Hit & miss part 2

After missing the the mark by a mile back in the shooting range, James had spend the last day and-a-half scrubbing the shuttlebay and getting more annoyed by the hour. Cortez was even starting to complain about his increasingly less than social behaviour and kindly requested me to either get James out of the shuttlebay or get him to stop cursing. Indeed I could tell by the look on his face as soon as I walked in the shuttlebay he was about ready to shoot someone.

' How is the cleanup coming along?'

' Don't start with me Lola, I haven't forgiven you for making me miss my game yet. Not to mention for having to scrub out this whole damn place while we lack any real cleaning materials... I'm starting to think you set me up'.

' Well look at it this way James, maybe I saved you a lot of credits by making you miss that game'.

' oh, whipe that smug look of your face, you love watching me sweat my ass of down here!'

He was right, maybe I was enjoying this just a little bit to much. It was also kind of true that I'd set him up. I knew there was no way in hell he'd ever get that shot right. It had taken me years to make it look that easy and I knew his ego wouldn't let him turn my offer down. I figured he'd needed a lesson in humility.

' we all have to get down and dirty at some point in our careers'.

' That's it! You and me gonna settle this with good old sparring match.' He threw the cleaning rags he had in his hands on the floor.

' If you beat me this time i'll make shure this whole damn place is spotless by tommorow morning. But if I win i'm gonna sit back and watch you doing it. Just know I ain't holding out on you this time just because you' re commander'.

I smiled. ' I never asked you to hold back on me James, just give me all you got'.

I zipped open my hoodie and took it of to give me more freedom to move as I stretched my arms back and forth ,reveaIing the close fitting shirt I usualy whore under my alliance gear. I caught James staring at me just a second to long. See, I knew there was something there, even though he was trying not to admit it...

I took up a defensive posture and swayed back and forth between my feet as James mirrored me.

' Are you shure Lola, last change to chicken out here'

' If there's anything you should know about me by now James, it's that I never back down'.

' yeah, on that you're right'

He was quick to take a swing at me with his left fist , but i ducked down and caught him of his guard as i swayed left and landed a right hook on his jaw

' first strike'. I said, unable to hold back a another smile

James recovered his defences quickly and moved back a little , inticing me to follow him. I took a step forward but miscalculated and almost recieved a full blow to the temple. Luckely, i moved my head to the side just in time so his fist only grased me. He didn't give me time to regroup as he struck out his right fist, which i was able to fend of with my arm.

' Be carefull now, we wouldn't want to mess up that pretty little face of yours' He said grinning.

I moved up quickly and delivered 3 punches. The first two ended on his defence but they where able to distract him enough for me to land the third one on his right cheek.

He shook of the pain quickly and came in with a right hook of which i took the full blow.

I regained my posture.

' is that all you got Vega? I'd hoped you weren't just all talk but i'm starting to think i'm going to get dissapointed here'.

' oh, you're going down this time Lola!'

He came up to me fast but i managed to sway my whole body left , moving up and turning around so I ended up behind him. Before he was able to turn fully, i tried to plant another punch on his cheek but hit his shoulder instead, hurting my hand more than i had actualy hurt him. I wasn't about to hold back on him, but the pain got me destacted enough so he could land a full blow on my ear, leaving it ringing. He came in for a second and a third blow , which i blocked.

I was starting to lose my balance fast and as it turned out i wasn't the only one. James had caught his foot behind a wire that ran along the floor and ,as he came up to me for a fourth punch he fell over, taking me with him. The full weight of his body fell down on me as we both hit the shuttlebay floor

It was quiet for a second, but than we both burst out in laughter.

' I geuss you got me falling for you now, huh?' He said, still laughing. He pushed himself up with his arms while keeping me pinned to the floor with the rest of his body.

' Now, is this just in my head Vega or, unlike to what you said before, are you trying to get somewhere ?'

James didn't dare look at me but instead moved his hands up my arms which where spread out above my head . By the looks of it, i'd just thrown another curveball at him. His usualy assured nature seemed miles away. I couldn't blame him for getting caught of guard by this . As his CO, I shouldn't even have put him in this possition but I didn't want to drag this out any longer. I needed a straight awnser out of him this time.

Ever since James had gotten assigned to guard me back in Vancouver, there had been chemestry between us. I took it at face value at first, enjoying our little vocal sparring matches just as much as i enjoyed the physical ones. I even kind of liked the nickname he gave me. It was something private , something between the two of us. I was his Lola.. Somewhere allong the line, I developed feelings for him without realising that what was happening. I knew damn well i wasn't suppose to but it had happened all the same. Honestly, while laying there on the floor, I still was anything but shure if making him tell me how he felt about me was such a good idea. There was no going back after this and we both knew it...

He finaly turned to face me as he took a deep breath.

' You got me okay...' he said, his voice sounding a little insecure.

'You got me twisting and turning all night, every night Lola. But this whole fucking situation is just so messed up. It's like whenever i try not to think of the reapers raising hell on earth, i end up thinking 'bout you. But you've got the whole damn galaxy to save while here all i can do is keep your ass out of the fireline and I ain't even doing a very goog job at that. We're soldiers damnit! We're pretty much all the hope they got left back on earth and we can't afford to lose focus.'

' yeah, I know what you mean... But just for the record I think you're doing a great job on saving my ass Vega. It's not like i'm making it easy on you'.

' You got that right, you draw out more fire than Aria would in the middle of the anual C-seck dinner '

Again, we couldn't help but laugh.

' Damn, it's good to laugh'. I said while trying to get him to look me in the eyes.

' You know, for a long time there i didn't think there was a anything left to laugh about, but then there's you... It's why I keep coming back for more, even though i know i shoudn't let myself get carried away. You keep dragging me back in and for a long time there i didn't even notice this pull you have on me'.

I saw his expresion change while he processed my words. The insecurity I just saw was being replaced by some of the cockiness i was used to seeing from him. He moved in closer till his face was just inches from mine.I felt his warm, uneven breath on my cheeks as i contamplaited about how long it's been since the last time i'd let anyone get this close to me. He then moved in to kiss me, his lips barely brushing mine at first but when he noticed i didn't protest, he came in with more force. I opened my mouth little by little untill our thounges found one another. The kiss was agressive and playfull, a perfect representation of him .

As he kept his lips locked on mine, he pushed his body down on me with more force while he ran his fingers through my hair. I moved my hands down under his shirt and along his spine, hardly able to catch my breath . The sheer rush of it was overwelming, stronger than I had expacted it to be.

I managed to pull my legs out from under him and wrapped them arround his waist. He responded to this by running one hand under my shirt acros my back , locking me tightly against his torso.

James pushed himself up to his knees with one hand while he kept the other arm arround me. He got up to his feet without any effort at all while I clung to him. His lips parted with mine while he looked at me with a mixture of satisfation and suprise written across his face.

' Maybe we should get out of sight before Cortez comes back. We wouldn't want him to run and tell alliance command about conduct very unbecoming of their star commander'. He said grinning.

' you got any place in mind?'

I saw the sparkle in his eyes, telling me he wanned this just as much as i did. To hell with the guidelines, to hell with this war and to hell with the entire galaxy. Tonight, I was giving in to whatever this was.

' Well, I bunk out here just behind my workplace you know.' he said as he knodded his head trowards the far left of the shuttlebay 'A supply room they never got arround to stocking up. Just don't tell my commander about that one okay?'