The Sorceress's Lady

Chapter One

Tranquility

☼

"Now, silver wings
across a long nightmare
to me, waiting for you
as I wish, kill me
with your arms that wait for me…

I who embraced our reunion, kill me... "

Malice Mizer "Seraph"

☼

Rose lay on her back on the Quad Stage, staring up at the blue Balamb sky. The salty sea air filled her nostrils and she yawned, stretching slightly before rolling over onto her side and closing her eyes. The warm sun overtook her and she slept.

"Yo, Direll," said a deep voice, waking her from her peaceful slumber. Rose opened crystal blue eyes slowly and moaned, shielding her eyes from the sunlight.

"What do you want Almasy?" she groaned, rolling her face over. Jagger laughed and bent over.

"You skipped again today," he said accusingly.

"So?" Rose replied carelessly, starting to doze off again. Jagger promptly sat on her. "Get off," she murmured. Jagger crossed his legs and showed absolutely no sign of moving. "You're heavy," Rose groaned.

Jagger chuckled. "You're going to get heavy too, if all you do is sleep," he joked, blue green eyes laughing.

Rose growled fiercely and pushed him to the ground rapidly. Jagger lay there, still laughing, his brilliantly blonde hair a tousled mess. Rose sat up and sighed, placing her head in her hands and glancing at him. "Why do you ever bother going?" she asked, watching him laugh about Hyne knows what.

Jagger looked up at her, still chuckling slightly. "I guess cos I actually want to pass the SeeD examination," he replied, more seriously.

Rose grinned. "Hey dude, what's the rush? I mean, you're only 16 right?"

Jagger shrugged. "Well yeah, but I can get more money faster if I graduate more quickly. Plus, don't you want to try to help Inari with her examination? She's only got one more try after this one."

Rose nodded. "Well, yeah but…"

"Rose, well how the hell are ya?" said another guy's voice. Rose turned to the stairway. A young man with short brown hair and bright green eyes flashed a smile and jumped down the stairs. He had a tattoo on the side of his face, a swirling, spiky pattern that seemed to somehow express a rage and happiness all at once.

Rose's tense expression relaxed into a grin. "Hey Ayden, what's up?"

Ayden laughed. "Dude, we totally just got a new shipment of hot dogs, how rockin' is that?"

Jagger raised an eyebrow. "Pretty 'rockin', I guess," he said dubiously.

Ayden beamed. "Damn straight," he replied.

Rose laid her head back on the stage. "So, when's the rest of the committee getting here?" she asked, finding a rabbit in the clouds.

"I saw most of them heading over, so they should be here in a few minutes," said Ayden dismissively. "Lenna should get here first though, since she's head of it or whatever."

Rose nodded and found a Bitebug in the clouds. Jagger got up and sat next to her, grinning. "Damn," he sighed "I can't wait to get out of these cadet uniforms."

Rose glanced up at him. "They don't look half bad on you, y'know," she said noncommittally.

Jagger looked shocked and opened his mouth-

"For an ugly dumbass," she finished.

Jagger's mouth shut instantly. "Oh, that is it," he yelled, jumping on her. "Major tickle fest!"

"Yes!" yelled Ayden and jumped in.

"Nooo! Stop, you cannot be serious! Cut it out, no! Get the fuck off! Nooooo!" screeched Rose, trying to catch her breath.

A small cough cut through the noise. They froze, caught in the act. A small girl with waist length red hair and hazel eyes, wearing a SeeD uniform, watched them carefully. Jagger and Ayden jumped off, ceased the weirdness immediately and saluted. Rose got up more slowly, rubbing her side. She smiled at the girl and gave her a quick salute then hugged her. "Hey Lenna!" she exclaimed, releasing her.

Lenna smiled. "Hello Rose," she said quietly. "Is Fleur still going to play at the Festival?"

Rose nodded enthusiastically. "Definitely, actually I needed to talk to you about that…" They started to walk around talking to each other. Ayden sat next to Jagger, staring at the sea.

"Soo…" he said, seeming bored.

Jagger glanced at him. "What?"

Ayden shrugged. "Nothing really. How's your old man?"

Jagger grinned. "Still a bastard, like he always was. But don't you have him for weapons training this year?"

Ayden nodded. "Yeah I start tomorrow, that's why I was asking."

Jagger chuckled. "How's your mom?"

Ayden shrugged. "I dunno, I didn't go home this summer."

Jagger glanced over at him. "Why?"

Ayden shook his head. "My step dad," he mumbled.

Jagger frowned. "What the hell man? You didn't even go see your sister?"

Ayden shook his head. "Mom won't let me come home," he confessed, his brows contracting.

Jagger's features contorted in rage. "WHAT!" he yelled in fury.

Lenna and Rose turned to them. Ayden smiled slightly.

"Hey, let's talk about this in the dorms, 'kay?"

Jagger frowned but didn't say anything else. Rose and Lenna resumed their conversation.

Just then, the doors to the Quad slid open and two girls walked in. One of them had incredibly short, spiky pink hair with coffee colored eyes and the other had curly brown hair with light grey eyes. They were smiling and talking and also… holding hands?

Ayden did a double take. They were still holding hands and laughing. They waved to Lenna as they reached the stage and then sat down on a bench, completely absorbed in each other. They were also wearing SeeD uniforms.

Ayden decided it was rude to stare. Jagger hadn't noticed them apparently. He glanced back out at the sea.

Finally, all the members, more or less, had trickled in. Lenna walked to the stage and stood up. "Hey, be quiet you guys!" Her soft voice barely made a noise and the committee members continued unabashed.

"SHUT UP!" roared a senior level SeeD. Lenna smiled at him and he grinned back and nodded. The silence seemed to make Lenna a bit nervous but she pressed on.

"Um, so this is our first official meeting. We've got some new faces and some old faces so let's all introduce ourselves and then I'll call the heads of committees. You can join whichever you want but you shouldn't join more than one. So, um, I'll start us off. I'm Lenna Kilegaries; I'm a SeeD, obviously. I'm 19, and I took over for Arin Kinneas, who's an instructor now." She gestured to Jagger and stepped down.

Jagger got up on the stage. "Hey. I'm Jagger Almasy. I'm 16 and I'm taking my exams this year," there was some appreciative clapping. "I've been on committee since I was 14. And I'm the electric guitarist in Fleur." He went back to his previous seat and Ayden stood up."I'm Ayden Di-Huang," he chuckled nervously. "I'm 15 and I'm taking my exams this year too. I'm the drummer in Fleur," he stepped down quickly. Rose grinned at him and got onto the stage.

"Hello, I'm Rose Direll. I'm 15 and I'm the keyboardist and side vocals in Fleur. Our lead vocalist, Inari, isn't here right now but she's 19. Most of you know her I think… Well, yeah, so cool…" she stepped down and the pink haired girl got up.

"Hey dudes," she said in a Trabian accent, "I'm Lisei Reynolds and I'm 19 years old. I just transferred here last year from Trabia. I like Balamb a lot, it's a lot warmer," she laughed. "So I'll see ya'll around." She stepped down and the curly haired girl stepped up.

"Hello," she said in a voice almost as soft as Lenna's. "I'm Gabrielle Marcellei. I'm a Seed and I'm 20 years old." She stepped down and Lisei patted her on the back and smiled at her, as they went back to clutching each others hands.

A whirl of names and faces flew past their heads and they managed to absorb most of them, finally introductions were over and Lenna got back up on the stand again. "Alrighty," she said a bit more loudly, gaining confidence. "The heads of committees are; for music I've got Inari Reilen," she paused and smiled at the members of Fleur, then continued. "For decorations, I've got Gabrielle Marcellei." Lisei gave Gabrielle a hug. "For construction I've got Nikko Giearden," a tall, muscular girl with short black hair streaked with blonde grinned. "For computer programming and lights sequences, I've got Robert Theron," she smiled at the SeeD who had stuck up for her earlier. "For finding performers, I've got Yuri Julick." An impossibly tall, skinny blonde boy with lots of piercings got high fived by about 7 people. "For food I've got Ogawa Herold," a half-Japanese boy with light brown hair who was munching on a bento looked up and beamed. "And for adverts, I've got Corin Leonhart." A girl with short, spiky brown hair and coffee colored eyes glanced up and smiled at Lenna. "And that's everything," she finished. "Go to the leaders of the groups you want to join. Exchange numbers and start planning. I want a basic plan drawn up by our next meeting in 2 weeks. Since Inari isn't here, go to Rose Direll for the music committee," she said, stepping down from the stage.

The Quad immediately erupted into noise and movement. Jagger stood. "I think I'll head over to Yuri," he said. Rose nodded.

"Cool, how about you Ayden?"

"Definitely Ogawa. He makes some awesome hotdogs, that's for sure," he said excitedly. Jagger rolled his eyes and glanced at Rose.

"So we'll meet you for dinner in a bit then?" he said. Rose smiled affirmatively.

"Cool," she said and waved to them as they left for their respective committees.

By the time the Quad finally cleared, Rose had 6 members, counting herself and Inari. Some kid named Reiko, who looked about 12, 2 SeeDs Johan and Liza, who were dating and a boy from one of her classes named Kyle. Apparently they were going to have to work with the performing section as well so she also had Yuri's numbers, 8 of them. She got to her feet slowly and headed to the cafeteria.

In front of her were Gabrielle and Lisei, holding hands and PDAing as if there was no tomorrow. Rose frowned but didn't say anything, merely speeding up to pass them more quickly.

Inari wasn't in the cafeteria and while Ayden hogged down on his hotdogs, Rose speculated with Jagger about why she wasn't there and also about good musicians they had heard recently. Finally the sun set and they got up to leave.

"Hey Rose, you wanna go train with me?" asked Jagger, glancing at her as Ayden watched the pools of water below them. Rose shook her head.

"No thanks, Inari might be sick or something so I should head in and check on her," she replied, a bit worried. Jagger nodded.

"Okay, cool. Call us if you need help, we're just going to watch some old, loser movie Ayden rented," he said, seeming a bit disheartened by the idea. Ayden whirled on him.

"Kung-fu Sorceresses is NOT a stupid movie you moron. It's the best movie, like, ever. Those Sorceresses are really hot!'

Jagger grinned. "Hey my night's looking up already."

Rose rolled her eyes. "Whatever dude."

They entered the dorms, talking about absolutely nothing. Rose hugged them goodnight as she slid the card into the door. "Hey Inari?" she said softly, flicking on the living room light. There were some rustling noises from Inari's room and a low groan. Rose opened the door, concerned.

Inari lay naked on her bed while another girl with short brown hair lay on top of her, kissing her passionately and moving slowly down her body with her mouth. Inari moaned loudly. Rose's eyes widened and she shut the door quickly, leaning against it for a moment, thinking. Then she ran out of her dorm.

"Hey!" she called out to Jagger and Ayden who were walking down the hallway to their dorm. Reaching them she smiled. "I, um changed my mind about training. Inari's okay, she was just… tired." She turned to Ayden and pasted on a false smile.

"You should come too, okay?" she said quickly. Ayden shrugged and pocketed the key.

"Sure, you okay?" he said, looking down at her curiously. Rose relaxed and smiled.

"Yeah I'm fine, let's go to the Training Center!" She exclaimed.

Jagger nodded. "Alright, calm down," he said chuckling.

-Four Hours Later-

"I'm going to bed," said Ayden, panting on the ground. "9 T-Rexaurs is enough for one night." Jagger laughed.

"Go take a shower first," he joked.

Ayden got to his feet and nodded. "Most def." He turned to Rose. "I'd give you a hug, but I don't want to get you wet."

Jagger wiggled his eyebrows. Rose smacked him on the back of the head, and then smiled at Ayden. "Night, see you in the morning."

Jagger smiled. "I'll be there soon."

Ayden nodded and walked out of the training center. Jagger turned to Rose and raised his gunblade, grinning. "Wanna spar?"

Rose nodded. "Awesome."

He swung at her with his black bladed sword but she dodged him easily and swung up her own gunblade in response. Sparks flew as metal clashed against metal again and again.

He took a side sweep at her head and she ducked, coming up with a strong front swipe. He brought his blade down quickly and they crashed together, and then sprang apart again. She grinned, sweat pouring from her forehead. A few more testing sweeps and then she leapt up into the air, preparing to bring her blade down with devastating force. Jagger whipped his sword up quickly in response and they crashed together. Icy blue eyes met sea blue ones, and suddenly fell apart as Rose hit the ground, her waist length blonde hair fanning out behind her. Jagger dropped his gunblade instantly. "Rose!"

She opened her eyes slowly; concerned light blue-green ones stared into her own. "Oww…" she said, wincing as she tried to move her left wrist. Jagger placed his hand over it quickly, using a Cura. The pain lessened instantly and she sighed. "Um, what happened?" she asked, her mind a bit muddled.

"Well, you did this awesome attack but you landed it wrong or something because it messed up your wrist," he said, indicating the quickly fading bruises. Rose nodded.

"Well, um, thanks," she said quickly, sitting up slowly. Jagger's eyes bore into her own and suddenly his lips were covering hers and her mouth was opening, to her surprise, his tongue probed her own and the roof of her mouth. She closed her eyes and responded as his hands wrapped around her and her own explore his body. His hand slid down her back and suddenly her face flushed bright red and she tore away and got to her feet, grabbing her gunblade. Looking at him, she almost cried. "Uh, look. I'm sorry but…"

He shrugged. "No biggie, my brain just zoned out. Sorry."

Rose nodded, her face still bright red. He grinned. "My bad."

Rose shook her head. "No it's cool. I'll see you in the morning," she said, turning and running to her dorm room.

Jagger sighed and pushed his hair out of his eyes, picking up his blade and slinging his cadet jacket over his shoulder, he walked out of the Training Centre after her.

Rose shut the door to her dorm behind her and flicked on the light again. Inari lay on the couch, her eyes opened slowly when she saw Rose. Rose forced a smile. "Um, I was just out training." Inari nodded.

"I'm sorry I wasn't at the meeting or at dinner… something… came up…" she yawned and got to her feet. Giving Rose a quick kiss on the cheek, she walked into her room and shut the door. Rose sighed and went into her room, quickly stripping off her uniform and throwing it into the pile of dirty clothes near the door that she needed to take to the laundry room. With only her socks and underwear on, she went into the bathroom and turned on the water. Making sure it was scalding hot; she turned to the mirror and looked at herself.

Pale and slender, she was well built but not really big boned. Her breasts were a bit on the big side of average but her ass was mostly flat. Catching herself staring at herself in the mirror, she shook her head in disbelief and took off the rest of her clothes, sliding into the steaming water and washing away her confusion and her cares.

-In the Boys Dorm-

Ayden sat at the table, his hair wet from the shower and in his boxers. Jagger grinned at him. "Hey man, I thought you were exhausted?"

Ayden shrugged. "I needed to talk to you." Jagger nodded.

"Yeah, we need to figure out what to do with that bastard of a step father," he said, throwing his jacket onto the couch. Ayden nodded.

"Well yeah…"

Jagger sat across from Ayden at the table. Ayden smiled. "Well, he told mom I was a bad influence on Zoë basically, so she's not letting me there anymore. Zoë wants to come to Garden though. When she turns 13, she says she's going whether mom likes it or not," he grinned. "She wants a tattoo too."

Jagger laughed. "How old is she again?"

Ayden smiled. "She's 11. She hates him too. It's kind of funny, but I haven't seen her in nearly a year though, so now it's just irritating. If Dad were still alive, he would have kicked that pussy's ass. Basically, it just sucks."

Jagger nodded. "Well, when we pass our SeeD exams, we should be able to do something about it."

Ayden nodded. "Thanks man."

Jagger shrugged. "No big."

Ayden got up to go to bed. "Hey Ayden…" Jagger contemplated telling him about Rose.

Ayden turned to him. "Yeah." Jagger grinned.

"Never mind."

Ayden frowned. "You can't do that. It's against the rules."

Jagger laughed. "What rules?"

"The rules man. Come on, you're not allowed to just lead me on like that, I won't be able to sleep," Ayden grouched.

Jagger nodded. "I kissed Rose," he said simply.

Ayden's jaw dropped.

"It was an accident okay? She was kind of just lying there and I just got a little excited and then I kissed her," Jagger finished, looking vaguely embarrassed.

"Did she kiss you back?"

Jagger raised an eyebrow. "Yeah."

Ayden laughed. "Well, what are you guys going to do about it?"

Jagger shrugged. "Probably nothing. It kind of freaked her out, I think. Anyway, we definitely won't do anything until after the exam and the festival."

Ayden shrugged. "Well that's cool then. Night dude."

"Night."

Yeah so, what did you guys think? It's definitely going to have more of a storyline than my previous stories. I dunno so much about the Shoujo ai. It's going to be there, regardless, but as to whether I do anything graphic or not… well tell me what you want in your reviews.

To give you a basic idea of heights and ages…

Rose is roughly 5'7" or a bit taller. Inari is around 5'3"…

Ayden is 5'10". How this happened, no idea, his dad's like 5'5", Ayden's just a freak of nature. Jagger is 6'

Rose and Ayden are both 15. Inari is 19 and Jagger is 16.

Somehow, I ended up with some really odd age differences but since Inari is so short, it's no big.

laughs because she's a moron