the ground and landed on her back.
Jessica's heart thumped from being in such close proximity to the other. Her cheeks were quite rosy, and she could actually feel her body heating up despite the piercing cold that blew across her shoulder-less sapphire, gold and ruby embroidered blouse. Those big orange, almost brownish, eyes staring at the blonde who was on top of her, holding her by the sides using her hands.
"What are you going to do?" Jessica almost whispered the words out.
"Something I've been thinking about for a while.." Rikku answered almost as muted.
Jessica's eyes grew. She was almost positive she had felt her heart skip a beat from the way the other was speaking, the tone of her voice, and that unbreakable gaze that had glued to her own eyes.
Her next move was sudden and without warning, and plush pink lips came to lightly press against Jessica's own as Rikku's gloved hands lightly rubbed up and down on her sides.
Jessica's eyes slowly started to shut. She reached her arms to Rikku's back and wrapped them around her, pulling her against her form as they kissed. And while the kiss was quite light at first with almost zero movements of any kind, just a soft lips-against-lips, the young mage couldn't help but begin to move against them as the heat warming her body grew.
Rikku reciprocated the added movement, gliding against the redhead's own while those hands gave a soft squeeze of affection and perhaps something more, against Jessica's form.
After a few moments, Jessica reluctantly pulled away. She knew if things grew too out of control, both of them very well may just end up freezing out in the beach. So with her lips prying off of Rikku's, she gasped for breath.
"I've always found you very attractive," Rikku admitted with a light glimmer in her eye. "I'm glad I took the initiative and did that...And it feels all the more special, considering what day I did it on."
A million thoughts raced through Jessica's mind. Almost to the point that Rikku's words had gone unheard by her ears. But she braved through her thoughts, took a deep breath, and cleared her throat. "..It'll be getting dark in a few hours. We should probably head back before that happens; the monsters will be getting stronger and we can't let them keep halting our path, lest we freeze out here."
Rikku gave a single nod. "Yeah. We better head back. We can warm up in the INN."
Taking only a few final minutes to enjoy the scene of snow drifting into the waters of the beach, and the howling wind moving the waves, Jessica and Rikku started on their way back to the dirt road and started on their long trek back to Alexandria.
"So what do you want for Christmas?" Rikku asked.
Jessica lifted her shoulders. "I don't know, really. I'm not sure I even want anything."
"How about a new outfit?" Rikku suggested.
"Already got one," Jessica pointed to the one she was wearing.
"What about you?" Jessica looked at her.
Rikku returned her glance and gave a shrug of her own in response. "I don't really know either. I've already taken most of the stuff I've wanted from all my treasure hunting, so I got lots of stuff. I mean, I'm always on the lookout for new weapons and all that...But I haven't been coming across anything that seems to be better than what I already got."
"I suppose Christmas came too fast for the two of us. Neither of us was ready." Said Jessica.
"Sure looks that way." Rikku agreed.
As they walked, Jessica laced her fingers with the other and cupped her hand with her own. Something she had never quite done before...But felt that the timing was just perfect to do. And then she gave a small smile to her fellow adventurer before redirecting her eyes back to the dirt path.
With the sudden increase of monsters, it took far more time than it would have otherwise to get back to Alexandria. But the entourage of monsters was the least of their worries as Jessica would soon see. Because after one rather irritating battle, the winds suddenly started to pick up and move much faster than before. This was made all the more startling and worrying when the two noticed that the snow was coming down twice as hard as before, and a thick snowy mist started to sweep across the outskirts they were wandering, hindering their vision.
Jessica was instantly regretting this all.
She was mentally kicking herself now.
She tried not to think of the worse case scenarios that were entering her mind. But she had Rikku there with her, who was her main concern and was the one who mattered.
"Can you see anything?" Jessica inquired, trying to stay calm.
"Not a single thing," Rikku replied.
"This is just great..." Jessica stomped her foot in the snow.
"I think the word you're looking for," Rikku rose an index finger upward, "is disasteriffic."
"Just stay close beside me and don't let the monsters divide your attention," Jessica's hand tightened around the blonde's. "If we just stick together, we should be fine. I just...I need to figure out which way is the way to Alexandria. My sense are being thrown off."
Rikku herself was bouncing her orbs back and forth trying to make sense of which way to go. But the thickness of the snowy mist was making it almost impossible to decipher which way to go.
"I—it's umm, this way," Jessica guessed, pointing straight on ahead.
"Well, let's get our butts out of here!"
Jessica truly had no idea which way was the correct way. But regardless, she and the other teen tried to preserve through the brewing snowstorm.
Wandering into the cold clutches of the white mist, Jessica's red dress flared up revealing the black tights that she wore beneath which flustered her a bit since it was happening right in front of Rikku. But she used one hand to try to push her dress back down, only to give up and place her hand against her face, trying to get a better look through the snowy mist. And she was able to make out a set of trees within the distance...And...Unfortunately, monsters.
Monsters, of all the time in the world to encounter them.
Jessica growled to herself and shook her head. "Don't look now, but it seems we have a few monsters waiting for us up ahead. This is just great..."
"Oh, poopie." Rikku's head slumped down.
"Shouldn't you be the one giving me the pep right about now? Oh, well, first time for everything. Chin up, all we have to do is beat them and just...Well," she wasn't really sure what to say.
Taking a few more steps, the battle started. And the monsters in question seemed to be more Christmas-themed ones, but one of the monsters among them looked much more intimidating and
stronger than the ones they had encountered when Rikku had rescued her a couple of hours ago during her attempt at gathering firewood.
Thankfully, it seemed that there were only two monsters this time around as opposed to four. So the fight would likely go much shorter than before.
One of the monsters who stood before them had unruly white fur and yellow eyes that actually pierced through the winter mist. With hands the size of a ham, and furred feet in possession of painful looking talons. On the creature's head was a fuzzy red cap with a poofy white ball hanging on the side of its head.
The other monster was a bit less frightening in appearance. And it looked like a white Fencing Fox, dressed up in a red suit with white trims and a matching red hat like the one that the yeti-like creature wore. However, unlike the regular Fencing Fox's, this one held a candy-cane in place of a rapier.
"I don't understand where all these odd creatures are coming from," commented Jessica with a sigh.
"I dunno...But they're sure in the Christmas spirit," Rikku said.
Christmas spirit or not, Jessica knew that the monsters who blocked their path had to be defeated if they even dreamed of trying to make it back to Alexandria. So there was no time to appreciate or envy their gay apparel.
Jessica held her whip firmly with her hand but then sent one sharp and swift lash straight across the faces of the two monsters. Of course, melee wasn't her strongest point and as a result, the whip's attack didn't do too much damage. But it was sufficient enough for Rikku and her attack.
Rikku's blade became bathed in flame, and she rushed forward, slashing the white-furred holiday hat wearing yeti in the face, doing away with him in that single hit.
Jessica was then hit by the attack from the candy-cane wielding fox; a swift volley of candy-cane thrusts hitting her in the face again and again until the wolf had hit her a maximum of seventeen times before its attack against her had ended.
Although she wanted to try and conserve as much magic as she could, Jessica decided to cast a simple Frizz spell that packed enough fiery punch to wipe out the candy-cane wielding fox. And with the fox's defeat, both she and Rikku proceeded further into the howling storm, trying their best not to be blown away during the process.
"We must be going the right way," Jessica looked around every which way before settling on ahead.
"You know, if we don't make it out of here, there's something I want to tell you."
"What, Rikku?"
"I wear panties with cats on them!" Rikku blurted out.
"W-what!?" Jessica's was dumbfounded.
Their vision was further muddled as they progressed into the thick mist. And Jessica felt like she was only moments from being blown to who knows where. But still, there was a glimmer of hope as she gazed on ahead and the further they walked, she soon could just barely make out the windmills within the distance, which hung from the entrance of Alexandria. Something that made her smile.
"This is ridiculous." The sorceress shook her head slowly from side to side with a growl. "Rikku, listen; I have two chimera wings in my pouch. We can use those to just teleport back to Alexandria."
Rikku looked at her with shock. "Why didn't you tell me sooner?"
"I forgot I even had them," Jessica admitted.
"Well, hurry up and pull them out. We need to get out of here, lickity-split!"
Without wasting another moment, Jessica reached into the pouch on her waist and pulled out the two blue wings. She handed one of them to Rikku, while she held onto the other. The two items disappeared almost instantly upon being held, but then both Jessica and Rikku were engulfed in a blue beam of light and shot upward in the blink of an eye into the sky, only to almost as soon as they flew up, land inside the safe wooden walls of Alexandria where both darted towards the INN that was just about to close due to the sudden storm.
"You two looking to spend the night?" Asked the overweight inn owner in a red and white dress.
"Yes, please. We don't want to be stuck out here during all of this," answered Jessica.
"Then, you two come on in." And the inn owner opened the door, closing it behind the three of them once all of them had entered inside.
It felt like an eternity since Jessica had last set foot into the inn. She didn't have much of a need for it since she was always spending her nights in the cozy comforts of her own bed. But with the little tantrum her mother had thrown with banning her AGAIN, she didn't have much choice in the matter.
Jessica slowly went over the new additions which had been added to the inn: There was never actually a 'room' before. Some of the other inns she had been to had rooms, but the inn of Alexandria didn't have a door in the center or the extra walls to make it an actual room. So she was quite surprised to see that there were walls at where the beds used to be at, and even a door to get inside of the room that was built around them. She could only guess that other people had complained about the lack of privacy at the inn...Or maybe it was the inn owner's idea from the get-go.
Either way, however, it was a pleasant surprise indeed.
They were about to head towards the room when the inn keeper's voice caused them to turn around, greeting them to the sight of two red and green clay-crafted mugs, filled to the top with aromatic spiced hot cocoa.
"Thank you so much," Jessica lifted the mug up to her lips.
"Of course, dear. You two looked like you were freezing," The inn keeper said.
"I haven't had hot chocolate in a while," Rikku also lifted the cup up to her lips, to sip it.
"You can hold on to the mugs for the night if you want to head to your room. Just be sure to hand them back over tomorrow, all right? Go warm yourselves up a bit more."
After paying the fee of sixteen gold coins to spend the night at the inn, Jessica, alongside Rikku, walked up the three wooden steps and pulled the door open, closing it behind them once inside.
Jessica went over the decorations that added an extra touch to the somewhat small room that had just barely enough foot room. The four beds were still there just as they had been for years, with two beds on each side of the small room, two on the left and two on the right. But there was an addition of bookshelves now. And the two bookshelves lined up against one another stacked to the brim with books, with so many in-fact some were nearly falling out of the shelves. An ivory pillar that had a beautiful vase with images of the God Bird Empyrea soaring around, and a few potted plants both which looked quite exotic and imported, which were on the left sides of the beds near the walls corners.
Of course, the nightstands were also still there, with small torch holders with flames keeping just enough light for the dark night.
They were the only ones there for that night. The four beds were empty.
They sat down on the beds but made sure they were extra careful not to spell the piping hot mugs of hot cocoa. And once they had finished the chocolaty beverage, they placed the mugs between the bed and the dresser, closest to the wall so as to not accidentally step on them in the morning.
"You're shivering," Jessica noted, examining the other female.
"I-I'm-f-f-fine! R-really."
"Maybe it'd be best if we shared a bed together," Jessica was barely able to get the words out. "After all, we were both out in the cold for a while...So maybe we could keep each other warm?"
This time it was Rikku's turn to turn the color of a cherry.
"I-I mean...Y-yeah that uhh, that's...A good idea." Of course, she wasn't about to object to Jessica's offer when she felt half-frozen.
They chose the first bed on the left near the bookshelves. And Jessica lifted the white sheets and the blankets up, letting Rikku get in the bed first before joining her herself. Then she dropped the sheets and the blankets over the two and slowly leaned her head back against the pillow, arms stretching for her companion and pull her in for a warm cuddle.
"I-I'm s-so hungry! We should have eaten before we went to the beach."
Jessica couldn't help but laugh.
"We'll get something to eat later, I promise. But right now I think we should stay here."
"...Th-there's something I've been meaning to give you," Rikku's eyes tossed down.
Jessica had a quizzical look on her face.
Appearing in Rikku's hands from seemingly nowhere was a red rose. And she held it out for the pigtailed redhead, who gladly took it and became entranced in its beautiful petals.
"...What is this?" Jessica asked.
"Christmas present," was Rikku's answer. "I wasn't sure what to get you...So I thought-,"
She was cut off by Jessica pulling her closer until her chest bumped into that of Rikku's. And she lifted her eyes up to gaze at the vivid shade of red washing across Rikku's features. It was only after a few seconds of being so close to her in such a way, that she pressed her lips against the blonde's with a single hand reaching up to comb through the long silky locks.
Erupting into a ball of passion, the eyes of the two females closed in unison, the kiss growing more ardent.
Minds a-whirl in the current moment, soon a hand removed the belt that kept Jessica's pouch intact around her waist, and the sapphire dress was then lifted from Jessica's shoulders and peeled off and carefully tossed over onto the nightstand on the left side of the bed, with Rikku's hands becoming quite grabby, with one going for a distinct part of her body.
Despite the initial surprise of such a turn of events, Jessica didn't seem to object to what was transpiring and seemed to wholeheartedly welcome it, her hand not once attempting to push the other away that was taking a hold of her uncovered breast.
The kiss was broken after a moment, with a half-restrained moan leaving Jessica's lips.
"I kinda regret never really saying anything before," Rikku said, her hand trailing up and down the nude left thigh of Jessica. "And I'll admit I've always worried about what the future would be like for myself. But, after all this? I think I'd rather say this before another day goes by: I love you. And I don't need any other presents except for the one right beside me."
Despite the look of increasing pleasure growing in her face from the way Rikku handled her hardening pink bud, Jessica's eyes enlarged at the warm confession. Words weren't swift to come to her, and she found herself unable to do much but look at her with her mouth agape in shock...Although it would be a lie to say she didn't have a feeling there was something much more with the other. After all, her own feelings had been blooming for quite some time.
"What's wrong," Rikku tilted her head. "Jailcat got your tongue?"
Jessica shut her jaw and shook her head slowly. She was quick to replace the look of surprise with a sweet smile and combed her fingers downward in Rikku's locks.
"No...It's just...It's nice to have my own feelings returned," Jessica whispered just loud enough for Rikku to hear. "I've only ever had feelings for one other, but things weren't meant to be with him. But you? I've liked you for quite some time, I was just never able to bring myself to come out and admit it."
Jessica again planted another kiss on her lips; only to shiver when she felt a warm finger inserting into her already trembling womanhood and stirring it; another gesture which she eagerly accepted.
She reached her hands to Rikku's outfit and started to undress the other, something that was nearly halted by Rikku suddenly leaning upward and attaching her mouth to Jessica's other sensitive bud, which drew out an instantaneous moan from the redhead.
The clothes were all off now. And the only thing warding off the cold that had crept into the inn was the abundance of sheets and blankets the keeper had added...As well as a growing sense of heat brought on by desire.
Jessica's head pressed back hard into the pillow when the pressure was added on her nipple, and her hands lowered onto the hips of the now fully naked Rikku who was busy pleasuring her in every single way possible.
"Unnhhh...I love you so, very much..." Jessica led a lone hand up to her the spunky girl's back and stroked up and down it in the most loving of touches.
Without warning, Rikku's finger had pulled away, covered in wetness. And then after her mouth pulled away, she used her arm to wipe her messy mouth and gripped Jessica by the hips, lips peppering the mage's neck in quick kisses. Then, locking her arms around her, Rikku began to rub her own heat against her soaked crotch; something that drew a moan much more volume-packed than before.
The ensuing moment between them was enough to cause their minds to take leave of the howling that blared against the window behind their bed. Nor did the shaking of the floorboards or the roof seem to deter them from the shared moment.
With one two simultaneous moans and two heated releases, it was over for both of them.
Jessica and Rikku gasped for their fleeting breath, beads of sweat racing down their cooling faces and down to the curves of their breasts. The two completely spent on energy...And the resulting exhaustion leading impending sleepiness.
"At least I have one person to spend this Christmas with," Jessica sighed happily. "So...Now I don't have to feel alone."
Jessica's head left the plushness of the pillow. And she lifted it, placing it just below Rikku's neck with her hands grasping those of the other. Catching herself a few times when her eyes attempted to close, she briefly reached into her pouch over on the nightstand, pulling out a silver band with the engraving of a ruby rose, which she slipped onto the finger of Rikku. And then she drifted off to sleep almost instantly. Gripping the other with both arms in a tight snuggle, sleeping the snowstorm away, and her mind focusing on the gentle heartbeat of her beloved.
The End.