Chapter Ten: Tempest of Love
"Don't take life too seriously,
You'll never escape it anyway…"
"You have no idea how much fun that was!" Jezabel jabbered excitedly to Eva
"What's fun?"
Jez sighed flopping down on her bed, staring at the crimson canopy, "Flying, it just gives you this rush, and then the wind blowing past you, blowing through your hair. You have no idea how awesome that was."
What followed was not the expected reaction, "Shutup! You don't have to rub it in!" Eva grumbled something else to herself as she stormed out the door.
Just as she threw open the door, Gatti was there raising his hand to knock. Unfortunately, for him the door came flying open smacking him squarely on the forehead. "Ow!" he cried clapping his hand to the injured portion of his head. "Eva?"
By now a furious Eva had run halfway down the hall. Hearing Gatti's voice she faced him locking eyes with him for a split-second before running off.
"What did you say to her Jez?" He asked watching her puzzled face emerge from the room.
"Me? Nothing, she just sort of spazzed out at me. How did you know her name anyway?"
"She's a good friend of mine," he said waving aside the question. "How do you know her?"
Jezabel rolled her eyes, "You don't think I have all male friends here do you?"
"Well, I could say something about you and Miguel. He's very nice to you."
"Yeah, so? What's your point?" Jezabel replied with a mocking ring to her voice, getting very curious as to what Gatti was hinting about.
"Are you that dense? Miguel doesn't take to too many people, but he takes to you."
"It's because we're friends."
"That's not what he thinks."
Jezabel was caught way off her guard, everything Gatti had been hinting at finally hit her – like a well aimed crima claw. She watched the growing smirk on her superior's face.
"You think about that, in the meantime, I'm going after Eva."
"I wouldn't advise that," she said snapping back to her cocky self, "If you place any value on you're life that is."
"What?"
Calmly Jezabel continued, "You heard me. I wouldn't do that, she was pretty ticked off about something. Just let her be, otherwise she'll be out for blood, literally."
"Well, maybe I'll see her after dinner."
"You go and do that lover-boy, right now I need to find a shower." She disappeared into her room to retrieve a robe and when she emerged, Gatti was gone. Nothing could place a damper on her today, well except for the lecture she had received from Lord Dilandau. But even in shadow she had found the light that casted it.
"What the hell were you thinking! You could have killed yourself, and Viole! I can not afford to lose two good men because of an idiotic move like that!"
Meekly Jezabel humored him, "Forgive me, Lord Dilandau." she muttered falling on her knees.
She was instead delivered a blow that picked her up, and flung her over backwards. Even after all this time she still wasn't use to those hideous punches of his. But she knew that somewhere concealed in that decking there was respect, and caring. Dilandau just chose to show it in the strangest of ways.
"Forgive me, Lord Dilandau!" she cried again, struggling to hold in the saltwater stinging in her eyes. A few moments of deep, calming breaths cleared up that problem. The pain was still there, but it was duller now.
"I can not afford to house idiots in my ranks."
Jezabel was about to go into the 'forgive me' routine when none other than Miguel saved her.
"Permission to speak, sir!" he called out loudly into the chamber.
Stopping in mid slap Dilandau jerked his head to the voice, glaring at Miguel he finished his earlier intention before addressing him, "Permission granted, soldier."
"Correct me if I'm wrong, but don't you agree that Jezabel used supreme intuition, and quick thinking in preventing what could have been disastrous?" he turned to face Jezabel - who at the moment was picking herself off the ground, swaying a little as she attempted to stop her head from swimming. "Have you ever seen a Teiring Guymelef?" he asked.
Jezabel answered as loud as she could under the circumstances, "No." even so it was barely above a whisper. Then thinking it was best she crouched back down on the floor. She showed respect and conserved her strength all at once. More so the latter though.
"The Teirings are ultra-fast guymelefs used by the leopard twins. They achieve these high speeds by doing what you did today with the training unit. They heat liquid metal to the point of boiling and shoot it out the back. In doing this they can go ten times the speed of the Alseides. In my own opinion you took a bad situation and used it to your advantage, I don't many others of us would be able take an overheating guymelef and do what you did today. I think she should be commended for a bold and successful maneuver that would catch the enemy by surprise, and allow the guymelef to cool down. Lord Dilandau." Miguel bowed and returned to his place in the formation.
Everyone could see the fury written in Dilandau's face, but mixed with it was respect, the kind that would never show, but was there all the same. His forefinger trailed across a scar on the side of his face. Prick, prick, prick…. No one moved, or made the slightest of sounds as Dilandau debated her fate, punishment or commendment? He too had seen the points in Miguel's argument before he stated them, but now having them be voiced he took those into more careful consideration.
Silkily, the albino sauntered up to the bent Jezabel. "Rise." It was barely above a whisper, but in that room even that low volume seemed to echo with the power behind it.
Making no sudden moves Jezabel did, as regal as Dilandau did himself. She said nothing, but her expression conveyed respect, and her eyes seemed to say everything for her.
"It is true that you showed quick thinking in a life threatening situation, but you also worked yourself into that situation. I see no excuse for that!" Faster then she'd ever felt before his hand came whirling at her cheek, but stopped short. "I believe you have learned your lesson." and then for good measure the halted blow come back at her, nearly getting her off guard. "Dismissed!"
~~~~~*****~~~~~
Jezabel pulled the chain next to her head and waited a few seconds before a blast of nearly scalding water came down on her. The shower was operated on gravity, the only downside to this was you couldn't control the temperature. Sometimes the water was cold, or unbearably hot, but then again, once in a rare while the water was perfect. Today wasn't her lucky day. The water stopped as she released the chain and she proceeded to work in a type of shampoo before pulling the chain again.
Outside the actual shower was a fairly standard public bathroom, robes and towels, among other little things. (Robes for the female population, Jezabel had never seen the guys bother with one, it was always a well placed towel…not that she minded of course.)
Throwing her hair up turban-style into a towel, and wrapping herself in the short white robe she went to her room to actually get some normal clothes. In the distance she could hear a storm rumble it's throaty voice. Instantly her eyes flew open wider than was naturally possible, and she ran swiftly to her quarters. Sure enough the sky had blackened, and was periodically cut with jagged white scars that healed instantaneously. Pulling on her uniform pants and under-shirt, Jezabel walked out to greet her newfound friend.
Resting her hands on the rail and gazing up at the sky she welcomed the rain that had just arrived. Jez didn't care if she was wet or not, what is wet can become dry. On cue a warm breeze flowed through the air, jerking her head back to relish in it just being there. The cool rain of spring fading into summer splattered against her face wetting what was dry only a few minutes ago.
Gauging by the weather she guessed that it was late May or early June, it was hard to tell, all Jez knew was that they called this month Orange. Again the deep voice boomed, and shortly thereafter. The rain was coming down harder now and soon the balcony became very wet and slick on the smooth stone.
Jezabel went back into her room to shut the balcony door and nearly collided with Miguel in her haste.
"Miguel! What are you doing in here?" To see Jez was a comical sight, her hair was straggly from the wind and rain, and thanks to the latter her clothes had become very sticky and nearly transparent – well the shirt never covered much anyway for her. A flash of light blinded Miguel from the large glass door. Using his quick reflexes a hand shield was formed.
Her outline could be clearly seen, and one strap on her top was sliding down off Jezabel's shoulder, exposing her bra strap in its place. And in this Miguel saw something he never had noticed before, that she was truly beautiful. Even in Jez's disorderly state he could see the life that sizzled in her. That positively glowed through every pore, and was illuminated in her eyes. Smiling to himself he realized that he had fallen for this strange girl long ago, when she first attacked him in the woods. Amazed at her strength and skill Miguel had been caught off guard, finally a girl that wasn't afraid to fight back, and at the same time still a personality that wasn't all rebellion. But a little didn't hurt.
"What's so funny?" Jezabel asked, wondering why Miguel was staring at her so intently. Of course he was an intense person, but now it was like his eyes hadn't moved from her since he entered…and truth be told, he hadn't let them.
Again that self-satisfied smile, "Nothing." with a slight shake of his head he reached over to fix her shirt, gently brushing her skin as he brought the fabric to it's appropriate place.
A loud crash broke the moment, the sound of glass shattering. Quickly Miguel wrapped Jezabel into his arms and threw them both flat on the floor, guarding her body with his back. Nothing more happened.
"Miguel, what was that?"
He didn't have to answer, as he picked himself up off of her she could see for herself the damage done. An extra-strong gust of wind had caused the glass to fly into her room.
"Let's go get a maid to clean this up." Miguel suggested
Jezabel stood transfixed watching the storm outside her window. "No, we can do the later." She looked for her boots lying near the door, "Can you grab those for me?"
Miguel did, and as soon as they were on her feet, Jezabel grabbed Miguel's wrist and dragged him out into the tempest.
"Jezabel! What are you doing!"
"Same thing I was doing before you came in. Don't you like storms?"
"Not ones that break windows."
A loopy grin was spreading across her face, one he had seen many times during her training, "Where's your sense of adventure?"
"Back inside, you'll catch a cold out here." he was trying to reason with her, but that was like trying to reason with a frog, it didn't work
"Nah, this is great!" To emphasize her point she twirled around sending her hair flying in all directions, and losing whatever traction she had managed to find in the polished stone. Again Miguel was there, to catch her. But his time he didn't let her go - he held her close in his arms. "You should be more careful." he whispered into her ear, "I don't think I could stand losing you."
The phrase caught her by surprise, and her muscles tightened, "What?" She jerked her head up to read his expression.
"I couldn't stand losing you." he said again, this time looking her in the eye. He knew girls liked that, and although he could have any girl he so desired - one of the perks of being a Dragonslayer. But none of them had ever held his interest for any length of time, but here maybe she was different.
"Could you please stop staring at me, its kind of unnerving," Blunt as always,but she made no move to leave his hold. In fact it was quite the opposite, she buried her head against his chest, watching the thunderstorm out of the corner of her eye.
"Jezabel…"
But he didn't say anything more, at the sound of her name Jezabel tightened her grip around Miguel's waist to let him know what she felt, it may not have been love, but it was sure getting close to that. And so they stood there watching until the bruised clouds went away, and the moon goddess gave them her blessing. And although it took so few words to convey what they felt, they both knew that this would be an everlasting love that would grown and bloom, fertilized from the rain of the tempest – the tempest of this very night.
A/N: Okies, whatcha think? I actually put in some fluff. *shocked look* Okay actually I was planning to do something soon anyway, but thank you Lum for getting me to actually write it…sorry this took awhile to get out, and it's kinda short, but it's just been so nice outside, I've been trying to beat The Legend of Dragoon, and…*drum roll* Homework…dun dun dunnnnnnnn. But if you like it let me know, if not hey I like fire, and if you have any ideas they're more than welcome. Oh and a big round of applause to FireDemon for not only having read this thing once…but twice, and has reviewed everytime! Hopefully I'll have the next chapter up soon, lots more to come *cheesy announcer voice* Will Eva ever calm down, will Gatti get a concussion, when will Jez figure out that twirling in a rainstorm is a bad idea if there is no traction?(unless of course someone is there to catch you) Stay tuned for the next episode of Where Loyalty Lies….!
Ciao!
Ice Eyes
"Don't take life too seriously,
You'll never escape it anyway…"
"You have no idea how much fun that was!" Jezabel jabbered excitedly to Eva
"What's fun?"
Jez sighed flopping down on her bed, staring at the crimson canopy, "Flying, it just gives you this rush, and then the wind blowing past you, blowing through your hair. You have no idea how awesome that was."
What followed was not the expected reaction, "Shutup! You don't have to rub it in!" Eva grumbled something else to herself as she stormed out the door.
Just as she threw open the door, Gatti was there raising his hand to knock. Unfortunately, for him the door came flying open smacking him squarely on the forehead. "Ow!" he cried clapping his hand to the injured portion of his head. "Eva?"
By now a furious Eva had run halfway down the hall. Hearing Gatti's voice she faced him locking eyes with him for a split-second before running off.
"What did you say to her Jez?" He asked watching her puzzled face emerge from the room.
"Me? Nothing, she just sort of spazzed out at me. How did you know her name anyway?"
"She's a good friend of mine," he said waving aside the question. "How do you know her?"
Jezabel rolled her eyes, "You don't think I have all male friends here do you?"
"Well, I could say something about you and Miguel. He's very nice to you."
"Yeah, so? What's your point?" Jezabel replied with a mocking ring to her voice, getting very curious as to what Gatti was hinting about.
"Are you that dense? Miguel doesn't take to too many people, but he takes to you."
"It's because we're friends."
"That's not what he thinks."
Jezabel was caught way off her guard, everything Gatti had been hinting at finally hit her – like a well aimed crima claw. She watched the growing smirk on her superior's face.
"You think about that, in the meantime, I'm going after Eva."
"I wouldn't advise that," she said snapping back to her cocky self, "If you place any value on you're life that is."
"What?"
Calmly Jezabel continued, "You heard me. I wouldn't do that, she was pretty ticked off about something. Just let her be, otherwise she'll be out for blood, literally."
"Well, maybe I'll see her after dinner."
"You go and do that lover-boy, right now I need to find a shower." She disappeared into her room to retrieve a robe and when she emerged, Gatti was gone. Nothing could place a damper on her today, well except for the lecture she had received from Lord Dilandau. But even in shadow she had found the light that casted it.
"What the hell were you thinking! You could have killed yourself, and Viole! I can not afford to lose two good men because of an idiotic move like that!"
Meekly Jezabel humored him, "Forgive me, Lord Dilandau." she muttered falling on her knees.
She was instead delivered a blow that picked her up, and flung her over backwards. Even after all this time she still wasn't use to those hideous punches of his. But she knew that somewhere concealed in that decking there was respect, and caring. Dilandau just chose to show it in the strangest of ways.
"Forgive me, Lord Dilandau!" she cried again, struggling to hold in the saltwater stinging in her eyes. A few moments of deep, calming breaths cleared up that problem. The pain was still there, but it was duller now.
"I can not afford to house idiots in my ranks."
Jezabel was about to go into the 'forgive me' routine when none other than Miguel saved her.
"Permission to speak, sir!" he called out loudly into the chamber.
Stopping in mid slap Dilandau jerked his head to the voice, glaring at Miguel he finished his earlier intention before addressing him, "Permission granted, soldier."
"Correct me if I'm wrong, but don't you agree that Jezabel used supreme intuition, and quick thinking in preventing what could have been disastrous?" he turned to face Jezabel - who at the moment was picking herself off the ground, swaying a little as she attempted to stop her head from swimming. "Have you ever seen a Teiring Guymelef?" he asked.
Jezabel answered as loud as she could under the circumstances, "No." even so it was barely above a whisper. Then thinking it was best she crouched back down on the floor. She showed respect and conserved her strength all at once. More so the latter though.
"The Teirings are ultra-fast guymelefs used by the leopard twins. They achieve these high speeds by doing what you did today with the training unit. They heat liquid metal to the point of boiling and shoot it out the back. In doing this they can go ten times the speed of the Alseides. In my own opinion you took a bad situation and used it to your advantage, I don't many others of us would be able take an overheating guymelef and do what you did today. I think she should be commended for a bold and successful maneuver that would catch the enemy by surprise, and allow the guymelef to cool down. Lord Dilandau." Miguel bowed and returned to his place in the formation.
Everyone could see the fury written in Dilandau's face, but mixed with it was respect, the kind that would never show, but was there all the same. His forefinger trailed across a scar on the side of his face. Prick, prick, prick…. No one moved, or made the slightest of sounds as Dilandau debated her fate, punishment or commendment? He too had seen the points in Miguel's argument before he stated them, but now having them be voiced he took those into more careful consideration.
Silkily, the albino sauntered up to the bent Jezabel. "Rise." It was barely above a whisper, but in that room even that low volume seemed to echo with the power behind it.
Making no sudden moves Jezabel did, as regal as Dilandau did himself. She said nothing, but her expression conveyed respect, and her eyes seemed to say everything for her.
"It is true that you showed quick thinking in a life threatening situation, but you also worked yourself into that situation. I see no excuse for that!" Faster then she'd ever felt before his hand came whirling at her cheek, but stopped short. "I believe you have learned your lesson." and then for good measure the halted blow come back at her, nearly getting her off guard. "Dismissed!"
~~~~~*****~~~~~
Jezabel pulled the chain next to her head and waited a few seconds before a blast of nearly scalding water came down on her. The shower was operated on gravity, the only downside to this was you couldn't control the temperature. Sometimes the water was cold, or unbearably hot, but then again, once in a rare while the water was perfect. Today wasn't her lucky day. The water stopped as she released the chain and she proceeded to work in a type of shampoo before pulling the chain again.
Outside the actual shower was a fairly standard public bathroom, robes and towels, among other little things. (Robes for the female population, Jezabel had never seen the guys bother with one, it was always a well placed towel…not that she minded of course.)
Throwing her hair up turban-style into a towel, and wrapping herself in the short white robe she went to her room to actually get some normal clothes. In the distance she could hear a storm rumble it's throaty voice. Instantly her eyes flew open wider than was naturally possible, and she ran swiftly to her quarters. Sure enough the sky had blackened, and was periodically cut with jagged white scars that healed instantaneously. Pulling on her uniform pants and under-shirt, Jezabel walked out to greet her newfound friend.
Resting her hands on the rail and gazing up at the sky she welcomed the rain that had just arrived. Jez didn't care if she was wet or not, what is wet can become dry. On cue a warm breeze flowed through the air, jerking her head back to relish in it just being there. The cool rain of spring fading into summer splattered against her face wetting what was dry only a few minutes ago.
Gauging by the weather she guessed that it was late May or early June, it was hard to tell, all Jez knew was that they called this month Orange. Again the deep voice boomed, and shortly thereafter. The rain was coming down harder now and soon the balcony became very wet and slick on the smooth stone.
Jezabel went back into her room to shut the balcony door and nearly collided with Miguel in her haste.
"Miguel! What are you doing in here?" To see Jez was a comical sight, her hair was straggly from the wind and rain, and thanks to the latter her clothes had become very sticky and nearly transparent – well the shirt never covered much anyway for her. A flash of light blinded Miguel from the large glass door. Using his quick reflexes a hand shield was formed.
Her outline could be clearly seen, and one strap on her top was sliding down off Jezabel's shoulder, exposing her bra strap in its place. And in this Miguel saw something he never had noticed before, that she was truly beautiful. Even in Jez's disorderly state he could see the life that sizzled in her. That positively glowed through every pore, and was illuminated in her eyes. Smiling to himself he realized that he had fallen for this strange girl long ago, when she first attacked him in the woods. Amazed at her strength and skill Miguel had been caught off guard, finally a girl that wasn't afraid to fight back, and at the same time still a personality that wasn't all rebellion. But a little didn't hurt.
"What's so funny?" Jezabel asked, wondering why Miguel was staring at her so intently. Of course he was an intense person, but now it was like his eyes hadn't moved from her since he entered…and truth be told, he hadn't let them.
Again that self-satisfied smile, "Nothing." with a slight shake of his head he reached over to fix her shirt, gently brushing her skin as he brought the fabric to it's appropriate place.
A loud crash broke the moment, the sound of glass shattering. Quickly Miguel wrapped Jezabel into his arms and threw them both flat on the floor, guarding her body with his back. Nothing more happened.
"Miguel, what was that?"
He didn't have to answer, as he picked himself up off of her she could see for herself the damage done. An extra-strong gust of wind had caused the glass to fly into her room.
"Let's go get a maid to clean this up." Miguel suggested
Jezabel stood transfixed watching the storm outside her window. "No, we can do the later." She looked for her boots lying near the door, "Can you grab those for me?"
Miguel did, and as soon as they were on her feet, Jezabel grabbed Miguel's wrist and dragged him out into the tempest.
"Jezabel! What are you doing!"
"Same thing I was doing before you came in. Don't you like storms?"
"Not ones that break windows."
A loopy grin was spreading across her face, one he had seen many times during her training, "Where's your sense of adventure?"
"Back inside, you'll catch a cold out here." he was trying to reason with her, but that was like trying to reason with a frog, it didn't work
"Nah, this is great!" To emphasize her point she twirled around sending her hair flying in all directions, and losing whatever traction she had managed to find in the polished stone. Again Miguel was there, to catch her. But his time he didn't let her go - he held her close in his arms. "You should be more careful." he whispered into her ear, "I don't think I could stand losing you."
The phrase caught her by surprise, and her muscles tightened, "What?" She jerked her head up to read his expression.
"I couldn't stand losing you." he said again, this time looking her in the eye. He knew girls liked that, and although he could have any girl he so desired - one of the perks of being a Dragonslayer. But none of them had ever held his interest for any length of time, but here maybe she was different.
"Could you please stop staring at me, its kind of unnerving," Blunt as always,but she made no move to leave his hold. In fact it was quite the opposite, she buried her head against his chest, watching the thunderstorm out of the corner of her eye.
"Jezabel…"
But he didn't say anything more, at the sound of her name Jezabel tightened her grip around Miguel's waist to let him know what she felt, it may not have been love, but it was sure getting close to that. And so they stood there watching until the bruised clouds went away, and the moon goddess gave them her blessing. And although it took so few words to convey what they felt, they both knew that this would be an everlasting love that would grown and bloom, fertilized from the rain of the tempest – the tempest of this very night.
A/N: Okies, whatcha think? I actually put in some fluff. *shocked look* Okay actually I was planning to do something soon anyway, but thank you Lum for getting me to actually write it…sorry this took awhile to get out, and it's kinda short, but it's just been so nice outside, I've been trying to beat The Legend of Dragoon, and…*drum roll* Homework…dun dun dunnnnnnnn. But if you like it let me know, if not hey I like fire, and if you have any ideas they're more than welcome. Oh and a big round of applause to FireDemon for not only having read this thing once…but twice, and has reviewed everytime! Hopefully I'll have the next chapter up soon, lots more to come *cheesy announcer voice* Will Eva ever calm down, will Gatti get a concussion, when will Jez figure out that twirling in a rainstorm is a bad idea if there is no traction?(unless of course someone is there to catch you) Stay tuned for the next episode of Where Loyalty Lies….!
Ciao!
Ice Eyes