Final Fantasy - All Series Fan Fiction ❯ Storm Front ❯ Chapter 11 ( Chapter 11 )

[ X - Adult: No readers under 18. Contains Graphic Adult Themes/Extreme violence. ]

I banged on the door of the item shop, and when there was no immediate answer, I banged harder. "Open up, Chas!" I yelled. "I know you're in there! It's important!" My chest heaving and my nerves thrumming with tension, I stood waiting under the sill of the door, water running in cold fingers down my back. A few minutes later, the top portion of the door opened, and the proprietor appeared. I knew I must look like a madwoman with the bow over my shoulder. I didn't care.

"What do you want at this hour, Raine?" Chas said, crossly. "I was about to go to bed." His eyes widened as he took in my armed and ready state. "Where the hell are you going?"

"Out," I said, impatient. I pulled a wad of damp gil notes out of my pocket and thrust them at him. "I want as many potions as this will buy me." Chas gave me a strange look, picking the money up reluctantly.

"You're not going out fighting, are you? Aren't you a little old for it, Raine? And haven't you got a kid in the house to take care of?"

"Stop with the questions and get me the medicine," I ordered. "This is important. Do it, Chas!"

"This has something to do with Laguna, doesn't it," he said, flatly. "That goddamn outsider bastard. I'm not gonna lift a finger for him. You can keep your money."

Enraged, I reached across the counter, grabbed his shirt, and pulled him as close as I could. "Get over yourself, Chas. Laguna's not the problem; you are. Take your attitude and shove it. The outside world isn't bad. It's just different, and that's what scares a little man like you." I released his shirt, and Chas fell back, looking shell-shocked. "Now get me the potions."

He wandered off towards the back of the room and returned shortly with five Hi-Potions. "It's all I've got," he explained. "Sorry."

"I'm sure." I shoved the money at him. "Take it. I'm leaving."

I shoved the Potions into my pockets and started running. Where the hell is he, I thought, instinctively keeping to the trail out of town. The rain had tapered off and the clouds were breaking a little, letting weak moonlight filter down onto the hills. Lightning flickered on the horizon - the storms weren't through, so I had best make the most of what light there was.

In the distance, I could hear the echoes of gunfire, and I saw a blaze of bright light. I started running faster, nearly falling over my feet in my haste, my feet slipping on the slick grass. The report of the gun was closer now, and I ran through a stand of trees and up a hill, following the sound.

There he was, firing away at the ruby dragon, which was bigger and nastier than I had even imagined. Crimson scales shone in the wan, fleeting moonlight, and its stunted wings sent eddies of wind through the soaking grass. It raised its ruffed head and roared, coiling back for another snap at Laguna. He dodged - but barely. He looked like a knight in a fairy tale, heroically battling a much larger foe for the glory of the kingdom. Only it was plain that this dragon was much smarter than the fairy-tale drakes, and the knight was in serious trouble. He hadn't seen me yet.

I dropped to one knee and hoisted the loaded crossbow to one shoulder, forcing myself to aim calmly despite impending panic. The scales bent and flexed at the dragon's joints, and my best hope was to get an arrow between them - the bow just wasn't strong enough to pierce its armor. My knuckles were white around the trigger, and I didn't dare make a noise - though I needed to get to Laguna, I wanted to get the jump on the nasty beast.

The dragon crouched and snarled at Laguna, exposing a small patch of undefended skin near its front foreleg. Without stopping to consider, I loosed the poisoned arrow, and it flew true to bury itself between scales. The dragon screamed and swung its head around to snap at the arrow. While it was distracted, I made my move and ran.

"Laguna!" I screamed, closing the distance between us while the dragon worried at the bolt in its side. "I'm here! I have Potions!"

"What the hell are you doing, Raine?" he shouted, his face shocked and furious. "You could be killed! Get out of here!"

"Shut up!" I yelled back at Laguna. "Here!" I threw him a Hi-Potion, and I saw the restorative shimmer of healing magic form around him. I ran up to him and pressed three more into his hands before he could protest.

"Raine, for Hyne's sake…" Laguna hissed, pocketing the medicine. "Go home! This dragon's nothing to fool around with!"

"What, so you can get killed yourself, all alone?" I put my bow up to my shoulder. "Not a chance, buster."

He would have given me a piece of his mind right then and there if the dragon hadn't charged us, roaring. I leapt to one side and Laguna to the other. He rolled and came up firing, forcing the dragon back. A thin trail of blood ran from the arrow wound, so I knew the poison was in the dragon's system, slowing it down. If it wasn't immune, that is. It was more than likely that an animal that big would need well more than one dose of poison. I hoped that five would be enough.

It didn't look like it was slowing much. One paw darted out and buffeted Laguna, and I saw his head rock back with the blow. He staggered back, losing his grip on his machine gun. The dragon rumbled, its head swaying back and forth. It raised its front paw again for another shot, and I quickly aimed my next arrow and fired.

By some miracle, the arrow sang straight in the uncertain moonlight and pierced the unprotected pads at the base of the dragon's foot. It bellowed, shaking its ruffed head back and forth, and Laguna recovered in time to pepper it with bullets before it could lift its paw to its mouth and pull out the arrow. The dragon's scream filled the night as it lost its balance and set the injured paw down harder on the arrow, driving the shaft all the way out the other side. It clamped its wicked jaws down on the bolt and pulled it out, but I could see that the dragon was limping heavily on that side of its body afterwards.

"Yes!" I hissed, pumping a fist in the air.

"Goddamn it, Raine, look out!" Laguna barreled into me and knocked me to the ground as a blast of dragon breath seared the air over us. Though it was moving more slowly than before, the ruby dragon was good and angry now, thanks to the pain in its foot. We scrambled away from another volley of flame, so close that I could feel the air burning around me as it missed me by inches.

Three more arrows left. I loaded another one into the crossbow, aiming along the arrow, but Laguna grabbed me by the wrist. "Laguna! Don't mess up my shot!" I protested, as he hauled me over the hill and back to the nearby stand of trees before I could sight on another one of the dragon's vulnerable spots. "What the…" I protested, trying to tug my hand out of his strong grip. "Let go of me!"

"What is the matter with you?" he yelled, shaking me. "You could be killed out here, and then what would happen to Ellone? I came out here alone for a reason!"

Angry, I broke his grip on my wrist and stood back. "I came out here to help you, Laguna!" I yelled right back at him. "It's not going to be good for Ellone if her Uncle Laguna comes back to Winhill in a Galbadian issue body bag!" I glared at him. "I'm not useless in a fight, and you need all the help you can get since Kiros isn't here. This is my home, and it's my decision if I want to protect it! So don't try to send me home, because I'm not going."

"Hyne above and below, Raine," Laguna swore. "I don't know what to do with you…"

"Then close your yap and get out there and fight," I snapped. "I can't kill that thing, but I can slow it down. Those arrows are poisoned, and so is the dragon, now."

Laguna sighed and pushed wet hair away from his forehead. I saw reluctant admiration shine through the storm clouds on his face. "You're a hell of a fighter, Raine."

"Don't forget it." The ground shook a short distance away, and I smelled sulfurous dragon breath. "I think our friend is looking for us. Get moving." Uncertain moonlight sparkled off glistening scales as the dragon circled the copse, swinging its head back and forth to pick up our scent.

Laguna nodded. "You head left and I'll go right. It can't see us well and it can't move so fast."

"Got it." I readied myself to bolt once Laguna gave the signal. Thunder grumbled in the distance, and the first stirrings of the winds from next storm front made the branches around me shiver. Our time - and light - was going to run out fast. The moonlight was already breaking as clouds crossed the moon's face. Apprehension crawled down my spine.

The dragon grunted, prowling the edge of the trees. "Ready…" Laguna muttered, his attention fixed on our opponent. I tensed, and my fingers clutched convulsively around the grip of my crossbow. "Set…"

"Run!" I bolted from the shelter of the trees, and I heard the brush behind me rustle and crackle as Laguna took off in the other direction. The dragon turned ponderously, following our scent, as we rushed to get behind it. The poison was starting to work - the creature was more sluggish than it had been before, but no less dangerous for all that.

A draconic cough was all the warning I had before a burst of acid breath took me off my feet and sent me sprawling in the wet grass. I tasted dirt as I collapsed, on fire with the effects of its toxic exhalation, and my vision blurred. The Potion. Need to get to the potion. I groaned weakly, hardly able to move.

"Hey! Over here, you big cretin!" Laguna was shouting at the dragon. I could feel how close it was. A burst of machine gun fire rattled in the night, and the dragon barked in surprise and began to turn. "Yeah, that's right! Over here! C'mon, lizard-face!"

I felt rather than heard it rumble, and it left me sprawled on the grass for a more interesting target. Inch by agonizing inch, I reached for the Potion in my pocket, and gingerly pulled it out. Thunder crashed, and rain began to patter off my rainjacket and the aching skin on my face. Through sheer force of will, I pulled the stopper out of the neck, and the cool, healing liquid flowed down my throat like silk. The terrible lethargy abated, and I was able to stagger to my feet and take up the fallen crossbow again. Green light blazed up twice, and I knew that the dragon had attacked, and Laguna only had one Potion left.

There was no light left for me to use except for the sporadic flash of lightning streaking in the heavens above. The machine gun rang out again, and I ran towards the source of the noise, giving the dragon a wide berth. Laguna was barely visible in the darkness, but a blaze of light from above showed that he was almost on his knees, in bad shape.

"Laguna!" I screamed, running towards him. My second Potion was already in my hand, and I threw it to him before it could occur to me that perhaps I might need another. It didn't matter - nothing mattered except that he would survive this fight. The magic took effect immediately, and he hauled himself up. "Better?" I asked, and he nodded quickly. "Good," I replied, and raised my bow for another shot. It was foolhardy to shoot into the dark, but all I had left without light was luck and Providence.

Lightning stuttered in the sky again, giving me a few seconds of brilliant light to aim for one of the dragon's eyes. I crossed my fingers and loosed the precious arrow, hoping that it was enough. It wasn't - as lightning flashed again, I saw the quarrel bounce off the dragon's bony eye ridges and fly off into the darkness to bury itself in grass. Damn it. Only two left. "Hyne, Laguna," I whispered under my breath, the first stirrings of fear overcoming the adrenaline. "Kill this thing. Hurry up, please, please…"

The dragon jerked back when it felt the sting of the arrow, and I sensed rather than saw its attention come to rest on me. It growled low in its throat, and a thin wisp of fire trickled from the corner of its mouth. I raised the bow and shot again, aiming for the source of the fire, hoping to pierce the soft skin around its mouth, but again the arrow pinged off tough scales and went wide. The red dragon roared in surprise and hunched back, and I didn't have time to dodge before I felt the searing burn of its breath.

I screamed, falling to the ground again in agony, and I heard Laguna yell and then the machine gun's report. Groaning, I dug my face into the wet grass - the icy rain felt wonderful on the blistering burn. Laguna's boots appeared in my field of vision, and I tried to protest when I heard the pop of a stopper from the neck of a bottle. My words were feeble. "No… Don't…"

"Shush." The burning ebbed away as the Potion took effect. "You need this more than I do."

"You shouldn't have…" I tried to scold him, but I was too dizzy to put much emphasis into it. "What if you get hurt again?"

"Gonna try not to. Sooner or later, it has to die, right?" Laguna settled his gun into his grip. "Come on. Let's take care of this thing."

"Right." My head was clearing, and I raised my bow to the ready. A deafening peal of thunder rolled down from the mountains, reminding me that the worst of the storm was still on the way. We had to be absolutely crazy, the two of us, to be out in this weather, I thought. Then again, we were crazy just to be taking on a ruby dragon. Terror and sudden giddiness combined, and I laughed at the sheer outrageousness of our situation. Here we were, out in the middle of a raging thunderstorm, fighting an impossible enemy… what a story. If we lived to tell it. I loaded another arrow into my bow.

Laguna fired again at the beast, and it retaliated with a burst of flame, mouth wide open as it expelled magical breath. He dropped to the ground and scrambled away, and it followed him, scorching the grass inches from his body. "Don't you even dare!" I screamed, and ran towards the lambent flame of its breath. This time I wouldn't miss. Dropping to one knee, I aimed my arrow at the roof of the dragon's mouth, which was illuminated by its fire, and pulled the trigger. The arrow impacted the soft tissues of its mouth with a sickening thunk, and my efforts were rewarded with an agonized draconic roar. Laguna picked himself up off the grass; he looked a little singed but not terrible.

"Nice shot!" he shouted at me, before unloading another clip into the dragon's body. Goaded beyond rage, it coiled and hissed at him, while he continued to fire. The massive muscles shifted, and its tail lashed the ground.

Quicker than I had ever thought possible for such an enormous animal, its front paw shot out, claws fully extended. The hail of bullets from Laguna's gun stopped abruptly as he was sent sprawling with the force of the red dragon's strike. He tried to rise as the dragon came after him, but it caught him and rolled him over on the ground with a second powerful blow.

The wind tore the scream from my mouth. I scrambled through the lashing rain to Laguna's side, and the dragon roared, triumphant. "Laguna!" I shrieked, dropping to my knees to lift his battered body from the ground. He stirred weakly, and his eyes were dazed and dim. Fear of losing him gripped my heart, and I raised my bow for one last, desperate shot at the towering dragon. "Last time pays for all," I growled, and fired my one remaining arrow at the dragon's eye as a brilliant bolt of lightning lit up the sky.

It wasn't enough. The dragon turned its head at the last moment, and the quarrel bounced off its scales. My empty bow fell from my hand. "No," I whispered, noting with fresh fear how shallowly Laguna was breathing. "This can't happen." I scrambled to grab Laguna's machine gun and continue the fight, but the pitch-dark night and the pouring rain made it impossible to locate quickly.

A blast of hot air on the back of my neck was my only warning as the dragon struck again. It wasn't finished, and it had a new target. It slammed me across the chest, knocking the wind out of me and throwing me back over the ground, away from Laguna. I couldn't breathe and I couldn't move. I could only watch the dragon walk up to me and rear back for the finishing blow. Tears of pain and anguish ran from my eyes as I thought of Ellone, orphaned twice.

"NO!" The concussion blast from a grenade and the repeating chatter of the machine gun filled the night, and the red dragon retreated, forced back by a hail of bullets. I saw Laguna, propped up on one arm, snarling at the dragon and firing for all he was worth. He threw another grenade, and brilliance clouded my vision for a moment. Air rushed back into my lungs, and I coughed, dizzy. Through blurred vision, I could see Laguna falter, then slump again. The dragon was on him in seconds.

Time froze. I fell to my knees and dug my hands into the grass. This cannot happen. The dragon struck. I cannot let this happen. Laguna was rolled over onto his back by one powerful paw. Rage, brilliant and consuming, filled me. I will not let this happen. It must not. It will not. For Ellone. For me. I lifted my head, and bared my teeth at the dragon. I will not let that beast kill the man I love.

Something unusual was happening to me. My hands were tingling, and I watched with wonder as little shimmers of magic began to coalesce around the tips of my fingers. Brought on by the extreme stress of our fight, I felt an unknown power stir in the deepest recesses of my consciousness. Something in my brain clicked, and I felt power begin to radiate from my hands. The corridors of my mind were expanding, filling with energy as a wind fills the sails of a boat. My body was on fire, shimmering in the night. Sorceress powers. My sorceress powers, silent always before now, had awakened, and for this one desperate moment, they were mine to use.

I had never used magic before, but the motions of magical command came as naturally as if I had done them all my life. I stood up, weaving left and right, and slowly extended one luminous hand to the skies. Above, the storm responded, darkening and centralizing above me. Lightning flashed, streaking a circular path through the gathering strike. Maelstrom. Sorceress magic. My magic. I narrowed my eyes and willed the power to unleash itself, now.

A searing strike of energy blazed down from the clouds and engulfed the dragon. It screamed, terrible in its death agonies, wings lashing the air as it died. I reveled in its pain and in the icy heat of revenge. When the spell ended, all that was left of the red dragon was a smoking carcass - and the fallen shape of Laguna, sprawled unseeing on the ground.

The power in me was fading. I drifted over to him, my feet barely touching the ground. Sparks drifted from the tips of my hair, shimmering for a moment before winking out. I knelt beside Laguna and gathered him into my arms. I could barely feel him breathing. One tear slipped down my cheek and hung in the air, incandescent. I bent my head to him and laid my hand on his chest. "Don't go," I whispered. "We need you, Laguna. I need you." I kissed his forehead, gently. "I love you."

I felt the remainder of power in me shift and flux, like warm water. It gathered in the core of me, deep in my heart, and filled me with joy and love so powerful that I nearly wept. It coiled in my breast for the barest instant, then poured from me to Laguna in a shining white torrent. In the stream of light I could see the dragon-inflicted wounds close and vanish, as if they had never been. He drew a deep breath, the first breath of a drowning man after a rescue, and opened his eyes.

"Are we safe? Did I kill it? What happened to me?"

I brushed sodden hair away from my forehead. "It's dead." Saying it gave me no elation, just tremendous relief. "You're all right - you're going to be fine."

"I don't understand," Laguna said slowly, gathering himself up and staring at his unblemished arms and legs. There was fresh blood on his shirt, but the skin underneath was whole and perfect. "I should be hurtin' right now. I should be damn near dead. In fact…" He shook his head, alarmed. "I'm not totally sure I wasn't." Laguna looked up at me, his eyes wide and searching. "What the hell happened?"

"I'm not sure that I know," I replied, shivering with shock. The magic that had healed Laguna had restored me as well, but my mind was reeling.

Laguna stood, a little unsteady on his feet, and walked to the still-smoldering carcass of the dragon. "It looks burned," he called back to me. "Was that the grenade?"

"Might have been," I said, following him. "Let's go home."

He was still looking at the scorch marks on the dragon's hide. "But no," Laguna said to himself, "This guy was burned all over. And there's no shrapnel. Look here -" he pointed to a spot near the dragon's leg. "That's from a grenade. The rest of it can't be. It's too much." Bewildered, Laguna called out into the rain, "Faeries! Did you do this? Are you here? Say somethin'!"

He walked around, staring into the still-raging storm, and lightning split the air. I flinched and let out an involuntary shriek. Both of us had to be completely insane to stay out in this weather. Laguna wasn't too tightly wrapped, that much was certain - but I was feeling more and more that I shared that quality with him.

"Please, Laguna," I implored, tugging on his wrist. "Let's go back to the pub. It's crazy to be out here."

"How did it happen, Raine?" he asked, reversing my grip and catching my hand. "It's not the faeries. I always have a buzzing in my ears when they're here, and I feel fine. 'Course, I'm not supposed to be feeling fine, either, because no one takes three hits from a ruby dragon and doesn't spend some time in the hospital. What did this? And…" Laguna backed away from me and put a wondering hand to his mouth. "You're glowing, Raine. Just a little, but you are."

The conduits of energy were shutting down, and my latent powers were going back to sleep. But he'd already seen the telltale sparkle of my magic, and I knew he wasn't going to let it go. Rain trickled down my face, and I brushed it away. "Magic did it."

Laguna arched an eyebrow. "You don't know any magic. If you could use it, that would make you…" His voice trailed off.

"A sorceress," I replied, quietly. "It's not what you think."

Suspicion clouded his face. I knew he was thinking of Adel, and Ellone. I cleared my throat, speaking with difficulty. "There is a rogue talent in my bloodline. Esthar found me, too, when I was Ellone's age. The gift is weak, and the vast majority of the time, it is silent. I don't know what brought it out tonight, and I've never had it answer before." I hugged myself, shivering. "I'm just glad it did, or you'd be dead."

"It makes sense… that's why you don't like magic," Laguna said, speaking slowly. "Did they get your parents, too? Like Elle?"

"Yeah." I turned away from him. "Please don't make me talk about it. The previous owner of the pub raised me, just like I'm raising Elle."

"I won't." He touched my shoulder, and I blushed suddenly, remembering that not all that long ago, he'd kissed me. "Let's get out of here. I'm soaked."

Somehow we made it back to the pub, through the driving gale. Laguna looked down at himself, and at me, as if he didn't quite believe that we were both whole and safe. Nerveless fingers reached for the door, and we fell into the main room together, half in each other's arms. Hands shaking, I bolted the door behind me, then collapsed. Laguna was there instantly, picking me up from the floor. I flung my arms around his neck as if he were the only stable thing in the world. He drew back for a moment in surprise, then hugged me tight.

"Hey," Laguna whispered. "Are you all right?"

"We almost died," I said, softly.

"But we didn't," he returned, drawing back and smiling at me. "Lucky your powers came to you when they did."

"Ellone," I said, suddenly. "I better check on her. I left her all by herself."

"Yeah, you better," Laguna said. "I'll go and build a fire upstairs." He brushed rainwater away from my cheek, and the light touch left an inexplicable trail of sensation in their wake. "You must be freezing."

I was. I wasn't. The shock of our fight was wearing off and leaving a deeper, unnamed desire in its wake. It wasn't sexual, precisely, though it was perilously close - it was just a need to reaffirm that I was still alive, and so was Laguna. At the moment, I wanted nothing more than just to be near him and to remember that the dragon hadn't killed us. But whether it was welcome to him… I didn't know. The memory of the kiss teased the edges of my mind.

Ellone was sleeping peacefully when I peeked in on her and let a little light spill into her room from the hallway. She murmured and pulled her moogle closer, her thumb halfway in her mouth. It was a baby habit, but after the night she'd had, I was hardly going to wake her up and stop it. I breathed a sigh of relief for her safety and carefully closed the door.

My clothes were cold and wet, and I wanted to change them. Laguna was surely even more miserable than I, but I didn't want to send him home. There was a basket of clean, dry wash in the back room, where it had been left after Laguna brought it in. He was supposed to fold his own things, but he hadn't gotten around to it.

I grabbed a dry towel and hurried back out through the upstairs great room, where Laguna was concentrating on stacking firewood and lighting kindling. By the time I got back upstairs, he had gotten the fire to catch and was sitting in front of it. He had already taken off as much of his wet clothing as he decently could. His blue jacket hung dripping on the back of a chair, and his battered army boots stood on a pile of newspaper, spatters of mud drying on them.

"Here," I said, handing him dry pants, underthings, and a button-down shirt. "You can't be comfortable. And here's a towel."

"Thanks." Laguna looked grateful. "Mind if I go change?"

"Not at all. I'm going to do the same myself."

"All right." He seemed to be on the cusp of saying something more, but changed his mind.

I nodded and went back to my own room, where I peeled off my sodden, muddy clothes and kicked them into a corner. I pulled the first dry things I could find out of the closet, slipping them on with profound relief. My skin seemed oversensitive, and the slide of fabric over my body was almost sensuous. I felt blood rush to my cheeks - it wouldn't do to show these feelings in front of Laguna.

The fire was still roaring merrily when I entered the great room again, and I settled down in front of it and stretched my fingers out to the warmth. My hair was drying in dark tangles, and I pulled a comb through the snarled strands, letting it dry before the flames.

"Hey." I looked up, and there was Laguna, looking much better. His shirt was rolled up at the cuffs and I could see the glint of his dogtags at his neck. A sudden, highly inappropriate image of undoing each button on his shirt one by one came all unbidden into my head, and I hoped fervently that Laguna would attribute the flush on my face to the heat of the fire. He sat down cross-legged next to me, and for a while, neither of us spoke.

The tension was agonizing. I stared into the flames and tried to keep from looking over at Laguna. Don't even think about it. I shut my eyes tight and forced my mind away from its current path. I rationalized with myself - this had to be the natural reaction to a brush with death, to want to cling to life in a very visceral way. But it was more than that and I knew it. I kept turning over the feel of his mouth on mine in my mind. It had been such a fleeting touch, but I wanted nothing more than to repeat it.

"Raine." Laguna's voice pulled me from my thoughts. "I heard you, out there. I heard what you said to me."

"I…" Not knowing what to say, I flushed and turned away. "I'm sorry. You weren't supposed to. I didn't mean…"

"No. Don't." I felt Laguna's warm hand close over mine. "Please don't say you didn't mean it… unless…"

I looked over at him, and the uncertainty on his face struck me to the quick. "I… I don't know, I thought you were going to die." My free hand curled into a fist, my fingernails biting into my palm. "Laguna… why did you kiss me? I don't understand. Don't you want to go? Don't you want to leave Winhill?"

Laguna sighed. "Raine…you have to have some notion why I haven't left. Why I haven't left Winhill." He reached out and lifted my chin so I was eye-to-eye with him. "Why I haven't left you."

His level green gaze left me breathless. I thought hard about his aspirations, and about Julia, and the old familiar frustration and anger rose to the surface. "No, I don't know. I don't know why you haven't left this backwater town for your big life and your lost lady-love." I was unable to keep some bitterness out of my voice.

Laguna sighed and looked into the fire, his fingers sliding away. The dancing flames played over the planes of his face, and his eyes were shadowed. Angry with myself, I jerked my fingers through my tangled hair, spreading it out before the heat. Why did I find it so necessary to pick bones? Tears crystallized at the corners of my eyes, but I refused to let them fall.

It was a long time before he spoke again. "Julia's gone. It's like I said to Kiros - at least she's happy, right? She's in the past. Besides that… she doesn't mean anything to me anymore. There's just… there's just you, Raine. There's no room for her. Just for you." Laguna rubbed the back of his head, blushing. "Ahhh… I just don't know how to say these things…"

My nerves were tight with tension and butterflies danced in my stomach. "What things?"

Laguna was hugging his leg, which seemed to be twitching. "I guess what I'm telling you," he said softly, "is that I haven't left Winhill because… because I love you." He blushed more deeply and thumped on his leg with his fist. "I just… can't not tell you any more. 'Specially because Kiros has been after me to either go back to Timber or figure out why I'm here." He looked up at me, and flame danced in his green eyes. "And I did."

"I never thought…" I murmured, feeling blood warm my cheeks. "I never thought you would, especially after Julia. I fought it for a long time, since I thought you were going away." I took a deep breath and stared at the floor. "But… I meant every word I said to you."

Laguna let out a long sigh. "It feels good," he admitted, "to know I'm not the only one." My heart stilled in my chest. I sat there, frozen, as he slid his hand along my face to tilt my head up to his. His mouth settled on mine, a light, brief kiss. I closed my eyes as the spark of our contact ran through me like a knife. I didn't move, didn't pull back, and our breath mingled for a moment in the stillness. Somewhere, thunder rumbled, and he leaned forward again to kiss me again.

I didn't know what to think, only what to feel. My entire being was focused on the questioning touch of Laguna's kiss. The fate of what could be and what was hinged on the gentle brush of his lips against mine; in that instant, it fell upon me to decide whether to accept him, his love, and my own feelings, or whether to turn him away and remain safe. I made my decision and opened my mouth enough to deepen the kiss.

The sheer unreality of the situation, sitting before a flickering fire with a man I had never expected to fall in love with, hit me hard as the kiss grew more passionate. It didn't have the hazy feeling of the dreams; rather, I was all too aware of the taste of his skin - rainwater, wind, and smoke from the fire. Laguna slid closer to me, a soft sound of fabric over the floor. His proximity was almost painful, and my heart thudded against my ribs.

The feel of his hand on my jawline, the faint smell of steel and gunpowder, the taste of his mouth as I surrendered a little more and our tongues touched for the first time - I was acutely aware that they were all from him; that it was Laguna across from me on the hearth, Laguna whose heart beat against my fingertips when I laid a hand on his chest. His mouth was sweet, and warmth gathered in my groin; my tongue brushed against his, a new and very arousing sensation. Laguna's fingers slid along my face to tangle in my hair, and I tilted my head to intensify an already dangerous kiss, hardly believing that I dared. Laguna made a soft noise deep in his throat, and one arm crept around my waist.

Up until then, the kiss we were sharing was shy exploration - tentative and careful. Then, Laguna pulled me closer to him, and what had been cautious began to turn aggressive. I responded in kind, tasting him deeply and nipping lightly at the curve of his lips - something I had wanted to do since that terrible night at the bar. I felt rather than heard him groan, and his mouth left mine and started to travel the line of my neck. I shivered as my blood began to fire in earnest, and I arched my head back, sighing.

"Hyne, Raine… you're so beautiful…" he whispered against my neck, and I wound my hands in the fabric of his shirt, trying again to quell the urge to unfasten each button and run my hands over the strong muscles of his back. It was like something out of my dreams, and I couldn't believe it was happening, or that I was letting it happen. Part of it, I knew, was reaction to our fight - or had the fight just been a catalyst, pushing us to say what needed to be said out of fear of death? I didn't know. All I knew was that Laguna was kissing me again, hungrily, and his hand was sliding slowly over my shirt to close momentarily on my breast. I moaned softly as his fingertips brushed the nipple, still covered by two layers of fabric.

"No. Oh, no," he said, suddenly, pulling himself away with obvious effort. "I shouldn't… this shouldn't… I'm sorry, Raine, that wasn't right…" Laguna drew back, and the shock of our parting was like cold water. I stared at him, confused, as he stood up and backed away, the color still high in his cheeks.

"Laguna… what's the matter?" I murmured, rising to follow him.

"You don't know how long I've wanted to do that," Laguna said, his voice low and rough. "How long I've wanted to…" He flushed and made as if to turn away. I stood next to him and took one tightly fisted hand in my own, tracing the long bones with my fingers. Laguna watched me, chest rising and falling with quick breaths.

"Then why stop?" I asked, moving to kiss him again. Laguna turned his head away, trying to gather his composure.

"Because I want you. I want this… too much." His stance was rigidly controlled, and I could see the effort it cost him to speak calmly. "I love you, Raine, and I don't wanna make a mistake by doing something I shouldn't." The longing in Laguna's eyes was plain. "I better go home before… something else happens."

He went to pick up his jacket from the chair, and I caught his wrist before he could get too far. "Don't go," I said, softly. "I want you to stay. Mostly, I want you to stay here with me." Before Laguna could stop me, I cupped his face in my hands and pulled his mouth down to mine, and he shuddered all over and dropped his jacket on the floor.

"Hyne, Raine," Laguna gasped, in between teasing kisses. "I know how to behave myself, but gods… if you keep kissing me like this, I'm not going to want to stop…"

Throwing myself over the precipice into the unknown, I put my arms around him and looked up into those incredible green eyes. "Maybe I don't want you to stop," I whispered, just before our lips met. He shivered, and our kiss quickly became passionate. There was nothing gentle about the touch of his lips and mouth. It was possession, and it was heat, furious and undeniable. I responded with equal fervor, taking whatever he had to give and returning in kind. Laguna crushed me against him, and I could feel the swell of him pushing against my pelvic bone.

I moaned low in my throat through the kiss to feel his arousal, and I pressed close to move against him, wanting him to respond. Laguna broke the kiss, breathing hard. His hands traveled down over my buttocks and he pulled me up to him, leaving no doubt of his excitement. I dug my fingers into his back and flexed them over shifting muscles. Even through two layers of clothing, I could feel Laguna's heart pounding, and his breath came fast and rapid on the back of my neck.

Laguna groaned into my shirt, moving against me. His arms around my waist loosened, and I ran my hands up into his long black hair. Laguna's eyes were wide and dark; his mouth was slightly open. I captured his lower lip playfully with my own, gently sucking on it for a moment. He closed his eyes, giving over to the sensation, and I traced the line of sooty lashes that lay against his cheek after relinquishing his mouth.

"I… I just can't believe…" he whispered. "I can't believe it's me. I can't believe it's you."

"I can't believe it took me so long to see you as you are," I murmured, tracing the lines of his face with my fingertips.

Laguna laughed, softly. "What am I besides a pain in the ass with big dreams?"

"Everything I could ever have wanted," I said. "Under that unpolished air of yours, you have the kindest heart of anyone I've known. You protect this village, even though they'd just as soon toss you out as look at you. You take care of Ellone." I drew a deep breath. "And when I let you…you take care of me."

"I love you, Raine," he whispered. "In the end…you turned out to be my dream, after all. Not fame, not fortune…and not Julia."

"And you, mine," I said, blushing. "I never thought… oh, I don't know." I smiled up at him. "At least now I can tell you how I feel."

"Where do we go from here?" Laguna asked, half to himself and half to me.

Impishly, I replied, "Down the hall." He drew back from me, unbelieving; then a wicked smile spread across his face. I put my arms around Laguna's neck and murmured into his ear, "I do hope you know the way after all this time." He swung me up into his arms, lifting me off the ground as if I weighed nothing. Laguna gave me one of his mischievous little-boy grins, kissed me again, and carried me down the hall to my room, where the bed would be big enough for both of us.

_____________________

Author's note: This was supposed to be a two-chapter update with the continuation right after, but I decided not to leave you all hanging.

Be warned. The next chapter will be a lemon. L-E-M-O-N. If you don't know what a lemon is, make sure you do before you continue. It will entail a great deal of loving between two consenting adults who do not have our society's hangups about premarital sex. You have been warned. If you don't want to read it, skip it, and you won't miss any crucial plot points. Enough said.