I didn't have plans to continue this one but after several requests via the fairron tumblr, I came up with something. I hope you guys enjoy and if you'd like, tell me what you think? I'd really appreciate the feedback.
The sun was relentless, taking advantage of that tiny crack in the blackout curtains and cutting like a sword of flame through the dark. The rays fell across Zack's sleeping face and he squeezed his eyes tight against them, cursing. The morning always came so fast.
"Dammit.." He grumbled to himself, rolling away from the light and into the darkest corner of his bed. With a sudden wakefulness he opened his eyes, just a peak, and dared to look at his watch.
6:14am
How could it be six already?
As he remained hidden under his comforters, letting those fifteen minutes pass by, in a daze, he remembered a face he must have seen in a dream; A beautiful face, with an enticing voice that hissed out his name in a low, primitive moan. Her scent, the warmth of her skin, the taste of her lips and the light touch of cigarettes on her breath. The more he remembered, the less human, and the more haunting, she became.
"Lightning…" He said out loud to himself, almost in a whisper.
He opened his eyes, for real this time, and knew he was very much alone in his king sized bed. The alarm went off, an obnoxious buzzing that went on and on until he finally raised a naked arm from beneath his blankets and turned it off. Shortly after, he was standing beneath the hot shower, with the hazy fog hanging overhead and the image of that woman filling his thoughts like a plague.
"Lightning.." He said again, playing with the syllables. "Light..ning."
Zack was Chief of the Authority for Section Nineteen and as far as sections went, Nineteen was by far the most docile. By seven he was unlocking the door to his office and pulling a stale box of Frosted Wheats from his desk, grabbing handfuls of it and munching on them dry. The rest of his boys were filing in one by one, just as groggy as he was, and the mid-shifters started grabbing their things and headed for home. There were no calls, at least not at first, just paperwork from the night before and a pot of black coffee to wash down the hangover a good third was feeling right about now. Zack straightened his collar, pinned his badge to the inside of his coat and leaned back in his chair with his eyes closed.
"Lightning." He sighed. That word was going to linger in his mind all day..
There was a knock on the open door and one of his men, Rygdea, let himself in.
"Hey, Chief!" He said with a sly smile. "Soo.. how's it goin'?" Zack grabbed another handful of stale cereal and shrugged with a grin.
"Zack Fair is a bit hungover today.. but your Chief is doing just fine." Rygdea laughed and leaned against a filing cabinet with his coffee in hand.
"Well, alright, if that's how you want to play it. Your personal life is yours, after all." He took a sip from his cup. Zack eyed him for a moment then shook his head.
"How's that paperwork on the DV case coming?"
"Got it in the scanner right now." He pointed his thumb behind him. "Should be about fifteen minutes."
"Alright, great. Tell Raines he still needs to file the report on that aggravated assault he picked up last night." Rygdea was waving behind him as he walked out the door.
"Will do, Chief."
Zack threw his box of cereal back in his desk and pulled out his phone.
"Three missed calls?" He said, surprised. One was from his mother, another from his best friend Kunsel, but the third..
Why's Cid calling me this early?
There were three new voice mails to coincide with the missing calls and Zack, curious as he was, leaned back in his chair to listen to them.
"Hey, love, it's me." His mother started. "Just wanted to call and make sure you're still coming down for Christmas. Oh and your father says he wants to have a drink with his boy before he's too old to take you on and I swear, that man.." There's a loud crash in the background and lots of shuffling noises. "And there they go again." She sighed. "When you come down, we may need to talk about Taki. She's really getting out of hand without you here and Yuki doesn't like her at all. Anyways I'll talk with you later. Love you."
"Taki.." he said with a smile. He knew he should have never left her there with that demon cat, but what choice did he have? The place he'd been living in wouldn't allow big dogs. But then again.. who's going to throw her out now?
The phone clicks and shifts over to the next voice mail.
"Zack! What the hell man? You don't call your best pal and invite him to join in? That's cool, that's cool, I see how it is." He laughs, as if shaking his head. "Ahh, you know I'm just playing with ya. I heard from Cid sometime after you left and my jaw almost hit the fuckin' floor. Surely he didn't mean MY Zack. Some other Zack, right? Call me back man."
"Wait.. what?" He said looking at his phone as if Kunsel could hear him. The phone shifted voice mails a second time.
"Cid here. Just callin' to tell ya your tab was picked up. Tell your lady friend she's a real peach, droppin' a tip like that. Welcome here any time, s'far as I'm concerned. Anyways, I'll see ya."
Zack dropped his phone and stared out at nothing in particular, smiling and laughing, nervous and terrified. But somewhere in that mix of sudden emotion there was an excitement and a drive..
Lightning!
The door almost hit Raines full in the face as he ran to the parking garage.
Cid's bar and hibachi was just south of Valentine's Funeral Home, straight through the park and across the street. Zack tugged his collar up, against the wind, and rang the buzzer to the apartment above. He checked his watch, leaned against the brick, hit the buzzer a second time and checked his watch again. It was 8:17 and, unfortunately, Zack knew that Cid Highwind slept in till one on Sundays. Any bartender who ran the counter clear into dawn would do the same thing. The bastard was lucky enough that he was allowed to opperate without the restraints of a curfew thanks to his close friendship with Section Nineteen's Chief of Authority.
Zack checked his watch a third time and leaned his whole body on the buzzer.
"God dammit, what the hell do you want?!" The speaker screamed in Cid's raspy, morning drawl. Zack jumped back a second and thought about his words before he held down the button to talk.
"Cid, it's Zack. Let me in."
A few minutes later and Cid was standing in his boxers and holding open the bar's steel-heavy black door. Zack hurried inside, ignoring Cid's scowling face and trying not to get burned on his cigarette as he passed by.
"Seriously?" He said as the door slammed and locked behind them. "I oughta kick yer pretty lil' ass for gettin' me up this early!"
Zack sat down at the bar and threw his phone on the counter.
"I need to talk to you about the woman I took home with me last night." At first Cid opened his mouth to throw some more profanities his way, but he shook his head as if to say it wasn't worth it and sat down next to him, defeated.
"Alrigh'" he said, taking a drag. "What'dya wanna know?"
"When.. I mean.. wha.." Zack stammered, completely unsure of what he was even after at this point. He had a million questions but no way of asking for them all individually.
All but one.
"Who.. is she?"
Cid looked at him with his eyebrows half-cocked and laughed. He laughed so hard he almost fell off his stool. Zack ran his hands through his hair and glared at him, waiting for him to wipe the tears from his eyes before continuing. But Cid spoke first.
"Ahh, Chief." He said with a shake of his head. "Ya know, we all know yer not prone to one night stands. If yer worried someone is gonna think badly of ya, don't."
"I'm not… I'm not worried about that." Zack said with a wince. He hadn't even thought of that, but thinking on it now made him nervous. What would people think of him? What if his mother found out? His father? Or Angeal..
"Listen, kid.." Cid said, patting his shoulder. "Ya don't wanna go lookin' fer this'n, alright? I don' care how twitterpated she got ya. "
"I'm not..! Wait..what? Twitterpated?" Cid chuckled, frustrating Zack to no end. "I just need to know who she is.."
"No, yer not listenin' to me."
"Tell me, Cid." Zack said firmly, throwing open his jacket to flash him his badge. Cid sat back for a moment, waved his hand and sighed.
"Put that shit away, Fair. I've known you since you were in diapers."
"This is important."
"I know, I know.." He sighed again and lit up another cigarette before he began.
"Her name is Claire Farron, pretty lil thing as I'm sure ya know. Wilder than a fox and jus' as dangerous too, if ya ask me. I didn' know who she was when she walked in, never saw her face before, but her name.. Yeah, yeah I've heard her name before..
Her folks died couple years back and she an' her sister were livin' off the streets for the most part. Not whorin' out or anythin, least not Claire, just livin'. She worked full time at some liquor store near Castor Hills, played her guitar all 'long Trandenza Parkway, and 'ventually got picked up by a few places askin' her to play for 'em. Thought she was gonna have a future in music, s'pose. I dunno.
Thing is, the reason I know all this stuff's cause she was on the news 'bout a year ago, maybe? They said she got into a bit of a scuffle with some pimp named Snow Villiers. Bruised him up pretty bad and her too. Said afterwards she set fire to his pretty lil' sports car. 'Parently burned his arm up tryin' ta put it out. Not too long after that, she vanished. Abrah Cadabrah. No one had a clue where she'd ran off to. She ditched out on gigs. Stopped goin' ta work. Skipped parol meetin's. Never called her sister. The whole shabang. Just got lost, I guess. Next thing ya know there's this new girl on the streets callin' herself Lightnin' and pickin' up where Claire Farron left off. Like a ghost hauntin' it's old house.. "
Zack couldn't believe what he was hearing.
"Listen, Fair, I love ya like a nephew. Hell a son, even. Don't go gettin' yourself into trouble ya can't get out of." He stood from his stool, leaving Zack where he was. "She paid the tab with cash. She was gone 'fore dawn. Chances are, she doesn' wantto be found."
"No." Zack said, his eyes dark and unseeing. "No, I don't believe that."
"Don't go gettin' all sentimental just cause she polished yer Johnson. It may have meant more to you than it'll ever mean ta her."
"I don't believe that!" He shouted, standing up. "Why would she go seeking out company if she wasn't hurting? If she wasn't lonely? Why would anyone-"
"Some folks… some folks just live like that. They shut down, live for the basic needs." He shook his head. "Yer a good man, Fair, hell I don' think I know anyone with a better heart than you, but you can't fix people."
"I don't want to fix her. I just want to find her."
"She was that good, eh?" He chuckled. Zack looked away, almost embarassed, but shook his head.
"I didn't even think she was real." He ran his hand through his hair. "I thought.. I thought I had dreamed her up. Everything about her was just.."
"Twitterpated." Cid said with a huff and a shake of his head and turned away from him, heading back to his apartment. Zack felt weak; lost. A feeling he hadn't felt for a very, very long time.
"Yeah.." Zack said under his breath as the door closed behind his old friend. "Twitterpated.."
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