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The giant Monolith towered in the distance, dark and impressive, with the pale arms of their Goddess wrapped around it tightly. Her hair flowed over her face, covering any features of her face, lingering down her body and into the ground, merging with the ever shifting chroma that dispersed at the bottom of the Monolith. On the black stone that made up the structure, brilliant red words were etched upon it, with little arrows pointing to different areas of the continent, warning the residents of the land about the various Nevron sightings.
Over the ocean and across the water, small towns existed behind a dome of protection, keeping danger out of the pockets of life in the land torn asunder by the Fracture. Nevrons roamed the areas that the domes did not reach, reaching hungrily for the humans that carried the chroma they fed on.
Away from these pockets of humanity, the main city of the Continent, Lumiere, sat proudly in a curve of coastline, the shimmer of a golden dome maintained by the clever engineers of Lumiere. The docks situated at the border of the barrier were busy, with ships coming in and out of automatic gates found at intermittent spaces of the dome. The fields outside of the city boasted rows and rows of agriculture, with farms littering the areas, taking care of the supply of food that the citizens of Lumiere and their trading partners needed.
And in the epicenter of the beautiful city, under the bent but beautiful bronze sculpture of something from before, a row of tall buildings sat innocently, covering the wide area between the four pillars of the effigy, separated into the different departments of the Expedition Centre. The buildings had a constant stream of people heading in and out, with different levels of chroma activity present in each building.
In one such building, laid a sterile bright laboratory.
The laboratory was empty, save for one dark haired woman hunched over a table, her face scrunched up in concentration as she stared at the notes in front of her, one hand rubbing absentmindedly over the line of tattoo covering the left side of her face.
And then, with a groan, Lune covered her face with her hand, letting out a heavy sigh.
“Why is it so boring today?”
*
Anything you want, as you wish.
Search through the room, a dream like treat.
*
Lune stared at the notes in front of her, words mulling together as the machinery in the room hummed silently. There was white noise in her head, loud and staticky, completely useless as she tried once again to make sense of the lumina converter that she was supposed to be working on. Her lab, usually filled with other researchers buried in their own work, was eerily empty, the silence that came with being alone in the area burrowing under her skin uncomfortably.
She rubbed at her eyes tiredly, tilting her head backwards and wincing when her neck cracked loudly. Taking a deep breath, Lune collected the papers in front of her into a neat pile, leaving the stack to one side as she cleared the rest of the items back into their respective drawers. Leaning back into her chair, she stared at the ceiling, squinting slightly to make the dust motes blur, drawing pictures of constellations and galaxies in her mind’s eye.
And then she let out another sigh.
“Why is everyone out today?”
She looked back down, taking in Tristan’s empty chair, her desk partner who was out in the fields helping with the lagging machine that helped with the water filtration system. Her eyes slid over to the opposite lab bench where Gustave usually sat, the incomplete prototype of the lumina converter they were working on temporarily paused as he had been called out to an emergency dome repair. The other lab benches were also vacated by their owners, even her parents, who had gone with another one of the expedition teams to check out the Nevron activity near the ominous tower that sat to the left of Lumiere.
If it was any other day, Lune would appreciate the peace and quiet.
But today, when she had submitted most of her work that was urgent, Lune found herself immensely bored.
She let out another breath and spun her chair around, tapping her fingers against the table loudly.
“Maybe I should have gone on that Nevron subjugation mission.”
Her eyes went out of focus as she stared off into a corner, barely registering the various tints and half completed pictos that sat on a bench in the corner, her brain just flitting from one subject to another, trying to grasp at something that would occupy her for the rest of the afternoon.
And then, unbidden, her focus sharpened on a green-ish looking beaker, still stained from whatever attempt some other researcher had abandoned.
It was an uncommon shade of green, the type of green that Lune has only seen outside of the dome, a certain hue of green that spoke of the beginning of spring, with dark flecks that spoke of strength.
And very familiar to Lune.
She shook her head, chasing away the wisps of a dream that had started to cloud the forefront of her mind.
And then-
“Oh, that gives me an idea!”
*
Lumiere, for all its splendor now, used to be a place where dreams were buried and hope was tucked away carefully, away from the ever watchful eye of the Paintress.
When the Fracture happened, there was a brief period in time where Nevrons were at the top of the food chain, the people of land briefly abandoned by the Paintress and all of her acolytes. People fell to Nevrons and to the Paintress’ whims, erased from existence with just a wave of a hand.
Then, years and years ago, there was a huge battle, of what, nobody truly knew.
Just that something had happened and the Paintress then etched herself into the Monolith, becoming the benevolent Goddess of the world, silent and still, a sculpture melded into the Monolith that served as a warning system.
Her acolytes, the appropriately named painters, sometimes graced Lumiere with their presence, faded and voiceless, manipulating chroma to help with the Nevron infestations.
It was an acolyte that started the Expedition Academy, encouraging the young and the bright to build Lumiere, to start a pseudo-military might to counter the Nevrons.
And it was at the Expedition Academy that birthed most of the inventions and breakthroughs that helped the citizens of Lumiere and the Continent.
Such as the dome, the agriculture machinery and-
*
“Oh, this would be revolutionary, the Nevrons won’t stand a chance.”
Lune pulled out a glowing picto from one of the cabinets, a wide grin on her face as she plucked several other items from other benches, liquids that seemed to solidify when she tilted the bottles, to stirrers that gave out a soft blue light when placed in a beaker. Her brain, previously rattling about with boredom, was racing with a singular focus, running through the chemicals that she would need to construct and the amount of chroma she would need to expend for this experiment.
Oxytocin.
She went to her area and placed the items on the table gingerly, arranging them in the order her mind was supplying her with.
Dopamine.
She pulled out a box of black gloves from a drawer, placing the unopened box on the table and swept her hair up into a ponytail, pulling off a glittering purple hair tie from her wrist to tie it up.
Vasopressin.
She flipped through her black journal, turning to a new page, summoning a familiar diamond shaped journal picto next to it, moving on to the gloves next. Pulling on a pair of black gloves, Lune sat back down on her chair, a determined look on her face. Reaching for the bottle on the left, she started slowly, carefully, chroma gathering at her fingertips in small motes of sage green.
Her focus zeroed in on the items in front of her, fingers maneuvering around the gentle glow of the unfinished tint as she measured, poured, letting the beaker rest on the table while she wrote down the process, marking down her hypothesis and her thoughts in the journal beside her. The diamond shaped picto whirred on its own axis slowly, humming tunelessly as Lune spoke into it, mostly just recording the amounts of chemicals and units she had used.
Slowly but surely, the previously colourless tint began to form in front of her, shifting between vapour and liquid in its container, shimmering a slight gold, intermingling with the barest hint of green. Lune paused for a moment, brow furrowing as she eyed the mixture, her head tilting to one side as she stirred it with a glass rod, her lower lip jutting out when the tint remained in that vague in-between form.
She flipped through her notebook, trying to pinpoint something that could explain the current configuration of the tint when a hand pressed against the back of her neck, warm and searing, fingertips skirting the edges of her hairline teasingly.
Lune jumped in shock, turning around in her hair with a stifled curse on her lips, a hand over her chest as she stared at the intruder incredulously, eyes darting from the familiar green eyes to the wide grin playing on her lips, leaning on one leg to compensate the weight of the bag she carried with her.
“Sciel! You scared me!”
Sciel raised her hand in greeting.
“I knocked but you were too engrossed in-”
She peered over Lune’s shoulder, eyeing the part gas, part liquid concoction curiously.
“-whatever it is that you’re doing.”
Lune turned back to the experiment and one shoulder came up in a shrug, gently lifting a glass cover and placing it over the beaker carefully.
“I had a thought earlier and wanted to test it out since the lab is empty today.”
Sciel heaved the bag she brought with her onto Tristan’s table, bracing her hip against the edge of it and folding her arms across her chest, one eyebrow raised in Lune’s direction.
“Oh? What sort of thought? Am I interrupting anything?”
Lune shrugged again, closing her notebook and dismissing the journal picto with a wave of her hand.
“Nothing too important. What did you bring for me today?”
Sciel glanced over to the green tint again, her mouth pursed slightly but ultimately took Lune at face value, clapping her hands together once before turning to the big bag on the table.
“Before that! I brought food and coffee. Let’s have lunch before we get into it!”
She pulled out yet another bag from within, hands pausing when she moved to remove the reusable coffee cups from the holders. Green eyes met with stern brown, Sciel smiling sheepishly at Lune’s disapproving look before bringing the bag to her side, replacing the cups back into the holder.
“Off to the pantry then?”
Lune nodded, giving Sciel a dry look when the brunette gestured dramatically to the small alcove over the side of the lab, separated by a line of glass walls. Sciel looped their arms together, gently rubbing their shoulders together as she spoke happily.
“They had those viennoiseries that you like today! Had to fist fight someone to get the last of them.”
Shaking her head in amusement, Lune gave Sciel a gentle pat on the arm, returning the other woman’s playful glare with a smile as she led them towards the pantry, ignoring the way Sciel’s warmth seemed to seep into her skin, running through her veins and branding straight into her bones.
*
“Alright, time to get back to work.”
Lune brushed her hands down the front of her pants, eyeing herself for any crumbs before looking up towards Sciel who had gotten up from her seat. Sciel reached over and rubbed at the side of Lune’s mouth, bringing her thumb away to show the smear of chocolate that had been at her lips. Chuckling fondly at the sudden flush on Lune’s cheeks, Sciel licked at the chocolate remnants, backing towards the door as Lune rubbed at her mouth sullenly.
“You eat like a child sometimes.”
The dark haired woman got up and followed Sciel, muttering under her breath the whole way back to her bench.
“I would’ve gotten to it.”
Sciel threw her a look over her shoulder.
“Mhmm.”
She walked up to the bag on the table, shifting the item towards the back of the table whilst Lune took a cursory glance over to the green tint still swirling gently in the beaker. Sciel opened the bag and pulled out a case containing a set of guns that were glowing red, clearing her throat lightly to draw Lune’s attention away from the misty liquid. Once Lune looked over to her, she pulled one out of the case it was in and handed it over to Lune, who took it gingerly, fingers clasped around the handle, brow furrowed in confusion.
“What in the world-”
Sciel let out a chuckle and gestured towards the angry lines wrapping around the barrel of the gun.
“As you can see, weaponry has done something odd with this and now every time someone pulls the trigger, it fires a bullet and shocks the shooter at the same time.”
Lune turned the gun over, checking both the chamber and the cylinder for bullets, confirming that the gun was void of any ammunition. Humming to herself, she turned the muzzle towards her face, one finger tracing the line of chroma etched on the gun. She gestured for Sciel to come closer when she spotted the problem, cheek almost brushing against Sciel’s shoulder as she tilted the front sight away from them.
“Look here. Someone decided to mix both overload and electrify for some reason and something else I can’t identify with the gun.”
She twisted the gun around to check the hammer and let out a breath of disbelief.
“And this picto with the hammer? No wonder the recoil is causing damage to the shooter. I’m surprised it hasn’t exploded in anyone’s hands yet.”
Sciel hummed under her breath.
“Should be an easy fix then?”
Lune twisted the gun around, checking the barrel again.
“Yes and no. I know how to fix it but it’s going to take time. I can’t just erase this, it might cause a reaction which in turn would cause the gun to explode.”
She looked over to Sciel again, aiming the gun down towards the floor, mulling at the question that had cropped up in her head when Sciel had pulled out the guns.
“I’m surprised you didn’t ask Gustave for a second opinion. He’s better with guns.”
There was a look on Sciel’s face, a tight sort of expression that had her eyes narrowing slightly and her mouth pulled into a line, a clear sort of answer that Lune did not understand before it flitted away to her usual grinning visage, gone as quickly as it came.
“I didn’t want to wait for him to return. Best get this fixed before someone’s finger gets shot off.”
Lune shrugged, cataloging the expression in the back of her mind, tucked between the grin that Sciel gave her when Lune played the guitar at her request and the small, soft smile that had Lune’s heart responding with a steady thump, thump, thump.
“Alright, then. Let’s get to work.”
She gestured for Sciel to hold up her hands, using her fingers to draw invisible lines of chroma around the other woman’s palms. The gun began floating above Sciel’s palms, the red lines pulsing in tandem with the chroma that was forming a globe around the weapon.
Lune muttered under her breath quietly.
“Hold perfectly still and move when I tell you to.”
Her hands moved without waiting for a reply from Sciel, her fingers twisting and forming shapes as she started correcting the pictos on the gun. They worked quietly, Sciel barely needing a prompt from Lune before moving her hands as instructed, already used to the way Lune worked around pictos and chroma, leaning back in her chair in an almost languid manner.
In what felt like no time at all, Lune directed Sciel to place the gun on the table, the weapon floating aimlessly in its little sphere of chroma, red lines now dulling down to a comfortable blue, no longer as angry looking as it was before. Grinning, Lune turned to Sciel who returned the smile, the brunette lifting up a hand for a high five.
Lune returned it with a light tap, her grin widening when Sciel gave her a deadpan look at the lack of strength behind the tap.
“Please don’t tell me I need to teach you how to high five.”
Lune merely shrugged in response, gesturing to the other gun laying in the case next to Sciel.
“Let’s fix the other one before I give you a proper high five.”
Sciel rolled her eyes at Lune and reached for the other gun, her fingers wrapping around the vermillion handle.
“Why can’t I get two high fives? There’re two guns.”
Lune opened her mouth to retort when she caught the flash of red out of the corner of her eyes, a brief spark of magenta that had her raising her hand to cover her eyes. She heard Sciel shout, a staccato of a sound that evolved into a curse and then the clattering of metal that had her looking around swiftly, her eyes darting to the gun that was hanging out of the box precariously, the muzzle pointed towards the air and Sciel cradling her hand, a scowl directed at said gun.
And the sudden presence of green smoke.
Panicked, Lune turned around to find the source of the smoke, her heart jumping up to her throat when she saw the broken pieces of the beaker she had set aside carefully, the contents held within the glass spilling out and evaporating into air. Billows of green soon surrounded both her and Sciel, coating her nostrils and the back of her throat with the taste of sunshine and starlight, brushing against her tongue with the feeling of warmth and tenderness.
Lune coughed lightly, turning towards Sciel who was coughing similarly, backing out of the smoke hurriedly.
“I’m going to-”
Lune’s eyes widened, catching Sciel fumbling for the controls of the ventilator, stretching out her hand to catch Sciel-
“Sciel, don’t-”
-just a moment too late as the brunette hit the “ON” button, kicking up the ventilator fans that immediately began sucking up the smoke lingering in the space. Her hand dropped to her side, her shoulders slumping and she stared at Sciel in aghast, the other woman looking back at her in equal parts of confusion and defensiveness.
“What? We were gonna be suffocated.”
Lune rubbed at her face with one hand.
“It’s not protocol, especially with unknown contaminants and potentially lethal substances.”
Sciel gave her a look, an eyebrow raised towards her hairline.
“What in the world did you create that could be categorised as a potentially lethal substance?”
Lune looked back at the broken pieces of the beaker and mumbled under her breath, too low for anyone to hear, heat rising up her neck at the thought of the “brilliant” experiment that made so much more sense this morning. There was a beat as Sciel stared at her expectantly, one eyebrow raised towards her hairline whilst Lune searched for the words before sighing, directing her gaze towards the lingering wisps of green smoke that lined the air around them.
“I was trying to see if I could recreate the charm effect that the Ballet neurons have and see if we could use it against them.”
Sciel’s other eyebrow followed the trek upwards to her hairline.
“You were trying to recreate charm?”
“Yes.”
There was a twitch on the corner of Sciel’s lips.
“To make Nevrons fall for us and do our bidding?”
Lune let out an exasperated breath.
“For the lack of a better description, yes.”
There was a spark of mirth in Sciel’s eyes before her lips pulled into a wide smile, quickly hidden away behind a hand.
“You know what that sounds like?”
Lune let out another breath, turning her gaze over to the gun which was blinking red.
“No- Let’s just get back to the-”
“Lune, it sounds like you’re planning on giving the Nevrons a love potion mid battle.”
Lune turned back to Sciel, face pulled into a frown.
“It’s not a love potion, it’s charm. And clearly, it didn’t work because you seem to be fine.”
She paused, squinting at Sciel who looked back at her in amusement.
“You are fine, right? No sudden need to attack someone? Or set them on fire?”
Sciel snorted and moved towards Lune, raising both arms and spinning around once, laughter present in the lines of her body.
“I feel the same as always.”
Lune eyed her critically, tamping down the welling feeling of disappointment in her chest before nodding once to herself, head tilted to one side as Sciel raised a question.
“Are you sure you’re alright? You inhaled the same smoke I did.”
Lune waved an indolent hand, already moving back towards the glass pieces on the counter.
“I used my chroma to fix the tint. It won’t have an effect on me.”
There was a moment of silence before Sciel spoke up again, her words laced with barely contained laughter.
“Should I bring up the obvious or-”
“Let’s just fix the damn gun, Sciel.”
“Okay.”
Another pause.
“Can’t believe you made a love potion.”
“Sciel!”
*
Sciel stretched her arms over her head, groaning as her neck popped, whilst Lune packed the guns back into the bag carefully, locking the case it came with and placing it back into the bag. She zipped it up quickly and turned back towards Sciel, watching as the brunette placed the sharps bin back onto the mounting bracket, the clinking sound of glass rattling against the container.
Sciel dusted off her pants and turned back towards Lune with a grin, a suspicious glint in her eyes that had Lune groaning ahead of whatever quip Sciel was going to say.
“Now that the guns are done, you think we could get back to the love potion?”
Lune shook her head at the other woman, shooting her a deadpan look.
(She should have known that Sciel wouldn’t have let it go so easily.)
“Let’s not.”
Sciel reached over to poke her in the shoulder, another quip ready on her lips, when the door to the laboratory opened, with Tristan stepping through with a gentle smile on his face. They both turned towards the dark haired man, Sciel lifting a hand in greeting whilst Lune called out to him.
“How did the repairs go? Was it a problem with the spring like you thought?”
Tristan merely nodded, making a beeline for the pair, shoulder knocking into Sciel almost absentmindedly as he regarded Lune with a wide smile. Sciel looked at him confusedly before directing her gaze at Lune, one eyebrow raised in question. Lune shrugged in response but directed another question at the silent Tristan, one hand coming up to rub at Sciel’s shoulder subconsciously.
“Was it just a simple repair? You’re back pretty early.”
Tristan nodded again, shifting his body to push at Lune’s hand so that the contact with Sciel broke.
“It was just some gravel stuck between the gears. Cleared it out pretty quickly so I came back straight away.”
He eyed her, uncomfortably earnest, barely paying attention to Sciel who was looking at him with an almost offended expression at his behaviour, before reaching out to tuck an errant strand of hair behind Lune’s ear.
Lune flinched away from the touch, an incredulous look taking over her face.
“Tristan, what-”
Tristan continued as though Lune hadn’t spoken, the smile on his face widening as he regarded her.
“It’s a good thing I came back early. I would’ve missed a sight like this.”
Lune stared at him in disbelief, her attention snapping towards Sciel when the other woman let out a loud snort, Sciel bending over in an effort to stem her laughter, one hand pressed tightly over her mouth. Lune opened her mouth to question, before her teeth clicked shut together, looking at Sciel who was pointing desperately to Tristan and to Lune before the thought slid home in her brain.
And let out a very low curse under her breath.
“Oh for fuck’s sake. Seriously?!”
Tristan simpered giddily.
“Even the way you swear is so elegant.”
At this point, Sciel gave up on trying to be subtle, her laughter loud and boisterous as she slapped the table with one hand.
“Holy shit! Your love potion works!”
Lune stared at Tristan in despair, wracking her brain to figure out the how, when, where of Tristan getting dosed while the man continued to stare at her, fingers reaching for her face and mouth pulling into a pout when Lune dodged him.
“It shouldn’t have?! You’re clearly fine, so even if he was close enough to the vents, he shouldn’t be affected either!”
Sciel let out another peal of laughter, slumping onto the table from how hard she was laughing.
“Maybe- oh Paintress help me - the potion is homophobic- you made a homophobic potion-”
Torn between flabbergasted and offended, Lune grabbed Tristan by the wrists and directed him into a chair, shooting the very unhelpful Sciel a glare as she led the extremely pliant man to sit down.
“Sciel, can you not- First of all, it wouldn’t have been homophobic, charm affects everyone equally and secondly-”
Tristan sat down obediently and peered up at Lune with puppy dog eyes, his lips pulling into another dreamy smile.
“You recreated charm? That’s so amazing, Lune.”
Lune pinched the bridge of her nose in exasperation, taking a moment to draw in a breath before plastering a genial smile on her face, pointedly ignoring Sciel who had gone into another round of laughter.
“Just...sit here, okay? I need to go and consult my notes.”
Tristan nodded enthusiastically and folded his hands over his lap, eyes wide and bright as his gaze followed Lune. The dark haired woman took in another breath and let it out in a heavy sigh, moving back towards her desk where Sciel was picking herself back up, the remnants of laughter dripping off her shoulders in minute shudders.
Lune muttered darkly under her breath, poking Sciel in the shoulder with one finger.
“It’s not that funny.”
Sciel sucked in her lips, swallowing the giggle that was sure to have exited at the face of Lune’s despair and shook her head, taking a moment to compose herself while Lune reactivated the diamond shaped picto with one hand. Her other hand reached for the notebook, flipping through the pages with a practiced motion, hovering over the inked words that she had written inside just hours earlier. She slid up to Lune’s side quietly, pressing their shoulders together as Lune read through her notes, absentmindedly leaning into Sciel’s apologetic squeeze on her shoulder.
“The formula says-”
She trailed off quietly, murmuring to herself quietly, barely aware of the warm hand placed at the center of her back, making shapes with her fingers as she manipulated the journal picto.
“-it didn’t work on Sciel, so it shouldn’t have worked on Tristan...”
Sciel let out a small cough, just loud enough to draw Lune’s gaze towards her before the mage turned back to her notes, but not before raising an eyebrow at the expression of Sciel’s face.
(Again, it was an expression that Lune rarely saw on Sciel’s face, the kind of expression that Sciel’s eyes narrowing, green and bright as though she was trying to plant something into Lune’s brain, and her mouth pulled into a thin line, blocking the words that the brunette held at the back of her throat.
And as quickly as it came, the expression would wipe away, leaving behind that smile that always had Lune responding in kind, a little confused but not too fussed because it was Sciel and Sciel has always been gentle with her.)
“What is it?”
Her eyes were trained on the journal in front of her, but her attention was solely on Sciel, head tilting at the sound of Sciel’s voice when the brunette spoke up after a moment, her tone light and unassuming.
“If it’s just charm, wouldn’t anti-charm work against it?”
Lune nodded, spinning the picto once in the air as she took in the equations she wrote.
“It should. But considering how I adjusted it so that it would affect chroma patterns and flow, I’m worried that by throwing anti-charm without accounting for the adjustments would permanently affect the way Tristan would emote in the future.”
Sciel hummed in understanding.
“You think it might cut off all of his emotions?”
Lune nodded again, scribbling into the open notebook in front of her.
“Or amplify it. But-”
She pushed the journal over to Sciel, waiting for the other woman to look down at it obediently before continuing.
“Looking at the dosage and the mixture through this equation, the tint should wear off by itself. It shouldn’t be permanent, much like the Dancer’s charm.”
She chanced a glance over to Tristan, wincing slightly at the sullen look on the man’s face at the sight of Sciel and Lune huddled together and turned back towards Sciel, subtly pointing towards the affected man.
“And considering that Tristan is one of the few individuals who would be around the laboratory at this time of day, I think he should be the only one affected. As long as we keep him here, we can monitor his condition and run interference if needed.”
Sciel shot her a grin, her eyes bright with mirth.
“We?”
Lune rolled her eyes.
“Yes, we. Girl power and solidarity in friendship and all that.”
Sciel nudged her shoulder gently with a fist, her lips curling into another smile, one that had Lune grinning back in return when the laboratory doors opened again. They both turned towards the door, Lune’s heart sinking deep into the abyss of her abdomen when Gustave came through, looking very much like Tristan, with a dopey smile on his face.
“Lune! My beloved!”
Sciel inhaled sharply, a high pitched sound escaping from between her teeth before she clasped both hands over her face, shoulders shaking as she turned away from the smitten looking Gustave, leaving Lune to face Gustave by herself.
(Maybe Lune needed to rethink her partner in friendship and girl power.)
Lune elbowed Sciel none too gently before plastering a polite smile to face Gustave, twisting Gustave’s hand into a handshake before he could pull her into a hug.
“Gustave! What are you doing here?”
Gustave’s mouth pulled into a pout, eerily similar to the one Tristan was now sporting at the sight of Gustave trying to invade Lune’s personal space.
“I was giving my report to Alan about the dome when I had the sudden thought that you were lonely in the laboratory. So I came to rectify that.”
Lune’s smile grew strained, feeling the onset of a headache settling at the base of her skull at the implication of Gustave’s words. She did not, however, get to dwell on it, as Tristan chose this moment to march up to the both of them, both men still ignoring Sciel who had her head in her arms, bent over the table while shaking uncontrollably.
Tristan cleared his throat loudly, crossing his arms across his chest in what he seemed to think was a threatening manner.
“Lune wasn’t lonely. She had me.”
Gustave bristled uncharacteristically and almost seemed to square up to Tristan, his chest puffing up in a manner that would have been comical if Lune wasn’t so busy despairing her current situation.
(She will never complain about boredom again.
Or start experiments out of curiosity.)
“You clearly weren’t doing a good job seeing you were sitting in a corner like a dog.”
“Lune told me to sit down while she worked so I was being respectful and obeyed her-”
“Still sounds like a dog to me-”
“I’ll bite you and you’ll see how much of a dog I can be-”
“Enough!”
Lune raised her hands in tandem with the shout, stepping between the two men and physically separating them before they started throwing punches. Both Gustave and Tristan immediately stopped arguing, taking a step back and looking sufficiently chastised, head drooping in shame as they folded their hands in front of their abdomens. Taking a deep breath, Lune pushed the both of them further from each other, one hand on each of their chests and spoke with a calm she did not feel, keeping her voice as even as she could.
“If the both of you are so eager to impress me, then maybe you could help me out with something.”
She waited for them to look at her, internally cringing at the twin eager looks on their faces, and continued, gently ushering them towards the exit of the laboratory.
“I’m missing a few materials for my research but I can’t leave the laboratory right now. Could the both of you please go and get them for me?”
She grabbed a list of items on one of the tables, one of the many random lists laying about that no one has gotten to due to their busy schedules and tore it down the middle, splitting the piece of paper into half. She handed one to each of them and waved her hands, her voice even as she guided them through the door.
“Don’t come back until you’ve gotten everything on the list, okay? It’s very important that you get all of them by today.”
She pushed the both of them out of the laboratory and quickly closed the door, cutting off their overeager chimes of assent. Rubbing at her temples, Lune moved back towards her table where Sciel had finally stopped laughing, shooting the brunette a glare when the other woman quipped out teasingly.
“Whatever happened to keeping them here so that we can keep an eye on them?”
Lune moved towards the cabinets, pulling out an unused anti-charm picto they had stashed away as back up.
“The less distractions I have, the better. If you heard Gustave over your laughter, you’d realise that the tint affected Alan as well.”
Sciel opened her mouth to reply, paused, an odd expression crossing her face as she thought about it. A full body shudder ran through her body at the thought of the Expedition’s self proclaimed father looking like how Gustave and Tristan did and she shook her head quickly, as though trying to physically dispel the thought.
“Okay, yeah, no, that’s kind of...disturbing.”
“Yeah, so I need to get started on this without any distractions.”
She waved Sciel towards the door.
“Could you please make sure no one else comes through?”
Sciel saluted at her playfully and marched towards the door, leaning against one of the tables closest to it whilst Lune took a deep breath, released it and started working, the blue gleam of the pictos filling the laboratory.
*
Lune’s prediction about Alan being affected came true mere minutes after she started working on a reversal when the leader of Expedition 33 waltzed through the door looking for Lune, a bouquet of flowers in hand, an offer to take her out to dinner at the tip of his tongue.
True to her word, even with her ribs almost breaking from the effort to stop laughing at the situation, Sciel had distracted him away, handing him a random proposal that Lune had on her desk, with specific instructions from Lune to go through it with a fine toothed comb before coming back with an approval. It was fortunate that Sciel has always been good at thinking on her feet because Alan was far from the last person to waltz through the doors with the intent on getting on (or with) Lune, complete with dopey expressions, puppy dog eyes, and very loud proclamations that they would do anything for Lune.
Lune worked as quickly as she could, bright sparks of blue and green chroma firing off at her table during this time, almost completely unaware of the people that came by, her entire focus on the picto that she was modifying.
That is until-
“Hey, Cath- Lune is busy. Just come back later!”
“Don’t worry about it, I’ll be quick.”
Lune looked up at the sound of feet shuffling towards her, brow furrowed as it was coupled with the sound of Sciel squawking in an undignified manner. Her frown deepened at the sight of Catherine ducking casually under Sciel’s arm, brushing brown hair out of her eyes, brown glittering gold under the laboratory’s lights. She waved a hand at Lune, who tilted her head in confusion at the sight of Catherine.
“Cath? What are you doing here in the lab? Aren’t you scheduled to be on patrol this week?”
Catherine grinned, leaning up against the table, hands folded over her chest, hip pressing into the edge.
“Lucien swapped with me this week. Something about his crush rejecting him and him not wanting to run the training session her group is scheduled to have this week.”
She gave Lune a wink, her smile widening when Lune let out a breath of a laugh, the dark haired woman shaking her head at the thought.
“That does sound like Lucien. But-”
She eyed Catherine critically, taking in the expression on her face.
“Doesn’t explain what you’re doing here.”
Catherine’s tongue darted out briefly, her eyes flickering down to Lune’s lips before looking back up, her grin turning slightly pouty.
“Do I need a reason to be here?”
Lune opened her mouth to explain that yes, you do because you said the lab was stuffy, only to have her words die at the back of her throat when Catherine reached out to brush her fingers across her cheeks, her knuckles tracing the line of tattoos running down her left side before lingering over her jaw. Her cheeks grew hot, drawing heat from the sensation of skin upon skin, travelling all the way to her ears as Lune backed away slightly, sputtering slightly at the flirtation.
(It seemed like the tint was not homophobic after all.)
Catherine merely tilted her head, taking a step towards Lune to reduce the distance.
“If I need one, then you’re all the reason I need.”
Her words were but dust on her tongue, flecks of ivory found in the ruins of Lune’s logical thinking as she tried to process the fact that Catherine, while under the influence of powerful chroma, was flirting with her.
Catherine, the heartthrob of their class, was flirting with Lune.
(Somehow, faced with someone that had remarkably similar facial structures and hair, with completely different eyes, molten chocolate that spoke of comfort and familiarity rather than the viridescent that she has come to associate with home, Lune was affected by her honeyed words and gentle touches.
Even though the feeling that the words and the touches elicited were different, it was just familiar enough for her to-)
She swallowed her aghast and chanced a look at Sciel, hoping to get some help from the other woman-
And instead of the laughter that had followed her throughout the day, Lune was met with an uncharacteristically hostile Sciel, the brunette staring so hard at Catherine, her eyes seemed to glow. Her jaw was clenched down so tightly that Lune could see it working even at a distance and if she squinted, it looked like the wisps of dark chroma that made up the brunt of Sciel’s magic were forming around her fingers.
Before she could try to understand Sciel’s sudden lack of amusement about the situation, she was pulled out of her thoughts by Catherine crowding in closer, their bodies almost touching with Catherine’s bold move.
Blinking rapidly, with the odd expression on Sciel’s face chased away by Catherine’s insistence on holding her attention, Lune took another step back, a strained smile pulling at her lips.
“Look, Cath, this is flattering and all, but I really have to get back to my work.”
Her head jerked back slightly when Catherine leant forward, fingers ghosting Lune’s upper arm.
“You still have to eat dinner, right? I can wait till you’re done.”
Lune looked towards Sciel helplessly, who was still staring at Catherine as though the other brunette was a Nevron in disguise and turned back towards Catherine, who was staring at her with that one smile that all the affected people had given Lune every time they walked through the laboratory door. Sighing (and unable to be harsh to a face so similar-) Lune directed Catherine towards an empty chair near the doors, drained and haggard as she instructed Catherine.
“Then could you wait here and make sure no one else comes through the door? I really do need to finish my work.”
She waited for Catherine to give her assent before moving back to her table quickly, her motions now tinged with urgency to get it done and get it right before anyone else waltzed through that door with that same dopey smile.
(Lune pointedly does not look towards Sciel, having no time to unravel Sciel’s sudden lack of amusement in the situation.)
*
She twisted the picto in her hands around, confirming the chroma signature lingering against the faint blue lines of the item with the journal in front of her.
By all accounts, her calculations were correct and the modifications should work.
But-
“Lune, you okay?”
Sciel’s warmth seeped into her side like a hot drink on a cold winter’s night, familiar and comforting even with her sudden appearance. Her hand pressed against Lune’s hip gently, before sliding to her back, slotting into the notches of her spine with a soft press of fingertips, calming and grounding as she tilted her head to regard Lune with a tender look. Leaning into the touch, Lune let out a breath before placing the picto back down onto the desk, her lips pulled into a thin line.
“I- I’ve checked and double checked and it looks right-”
She gestured towards the concentrated lines of chroma spinning slowly in front of her.
“But I can’t guarantee that it’s right. Not without testing.”
Sciel stared at the picto for a moment before turning back towards Lune, her hand inching its way across the plane of Lune’s back to grasp at her waist, pulling Lune into a side hug. Their heads knocked together lightly, shoulders aligned almost perfectly, Sciel’s muscled arm fitting around Lune’s lithe frame protectively.
“You know what I think?”
Lune shook her head, eyes slipping shut as exhaustion settled on her shoulders without warning.
“I think if you can create a love potion out of mere curiosity, you can definitely modify a picto to serve as an antidote when you put all your attention and care towards it.”
Lune let out a breath, too soft to be a laugh, too light to be a sigh and she pressed their temples together, her cheek warm against Sciel’s, soft skin upon soft skin, the soothing touch of warmth, the balm to Lune’s frayed emotions.
(And there was a thump, thump, thump, that came with each tender warmth that Sciel gave so freely, affection handed out to Lune as though it cost the brunette absolutely nothing but cost the pieces of Lune’s heart made from glass and stone and marble, offered silently but never openly.
And there was that no, Lune- that etched into the lines of her heart, her ribs curling into herself to protect that bruised heart that said Why would she- and She could do better.)
Before Lune could reply, honest words trapped at the back of her throat while a quip lingered at the tip of her tongue, Catherine’s voice cut in, uncharacteristically low and ugly, red and green and vermillion tinting her tone and her words.
“Could you step back, Sciel? You’re invading Lune’s personal space.”
Sciel’s body tensed against Lune’s, her fingers squeezing Lune’s hip briefly before she pulled away, the soft smile on her face replaced with a hard look, the same tight line pulling at her lips, with creases painting her forehead. She stepped up to Catherine, that almost smile on her lips as she tilted her head, her voice unnaturally even.
“I was helping her with the picto. And, if I was invading Lune’s space, she would’ve told me herself. She wouldn’t have needed you to play saviour.”
Catherine’s retort came quickly, almost too hostile as she seemed to puff her chest in Sciel’s direction.
“How much help could you have given, pressing up against her like a cat in heat?”
There was a tick in Sciel’s jaw, a subtle flex that always meant that she was clenching down on her teeth, a sight familiar to Lune as she has seen Sciel react the same way to boys who were particularly rowdy. The brunette shook her head, folding her arms in front of her chest and spoke quietly, her words delivered with barely an intonation.
“I’m not going to argue with you. I understand that you’re not feeling like yourself and that you’re under an effect but you need to take a breath and stop coming at me like I’m your enemy.”
Sciel gave Catherine a look when the other woman took another step forward, her hands balling into fists.
“If you continue to do this, do not blame me for defending myself.”
Catherine let out a scoff, her lips pulling into a sneer, the dazed look in her eyes replaced with one of distaste, coloured with a tinge of jealousy as she stared Sciel down.
“Stop talking out of turn, Sciel. I’m feeling fine. Better than fine, really. In fact, let’s have a brawl to see just how fine I’m feeling.”
She raised her fists at Sciel, who in turn dropped into a defensive position, the wisps of dark purple chroma playing at her fingertips, preparing to restrain Catherine just as the other woman stepped towards Sciel, one arm stretched out in front of her in a dizzying yellow streak.
Catherine barely made two steps towards Sciel when Lune blasted her with a sheen of blue light, the experimental picto that was previously resting on the table turning rapidly in her hands. The brown haired woman staggered on her feet, the yellow glow on her fists fading out as she blinked, her eyes darting from Sciel to Lune, her expression blissfully blank.
There was silence for a second, two- just long enough for Lune to start panicking about the efficacy of the picto before Catherine’s eyes sharpened, their classmate staring at them in genuine confusion.
“What the- Where am I-”
She glanced at her surroundings and then back towards Lune and Sciel, the confusion giving way to clarity before swinging back to confusion as the memory of the past hour solidified in her brain.
“Wait, what- Lune, Sciel, what happened?”
Lune let out a breath, lowering the picto in her hands as Sciel moved towards Catherine, the smile on her face now wide and true, green eyes sparkling with relief. She swung her arm around Catherine’s shoulder and jostled her gently.
“Man, do we have a story to tell you.”
***
Following your heart like a star.
Wanting to know the words written behind that clear wall with earnest feelings.
***
Catherine let out a huge laugh, the mirth running through the lines of her body as Lune stood ramrod straight in front of her, red blooming across her cheeks and down her neck, apologies leaving her lips in rapid succession after giving Catherine the reason for her out of character behaviour. Catherine waved her off, rubbing tears away from the corner of her eyes, the smile on her face impossibly wide, leaning against the table she was seated in front of.
“Man, you’re probably the only person who would think of recreating charm and actually succeed in making it, Lune.”
Lune lowered her head further and apologised again.
“I didn’t think it would disperse the way it did. Once again, I’m so sorry.”
Catherine waved a hand, brown eyes flickering towards Sciel who had been uncharacteristically quiet the entire time, an eyebrow raising at the other brunette before turning back towards Lune, a teasing smile playing on her lips.
“No harm, no foul. There could be worse things in this world than being made to love you, Lune.”
She gave Lune a playful wink, brown eyes filled with joy. Laughter leaked out from behind her lips when Lune’s blush deepened, brushing past Lune’s stammers with another statement, her gaze sliding over to Sciel who had started scowling, the other woman’s jaw tensing at Catherine’s teasing words.
“If you’re really bothered by it, take me up on that dinner. That, at least, is a genuine offer.”
Lune could barely answer Catherine, partially in disbelief that the brown haired woman was actually flirting with her, partially still mortified over the situation she created. She could only nod when Catherine tilted her head in question, that teasing grin still plastered on her face before stepping aside when the other woman stood up from her seat, fingers brushing against Lune’s wrist.
“I’m going to hold you to that.”
Lune swallowed tightly.
“After I fix the mess I made.”
She waited for Catherine to respond, brow furrowing when she looked over to Sciel, that grin widening by whatever it was she saw. Curiosity getting the better of her, Lune turned her head towards Sciel and was greeted by that same hard look from earlier, Sciel’s chin raised almost in a challenge, green eyes glittering under the harsh laboratory lights.
Catherine clasped a hand on Lune’s shoulder, moving past the black haired woman and towards Sciel, cuffing the brunette on the arm and whispering something too low for Lune to hear. Sciel’s face twisted into another odd expression, her lips thinning, the image of spring darkening into something thunderous behind her eyes.
Catherine let out a small laugh before turning back towards Lune, another wink shot in her direction.
“Let me know once you’re done with this mess, okay?”
She gave Lune a wave before walking out the door, the laboratory door closed with a soft whoosh, leaving behind a red faced Lune and a silent Sciel, both just staring after her. Lune blinked once, twice before clearing her throat, turning towards Sciel with a sheepish smile, gesturing towards the glowing picto on the table.
“I guess we should go and get it done.”
Sciel stared at the door for a moment, two before turning towards Lune, the expression chased away by a smile, though it looked as though it was put on her face wrongly, as though the sun had been hidden behind dark clouds, light barely peeking through.
“Alright, let’s go find Gustave.”
Lune scrunched her nose but did not try to probe, merely lifting the picto in her hands and following after Sciel.
(She will get to that mystery later.
Once she dealt with this.)
*
They found Gustave on the sidewalk by the bakery they frequent together, gesturing wildly to a very amused looking Sophie, who was watching him with barely contained laughter. Gustave did not seem to have noticed, merely waxing poetics about Lune and her brain and the way she gesticulated thoughts in a way he never could understand and how it was so lovable, his mechanical arm creaking ever so often as he waved his arms about.
Sciel let out a snort, her amusement returning in droves, the dark gloom that hung over her after Catherine’s departure chased away by the comical image of Gustave. Lune shot her a look, cataloguing Sciel’s odd behaviour in the back of her mind, stepping up between Gustave and Sophie. She gave Sophie an apologetic look when Gustave beamed at her, his cheeks flushed and his eyes bright, his arms akimbo as he greeted Lune.
“Lune! Did you come to check on me? I’ve gotten almost everything on the list, even the coffee beans- I didn’t realise the pantry ran out of them, I promise I’ll keep a better lookout after this-”
Lune merely gave him a grimace of a smile and raised the picto in her hands, the soft blue light washing over his face briefly before dimming.
Same with Catherine, there was a brief moment of confusion flashing across Gustave’s face before it cleared, his eyes widening with panic, the brown haired man grabbing Lune by the shoulders and pushing her to one side, words tumbling out of his mouth in a babble.
“Oh my- Sophie, it’s not what you think, I didn’t- I don’t know what happened- Lune and I-”
Sophie pressed a hand to her mouth, a high pitched whine of repressed laughter escaping through the spaces of her fingers as Gustave continued to panic, her gaze drawn towards Lune who was smiling at Sophie sheepishly.
“Gustave didn’t do anything wrong, he was just the unfortunate victim of my experiment gone wrong.”
Gustave paused mid sentence, his body freezing for a moment before he turned towards Lune, an incredulous expression on his face.
“What experiment?!”
Sciel raised a hand, her other clasped on Sophie’s quivering shoulder and she grinned, watching in great amusement as Gustave’s expression slowly morphed into equal parts betrayal and aghast.
“The young miss over there made a love potion that could be dispersed through the air and through an accident, we released it into the air-”
“You opened the vents, Sciel-”
“-that I released into the air through my ignorance and it somehow caught most people who were near the exits? I don’t really know how that happened but that is what happened.”
Gustave continued to stare at them, mouth hanging open, his feet knocking against the bags that he had abandoned on the ground previously.
“Lune made a love potion?!”
Lune sighed loudly, her shoulders dropping down in defeat.
“It’s supposed to be a charm tint-”
Sophie chose this moment to interject, one hand still pressed against her face, laughter present in the lines of her face.
“I think we should call it what it is, Lune. Gustave was midway through choosing an engagement ring for you.”
Lune let out a groan in tandem with Gustave squawking, the engineer flapping his hands at her, appalled and horrified.
“And you just let me out into the wild? Proclaiming my love for you?”
Lune pinched the bridge of her nose as Sophie and Sciel leant into each other, laughing so heartily it was drawing the attention of the folk walking past them.
“I didn’t let you out into the wild, you were about to get into a fight with Tristan, so I thought it’d be better if I put you on some fetch quest to get you out of my hair and let me work on the antidote.”
She looked at the items on the ground, one eyebrow raised when she saw what was in the bags.
“I’ll have to record that the tint robs intelligence, how did you not realise it’s someone’s grocery list?”
Sophie cut in with a small breath of laughter, raising her hand and placing it placatingly on Gustave’s upper arm.
“It’s actually our grocery list that I gave to you this morning, so this endeavour wasn’t all bad.”
Gustave’s expression softened when he turned to look at Sophie, gripping her arm with metal fingers before turning back towards Lune, the scowl pulling at the sides of his lips.
“I’m letting this go because Sophie said it’s not all bad. And-”
He grumbled under his breath, too low for anything to be intelligible, before speaking up begrudgingly.
“The charm tint sounds like a good idea. Maybe we can expand on it and make sure it’s safe for use against Nevrons and not your teammate.”
They exchanged some back and forth, with Lune apologising to Sophie again before the couple picked up the bags on the floor and walked away from Lune and Sciel, Gustave’s scowl visible even from a distance. Sciel slung an arm over Lune’s shoulder, the remnants of laughter leaving her body in soft breaths, warmth brushing past Lune’s cheek as the brunette nudged her gently, her smile teasing and gentle.
“Let’s go get the rest of your suitors while the sun is still out.”
Lune huffed a breath, ignoring the way Sciel’s eyes seemed to turn molten gold under the sun’s light.
“Okay. But you’re going to handle Alan. I don’t think I can face him.”
There was a pause, a brief moment where Sciel looked like she wanted to start laughing again, before she thought better of it.
“Yeah, I’ll handle Alan, no worries.”
*
Lune slumped down against the table, face flat against the surface, shoulders sagging as she let out a full body groan. Her hip creaked when she shifted on her chair, the gentle blue hue of the anti-charm picto lighting half of her face that was visible. Sciel slid into the seat next to her, a hand rubbing her upper back gently, her other arm braced against the table.
Lune mumbled into the table, almost incomprehensible if it weren’t Sciel that was listening to her.
“I can’t believe it got to so many people. I’ll have to revisit the ventilations with Gustave and Tristan, it should not be doing that.”
A soft breath of air exited Sciel’s lips, her thumb pressing into the notches of Lune’s spine languidly.
“There, there. At least we got it all reversed.”
Lune made a grumbling sound and turned her face towards Sciel, her lips pulled down into a pout.
“I’m never experimenting on tints again without a proper ventilation hood. Remind me to make a budget request from Alan.”
Sciel patted Lune on the back, fingers brushing across her neck comfortingly.
“I’m pretty sure Alan would give anything at this point to prevent this from ever happening again.”
Lune grumbled again, nonsensical words that conveyed just how exhausted she was, just staring into space as Sciel patted her back, once, twice, forest green twinkling fondly, the presence of spring time and happiness in this moment carved out by them. Lune continued to stare at Sciel, blinking once, twice, before the thought wrapped around her brain, words intertwining into a question that had bothered her the entire day.
“Why weren’t you affected though? You got a full face of it and it clearly doesn’t discriminate.”
Sciel’s hand froze in place, her smile becoming stiff but Lune barely noticed it. She lifted her head from the table, brow furrowed and one hand coming up to her chin, fingers pressing indents into her cheek.
“Maybe we should center a study around you, Sciel. Immunity to charm without relying on pictos, it would be very useful if it could be replicated.”
Sciel brought her hand back towards herself, fingers curling into the material of her sleeves as she crossed it in front of her chest, levelling Lune with an undecipherable look on her face, that same tight sort of expression that had her eyes narrowing slightly and her mouth pulled into a line, a clear sort of answer that Lune did not understand.
Except this time, the expression held its place, as Sciel spoke, clear and distinct.
“I told you, I feel the same.”
Lune stared at her, unable to comprehend both Sciel’s words and her expression.
“Yeah. So if you’re immune to charm-”
Sciel interrupted with a sigh, reaching out to grip Lune’s upper arm.
“Lune, I’m not immune to charm.”
Lune made a face, eyebrows meeting in the middle as she grew more confused.
“But you weren’t affected.”
Sciel sighed again, this time deeper, exasperation seeping into the sound.
“Lune, the charm that makes people fall in love with you would’ve never affected me because I’m already in love with you.”
There was a moment of static noise, a brief second of glass shattering somewhere in Lune’s mind as she took the moment to register the words Sciel was saying. She blinked, once, twice, Sciel’s voice echoing in her brain, mingling with her thoughts that have gone quiet and-
(I’m already in love with you.)
She stood up quickly, her face turning so red it was as though something had snapped within her and she had started bleeding under her skin. Her head met with the top of the laboratory desk with a loud thud, the cabinet above the tables rattling loudly as Lune stared at Sciel incredulously, mouth opening and closing in disbelief.
“What-”
Sciel reached over in a panic, her hands coming up towards Lune’s head and rubbing against the area that had connected with the cabinet.
“Oh my god, are you alright?”
Lune pushed her hands away, waving away Sciel’s concern, having more pressing matters to address.
“I’m okay- What do you mean you’re in love with me?!”
Sciel pulled her hands back, that same fondly exasperated look filtering back onto her face.
“I’m in love with you. Like want to take you out on dates and kiss you and marry you in love.”
“What? Why?”
A chuckle slipped past Sciel’s lips and she took a step closer, almost touching Lune, an infinitesimal breath of space left between them.
“What do you mean why? I just do. It’s the small things that caught me, like the way you smile when you get something just right, or when you laugh when you realise that Weaponry got something wrong again.”
The throbbing in Lune’s skull made itself known, exacerbated by either the knock in the head she took or the mounting confusion she had as she mulled the statement Sciel had said so confidently.
“Wait- Do you just bring stuff from Weaponry for me to fix just to see me smile?”
“Lune, I’m not that incompetent that I can’t fix a few lines of chroma on my own. Though some did really stump me and you helped a lot.”
Lune blinked rapidly, feeling as though she was about to faint and shook her head, her heart thudding behind her ribcage so loud she could hear thumping in her ears.
“I just- I thought you liked having a second opinion!”
Sciel placed both her hands on Lune’s face, still looking very fond, if very frustrated.
“Lune, it’s not just that- I had you do my chest tattoo instead of Lucien!”
“Yeah, because Lucien is a man and it’s on your chest!”
“I always take 20 minutes in the morning to go to that bakery you like to get you their pastries and coffee.”
“You said you liked their coffee too!”
Sciel let out a huff, her fingers tightening around Lune’s face and it was all the warning she got before the shorter woman pulled her down, thumbs pressing into her cheekbones as she pressed her lips against Lune’s. Warmth bloomed from Lune’s lower lip and into her mouth, the taste of Sciel coating her tongue, as the other woman kissed her as though she was pulling air from Lune’s lungs, leaving her breathless when they parted.
Sage green had been taken over by dark abyss, as Sciel looked at Lune with pupils blown wide, staring at her with kiss bruised lips and a wide smile.
“There isn’t a reason I can give you to explain my feelings. But I hope you felt my truth in that kiss.”
Lune looked into her eyes, molten sunlight drowning in deep sea green and she nodded blankly, still in a daze, still somewhat in disbelief.
Sciel brushed a thumb over her lips, drawing a line of fire across Lune’s skin and questioned quietly, gently, softly.
“Can I take you out on a date?”
There were still a million questions lingering on the tip of Lune’s tongue but the pleasant buzzing at the back of her head (or was it the knock in the head from earlier) had her thoughts silenced, her space filled with just the presence of Sciel, her warmth, the weight of her hands on her face, the lingering fire licking the back of her throat.
And there was really only one response Lune could give.
“Okay.”
Sciel’s smile grew smaller but not dimmed, growing into something more private, softer, something that was just for Lune.
“Okay. And-”
She paused, their noses brushing together.
“Catherine’s invitation to dinner. Forget about it.”
Lune started to answer before stopping, her eyes widening as a thought hit her, the mystery of Sciel’s odd behaviour suddenly clear as day.
“Okay- wait, was that what it was? Were you jealous?”
Sciel just rolled her eyes in response and captured the next part of Lune’s sentence with another kiss.
(The next day, even though they were alone in the laboratory when the kiss happened, news about their newfound romance made its way around the Academy, whispered behind hands, with money exchanging hands between some of their classmates.
And the common sentiment among all of the people who knew Sciel and Lune were-
Oh, thank god, final-fucking-ly.)