(A lighter fare. Missing scene from the River of Stars. Can be taken as AU if you so choose.)
Still his best friend
Nathan plays like it is because she got him a gift and he is giving one back. It really isn't, but it gives him an excuse to explain away why he got her a gift and no one else. Because "Mank was selling it weeks ago and it made me think of you and, really, you are kinda my only real friend around here" is true enough, but he feels like a loser even thinking it.
Shane actually doesn't ask anything about it, she just… lights up for a second - and if he didn't have fighter pilot reflexes he would not have seen it. She really is into this whole Christmas thing and a part of him chuckles inside his head. Hardened, tough as nails Shane Vansen lights up like a five year old in from of a Christmas present. It's cute.
"It's nothing, really. No big deal. Don't get any expectations."
It isn't, really. It's this poor excuse for a necklace, made of steel most likely, painted silver, barely a junk. But it has this small diamond-shaped pendant and he had to get it.
"For the Queen of Diamonds", he chuckles and shrugs when she opens it and lights up again, for longer now. She lounges herself at him and hugs him. He almost trips on the bench and has to support himself on Wang's locker. She turns around and he moves her hair to help her put it on.
"How did you get this?," she asks, like he's given her a real diamond.
"I'm very resourceful", he jokes away.
She turns back towards him and stops kinda midway, like mulling something over in her head. "I shouldn't take this", she says, bites her lip. "I got you socks."
He laughs, because it's stupid. The socks probably cost more than the necklace and are certainly more useful. "Hey, don't knock my socks, they kept me from freezing to death over there. I love my socks."
She rolls her eyes, but takes it and fiddles with the pendant between her fingers. When was the last time she even got a present from anyone?, he wonders.
"Thank you, Nathan." She smiles, big and full and if she smiled like this every day, they could all survive this war, he's sure of it. He wonders if Mank can get a daily supply of cheap steel jewelry aboard.
He shrugs and smiles. "Merry Christmas, Shane".
And he kisses her.
It wasn't supposed to be a kiss. It wasn't. Nathan knows it, because Nathan does not think of Shane that way. He doesn't. Shane is his friend, his only, only friend. His best friend. He loves Kylen. Kylen alone. Kylen is everything and he loves her and he didn't mean to really kiss Shane, not for real. No.
It was supposed to be a peck on her lips, a second, just that. Friendly. Innocent. Friendly.
But Shane's caught off guard and her breathing stammers and an unconscious, primal part of Nathan's brain short-circuits with the sound and the feeling of her lips parting and it's been so long and he presses it.
She doesn't do anything for a few seconds, but then, slowly, her lips begin to move. Too slowly, like she's not really there, like she's indulging him. He knows her eyes are open even if his are closed.
He opens his eyes and hers are wide, deer in the headlights, frozen in place. His breathing is way, way, way faster than it should be. Way faster than he planned. Way faster than what can be explained away by a friendly peck on the lips gone wrong.
And then, the darnest thing ever. She kisses him. And there's nothing friendly about it, no, not at all. She kisses him and he's pretty sure he's never been kissed like that because she feels hungry and he's sure no girl from his home town has ever been this hungry ever.
His arms find their way across her waist and he presses himself against her. His brain has left the building and some other part of him has taken over, the part that reacts on adrenaline, that knows where to dodge without looking, that kills Chigs, that is the best pilot on the ship after McQueen. The part of him that is a Wildcard.
Her hands find their way under his shirt, untuck and push. They are going to have to re-iron their dress shirts and they are going to be late to the Christmas party the rest of the 58th are already attending but he pushes his hand under her shirt and cups her breast and she moans. She moans and all Nathan wants is to make her do that sound again.
They find their way across the room and all but fall on her bunk. Shane has the presence of mind to close the drapes, the ones Nathan forgot were there because no one in the 58th ever uses them.
He makes her do that sound again. And again. And other sounds that are even better.
When it's over, he's on top of her and for the briefest of seconds he fears "oh God, this is going to be so awkward". But she's laughing. Giggling actually and Shane Vansen never giggles.
"That was a gooood Christmas present, Nathan, thank you", she smiles.
He lies beside her, nibbles at her bottom lip and sing-songs. "Oh, if every day was like Christmas…"
She laughs out loud and that's another sound he'd like to hear more often.
"We're late, come on", she jumps out of her bunk and starts collecting her clothes.
He's lazier , gets only to sitting on the edge of the mattress, half spent, half amazed with the fact that that wasn't' awkward. Not really. Not at all.
Shane offers her hand to push him out of the bunk. He takes it, pulls her over and, now, he gives the peck on her lips that was his original intention.
She smiles.
Still his best friend.
"Let's go, Santa."