Zack and Lebreau´s engagement party definitely was the event of the year. The cake, the food, the decorations outshining Serah´s wedding by far, everyone seemed to have worked together to make sure it was a night not to forget.
It was the most welcome opportunity to celebrate, to simply rejoice and forget, a most welcome distraction from all the horrible events that had played themselves out the past previous weeks.
There´d been seafood enough and to spare, and beef and pork and chicken and something for everyone´s taste, even Genesis's. The cake was bigger than anything Lightning had ever seen in her entire life and there was no shortage of booze either, resulting in some of the partypeople loosing all their inhibitions.
Overwhelmed by the athmosphere the pink haired woman wondered what Zack and Lebreau's wedding party would be like.
The noise, the lights, the sweating dancing bodies getting too much for her too soon, the smoke from the cigarettes making her feel dizzy, Claire Farron eventually made to get up from her stool, quickly slipped outside and onto the porch to take a few breaths of fresh clean air.
Watching the moonlight glistening on the gently rolling waves, she savoured the fresh sea breeze cleaning her lungs.
Thankful for the tiny break she simply stood there watching the shore, the waves, the nightsky, longing for some peace, some calm, a breather.
She wasn´t about to get it though.
'Are you alright?'
It was him.
Somehow it was always him.
He was in one of his shirts again. A handsome elegant button down. Not in his leather coat and uniform. It was something she still hadn´t gotten used to. Plain dyed cotton, nothing fancy and definitely nothing special. Still, everthing looked special on him.
'Yeah...Sure. I... I just needed some fresh air I think.' Lightning answered quickly, forcing her eyes away from him.
Had she been staring again? Somehow she wasn´t sure.
Her eyes back on the scenery before her, thinking straight became so much easier to her.
Somehow after all this time, after everything that had happened, her body still reacted weirdly to his presence, gave her goosebumps, shivers, problems thinking straight.
Maybe it were the jenova cells.
Maybe it was just him.
Claire Farron didn't know, found she didn't really care as the silver haired man stepped up to her.
She felt his arm brush her side as he stepped a little closer.
Oh, what was going on here exactly?
'Where´s Fang?' the pink haired female asked, a sour edge to her voice now.
She didn't know where that had come from exactly.
Still, she couldn't take it back.
Even despite their private encounter in the guardian corps locker room, the thought of the brunette female still made her stomach churn uncomfortably.
She had seen the both of them together inside. Heads put together as if deep in conversation.
She hadn´t been pleased. Not pleased at all. But she couldn´t keep him from talking to her either. He was a grown up man after all...
'Inside I guess.' the silver haired warrior replied confidently.
'Genesis is giving an impressively gripping poetry reading inside. She wouldn´t want to miss one of those.'
'I see.' Lightning replied, stifling a giggle, her mood lifted instantly.
Genesis and Fang...
Fang and Genesis...
Genesis and his poetry readings...
Was that the real reason he had come outside?
To escape one of Genesis´s performances?
It made the soure edge return.
Biting her tongue, the pink haired female forced herself quiet. No. No more fighting.
They were done fighting. Once and for all. This was about reconciliation.
Fixing her eyes to the nightsky, trying to calm her mind, she took another few deep breaths, forced herself to relax and put herself together.
Giving a tiny sigh, Lightning made her face, her hands, her shoulderblades relax.
No. No more fighting for real.
'It´s nothing like Midgar, is it?' the man beside her murmured as his eyes took in the scenery.
The pink haired female gave a tiny smile.
'Nothing.'
It was true. With the whole city surrounded by nothing by sea and wilderness the stars stood out so much starker, somehow shone so much more brightly. And it wasn't just the nightsky either. Their lives here and there were worlds apart. Eons really. Life back in Midgar didn´t even seem real anymore. More like a distant dream. As if it had never actually happened. Did he feel the same way about it? Lightning only wondered.
'I still remember that night you sneaked up on me when I was watching the stars from the HQ helipad.' she finally said.
The man beside her gave a tiny bashful chuckle. It instantly brought a smile to the pink haired female's lips.
'You suggested a spar.' the pink haired soldier grinned.
'I was scared as hell.' she admitted somewhat carefully.
General Sephiroth Crescent gave another chuckle.
'Well. You were right to be scared.'
Raising her brows, Lightning looked up in time to see one of those adorable halfsmiles she had missed so much.
He was playing with her, she was aware.
Seeing the mirth in his pretty mako green eyes, she playfully made to slap his arm.
It made the halfsmile turn into a real smile pretty quick.
'I almost kissed you there, you know that?' the man in the black shirt said unexpectedly.
Claire Farron only stared.
'You did?!' she asked, risking another sideways glance at her comrade´s face.
Her gaze trailing over the perfect marble skin of his cheeks to his jawline, they stopped at the tiny scar at the nape of his neck right above his carotid artery. The only cut he´d never healed. It was still there. A tiny line of sliver on his unearthly pale skin.
Stepping a little closer she carefully reached out to trace it with her fingers.
The man infront her only stared.
'I did...' he said sincerely as carefully she made to look into his eyes.
'If it hadn´t been for Genesis appearing out of nothing...'
She held his stare with huge blue eyes.
'Well, there is no Genesis here now...' the silver haired first class added carefully.
'Is that a threat?' Claire Farron giggled.
General Sephiroth Crescent only raised on of his perfect silver eyebrows.
'I usually skip the threatening part.' He said. And then his lips where down on her´s.
Lightning tasted the cake on his tongue. It was chocolate and rasperry and a hint of red whine too and she felt the touch of his hands on her cheeks, her neck, her sides.
It was a gentle kind of kiss. Shy and probing and it instantly reminded her of their first one shared on that porch in Palumpolum under the pinkish sheen of Meteor. All those kisses they had shared on the sandy beaches of Bodhum.
It made her feel comfortable and peaceful and relaxed and safe.
It felt like home.
It was over far too soon.
Their faces remaining close together, for a few more seconds their foreheads touched and she felt his breath against her lips and the warmth of his body seeping into her's.
'I missed you...' the man in front her said, his voice onle little more than a whisper, his eyes shut tight.
'Sephiroth...I...'
This was the moment, wasn´t it? She had to tell him. She really had to.
For a tiny minute Lightning contemplated to tell him about the happy secret growing in her belly. She really did.
But how was she supposed to do it?
How would he react?
Would he be angry?
Devastated?
What if he didn´t understand?
What if he didn´t even want it?
'Nothing has changed between us...' she began.
The man infront her silenced her with his lips.
'That´s okay.' he breathed holding her close.
'Whatever you want. Or don't want. It's okay. I'll accept it. I´ll do whatever you want.'
Claire Farron´s mind went blank, her brain rendered unable to think, lips unable to form a word.
Why did he always have to have that effect on her?
What was she supposed to say?
What was it he wanted to hear?!
Her thoughts running wild, trying to come up with something to say, something that would convey the amazement that she felt there at this moment, she was rescued by a serving woman stopping right behind them and shoving a tray into their faces.
'Champaign?' she offered in a bored voice.
It was Lightning´s chance to change the subject, and a most welcome one too.
Reminded again of their first kiss in Palumpolum, she quickly stretched out her arm to grab one of the glasses.
Oh, she really had to calm her nerves.
'You shouldn´t.' the man next to her said out of nowhere.
Taking the glass away from her, he quickly put it back onto the tray.
Lightning only stared at him with huge blue eyes as he gave that knowing look, as his eyes trailed down to her belly.
Her throat suddenly dry, the pink haired woman swallowed hard.
'How long did you know?' she brought out finally.
The man infront her looking down at her with big green mako eyes Lightning could not help but stare at him.
'Not before that accident in the forest.' he answered somewhat carefully.
'By the time I had you stabilized I could feel their heartbeat.'
Lightning just kept staring.
'I should have realised that time I thought you were injured by a dogster...' he added quickly, taking in her stare.
'But really I should have guessed much sooner.'
The pink haired female swallowed hard once more.
There´d been no emotion in his voice, no hint, no clue on how he´d taken the news, what he thought of it exactly.
Her eyes trailing to her hands, Lightning suddenly didn´t dare look at him.
'Besides... Your sister kinda mentioned it to me when you were out...'
'WHAT?!' It made her eyes snap back to his instantly.
Serah had done what!?
'Yeah... Well You could have told me yourself...' the man infront her quickly tried to reconcile.
'Wait...THEIR?! What do you mean THEIR?!' suddenly Lightning felt faint, couldn´t remember how to breathe, to speak, to think.
Their...He had felt their heartbeat.
The man beside her only chuckled once again.
'You´re having twins, Light.'
The pink haired soldier feeling ready to faint, she looked up at her comrade insecurely.
'So, any chance I´m the father?'
There was a tiny smile tugging at his lips once more.
Claire Farron only hit him.
'No, they´re probably Genesis´s.' she spat, her eyes narrowing dangerously at the man infront of her.
'Oh no... Not another poet...' he remarked sardonically.
Lightning only laughed at that.
'No... They´re your´s you idiot.' she said quickly pulling him down into another kiss.
It was just as beautiful as the first. Maybe a little bit better.
Still it was too soon when finally they pulled apart.
'I haven´t even thanked you for saving my life yet.' Lightning said with a slightly breathless voice.
There it was again. That trademark smirk she loved to see so much.
'Don't worry. I can think of at least a hundred ways you can make up for it.'