"Flying is like swimming," the stoic Chevalier had explained, "It comes naturally, as long as you don't panic."
The first lesson had been the previous day at the Nu'uanu Pali lookout, a mountainside cliff with winds of over fifty miles per hour constantly blowing over it. A natural wind tunnel – and the ideal place for a flying lesson.
Everyone else that was present also learned a lesson.
Saya and Yuki learned not to wear skirts to the Nu'uanu Pali, and everyone else learned what color underwear they were wearing that evening.
Freddie appeared to be the adventurous type, exhibiting less hesitation than most people would when Haji first told him to step off the top of the railing, and he seemed to take to flying very quickly.
So quickly that they had already moved on to lesson two: flying with a passenger.
It was nearly two in the morning, but the difference in time zones meant that it didn't feel nearly that late.
Any passerby who happened to defy the human tendency not to look upwards would have probably just thought they were seeing a pair of large sea birds, the elevation of the two chevaliers was great enough to mask their distinctive, angel-like silhouettes.
Since it was Haji doing the teaching, Freddie had learned how to produce wings without changing the rest of his body.
The two Chevaliers glided across the clear night sky, carrying their respective Queens, bridal style. They had been flying over the ocean, a relatively forgiving terrain in the event of a crash.
Haji nodded at his apprentice as he began to gradually loose altitude. It was time to practice landing.
Haji descended slowly, with the grace and ease of a swan-feather, his boots not even making a sound as they made contact with the powder-like beach sand.
Freddie, seemed unable to position his wings in such a way that would allow him to descend slowly, and plummeted toward the ground for a moment before panicking and spreading his wings once more, flying parallel with the beach, only a few feet above it.
"Shit…… Shit……. Shit…… Shit…...Shit!"
His feet skidded along the ground like a duck landing in water, only with considerably less grace and considerably more swearing. Seeming desperate to finally come to a halt, he dug his feet into the sand, unfortunately causing him to fall and tumble forward as Yuki flew out of his arms, landing face first in a sand dune, where a few egrets had apparently been sleeping.
The birds squawked curses as they flew away from the two sand-covered vampires.
Even Haji couldn't help laughing at the ridiculous landing.
Freddie pushed him self to his feet, and straightened his rumpled, auburgine-purple wings. Yuki, now covered head to toe in sand, approached her clumsy Chevalier.
"It's easy, you said! I've totally got the hang of it, you said! It's like my body already knows how to do it! What a load of crap!" Yuki groaned as she wiped some sand from her face.
"Aww! Give me a break will ya? All that extra weight threw my balance off!"
"What do you mean 'all that extra weight!?"
"Oh come on, you know that's not what I meant!"
Yuki crossed her arms and glared at him, her hair still caked with sand.
Freddie sighed. "Here, hang on a minute," he said as he flapped his wings at her, creating enough wind to blow most of the sand off. "Better?"
"Yeah."
"I'm sorry, I just need a bit more practice."
Yuki still looked perturbed, until Freddie approached, and whispered something in her ear.
She blushed and giggled, and all was mysteriously forgiven.
By that time, Saya and Haji had walked over to the crash site.
"Perhaps some more 'solo' practice is in order before you try carrying her again," Haji suggested.
"You got it, sensei! – lets go!"
The two Chevaliers took flight, both launching himself off the ground with a powerful jump before unfurling his wings and gliding out over the water.
The two Queens sat on the sand, watching their respective Chevaliers.
Yuki fidgeted with a lock of her hair.
"Saya, have you and Haji ever gone all the way?"
Saya's eyes widened at the sudden, provocative question.
"Um, no."
Yuki's eyes narrowed. "Then why are you blushing?" she asked with a smirk.
"It's a really personal question!"
"C'mon, you can tell me."
"I already did!"
Yuki giggled. "You really expect me to believe that?"
"It's true!"
"Oh come on! He even sleeps in your freakin' room now!"
Saya let out an exasperated sigh. "First of all, Haji doesn't sleep -"
"Yeah, I bet he doesn't!"
"You know what I meant!" Saya paused. "I'm telling you, we've never done it."
Yuki seemed to be willing to accept this answer now, but only with some sort of explanation.
"But you two have been together for so long, and you clearly love each other, why not just drop the other shoe?"
"It's complicated," Saya sighed.
Yuki giggled. "Um, not really, you see, first you kiss, then you take off your clothes, then he puts his naughty thing in your naughty place. The rest kind of takes care of it's self."
Saya rolled her eyes. "I know that!"
Yuki's head tilted inquisitively. "Then why is it complicated?"
Saya had been backed into an inquisitional corner, but suddenly, a believable, non-embarrassing and technically true answer came to her.
"We're just waiting until we get married."
"Really? How quaint!" Yuki said with a delighted, yet somehow condecending, smile. "But how is that complicated?"
Wow, Saya couldn't help but think, my mother is teasing me for being a virgin!
"Why are you asking me this anyway?!"
Now Yuki blushed.
"Yuki?"
"Well," she said, her voice soft yet ecstatic, "Last night, Freddie and I -"
Saya let out a scandalized gasp. "You didn't!"
"Oh yes we did!" Yuki whispered excitedly as she softly clapped her hands. "After I went to bed, he came into my room to give me a good night kiss, apparently he does that every night, but this time, I woke up and kind of kissed him back and – well, one thing led to another."
Though Saya had grown out of it after the zoo tragedy, both she and her sister were impulsive by nature, and apparently this was an inherited trait.
Yuki decided to continue, flattering herself with the thought that it was her duty to explain certain things to her less experienced friend.
"It actually didn't hurt at all – I mean, it was a little uncomfortable at first, but it didn't hurt."
Of course it didn't, you've obviously done it before, Saya thought.
Yuki paused, waiting for some kind of response.
Saya was very much done with the conversation – she didn't exactly approve of Yuki's decision to sleep with a man she had only known for several weeks and wasn't officially in a relationship with, not to mention Saya wasn't particularly keen on hearing all about her mother's sexual encounter, amnesiac or not.
"Saya, are you listening?"
"Yeah."
"You don't sound like you're happy for me."
"I am happy for you…"
"What?"
"It's just that – I kind of wonder if - well, you and Freddie haven't known each other that long."
"Just because you decided to be a prude with your boyfriend, doesn't mean everyone else has to! I love Freddie, and he loves me!"
Yes, but he barely knows you – it's probably just his blood that loves you, Saya thought.
Yuki became even more offended by Saya's silence. She lifted her nose into the air as she stood and began angrily walking back toward the house.
"You know what? Disapprove all you want, I don't care! You're not my mother, you know!" Yuki shouted as she stomped off.
Saya sighed as she allowed her self to fall backwards, her head hitting the sand with a subtle thud.
Why does life have to be so complicated?
She gazed up at the night sky, and took notice of the moon.
Wow, they even have rainbows at night, here.
It wasn't an ordinary lunar halo – it was a full on rainbow – each color bright and defined as they encircled the glowing orb.
Just as this natural wonder began to take Saya's off one of the major dilemmas she was facing, the other one appeared beside her.
"Hello Saya."
Solomon was sitting a few inches away from her, leaning over her as she lay on the sand.
She let out a squeak of surprise, and sat up so quickly that her forehead bumped his quite forcefully.
"Oh! Sorry! Sorry sorry!" she cried, more than a hair past mortified.
He simply chuckled as he sat up. "Quite alright – you know us Chevaliers have a high tolerance for pain."
She sat silently, wallowing in her embarrassment.
"I'm sorry if I am intruding, it's just that I rarely get a chance to speak to you alone," he said, unconsciously glancing upwards at the two Chevaliers soaring a few thousand feet above.
"Oh."
He smiled uncomfortably – though it looked just as amiable and sincere as always. "I think you can guess what I am going to bring up."
She could – and part of her desperately wanted to change the subject – but it couldn't be avoided forever.
"Yeah…"
He drew in a deep breath. "Nathan told me that you wanted to have children with me," he paused, "however, I know that Nathan is – well, Nathan, and it's entirely possible that he was just teasing me. Is what he told me true?"
"Yes," she murmured, a deep blush spreading across her face.
She caught his smile out of the corner of her eye, and somehow felt the urgent urge to elaborate. "Nathan told me it meant I wouldn't have to sleep anymore," she hastily added. "Do you think he was telling me the truth?"
"It's hard to say for sure, however, I was privy to some test results from Diva that suggest that what he said was true."
"Test results?"
"Over the years, Amshel discovered a way to predict exactly how long it would be before Diva went into hibernation by looking at levels of hormones in her blood – the more of a certain hormone, I don't recall what it was called, but the more she had – the closer she was to hibernation. However, after she became pregnant and gave birth, it virtually disappeared." He paused. "I suppose that does not prove anything – but it does corroborate Nathan's story."
Saya considered this for a moment. It sounded plausible, but she also had no way of knowing if Solomon was lying to her. In all honesty, the thought had occurred to her that this could possibly be some scheme to get her to sleep with him. After all, this was the man who kidnapped her and put her naked in his bed – sweet and polite though he seemed, the possibility of him being a pervert with an enabling brother couldn't be ruled out yet.
"Solomon – is that really true?"
He looked at her intensely. "Saya, have I ever been anything except completely honest with you?"
She thought back to all of her previous dealings with him and a realization came over her – all the time she had known him, all though his transformation from enemy to ally, villain to savior, one thing did remain completely constant about him – he had never lied to her, nor withheld the truth.
The first time they met, he had confessed his unflattering reason for asking her to dance, even at the risk of offending her, and he could have just as easily kept it to himself. The second time they met, he had virtually introduced himself as Diva's Chevalier. That was also the afternoon when he explained hibernation to her, as well as the ulterior motives of her beloved first father – things everyone else had hid from her. The third time they met, he told her where she could find Diva, though it turned out that he had been misinformed. The fourth time, he admitted his mistake and quite publicly and in no uncertain terms declared himself to be in love with her.
The fifth time – well, he said a lot of things that night.
"Saya?"
"I'm sorry," she lowered her eyes, " – your right, you've never given me any reason not to trust you."
He smiled broadly at the statement, and she slowly raised her eyes to meet his.
"Well then, I suppose we should wait until this corpse corps business is over then – we wouldn't want your blood to loose its potency just yet."
"Yes."
After a silence that seemed much longer than it actually was, he turned to her with a smile.
"Well, now that we've discussed the nessasary subject, I was hoping we could talk for a while."
"We are talking."
He smiled again, "I mean just a normal conversation, not about the future of our species or the war, just talk, like normal people."
"Oh."
He looked upwards. "So, Haji is teaching young Freddie how to fly?"
"Yes."
"I would offer to give him a lesson too, but it seems that Haji would be a better teacher for him, since they have the same type of wings."
"Same type?"
"Freddie's wings come out of his back like Haji's, instead of being attached to his arms, like mine. I guess that's why he's able to half-transform with out much trouble."
"Half?"
"I would imagine that if he fed enough, Haji could look just as monstrous as any chiropteran if he allowed himself to, and I suppose the same goes for Freddie." He paused. "For a Chevalier, our ultimate strength comes when we are in our true form, perhaps I should teach Freddie about that."
"Hm."
"But I suppose maintaining a mostly human appearance does have it's advantages."
"Like what?" she asked, mainly to confirm that she was still listening.
"Well, for one thing, when one fully transforms, it's necessary to learn how to use one's exceptional speed in order to change in and out of one's clothes."
"Why?"
"Because for an inexperienced or overzealous Chevalier who doesn't bother to undress, the transformation would rip their clothing to shreds."
Saya could vaguely recall seeing this happen when fighting the Phantom and Grigori Rasputin.
"While in full chiropteran form," Solomon continued, "it isn't much of a problem if they don't mind ruining a set of clothes – however, it does leave them in a very embarrassing situation when they change back to human form."
Saya had never considered this before.
Suddenly, a mental image came to her of her foes after battle, tip-toeing from bush to bush to hide their nakedness.
She began laughing.
Somehow, this vision of those men, suddenly and involuntarily naked as the day they were born and with no clothes in sight, was absolutely hysterically funny. These men who had, in truth, terrified her, were now, in her mental image, reduced to such ridiculous powerlessness, completely unintimidating and to Saya – completely hilarious.
Before she knew it, she was laying on her back, her body completely taken over by hysterical and uncontrollable laughter.
She couldn't remember the last time she had laughed so hard.
Solomon laughed too, not because he found his own statement to be particularly funny. The joy he derived from making her laugh was just too great to be expressed in with a mere smile.
Several seconds later, Saya's fit of laugher subsided with a sigh, and while still laying on the ground, she swiped the back of her hand across her eyes, to wipe away the laughter-induced tears.
But when she removed her hand from her eyes, she saw that Solomon was leaning over her, one hand on either side of her body, looking at her with unmistakable adoration and desire.
It was that same look as in her dream.
In a moment of extreme naivete, she wondered why he kept glancing at her lips.
By the time she realized, it was too late to turn away, and the ground beneath her head gave her no escape.
If ever a man were truly unable to help himself, it was then. Something about seeing her laugh so wholeheartedly, and for him no less, made him completely helpless against his love for her.
He abruptly, though not entirely without warning, lowered his face down to hers, her lips still parted in a post-laughter smile.
He kissed her.
Her lips remained entirely passive for a moment, before closing softly in such a way as to make him unable to tell if she was simply denying him further access or subtly kissing him back.
She couldn't quite tell either.
Encouraged by the lack of outright rejection, he slid one hand under her neck and the other arm, under her back as he lowered his body onto hers. He lightly ran his tongue along her lips, not so much to insist on deepening the kiss, but more because he just had to taste her, even if only for a moment.
Only a few seconds later, he felt her body tense beneath him, her lashes brushing against his face as her eyes opened.
He knew this meant he had taken it too far, and pulled away. She abruptly sat up, and he sat beside her, unsure if she would chastise him, slap him or kiss him again.
She wasn't quite sure either.
Instead, she simply stood up and silently began walking towards the house, too unnerved even to offer a lame excuse for her abrupt departure, let alone remind him that she was engaged and in love with someone else.
Solomon watched her until she disappeared into the yellow house.
His passion at least appeased if not sated, he grinned as he leaned back on his hands and gazed at the multi-colored lunar halo, pondering how it was still anyone's game.
She once spoke of 'sweet dreams about a future together.' If I have not reminded her of them yet, then I will certainly have an excellent opportunity before long.
Anuenue' kau po – rainbow at night
Let me know what you think of this chapter/story so far!