concoursec | (no subject)

Entry tags:

(no subject)

Character(s):

haha_steelguard

Location: The garage, then the....sky above/around Balamb Garden? Idefk.

Rating: PG-13 for Kiden and Zephyr's foul mouths.

Open/Closed/Finished: Finished

Summary: Kiden and Zephyr team up and steal Snow's hoverbike. He notices. Oops.

Kiden was feeling pretty confident about this, all things considered. She didn't really have that kind of stark nervousness that would prelude these kinds of activities in a normal person; instead, she stood calm next to the bike, clutching Villiers' keys. After quietly staking out his room, she had eventually decided on stealing them only a few hours before--to give him less time to miss them. No-Time had done the rest of the work for her.

The keys obtained, and hyper-conscious of the minutes ticking by, they had casually made their way to the Garage as the sun was beginning to set. Classes were over and people were milling about campus; most of the vehicles had already vanished, leaving them with plenty of room. Kiden turned to her companion, eyes bright and grinning like the cat that snuck into the larder.

"You ready for this?"

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Zephyr was trying to make room for a giant on the now entirely too crowded bike when he heard the guy asking Kiden what she was specializing in. After he was positive that he hadn't heard wrong, he just gave Snow a really odd look. Who asked that sort of question in a situation like this?

Maybe the guy wasn't pulling a nice guy trick. It could just be possible that he had hit his head at some point and had gone insane. That or Kiden's specialization had something to do with their punishment... ?

Come to think of it, what was her specialization?

Now pressed uncomfortably between Snow's broad back and Zephyr's comparatively reedy chest, Kiden distinctly felt like the slightly freckly, sweaty filling in a solid steel sandwich. And just as things felt like they couldn't get any more awkward, Snow opened his mouth. Words came out. Words that made no sense.

Snow wasn't just coming out of left field--he was coming right out of the fucking ballpark. What did her specialization have to do with anything? Her mind raced to fill the gaps, certain she was missing some crucial detail that would uncover what the hell he was going on about. When she found none, she resigned herself to answering.

"Haven't decided yet," she told him, honest. "Computer Science for now, I guess." It was the only one on the list she'd recognized, and since the place ran on what was essentially a souped-up Windows 98, she figured she could manage. She could always change next semester.

"You took to driving this really well," he said. "You might want to consider piloting.

The ice bridges shattered, then disintegrated around the hoverbike. Shiva unfolded into two women, again; one of them blew Snow a kiss before they both disappeared. He eased the bike's nose down, aiming them on a slow course back towards the school.

"I know what you're both wondering," he said after a moment. "No, I'm not going to punish you for this. Because it won't do any good," he added, with a glance over his shoulder. "I'm sure neither of you are dumb enough to think you'd have gotten away with the stunt, so clearly punishing you isn't going to make you learn from this when you expected it in the first place."

So, no punishment? None whatsoever?

Zephyr's eyebrows made a vain attempt not to shoot toward his hairline, and upon failing that, they stayed there as his mind tried to pound Snow's words into something that made sense. Was the guy inviting them to do it again? Or was their own guilt or something supposed to keep them from trying anything? Because that tactic didn't always work all that well with Zephyr.

Still, if he wasn't going to be stuck in detention for forever and a day, he certainly wasn't going to complain. As such, he just kept his mouth shut and waited for whatever other nonsense was going to come out of the guy's mouth.

Zephyr decided he liked Snow... in a "nice guys always finish last" kind of way.

"Piloting...?"

She just let the word hang for a second, a soft breath out of her lips. She could be a pilot. The thought immediately struck her as completely ridiculous; she was running on adrenaline just now, that was a fluke. She focuses instead on what Snow has to say--and her eyes, like Zephyr's, become as wide as saucepans.

A second later, they were narrowed in suspicion.

"What's the catch?"

She wasn't buying it. There was always a catch, and she wanted it now rather than later.

"Don't think I'm being all soft-hearted and letting you get away with it. I am gonna have to tell the rest of the staff what you did. They'll probably watch you a little closer, you'll probably lose a little freedom, but that's something you probably expected too."

He went silent for a moment, pondering how best to answer the question, then shrugged. "Look, I could give you a big speech about what this bike means to me, how I proposed to my fiancee on it, how it's the only thing I have from my home... but it'd be lying. It does mean a lot to me, but not so much that I'd spend the rest of my days miserable without it. I lost it once, I could lose it again."

Snow looked over his shoulder at the pair of them. "I was afraid you were going to get hurt. You flew it really well, but you were lucky, too. There's all sorts of things like air currents up there. If you hit a gust of wind, or stalled the engine..." He let that hang a moment, let them savor the implications, then said in utter sincerity, "I was worried. I was afraid you'd be hurt, or killed."

If they chose not to believe that, for whatever reason, then they were disbelieving the truth.

As Snow was rambling on about his bike, Zephyr's line of thought mostly stuck to wondering about how the guy had just said he wasn't going to talk about the feelings he associated with it. Then again, maybe they were being spared the longer edition with more emotions and gods knew what else.

But when Snow started talking about worrying about them getting hurt... ?

Zephyr just stared blankly at the instructor. What sort of retard worried about the well-being of a complete stranger? There was some tiny part of Zephyr that did feel a bit bad for taking the guy's words with a grain of salt, but seriously? What the hell? Was he supposed to be crying and experiencing a life-changing revelation right now?

Kiden was kind of flabbergasted. Villiers, she thought, you sucker. And he was, to her at least. Why on Earth would he give that much of a shit in the first place--she knew it wasn't an act, she could see it in his eyes from this close--and why would he even tell them about it? Was he actively looking for them to do it again? He was opening the door wide open!

She resisted the temptation to let her shock register on her face. Instead, she just shrugged. His call, after all.

Well, for one, he was gonna start keeping his keys on a chain in his pocket. Snow had no idea how Kiden had gotten them, but he figured that would put a stop to most of the likely avenues.

The hoverbike whipped downwards to meet the lines of the road, then through the arch that led to the garage. Snow pulled it into his usual space, turning it off, then moved to face the two of them again.

"Heroic speech time, huh?" he said with a wry smile, though it lasted only a moment before he looked at them in dead sincerity.

"You're better than this."

Again, another statement he didn't expect them to believe... but he believed it. They can try to pretend otherwise, but they'd have to look away from him to do it.

Incredulity was slowly shifting into something dangerously close to anger, as Zephyr hopped off the bike and stood standing in front of Snow.

Maybe it was because the adrenaline that had been singing through his veins up until this point was ebbing, what with being caught and touching back down on the ground. Maybe it was the fact that he had had to tolerate some random heroic blithering. Or it could perhaps be the way that Snow just had such... unfounded faith in them to be... decent individuals. He couldn't speak for Kiden here, but the fact that Snow thought that he was better than this?

Bullshit.

Irritation prickled through his system now, as his lips curled into a very definite frown. Something about that one little line grated on his nerves something fierce.

Kiden couldn't quite bring up the ire Zephyr was feeling; only a kind of bored resignation, a disappointment that Snow was letting himself be played so easily. She'd expected him to be a little more shrewd, if nothing else.

She was glad to be off the bike, stepping away from the two men to stabilize her still-shaky legs. She dusted off the knees of her jeans, glancing over at them as she did. There was a spike of tension in the air; she took one look at Snow and determined that if he tried anything, it would be like watching a Chihuahua take on a Rottweiler.

Actually, a Chihuahua probably had better chances.

"That's nice. Are we done here?" She asks, voice cutting.

Anger was good. That meant his words had gotten under Zephyr's skin. That's where they belonged.

Kiden, on the other hand... well, he hadn't thought it would work. If he had to guess, he'd say it was just too casually easy to disbelieve it.

"I have office hours every once in a while. Any cadet is welcome, not just ones in my classes. If either of you ever need someone to talk to, you're welcome to drop by.

"You guys can go," he added, jerking his head to the hallway back to Garden. "Oh yeah, I should probably say this, don't do it again."

"Save your preaching for people who give a fuck," Zephyr muttered. Eyes narrowed and lips curled into a scowl, he turned on his heel and stalked out of the room. He flipped the bird at Snow before slipping out into the hallway, the sound of his steps echoing off the walls as he walked.

Kiden leveled a look at Snow that conveyed little more than vague exasperation, before turning to follow Zephyr. The garage door whirred slowly shut behind her as she chased him into the hall, hollow neon light arcing off her hair, her skin still bumpy from the air outside. A jog brought her into step with her friend's longer strides, her expression shifting slowly into a grin, inviting him to cheer up.

"So. We did that." And they didn't even get detention for it! Snow had just unwittingly painted a KICK ME sign onto the back of his long coat.

Zephyr heard Kiden jogging down the hall to catch up with him, and he glanced over his shoulder to watch her draw even. When he caught her grinning, he rolled his eyes, but the corner of his mouth twitched.

"Can you believe this guy?" he asked, throwing one hand up in exasperation. "Who's he think he is? A hero of some fairy tale? Gimme a break.

"He's just askin' for trouble this way. Words aren't gonna stop me from doing anything."

"Then don't let him get to you," Kiden argued, grin sliding into something more thoughtful. "It's what he wants--he wants a reaction. The worst thing you can do to people like him is not give a fuck."

Snow reminded her of Palmer, her honest sincerity and her true, unshakable belief that she could change the lives of 'her' kids through education. That she could shake them up. Look where that had gotten her.

Zephyr opened his mouth to say something and then clamped it back shut again. Thus far, he'd had pretty good luck at avoiding Certain Issues at the Garden, but Snow had come unfortunately close to one of them--enough to elicit a reaction from him, at least.

"Yeah, well, I'll try and keep that in mind," he finally replied but without really any conviction to his tone. This was clearly a matter of easier said than done.

Kiden wasn't buying it--he looked like a door slamming shut in her face, and Kiden liked to think she was getting pretty damn good at jimmying locks.

"What's got you so wound up? Come on, we just stole a goddamn flying bike and took it for a joyride." A short joyride, but there you had it. "At least tell me you don't regret it."

"I don't. It was fucking great when we were up there--even when we were getting chased, but..." The scowl's back, and he scrubbed a hand through his hair, trying to cool his temper and telling himself that putting a slug in the guy's brain was not a good idea.

"Look, I just react badly when people try and preach at me." His gaze flickered around the hall, uncomfortable. "Goes back to that entire seminary shit I told you about."

His assurance relaxed her for the moment it took for him to tense up again, more fidgety than usual. Zephyr had a more purposeful way of moving than just about anyone her age Kiden had ever met, almost like Laura except not as freakishly exact. It wasn't like him to move out of turn, or for no reason. With his eyes darting around, he looked like a trapped animal. After a moment's deliberation, she reached forward, her hand falling on his shoulder. Less than an hour ago they'd been pressed together on the bike, but now she was hesitant to touch him.

"That bad, huh?" She wouldn't force it out of him if he didn't want to talk about it, but that didn't mean she was entirely dismissive...even though she really wasn't up for a fucking heart-to-heart session right then. By way of compromise, her hand migrated to his elbow, tugging him briefly towards the front gate. "Come on, let's get some air. It's fucking stuffy in here, and I need a smoke."

"You could say that," he replied on an unsteady exhale, and that was about all he was willing to give up on the topic. It'd been a couple years now, but then again, maybe this was just one of those things you never quite forgot.

If nothing else, it'd shaped him--molded him into the person he was today.

Zephyr allowed Kiden to lead him down the hall and out into the open--remaining eerily quiet as she did so. As they exited, he held up a hand to shield his eyes from the sun dying on the horizon. When he eventually lowered his hand, Zephyr frowned at the sunset, eyes squinting against the bright light, but it looked like he'd at least managed to get a check on his temper.

"After you smoke, let's go grab somethin' to eat. I'm fuckin' starving." It wasn't the truth, really, but it was a step back toward normality.

She was very aware of how deathly silent he was, but was relieved to find he was calmer once they'd left the building. She turned to him, watching the last remains of the sunset strike his face.

"Or," she put in, "I can smoke and we can eat at the same time. Crazy, I know, try not to shit yourself." She pulled a cigarette out of her pocket, putting it between her lips and fishing for her lighter.

"Let's go grab some hot dogs from the cafeteria and eat outside."

It was warm out, late July, and at the altitude Garden cruised at, it wasn't as if they had mosquitos to worry about.

"Yeah, sure thing," he replied after a moment. A faint grin appeared on his lips, and he jerked his head back toward the building.

The less time he gave himself to linger on the past, the less volatile his mood would be, so keeping busy would be the best course of action for him right now. So long as that blond-haired neanderthal kept far away, Zephyr had a good feeling that he'd be back to normal soon enough.

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/discovers he had lost the notif for this. Sucks.

It's fiiiiiiine. /pat pat :)

/squishes you both

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