Today´s Soundtrack: In the Mood….yes, Glen Miller.
WARNING: Please note, this Fic Signum-Fate and it is rated M for strong or violent content, strong language, sexual encounters between two females and other possible niceties. If this kind of content offends you in any way, if you are easily upset by explicit violent or sexual scenes or if you don´t have the age for reading M content, please don´t read.
DISCLAIMER: Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha´s characters belong to their authors. Plot from Aleksei Volken. I only own my imagination. All the characters and situations described in this fic are fictional. Any similarity with real people or situation is not intentional and is pure coincidental.
-X-
The Blue Eyed Demon by Aleksei Volken
-X-
Choice.
I don´t remember where I heard it but it was said that no such wonderful thing as a 'choice' exists. Choice is just an illusion, created between those with power…and those without.
During many, many more years than I care to count, I thought that I had a choice.
I remember the first time I saw her. I saw them…will be more proper.
She was a little girl, very thinnish and feeble, tattered and muddy. She was all eyes and dirt; clear and limpid purple-greenish eyes. Hell of a color for sure. There are two things I remember more about her at that frozen moment in my memory; those indefinable but piercingly expressive eyes and the bravery with she was determined to protect an even pitiful creature than her.
It was close night. No one was on the streets. There was only the darkness and the unutterable. And a big, big man standing up in front of them; ready to take two little girls for whoever knows what purpose. You name it; child prostitution, mendicancy, prey, fun…dinner. Living in the streets for a child never had been what you can consider 'safe.' Let aside when such 'street' is a gigantic dunghill in the middle of nowhere, where…nobody cares what happen to strangers.
They were strangers. I never had seen the two girls before that day.
And the big guy never expected that a strong brat will land on top of his head with a twenty-five pounds rock. Ok, it wasn´t a rock but it was twenty five pounds. He was dead by the time he hit the ground. I was thirteen and he was not my first one.
As I said…street is a hard place.
-X-
CHAPTER 3. Blue Mood.
-X-
Earth, Year 2161 A.D. from Old Gregorian Calendar - Year 99 of Modern Perpetual Solar Calendar, City of New Sparta, Main Capital of the Americas (former City of Washington D.C.)
Corporate Building of BLUE Incorporated.
"Well, well, well, this is an unexpected surprise," an undetermined age but attractive woman flashed a smile at the video phone call after seeing her interlocutor. It was close to midnight but her businesses were very busy at all times, twenty four – seven; and she always had time for this special customer. "What I can do for you Mrs. Wolkenritter?"
"Save it Serena," Signum bluntly responded as greeting and then just kept silent, staring at the woman floating on the transparent screen in front of her. She was sitting comfortably on the modern and spacious living room of the penthouse she had on the very top of her corporate building, her mobile communication device was resting on a low and elegant glass table projecting the holographic screen from where mistress Serena Earls was speaking to her.
Hayate was of course completely against the idea that Signum lived not just close of her work place but at her work place but she never heard at her little protégé suggestions for moving to another location.
"Ok…what would you like tonight?" Serena asked charmingly without losing her smile at Signum´s rudeness. "A woman? A guy? Both?"
In her line of business, Serena knew her knowledge about customer's tastes, mainly the 'special' ones like Signum Wolkenritter, was the very key for her success. Those days the vast majority of her customers preferred pleasure Biodevices. They were safer, predictable and customizable and they have the plus that they could be anything a customer wanted: a woman with a penis, a man with a vagina, a 'true' hermaphrodite; a man with two penis…anything the most perverse fantasy anyone could possibly imagine (and pay for) was at the reach of hand and bed.
But still some rare people preferred… normal and boring regular… humans. And who she was to deny people their pleasures? Mainly when that people was one of her most important customers and providers?
It was long ago since Signum asked for her services, probably two years so she was delighted to have her back and willing to fulfill her requirements.
"Women," Signum said her voice sounding a bit strangled even for her when she answered and cursing her lack of control she added, "Two."
"Perfect," Serena said her smile widening, "Any special requirement?"
"Surprise me."
After saying that, Signum cut the communication without further comment. She preferred that way, plain and simple, with no explanations or commitments. Pure and plain business.
Putting her mobile device in resting mode she stood up from the couch and walked to the big terrace the penthouse had. Her 'apartment' was a two level, L shape construction, on the very top of her corporate building. It was spacious and illuminated since almost all the exterior walls were strengthened panes of armored glass that not even a bazooka could break. A heavy plasma gunshot…maybe could. If whoever carrying it lived enough to shoot, maybe that would break that crystal.
One of the very few advantages that the past and current way of living had, was the she was an expert on several weaponry, surveillance and defensive systems…and had the way to get them.
Very few people knew she actually lived there. Hayate, Carim, Zafira…of course. Serena and others that eventually meet her there were completely sure that whatever she did there, was part of the work and not her home. And she liked it that way.
The best way to hide something is in front of the eyes of everybody.
And in this case, everybody thought she lived discretely in a lavish part of the city. She even owned a house there and showed up conveniently around in erratic and unpredictable patterns. As she did in some other known locations that she maintained as a perfect façades but her truly operating center was there.
BLUE corporate building was her personal fortress.
It was no other building around taller than hers. She made sure of that when the building rose to the sky almost ten years ago.
"Fifteen years," Signum thought watching without truly see the breathtaking skyline of New Sparta at night, tightening her grip on the metal rim surrounding the terrace.
It had been fifteen years since she died. Fourteen years since she had founded BLUE. Ten years since she had almost built BLUE corporate building with her own hands and blood.
It took less five seconds to mention those three events. Less than five seconds to encompass the more than four hundred and sixty millions of seconds that those fifteen years meant on her life.
Her own personal path towards retribution.
And probably, her personal one way ticket straight to hell. If only she could believe on hell she at least could have the relief of thinking that heaven existed.
During the whole afternoon, she tried her best to NOT think about her but inevitably, she went to the place where she kept that picture. The first picture they had together when Hayate was still a little child. When all of them were still kids and they thought that choices existed.
Very few people kept printed pictures those years. But at the time that picture was taken, she insisted in having it printed. "I don´t want to turn a device on to see guys," she said with that charming and warm smile, "I want to keep you close of my heart all the time."
And that she did. She kept that picture with her for years, always close to her.
What bothered Signum the most was that with time, the memories about her had faded out like those old papers that lost bright and sharpness until eventually, they disappear.
She knew the woman she was looking at the picture was Shamal but the memory of her was fading.
The memory of Shamal´s voice and laugh was fading; of her warmth and her skin, even the burning memory of her pain when she died, everything was fading in air replaced by a dark emptiness.
Everything was fading but her wrath. That one was still intact despite the years.
And the woman that dared to show up at her office that morning was a living reminder of the reason for that merciless wrath.
A soft buzz on her wrist took her back to the present time. It was Zafira. Her 'guests' had arrived.
Reluctantly, Signum left the terrace, back to the apartment inside to wait standing up on the middle of the living area. That night, she was dressed completely in black, with long and elegant trousers and a beautiful and very expensive long sleeve silk shirt, it was elegant but yet comfortable, distant, imposing…dangerous. A color spoke tons about the person wearing it and Signum was always careful that her color said the less about her.
The elevator doors slid open and two voluptuous women walked in confidently at her living room where she was waiting, evaluating Serena´s selection. Zafira walked in and waited silently behind them.
Both women were tall and slender but full with curves. They were a brunette and a auburn one, in their late twenties. Both of them stopped a very prudent distance and endured the evaluation with her best smile.
Keeping her face still Signum nodded slightly. Serena had her touch precise and tuned as always. Signum had never told anything about her private life to Serena but in her previous "selections" never chose blondes and Serena never ever sent her one. Probably that woman was too observant for her own good.
Then, still admiring at the women, something got Signum attention and transformed her expression in a rictus of anger. Her eyes went to Zafira´s but the big guy only shook his head negatively.
Signum activated her mobile device and Mrs. Serena Earls was on screen in less than two seconds.
"What the hell is that?" Signum pointed to new comers, her eyes never leaving her interlocutor on the screen.
A small redhead was just barely showing up behind the tall brunette.
"Well, since has been a long time since the last time you requested our services, I thought about a little bonus for you," Serena explained. "Don´t be mad. She is human, newly arrived, pure and untouched."
"And a kid" Signum said with her voice lowering down so coldly and and her eyes paling so dangerously, that Serena felt a shiver running down her back at the icy change on Signum´s eyes. Then she remembered why everybody called Signum the Blue Demon on the streets and cursed the one who popped up with the idea to send her the fresher meat they had that night.
As the sinner she was, Signum never ran away from her sins. She had plenty of sins but taking child for pleasure was not among them.
As they talked, the subject of the discussion showed up behind the brunette woman a little more, looking at Signum.
She looked at the girl and then back to Serena. The girl could not be older than fifteen at best. In that business, she was lucky that she grew up that age still…virgin. Signum wondered what could be the tragic story behind the blue eyes framed by auburn hair that made the girl end as human meat for sale.
"Don´t take it bad, Signum….it was a gift but…"
Signum was thinking as Serena was talking. The mistress sent the girl to her and not to some fat, ugly and old bastard who probably can´t get his dick hard and would rape the girl in many other unimaginable and loathsome ways.
…I will take her back if…"
She thought about that night so many years ago.
Maybe that was what fate really meant.
Unexpected things happening on unexpected times for no other reason; something that one could call a confluence of misery.
"I´ll take her," Signum said all of a sudden leaving Serena muted in the middle of the phrase. "Just don´t expected her back. Put that on my account."
With that she ended the communication abruptly again. Signum made an elegant gesture towards Zafira who walked closer and put a big hand on the girl shoulder.
"Come with me," he said seriously but gently.
The girl looked at the big man with uncertainty but a nod from the two escorts made her consent the request in silence. It was the first time the two women were there serving Signum but they knew what was said around about the woman and didn´t want to take any risk.
Signum never had the same escort twice. There were always strangers. And they kept being strangers after that.
And Serena was damn clear about their customer with her girls, "Don´t make stupid questions, better don´t make any question; don´t be silly, don´t try to be 'funny,' don´t argue about anything that is requested…and the most important issue ever: Don´t. Make. Her. Mad."
Both women were wishing her boss would have followed her own recommendations but it was too late for that.
When Zafira left with the redhead girl, Signum walked to the small cabinet where she kept her bottles, took a white transparent one, served a generous portion of vodka-sake on a glass and walked out to the terrace again.
"Serve yourselves whatever you want," she said to the women on her way out to the nightly air.
The women chose the same their host was drinking and followed Signum out.
They were so high there on the top of the building that the air was a lot colder than at ground level, both women looked at each other and at the light night dresses they were wearing for that engagement wondering what was their host planning for the night.
Once they made their way out, it was a pleasant surprise to note that tall pole heaters were strategically located on the area where Signum was waiting for them.
"No questions," their boss had said. So, the more adventurous of the two, the brunette one, walked towards Signum with studied calm and raising her glass offered a toast.
"For Micaiah," was her offer.
"I don´t know who the hell she is," Signum said arching an eyebrow without moving her glass to correspond the toast.
"When I am done with you…you will," the woman said and then, keeping her eyes locked with Signum´s, took a generous sip of her drink a leaned forward to kiss her.
Raising one hand, Micaiah took the elegant clasp on her hair releasing it and a cascade of slick and silky long black hair fell on her back. With expert movements and without breaking the contact, the woman removed Signum glass from her hard and handed them to her partner who was already waiting for it.
The two of them worked well together that was why Serena chose them for this task.
Breaking the kiss but keeping their bodies in contact, Micaiah took Signum hands in hers and brought them to her body, urging at her owner to wander around by arching her body against Signum´s.
Breathing deeply, Signum tried her best to disconnect her brain and her memories, letting her physical senses to arouse and wash everything out in the passion of the flesh.
And Micaiah was doing a hell of a job awakening her senses, leaving kisses sometimes soft as feathers and sometimes hard as bites on the skin of her neck and shoulders that the brunette exposed unbuttoning Signum´s shirt. Her task was slow but expert, she unbuttoned a button and while her mouth dived on skin, her hands went beneath Signum´s shirt to claw on her abdomen flesh and then back again. By the time her shirt was completely opened, Signum heart was already pounding heavily and her senses were completely focused on the woman in her hands, and nothing more than that woman.
A hand made her way then at her inner thigh over the fabric of her trousers and Signum turned slightly to meet the eyes of the auburn woman. Micaiah ministrations lowered down their pace but her hands never left Signum´s body.
The other woman was almost as tall as Signum, and her hands were delicate but strong. Micaiah was the audacious one of the duo, the auburn haired was the shy one. With careful, measured movements, her hand roamed from Signum´s thigh to her groin to the border of her trouser as if she was indecisive.
But she wasn´t.
Getting closer to Signum, she whispered at her hear, "I am Teana…tell me anything I can do to please you."
And after saying that, she lowered her head and started a trace of kisses on Signum´s chest, taking the path down between her breasts and her abdomen until she kneeled down in front on her.
Micaiah returned to her ministrations with renewed intensity over Signum´s upper body as Teana undid her trousers and slid them down enough to expose the older woman underwear. She caressed her hips and thighs with her hands as her lips and teeth played with the skin still covered by the fabric.
The rate of Signum breath told Micaiah it was time to start getting serious. Generally, it didn´t take her that much time and effort to have a customer sharp and ready and she was starting to take this one as a personal challenge. She really meant it when said that Signum was going to remember who she was.
Micaiah´ s hand went down and while Teana kept the attention of her mouth and fingers on Signum´s hips and groins, the brunette hand went straight there for the core. She was rewarded with a soft pant from her, until then, unapproachable customer.
When her hand left that place between Signum´s legs, Micaiah took Signum face with both hands and engaged in a deep and hungry, almost wild kiss with her while Teana lowered down Signum´s underwear, grabbed her hips firmly and captured her sex with her mouth.
Signum grasped herself at the two women and let herself to be swept away by the tide.
-X-
"What is next?" Carim asked looking deceptively at Signum. "Puppies and kitties?"
It was really very early in the morning but for some odd and unknown reason, Carim was already there, elegant and angry, standing in front of her.
She didn´t answer because Carim didn´t really wanted an answer. She was purely mad at her.
Her two escorts for the night were on their way out just at the very same time Carim arrived to talk with her. She despised that kind of services and despised Signum even more for use them. The blonde was standing at the living room just in time to see the two beautiful women walk smiling towards the elevator.
Aside of the regular fee that Madame Earls granted them, Signum gave them an additional bonus. It was really a shame that she didn´t use the same escorts twice.
Signum waited until the two women took the elevator and then faced Carim. For sure, she had already seen last night's girl under Zafira´s care.
"What do you expect to do with her?" Carim asked more calmly at Signum´s silence. To her extreme annoyance, unlike the previous day, Signum looked rested and relaxed that morning, she was almost smiling when she turned back and headed to the modern kitchen.
Signum´s penthouse was big and spacious and looked even more spacious because she kept the furniture on the minimum. Aside of the living room and the big terrace where she spent most of the time with the escorts, she had a discrete dining area, a big studio, a small kitchen and at the second level, her private rooms where the escorts never were. And no other people by the way could be there, not even Carim or Hayate. Nobody but her could ever walk in there.
"We will see," Signum said rummaging around the cabinets after offering Carim some coffee. Silently, Carim joined Signum at the kitchen table and in no time, Signum was sitting on the table and Carim was the one handing her the components of her regularly frugal breakfast.
After finishing, without further word, Signum headed to Zafira´s quarters located in the same building some few levels down of her penthouse.
When they arrived, the girl was sitting at the dining table, eating something under Zafira´s searching gaze.
The area where the girl stayed was one of the two staff apartments Signum kept there for special occasions. The two places were identical one bedroom apartments of fifteen hundred square feet. In one of them, Zafira lived permanently and the other was handy for any unexpected requirement. They almost never used it.
At the sight of the boss at his door, Zafira left the girl eating and went to her encounter. Signum didn´t have to make the question.
"She hadn´t say a word," Zafira informed.
Signum entered the room and sit at the table in front of the girl. Zafira and Carim stood a bit away of them.
The girl stopped eating and looked at Signum; it was questioning and curiosity lingering on her eyes but no fear. Her eyes were slate blue, a bit darker than Signum own ones.
"Do you know who am I?" Signum asked. The girl nodded.
"Do you understand why you were sent last night here?" Signum asked again looking intently at her. The girl nodded again, maybe too fast. Either she was smart and brave or blunt.
"And were you ready to fulfill my requirements, whatever they were?" she kept making questions with her face immutable. The girl blushed but nodded again. Probably she was smart.
"Why?" The way Signum asked denoted that everything beyond that point will depend on the answer.
The girl´s eyes never left Signum´s. It took her some seconds but finally answered with husky voice, fulfilled with the clear determination of a purpose.
"I…have…to live."
Just that.
A desire? A hope?…An illusion? Or the unexpected gears of destiny that moved true aims regardless one's own life and intentions?
The basic and primal survival instinct shone on those eyes but so strong and pure that the intention underneath was well known to Signum.
"Who did it?" what´s her next question.
The girl looked at her with surprise. She was still too young; too young for having aims of revenge already.
She looked indecisively behind Signum, at Zafira and Carim and then back to Signum. The latter didn´t say a word or offer an explanation; she really had to know what to expect from this girl.
"They…they came home…They said my father…owed them and he shall pay…"
"Where?"
"Japan," was the girl answered.
It was only one possibility on that scenario. The Yakuza. After China´s debacle´s, Japan owned half of what used to be the Asian countries, and the Yakuza family´s owned half of Japan. Russians owned the other half. Signum knew the Yakuza and avoided them like the pest. She let her Russians partners to handle Japan and the Yakuza for her.
"They killed them," she added, this time before Signum could make the question.
"Your parents?"
The girl nodded.
"And my…brother."
Signum didn´t have to ask what had happened to her after that. The yakuza disposed what wasn´t useful for them and sold the girl for prostitution; she was young, exotic and virgin. Madame Earls surely paid a fortune for her in the auction.
"I have to find her."
The girl´s statement took Signum by surprise and looked back at her with full attention. She could hear the gears of destiny moving again.
"My sister…they… have my sister."
So, that it was. The Yakuza took its payment in the form of two little girls. The world was just such a great place.
How could Signum explain to this girl that finding her sister, if she was still alive, was near to impossible? As equally impossible was taking revenge from the Yakuza?
Many people had told her that her own revenge road was near to impossible but she kept every day on that path.
"I have to live," the girl had said just plain and simply. And she could understand it. That was what had kept Signum waking up and breathing every day and second for the past fifteen years. She has to live to fulfill her aims and nothing else mattered aside that.
"Girl, what do you prefer? ..." Signum asked, "Let some fat and ugly bastard to fuck up you in ways you cannot start to imagine…Or blow those bastards´ head out with something like this?" by finishing the question, she raised her hand and deployed her big plasma gun to its whole extension.
The girl jumped on the chair and fear shined on her eyes for the first time.
Signum knew that it was not a fair question to ask. The girl could have answered that she didn´t want neither of those options but she knew the girl will not answer that. The world wasn´t a fair place and the girl already knew it. But there were a lot of other things the girl didn´t know.
"Kill them," she said after a while.
"I didn´t said the word 'kill' girl," Signum stated looking at her seriously. The girl blinked. "Killing is for humans or wild animals, if you really want to learn what I do, you will learn that it is more like taking care of the garbage than killing. And that it is not pleasant or rewarding…but someone has to do it."
After saying that, Signum kept silent, waiting. The girl didn´t understand yet, but eventually she will. It was a good thing that despite everything she went through she was sitting there having that conversation with her as if it was 'normal'.
But, what was normal those days?
The girl found out in the worst possible way that the illusion of safety and family could vanish in the air at any time to be replaced by a nightmare where she didn´t even own herself or the very air she breathe.
To learn that choice was an illusion.
"I…want to learn," she said at last.
Signum liked that the girl took her time to think, she saw all the emotions running and displaying on her face during those seconds and read them all as if the girl spoke them. It was fine. She would learn how to control and hide those emotions. She will in fact, learn.
"What´s is your name?" was Signum last question.
"Takamachi…Nanoha."
-X-
Corporate Building of Massive BioD.
"Are you happy now?" Precia asked Fate.
Mother and daughter were sitting at the costly and fashionable couch set her mother had on the main meeting room of Massive BioD. Precia hated tables and it was not tables there. Just elegant designer´s couches and chairs over an equally expensive carpet. She had a table on her private office just because Lindy liked to drink her tea there but they weren´t not at her private office.
And they were not alone.
Lindy Harlaown was sitting there on a couch as well and was not drinking tea, which was by itself a bad sign. Fate wanted to be anywhere else but there. Arf was sitting there as well but took good care to keep her mouth shut.
"You have met her."
Fate remained in silence.
"Precia," Lindy intervened in favor of her foster daughter smiling, "maybe we can do this in a reasonable way."
Precia and Lindy enchased their gazes. Precia was Fate´s biological mother but Lindy raised Fate as her own daughter when those terrible times stained their lives. Fate even had her last name. Technical, they both were Fate´s mothers and have the right to be there speaking with her even if Fate was a grown up twenty nine years old woman.
"You two should get married," Fate said, trying to divert the topic, "You would do a lovely couple."
Lindy smile at her daughter widened, "Oh, we have tried it my dear…It was great on bed but it didn´t work on the other important and critical subjects."
Precia huffed and Fate blushed never expecting that answer.
Lindy extended her hand and cherished Precia´s cheek and Fate´s blushing deepened even more. "Oh Gosh, please don´t let them start fondling just now."
"Lindy, we have more important subjects to discuss right now and you are not helping," Precia said but didn´t physically reject her friend caress.
"There is nothing to discuss mother," it was Fate´s turn to intervene; she wanted to finish that charade as soon as possible. "I have accepted the job from Admiral Crowbel and I will fulfill the request. Shari just called me. BLUE has started my background checking…deeply, even deeper than we expected; it´s too late to change my mind even if I would have wanted to."
Fate made a pause and continued.
"And I haven´t change my mind."
Precia turned to see Arf.
"Fate´s right," Arf explained answering Precia´s silent question. "Shari and Lucino are monitoring every searching on Fate Harlaown. According Lucino, BLUE has someone really skilled on the task and they have had to deepen Fate Harlaown background and practically, made Fate Testarossa Harlaown, disappear. It is good that she had been using just the T. for years."
"Could it be dangerous?" Precia asked then to Lindy.
"Shari and Lucino have help from our side, but Fate and Arf are right, it would be more risky to step back now. They will know that something was happening," Lindy took a deep breath; Precia would not like her next words. "As much as I don´t like it…Fate is inside now and the safest way is that she stays in."
Fate was already inside the wolf´s den and all knew that even if didn't say like that.
"In fact," Fate said choosing her words carefully, "There is only one reason I am here. BLUE knows Arf is a Replicant BioDevice and that belongs to Massive. Wolkenritter even told me that I should do business with Massive instead of BLUE," for her expression the other women noticed that the comment from BLUE CEO wasn´t funny for Fate at all, "So, I will need some truthful quotation from Massive BioD for Venturis request of proposal."
"Are you expecting us to participate in this…setting?" Precia frowned looking seriously at Fate.
"It´s too late mother, if I would have gone alone to the meeting with Wolkenritter this wouldn't had happened. Now I need a reason to be here now. They will know I am Lindy´s daughter, they will now that Lindy is your friend and that I have bonds with the army forces. It will justify me for having a Massive biod, but it will be suspicious if I don´t consider my mother´s best friend company in this tender."
Precia looked at Lindy. Her friend reciprocated the gaze. It was as if destiny were leading all of them to an unavoidable and long awaited crash. And they both knew it and knew it was nothing they could do about it.
"I have been invited to a party tonight were I will have my last chance to succeed with Wolkenritter and BLUE, mother. There is no turning back now," Fate noticed her mothers faces and knew she had won at least, this match. "I need that the hacker they have tracing me already has that information by the time I will meet Signum."
Precia hearth skipped a beat and studied her daughter carefully; she didn't like the way Fate said that woman´s name. She was trying to remain still and business-like but Precia knew her very well. Fate was excitedly expecting her meeting with the woman. And it was not the typical excitement she always had with her job.
Fate looked at Precia, thinking that her mother was still reluctant to participate and stood up looking ostentatiously at her watch. She had to stop by and buy the most stunning dress for that night. Signum Wolkenritter shall have to notice her either she wanted or not.
"So…I really have to go mother, I have a lot of things to do before…the meeting."
No one noticed any movement from Precia but the door of the meeting room opened and her executive assistant entered. Aside of Precia's assistant Amy Limietta was also Lindy´s daughter in law. Sometimes Fate hated that those women wanted to keep everything in family.
"Amy will provide everything you need," Precia said.
Fate arched her brows and smiled. "I wish she could be always this easy!" she thought and after kissing her mothers, she left talking animatedly with Amy.
Precia interchanged a significant gaze with Arf before the redhead woman nodded and followed Fate.
Once the two women were left alone, Lindy was the first to speak.
"She is dying to see her again."
"Did you notice it too?" Precia said looking at her friend with sadness.
"Oh yes," Lindy said with an equally sad tone but avoid to tell her friend that the last time she saw Fate like that was too many years ago.
"What we do now?" Precia said crossing her arms on her chest and lowering her head.
"Pray?"
Precia laughed, "Should we pray that the bitch will not end killing Fate?"
Lindy wasn't laughing.
"No, we pray for Fate not falling in love with her."
-X-
New Sparta Bay.
"Are you sure she will come?"
Fate was on the verge of nervousness as she never remembered to had been before. She and Arf were standing up on the deck of the exclusive yacht belonging to the Banning´s family, where the most expected socialite event of the year was having place. After the effects of the climate change the past century, the war and the reconstruction, very large areas of what used to be City of Washington DC flooded, giving birth to a bay where now, the rich and wealthy keep luxurious ships and yachts. Like the one where they waiting for their meeting of the night.
"Of course I am sure!" a blonde woman replied to Fate´s question indignant.
Arisa Bannings was Fate´s friend from University and she managed to convince her friend to invite her to the exclusive party her family hosted every year on the yacht. Arisa always invited her but Fate always rejected. Socializing like that was never among her priorities so of course, when she addressed her friend with the request, Arisa wanted to know everything.
Only the serious gaze that Fate wore to tell her that was a 'job matter' was able to ease Arisa´s questions. Her family was wealthy and had business with the Defense Department, she knew about keeping reserved information. Fate also insisted that her friend always addressed her as 'Fate Harlaown' and had Lucino checking the Bannings guest list to be sure that no one attending will know her.
Fate knew it was risky, to mix her personal and work spaces but she didn´t have any other chance. That woman at BLUE, Hayate Yagami was also an Alisa´s friend that always attended that party and she told her that Signum will attend that night.
Hayate was literally setting up a trap for her boss and Fate still wondering why she was doing that.
Alisa, Fate and Arf were standing with a drink in hand since two hours ago and neither the so expected Signum Wolkenritter nor Hayate Yagami had showed up yet. Fate was about to drink another sip of her drink but stopped thinking that it was her third drink and she was exactly not a drinker; she didn´t want to be drunk when her target for the night appeared, if she ever did it.
Fate chose a red, close –fitting low neckline long dress with a very audacious aperture on the side leg and matching high heels. Her look was completed by a high hair dressing with long traces of golden hair falling free on the side of the face, framing it beautifully.
Alisa that knew Fate and her tastes almost died when looked openmouthed at her friend. Everybody else on the yacht deck noticed Fate as well.
Arf didn´t say a word when she accompanied Fate to choose the dress; the Replicant knew Fate was exposing herself as a prey for the predator in more ways than one. And what worried her was that Fate seemed to like it more that she should.
"Dammit," Fate cursed looking the time at her small device in her purse. It was close to midnight and it was no sight of Signum Wolkenritter.
"A beautiful woman should not curse like that. It doesn´t fit."
Fate´s hearth stopped at that very moment.
Raising her head slowly, she found those stunning and deep blue eyes that had been haunting her all the time since the previous day fixed on her. It was barely more than twenty four hours since she met Signum Wolkenritter for the first time and she was already starving for those eyes again.
And those mentioned eyes were fulfilling with the sight that Fate offered and she felt the heat spreading on her skin as if those eyes could physically touch her.
Signum, unlike other occasions, chose a dark blue trousers and jacket outfit with a black shirt unbuttoned almost to the level of her breasts and to Fate´s surprise her usually pink shaded hair was blonde but still held in a high pony tail. She was informally elegant…and beautiful. And looked a lot younger that the first time she meet her.
Fate knew she was staring at her but could not help herself.
"Miss Harlaown!" Hayate´s voice came up on her rescue, "what a nice surprise to meet you here!"
They already had that dialogue prepared. Hayate told Fate that her part would be to carry Signum to that party. Fate´s part would be convincing her that she was really interested in a deal with BLUE.
Fate was interested. She was probably too much interested.
"Miss Yagami," Fate said recovering the use of her voice while she was still having problems with thinking as Signum´s eyes kept roaming all over her. "Well, the dress worked; maybe it worked too well,"
Signum just could not help herself. Since the very second she stepped at the yacht deck, that tall blonde woman in a red dress caught her eye like a magnet. She just walked towards Fate like pulled by an invisible force. And the need on her belly that she thought it was fully satisfied from last night, awakened with the fury of a storm when the crimson eyes met hers.
Hayate insisted endlessly since the morning that they had to attend that party; Robert Bannings, Alisa´s fathers was an important partner of BLUE and Signum had avoided all social engagements with them, Hayate claimed loudly that she needed help.
BLUE CEO was starting to understand why Hayate insisted so much.
After their master hacker, codenamed Ishikawa; sent them all he could find about Fate Harlaown, Hayate insisted that they should consider the business she was offering. Signum said she will consider it the next day and put a definitive end to their discussion. Now she knew with Hayate gave up that easily.
Aside of the facts that Ishikawa found about Fate Harlaown, what concerned Signum the most was the reaction that the woman caused on her. She had to resort on Serena's escort service to ease the hunger what meeting that woman caused her the previous day.
Then, her little foster sister literally dragged her to this party where 'casually,' they meet Fate Harlaown; Signum knew those coincidences didn´t exist and now, she knew that the heat burning inside her was an inexplicable but undeniable desire.
Hayate set her up and at that time, when the only image on her brain was Fate´s, it didn´t matter.
Ignoring everything and everyone around them, Fate and Signum just stared at each other.
The unavoidable gears of destiny were moving even if nobody could hear them.
-X-
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