BAND OF BROTHERS
CHAPTER 6
A/N: Warning! Mid Sexual scenes up ahead. Thread with caution if it´s not your thing.
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"So, I heard you are the man who broke my Sister´s heart, is that true?" Snow stands in the middle of the desert, dark clouds covering the sky. They would be interested in knowing whose homeland could be so empty of life, but both men are just too focused on one another to even care.
Kain shifts his lance, readying his posture. "What do you mean?"
The first blond smirks at his opponent. "You know her, don´t you? A beautiful pinkette with eyes as cold as icebergs and body of a goddess?"
At such words, an eyebrow twitch. "And who are you to dare to speak about Lightning in such a dirty manner?"
The taller man chuckles at the indignation in his adversary´s voice. "Dirty? What do you mean by that? She´s the love of my life´s sister, how in the world would I ever speak dirty of her? But be careful what you say and in front of whom because, if she ever hears such things, I would surely die painfully by her hand, and I really wouldn´t want that. It´s not in my plans to die just yet."
The Dragoon relaxes his posture, but only a tad. "Ah. So, you are her infamous brother-in-law?"
Snow stands straighter, proud of his relationship with her. "Yeah, and as I told you before, I´ve heard words that you hurt her, so it´s my duty to make you pay for such offense."
Without losing his stance, Kain gives a step forward, sadness in his eyes but also determination embedded in them. "Yes, indeed I made her sad, but I pretend to correct my mistakes, and to recover her love and her trust."
Snow whistles at the man´s words. "That´s a tough call you´re gonna take. Believe me, I know. My advice for you is to just drop it already: The chances of recovering her trust, not to speak of her love, are very, very low, for almost any man in the world. Heed my warning, dude, because that way you won´t suffer too much."
The Dragoon growls. "I would´ve expected you to help me to get her back instead, if you claim to wish her happiness."
"Help you? After you´ve hurt her?!" Snow´s voice comes higher out of indignation. "You´ve got to be kidding me! Or be denser than I thought. After what I´ve heard, I wouldn´t want you around her even for a second. She´s the most important person in my life, second only to my fiancé, so of course I don´t want you near her. And for every tear she shed for you, you´ll receive a beating from me."
Kain smirks, although the sadness deepens in his eyes. "Well, that wouldn´t be so hard for you, then, because she didn´t shed a single tear for me."
Snow stands in position, his eyes boring into blue ones. "If you say such words, then it means you don´t know her at all, and even less deserve her. Lightning´s feelings run deep, but run like a storm. Get ready, because I´ll beat you up in her name." And with that, the ex-Patron creates an enormous lance made of ice, and sprints towards his enemy, all too eager to draw first blood, a battle scream coming raspy from his throat.
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BAM, CLASH, BANG
"Is she at it yet?"
BOOM, CLASH, CRASH
"Well… yeah."
"She´s been at it for almost an hour or so."
BANG, BANG, BOOM
A shrug is the only response, met only by a heavy silence.
BANG, CLASH, BANG
"Do you think she´ll ever get tired of it?"
CLASH, CRASH, BOOM
"For the looks of it, I think she´s quite enjoying it."
"So… no."
BANG, CRASH, BAAM
"Not in the least."
"Is there a reason why you three haven´t entered a portal, instead of lazily laying there?"
The two approaching comrades walk through the luminous gate and straight towards the group of girls sitting on the rocks, noticing their beautiful faces with countenance of obvious despair. Yuna stands up and gives a step forward, her intention to happily greet the newcomers, but a new explosion makes her cringe, silencing her words. Y´shtola raises a delicate eyebrow while Terra cringes too, in sympathy with the fragile brunette, as the explosion makes them redirect their eyes towards an all too familiar attack: the infamous Army of One is destroying a group of manikins, while the shimmering rests of many others lie at the pinkette´s feet.
"Why are you not helping Lightning in her battle? It would seem there are far too many manikins for a single combatant to defeat."
There is some reproach in her words, and Yuna blushes at it, but it´s Tifa the one to answer, not at all ashamed, as she stands up and approaches the three standing girls.
"Lightning seems to desperately need to vent up her pin up frustration, aaand… since we thought it would be a health hazard for any of us to approach, we´re patiently waiting for her to actually need us… which hasn´t occurred as of yet."
"For more than an hour, I think." Rinoa shares too, but without even considering on getting up. Her umpteenth sigh comes out of her lips, as she watches the pinkette cutting in half another manikin.
"You mean to tell me Lightning has been fighting all on her own by more than an hour? And you haven´t done anything to help her?" Y´shtola still presses on.
"Be my guest." Tifa answers, as she gives a sidestep and bows, mockingly offering her place to the Miqo'te.
"But… but why is she like that? What could´ve upset her this much?" Asks Terra, though still refusing to give the step forward. She, like many of her comrades, respects, and to be honest, fears the ill-tempered Valkyrie, having witnessed closely the level of her aggressivity. And of her killing skills.
"Nothing good…" Sighs Yuna, while shaking her head.
"But the real question is not why, but who." Tifa answers for the sorcerer.
"Well then," Y´shtola pushes on, rolling her eyes, already feeling tired at the girls´ denial to go to the point, "care to share who dared to put Lightning in such a state of rage?"
"Sephiroth." The three girls respond in unison.
A delicate eyebrow raises, as Y´shtola eyes each girl, unwilling to accept Lightning had been defeated by such man. "I can´t believe she lost against him, though I must admit he´s quite the skilled warrior. She should be thankful to actually lose against someone like him and not a lesser man."
"Well…" Rinoa deviates her sight.
"She didn´t quite lose, actually…" Yuna says, almost apologetically.
"It was more like she was distracted and he took advantage of it…" Tifa says angrily, feeling empathy for her furious friend.
"But still…" Y´shtola thought it was such a stupid act.
"He kissed her." Tifa deadpanned, stopping the Miqo'te´s protests.
"On the… on the lips." Yuna finally dared to speak up, earning a yelp from Terra.
"French style." Rinoa couldn´t resist the smirk forming on her lips as Y´shtola eyed her, not believing her ears.
"This certainly must be a joke."
Ominously, the three girls silently shake their heads in unison.
"This is preposterous. I understand she should be mad, but she shouldn´t let her feelings get in the middle of our mission, that´s quite irresponsible for her! I will speak with the woman and stop this madness."
"Please don´t die in your attempt, Y´shtola. We still need you." The Miqo'te doesn´t know whether Tifa is being sarcastic… or really means it.
As she walks away, Y´shtola shakes her head, not believing this new generation of warriors. But suddenly, she stands in attention as a whip of fire directs towards her, avoiding her head from being chopped off by the immediate creation of a shield-spell, only a fraction of a second before it reaches her. Still, her fingertips get burned.
"Y´shtola!" Lightning screams, lowering her blade. "What the hell you think you were doing by walking on me like that?"
Creating a cure spell, the Miqo´te glares at the pinkette. "What do you mean by that? I only walked a few steps towards you, and was met by your blade. You should stop playing with that, didn´t you know those are dangerous objects?"
Lightning glares back, feeling her concern replaced by renewed fury, just a tad lessened by a small sense of guilt, when a sudden luminous gate appears in front of them, interrupting their conversation, and immediately after a couple of blond men travers it, interchanging slashes that resonate through the desolate landscape. A black-leather form, interchanging blows with a purple armor, allow Lightning to easily recognize the owners of the weapons.
And her glare deepens.
This really cannot be happening to me…
Y´shtola´s eyebrow raises at the spectacle. "Aren´t they…?"
"Yes. Yes, they are." The pinkette seethes in rage, and follows after the battling couple, which disappears inside the next luminous gate, completely oblivious to their spectators.
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"Let me get this straight, you´re sleeping with my sister, but are in love with another woman? Who by the way, is married to another man? And after all this nonsense, you want me to help you to convince my sister to get back to you? Are you really this nuts?"
The Dragoon sighs again. "No. I´m in love with your sister, but… I´m also in love with Rosa, and… I´m just confused, but what it´s clear in my mind, is that I don´t want to lose Lightning."
The sea-waves break in the beach, creating a relaxing atmosphere, that allows to just enjoy life and forget the battles for at least a moment. Both men lay on their backs, one next to the other, all fighting forgotten. Snow places his hands behind his head, completely relaxed, while Kain´s hands are on his stomach, the pained expression still in his face, but now feeling a little bit more at peace, now that he has found someone whom he can talk to about the concerns in his heart.
"How can you love two women at the same time?"
"I… I don´t know?"
Snow remains silent, pondering over his words. He should be really angry against this man, but after fighting him, the only feeling he got was… sadness, an utter sadness and regret, that he couldn´t but feel sympathy for him.
"Well… when Serah died, I felt so lost, for so many years, that I turned my life in protecting other people, so I took it as my duty to protect the people of Yuusnan, and eventually became their Patron, which only reinforced my obligations… but Lightning made me realize that it wasn´t my compromise with them, rather my intense need of being punished, the reason why I was taking all that Chaos inside my body. It was me, wanting to fuse with the pain, to become the monster I already felt myself of being. I couldn´t forgive myself for failing Serah, nor the pain of living on without her. Truth be told, I didn´t want to accept it, but I only wanted to die. But then Lightning came back to us, forgave me of all my sins, gave me a reason to live and to hope, after all the years spent in my punishment. And… and I love her for that."
"Your point?"
"In spite of your story being quite unlike mine, you´re not too different from me."
"I don´t think I follow."
"Why are you punishing yourself this much? Why do you insist on loving a woman who you know won´t love you back, like ever, and play with the feelings of a woman who might be, and you already know it, your salvation against all that suffering?"
Kain remains silent, pondering, but Snow hasn´t finished.
"I know I hated myself so much, that I wanted to punish myself with things worse than death. But why do you hate yourself this much? What made you fall into such despair?"
The Dragoon fixes his stare in a cloud, his mind reeling with memories and emotional wounds… his own solitude, his inability to reach for someone so dear to him… could it be true? Was he intentionally drawing away his only salvation?
"You really cannot understand…" was his only, modest defense.
"No. I think you´re the one who cannot understand. You will never taste that woman´s lips, and you´re quite aware of this simple fact, and yet you insist on torturing yourself with the idea of her love… but on the other hand, you said you loved Sis, right?"
"Yes, I do love her… but…"
"I still worry you´re using my sister for your benefit."
"No! I respect and love Lightning, I can assure you! Is this stupid heart that won´t let go of Rosa´s love." Kain clutches at his chest for emphasis, as if he would willingly rip off that heart of his. Snow listens to his words, but is still not convinced.
"But what if what you´re feeling for this Rosa is just infatuation? Or stubbornness? Or just plain obsession, more than love? I still insist you´re punishing yourself without a real reason. I mean… there you have two women you love with your heart. One of them is way beyond your reach, and you perfectly know it, while the other is just waiting for you to take the first step to kiss her and, maybe, just maybe, to go beyond that."
After a moment seeing the man is not reacting, Snow sighs, noticing his new friend´s mood. "My last advice for you is, solve your issues, man, and once you decide if you want to be with Lightning, I mean, truly be with her, come and find me. Serah is not like her sister, mind you, but there are a few things that it´s common among the Farrons, so I might be able to help you out."
Kain, in spite of himself, smirks at the blond. "Oh yeah? Like what?"
Snow´s countenance becomes pensive, only to draw a smile at the memories that flow inside his head. "Well… for them, trust is a matter of uttermost importance. Once you lose it, it´s almost close to impossible to take it back. Almost. I made it once, so I can help you do the same."
Kain looks at the man, trying to read deceit behind his blue eyes, but then smiles sideways. Maybe it would be a good idea to have a partner in this.
"I think we have a deal." Snow smiles sideways and extends a hand to help him out, but before Kain can take it, there´s an explosion next to them, and they jump away right before a thundara fries them.
"What the hell is the meaning of this, Snow?!"
Lightning, followed closely by Y´shtola, has traversed the closest luminous gate, and glares daggers at the two men, making Kain stand up fast to meet her eyes. Snow, noticing the very awkward encounter between these two, gives the pinkette his most alluring smile.
"Hey, Sis! We were missing you, are you all right?"
"No! I´m not! What do you both think you´re doing?"
"Emh… fighting?" Snow´s smile grows broader, his countenance of utter innocence, but Lightning´s glare hardens, looking at them both. Kain is yet to speak, but his eyes are fixed on her form. His silence and the intensity of his stare make her uncomfortable.
"I came here to check you weren´t killing each other. Whatever you morons think you´re doing, just stop it already, I have really no patience for neither of you." With that, she stomps away from them, heading for the palm trees and leaving them rooted to their spots.
"Well… what the hell was that?" Snow is the one to speak, but he speaks for everyone there. Y´shtola reacts first and tries to stop her, but Snow´s immense palm on her shoulder prevents her from it.
"Let her go for now. I think she needs something more than just a talk with a friend." He looks up towards the pinkette, making the Miqo'te follow his sight, and a smile forms on her lips when she sees Kain´s form walking fast towards the path Lightning had taken.
"Yes. Must certainly it´s what she truly needs."
Lightning is huffing in anger, trying her hardest to lose herself in the dense foliage, hoping she can kill something, anything, in this beautiful land, something big enough and strong enough to let her take out her growing frustration, but growls when, instead, she hears Kain´s desperate steps reaching her.
You can´t be serious! He cannot be the only damn demon I can kill! Urgh! If I come face to face with that moron, I´ll… I´ll…
"Lightning! Wait!" the Dragoon speaks up, as he approaches her, thanks to his longer steps. "I´ve really got to talk to you… I…" But before he can say anything else, she swivels around her own axis, facing him and taking him by surprise when, without warning, entraps him with both arms around his neck, while her lips catch his, kissing him fervently, mindlessly, shutting down all his mental processes by her sudden action, his body freezing on his spot at the intense feelings she´s producing on him.
She kisses him passionately, feverishly, almost desperately, not letting him even breathe, and, when she breaks the kiss to nibble at his ear, her husky voice sends electrifying shivers down his spine.
"Erase with your kisses his touch, Kain… undo with your lips what has been done to me…"
A plea, a command, a yearning sealed with more fevering kisses, but in between the passion numbing his brain, Kain did register the meaning of her words, and the implication has him completely shocked. What has been done to her? And by whom?"
Sephiroth…
He knows there´s no one else who could´ve dared to touch her, even less succeed on getting her all frustrated and angered this much, to make her feel his touch like such an invasion. But what has he done this time? Did he kiss her? Touch her? Rape her?
Her kisses and daring caresses have him already aroused, his breathing ragged, and his brain unwillingly plays tricks on him, as he can see images in his mind, dirty images of Sephiroth hurting her, taking her, making her his…
No! NO!
And with those images in mind, his jealousy peaks, making him furious, murderous even, and then he kisses her back with the same need, the same longing and rage, because he will absolutely and fervently do as she pleases. He breaks their kiss and starts nibbling at her warm skin, his lips claiming as his every inch of her anatomy as he undresses her. He can see nothing else but her body completely naked underneath him, hear nothing but her ragged breaths responding to his ministrations, can feel nothing but the warmth of her skin under his touch. When he kisses her lips, and every intimate part of her beautiful self, there´s only one word that claims his mind with each kiss.
Mine.
Mine!
MINE!
At that moment, and in between the clouds of passion numbing his mind, he realizes that, from this day onwards, he will never let go of his raging goddess, will never look another way other than towards the powerful woman that has taken such a hold of his heart and his body.
He might have claimed her body as his, but the truth is that, from now on, it´s he the one who belongs to her. And only to her.
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A/N: Yes, I know, Lightning gave up way too soon… or did she? Remember she´s independent, she does as she pleases, as she needs, not caring about conventionalities. And this time, it played for Kain´s benefit. I bet he´s happy. Anyways, I hope you liked this. Sorry if the girls are a bit… dumb? But one of the things I like about girlfriends is that you get to be as dumb and childish as you like when you´re with your best friends. These scenes are in honor of those awesome friends. Thank you for making my life so beautiful.
Here are responses to your fantastic reviews:
i: I´m happy I made you happy with the update! Though I got a little bit lost in your comment, did you mean that it was just too many people torturing Lightning? Guess you´re right and I might overdid it… hehe, sorry… but the fact is that, one of the things I love about her the most, is that she survives everything that is thrown at her. Just like a Fenix, you know? And OH-THE-KISS XDDD yeah I liked that too. XP About Kain, I just hope he hears Snow. It was hard to write, because I do believe in the power of love… and obsession. But I tried to get into Kain´s heart, and really hope he hears his brain a bit more. I´m glad, too, that you liked the 'girl´s power' part. It was fun to write, and though many protested because Lightning should´ve just blast them off into oblivion, let´s remember Dissidia NT´s Lightning is the Savior, not our beloved l´Cie, and as the Savior, she had to learn patience, tolerance and care. In my mind, I still remember the patience she had with Luka, the girl that sold her tears, or with that guy who asked her for a date because he missed his dead girlfriend. And many examples of the way she helped people with simple tasks that stole time from her, but that required sensibility… and her in-depth thoughts after each mission. In my mind, she grew a lot, having to give herself to help those people, a lot more than having to fight monsters and gods.
Henry: thank you so much for your congrats! You make me happy to know you liked the chapter! I overdid it with the girls, right? I just wanted to point out that Dissidia NT´s Lightning is very different than our original l´Cie. She´s not anymore the impulsive, sulking soldier, but a woman who has learned the value of life, of friendship, and of tolerance and patience through her many missions in Nova Chrysalia. About Seph winning the first kiss, well… let´s say the game is on, because Kain won´t give up on her so easily… I hope at least. And oh! I hope you like the one who comes to save Kain´s travel for Lightning´s heart!
Jolly P: I´m glad you liked both chapters, surprise! XP. There´s a saying that still waters run deep, and it goes like that with Sephiroth: he might be calm on the outside, but on the inside he sure must have a volcano of emotions raging inside. So I guess sometimes it needs to come out. He couldn´t resist the want of the kiss, so there he went! Unfortunately for Lightning´s temper, that is XDDD. About the girls being too pressy, it´s something that everyone had been saying, all of us waiting for Lightning to snap at them or making a retort or something. But let´s remember we´re not dealing with the Duodecim Lightning, the one who just lost her sister and is still fighting against Orphan. We´re talking about NT Lightning, the one who has been fighting for 5 hundred years, and that, in 13 days has been learning about human nature and about kindness, being forced to help everyone with even the least important and most stupid issue. She´s learned patience, tolerance (I mean, going on a DATE with a guy just because he needed to? C´mon!) and kindness (I adored the Luka moment). So yeah, you should be expecting a little bit more of that, because I don´t think they´re ooc. She´s the mature Lightning LR has given us. Or at least I think so. Thank you so much for your comment!
Queeenee: Thank you so much for your comment! I could feel your enthusiasm in every word, you´ve made me so happy to know you liked both chapters, so thank you very much!
I don´t own Final Fantasy. I just write this out of fun.