A/N: Fluffy Wakka/Lulu-ness! Yay! My favorite couple! (Save Auron and me, of course.)

Just This Once
Chapter One: Misty Eyed

I held my pillow close to my face, my eyes open but thoughts clouding them like fog. I suppose, once or twice, in my life I had cried but I couldn't seem to remember them. There was an extraordinary pain forming in my scull, like I'd been hit one too many times by a particularily vicious fiend. It was releasing. I allowed myself to relax, to rip off my clothing and cumbersome articals, with much too much complexity to them and stepped into a robe, curling up on my bed.

The wonderful thing was that I didn't care. Once someone stepped through that door to tell me what was going on, all the tense would return, the world would be balanced on my hands once more. But right now I couldn't care less.

I didn't know why I was crying. Perhaps I never would. Maybe I just wanted the relief—maybe I just wasn't myself that day. But whatever the reasons, I felt light. And when that door opened, it didn't go away. I felt like laughing—maybe even crying more—at the sight that greeted my aching eyes.

A knife of rusty hair poked through my doorway, following that a tanned face and squinting brown eyes.

His disbelieving expression made me smile—but it would be just this once.

"It's a little dark in here, ya?" he said nervously, walking in with cautious steps. He rubbed the back of his head, looking sheepish. "Uh, I just came here to tell ya that we're gonna stay the night." the door snapped shut behind him and he jumped, laughing a little at himself.

I don't know why—I didn't know much at that moment—but he seemed so angelic to me at that moment, that my eyes couldn't move away. I just looked at him, now sitting, from the edge of the bed. He was starting to get a little flustered by it.

"Uhh, Lulu? You okay?" he questioned, taking a tentative step forward. He leaned down and felt my forhead with the back of his hand. "Hey, you're starting to creep me out, Lu…say something, will ya?" it was weird. I felt inevitably compelled to silence him at that moment. And to touch him. I needed something sturdy to feel, when the world was rocking beneath my feet.

I reached out and let my fingers brush over the stubble on his chin. It pricked at them a bit, enough so that after a moment my whole palm was tingling as I followed the lighter bits to under his chin. It stopped at his throat, where I twisted my fingers into his chain and pressed my palm against it, feeling his heartbeat pounding through my arm, to the point where it was my own. That solid, fast heartbeat drummed against my ears, so that when he spoke again I could barely make out that my name was in the sentance.

Fingers still caught in the chains I pulled him down to my level, registering the suprise and need in his eyes for the first time.

It was that which set my heart running at miles an hour.

And I kissed him, just this once.

End