AN: I have a ton of excuses as why this took so long, and I'm sure you don't want to hear any of them. I do however apologize for taking so long, and decided that while this is unfinished, you guys deserve a bit of a preview. So onward we shall go.
I have nothing more to say about this, other than I am a complete nerd.
As always, I do not own anything from the FFXIII universe. SE does. I am only playing with the characters for my own sick amusement.
Scottie Doesn't Know - Lustra
She heard him come up behind her before he wrapped his arms around her shoulders. That didn't stop the involuntary stiffening of her shoulders.
"Hey Light." she could feel the smile on his face as he pressed his lips to the top of her head. She couldn't help but smile in turn.
"Hello Cid. How was class?"
"Pretty good, finally decided on our semester project. It's a simple concept really, but there are so many variables to test and the amount of time its gonna take is astounding."
"That so? So what is this time consuming project of yours anyhow?"
He barely had time to open his mouth when an accented voice found its way into the conversation. "How does cold storage affect the germination of seeds?"
Male arms still firmly wrapped around her shoulders, Lightning maneuvered herself to face the new arrival.
"Factors to include are type of seeds, length of storage, temperature of storage, and the amounts off light and humidity in the storage area." she paused to catch her breath and extend her hand. "Among other things."
"Hey Fang, is it 5:30 already? Damn. Light, this is my lab partner Yun Fang. Fang, this is my lovely and wonderful girlfriend, Lightning Farron."
Light saw the curious expression on his lab partners face and headed off the inevitable question. "It's really Claire, but some of us can never shake our childhood nicknames." she stated, elbowing her boyfriend lovingly in the ribs. The grunt she received in response and the loosening of his arms brought a satisfied smirk to her lips as she shook the offered hand. They were rougher than she expected, scarred and calloused, and terribly cold. Yet, neither sensation was unpleasant.
"Ah, so you're the one whose name the boy is constantly scribbling all over his notes." Light raised one eyebrow and looked over at him, lips curling into yet another smirk. At least he had the decency to look affronted. "Not true, not true at all."
"That's right, you just never stop talking about her or the wonderful dates the two of you manage. I have to say, all that talk about your flawless beauty and stupendous personality was making me a little jealous."
"Ah Fang, no need to get jealous of Light, we'll always have chemistry together." stated the young man, detaching himself from his beloved to throw an arm around his colleague's tanned shoulders.
The two young scientists laughed at his terrible pun while the strawberry-blonde rolled her eyes and grinned. They were lucky she'd been with Cid long enough to be comfortable with seeing his arm around another woman. There was no questioning his loyalty, he just loved to joke around. And though they just met, Light was sure Fang had no desire to be anything more than lab partners. Her next comment only cemented the thought.
"Oh dear Cid," started Fang, pinching his cheek "Who said I was jealous of her?" The pair broke out into laud peals of laughter once more.
It was a simply statement, and made in jest, yet Light's heart still skipped a beat as she struggled to control the heat slowly making its way to her face. It was best to play along and blame the broken heater in the common room.
"And now that we've finally met?" Green eyes locked with her own, seriousness contradicting the mirth on the rest of her face.
"If I was a little jealous beforehand, its about a hundred times worse now." the following wink sent shivers down her spine. Wow, it really was getting unpleasantly warm in here.
However, the shivers ended the moment that accented voice uttered the following:
"Baby, you are hotter than a Bunsen burner set to full power. I have to say, its denaturing my proteins over here."
She thought Cid had some bad pick-up lines, but that one took the cake. And he had used 'Baby are you an electron because you charge me up!'
Unable to contain herself, she joined the pair in laughter.
"Does that ever actually work?" asked Cid, struggling to catch his breath.
"My dear boy, you would be surprised. I have an entire arsenal of nerdy pick-up lines that I have proven effective. Should you ever be in need of them, I'm more willing to share than fluorine."
Looking back over to the still chuckling Lightning, he replied "I don't think I'll be needing them."
That was two years ago, and the memory still brought a smile to her lips. As horrible as that line was, it was indeed effective. She was just naturally attracted to the nerdy type. Something about all that knowledge was just plain sexy. And when coupled with a husky accent and piercing green eyes, well, she lost the battle before it had even begun.
That wasn't to say she went into this relationship intending to cheat on Cid. He was a great guy, and hardly deserved that. Hell, she doubted that's what Fang intended either. No, all she wanted was to befriend her boyfriend's lab partner.
However, things rarely work out as planned.
After receiving a text from Cid saying he was running late and asking her to meet him in the lab, Lightning found herself making her way there. The two of them where supposed to go see a movie tonight.
Truth be told, she really didn't want to see it, and was relieved when he told her he was running late.
The longer she could postpone watching aliens turn Palumpolum into a war zone starring that toolbag Yaag Rosch, the happier she would be. She then realized there were five chemistry labs, and she had no clue which one he was in today. After letting him know about this small issue, he replied:
'lab 3 in Estheim Hall. Fang should still be in there, playing with the chems'
She paused and gathered up her knowledge of the brunette. Fun-loving, well-equipped with knowledge of thousands of chemicals and all there numerous reactive agents, and loved to play with matches. Armed with this information, she wasn't sure she wanted to find the lab anymore.
Then again, those were the same features that made her fun to be around.
So on Light went, intent of finding the lab once more.
Coming up on the correct door, she braced herself for acrid smells and explosions. What she was not prepared for was the faint smell of caramel.
Fang stood at the main demo table, clad in her white lab coat, safety goggles and latex gloves with her dark hair pulled back in a ponytail. And damn did she make it look good.
Wait, where did that come from? Shaking the thought from her mind, Light made her way over, unsure if Fang had even heard her come in, she so focused on her work.
"Could you put on a pair of gloves and hand me that container of potassium permanganate?"
Apparently she had heard her come in. "Potassium…pomegranate?" A short chuckle escaped otherwise pursed lips. "Per-man-ga-nate. That small beaker with the black powder."
Looking over the table, there were several beakers of various sizes filled with powders and liquids of various colors and shades. After about a minute Fang realized that this was not, in fact, a fellow chemistry major, and specified. "It'll say KMnO4 on the side."
After a brief search, Light located the correct beaker and relocated it closer to the mad chemist. Said chemist scooped out a moderate amount of powder into a plate and poured a small bit of what looked like water on as well. However, considering where she was, Light seriously doubted it was actually H2O. After a brief pause, Fang took another vial of clear liquid and poured a small stream of it on the edge of the plate. Flames leapt up from the slurry, startling the strawberry-blonde, but quickly went out.
Fang continued pouring the contents of the vial into the mixture, the flames growing each time. Eventually, she ran out of liquid and cleared away the plate while Light took a seat on one of the stools at the edge of the table, safely out of harms way, but close enough to watch and make conversation if Fang was willing.
Suddenly, Fang looked up at her, grin plastered on her face. "Ya want a glow stick?" The perplexed look on her companions face only served to widen the grin. "Of course ya do, everyone like glow sticks. Course, this will be more of a glow…bottle. Oh well, same principle." She started moving around vials and flasks and beakers in what appeared a haphazard manner. However, there was grace in the movements, each motion carefully considered. Once more, Light noticed how scarred her hands were. Burns dotted the back of tanned hands, while callouses toughened the skin of her fingers and palms.
Light was half tempted to ask her about it, but thought better of it. It might not be something she wanted to speak about.
Satisfied with the state of her table, Fang looked up and locked eyes with the other woman. For several long seconds, Light was paralyzed. Never had anyone she met have such deep, green eyes. In the right light, they looked rimmed in gold.
"…lo, hello? Pulse to Lightning? Do you read me? What color would you like?"
"Green." the response was automatic.
Shit.
"Sorry, just uh, thinking too hard."
"Not a problem, happens to me more often than I'd like to admit." the ensuing smile threatened to overwhelm Lights senses again. "When it happens to much, thats when I come here and play around in the reactants and acids." The brunette scanned the mass of chemicals in front of her, picking out the various components for Lightning's glow-bottle.
"Oh? It has a calming effect, does it?"
"Yeah, even if you're just doing little grade school labs like that last one, you need to give your complete focus to the task at hand. One wrong calculation, and you could blow the whole lab. Hell, you could set your bloody arm on fire." she grew silent for a while, setting out what she needed into various bottles and beakers.
"This, measuring, calculating, mixing, creating and destroying simultaneously. It helps me to reign my focus back in when I've got too much on my mind." She gave a sheepish glance across the table. "Sorry, you must think I'm a horrible chatterbox. But, I've never really told that to anyone before."
Seeing her lips curving down, and brows furrowing, Light couldn't stand to see the Fang in this state.
"I'm honored really." Confusion replaced sadness. "Honored that you would tell me that, and that you would make me a glow…bottle." she finished lamely, chuckling at her smooth talking.
Apparently Fang appreciated the gesture, for she joined in with her own light laughter.
"Like I said, not a problem." She clapped her hands together, latex gloves adding a definitive snap. "So, green it is!" The gentle clink of glassware filled the air.
"Look, I know you said you needed to concentrate, but would you mind explaining some of this? Its kind of cool."
Dark eyes light up at the hesitant question.
"I would love to. Basically, you only need five things to do this. A solvent, a fluorescent dye, some TCPO, sodium acetate, and some hydrogen peroxide."
"Like rubbing alcohol?"
"NO!" Light jumped back, almost falling off her stool.
"Sorry. But no, while both have antiseptic properties, they are two completely different compounds and not interchangeable for almost any experiment." Light nodded, still a bit jumpy, but now more knowledgeable.
"First of all we start with the solvent, diethyl phthalate. Most of the chemicals I'm using don't work in water, hence the solvent. Since you wanted green, I'll use 9,10-bis(phenylethynyl)anthracene." she held up a small container with a small bit of orange-ish material, while the casual usage of the substances name flew right over Light's head. She didn't consider herself stupid, but neither was she a chemistry major with Fang's obvious passion.
The orange material-that-was-supposedly-green went into the solvent, and the chemist placed a cap on the bottle and shook. The once clear liquid was now a very pale green. Wow, science was cool.
Fang then took two bottles with white powder, the names lost on her companion. Apparently one was needed to provide chemical energy, and she had no clue what the other did.
She then took the bottle of hydrogen peroxide (NOT rubbing alcohol) and asked Light to turn off the lights. The curious woman did as she was bid and carefully made her way back to the table.
Once the liquid mixed with the strange solution, and a green glow immediately lit up the work space.
"Woah, that pretty damn cool."
"Its actually one of the simplest things to do, but nonetheless, I'm glad ya like it." Fang handed the bottle off to its new owner and watched as she shook the container, twirling it around, captivated by the process.
After the lights came on, Light could help but ask "Could, I…maybe…I don't know…"
"Ya want to give it a go?"
Pink hair bobbed up and down in confirmation.
"Grab that lab coat right there, a pair of goggles, and get your butt over here."
The next half hour was spent making various colors of glowing bottles, mixing different colors and various concentrations of dye.
Normally, when Cid would try to get her to work in the lab with him, she found it a tedious, mind-numbing experience. Yes, she found the knowledge he possessed attractive, did that mean she wanted to sit there while he worked out various calculations and analyzing reactions? Hardly. But with Fang, it was different. The passion she possessed for her work was as infectious as her laugh.
And it helped that they spent the better part of an hour making glow sticks of all things.
So when Cid finally found his way back to the lab, Light found she was disappointed, and Cid found the front table covered in little glowing jars of various colors.
"Wow, you two been busy or what?"
"Or what." came the accented reply.
"Well, as interesting as this is, we're gonna miss our movie if we don't leave now Light."
Well, as enthused as he was, she didn't have the heart to tell him she had completely forgotten all about it, or that she had zero desire to see Battlefield:Palumpolum, in 3-D.
"I should really stay and help Fang clean up. I did contribute to the mess after all." the crestfallen look he gave her almost made her change her tune. Almost. However, Fang made the choice for her.
"I hauled all this out before ya got here, I can haul it all back no problem. You go catch your movie, I'll be fine."
"But-"
"No buts, you had plans, don't ruin then cause my need to make a mess." the laugh that followed was half-hearted. "I'll catch ya later. And don't forget your glow bottles!"
The lone man in the room was beyond pleased. "Alright, that's settled. Lets get going." he was already headed out the door.
"I'll be out in a minute, I promise." He nodded an continued on.
Light began to take off her chemists ensemble, when she noticed Fang doing the same. Gloves were balled up and tossed into the trash bin, and goggles came off with a snort. Then she removed her lab coat, revealing her black tank top underneath, and baring her arms to the air. One arm held a large tribal tattoo, covering most of her upper left arm. The right one however was a different story altogether. Several burn scars marred the skin, all of them long since healed.
Fang felt eyes on her, and turned to see blue eyes riveted to her right bicep. She was hardly shy about showing it off, but somehow, with Light looking so intently, she felt vulnerable. She had to break the growing tension.
"Like I said earlier, if you're not careful, you'll set your bloody arm ablaze. Learned that the hard way."
The paler woman was jolted out of her examination, embarrassed that she had been starring like she had. "I…I-"
"Don't worry bout it." She gathered up almost all the glowing bottles and put them in a plastic bag for Light. "Don't want to miss your movie, do ya? Get out of here."
Light moved to the door, now lacking her lab attire. Then she stopped and turned.
"What's yours? Your favorite color, I mean?" There was that infectious grin again.
"I've always been partial to blue myself."
Light then returned to the front table and divested herself of all the blue lights in her bag, along with a few white, red, and even one of her precious greens, before going to join Cid.
AN: Bad chemistry jokes/pick-up lines are baaaaad.
To be honest, this was far from what I intended to write. It was supposed to be a short, funny little bit and thats what started out as. However it just seemed to grow a mind of its own and took a different turn.
BTW, I in no way, shape, or form, support infidelity. But hey, a plot device is a plot device.