Work Text:
The wind thundered so loudly in Lynae’s ears that she couldn’t understand a single word that Chisa was saying behind her. Lynae had pulled her out of some boring lecture to go and take a quick tour around Lahai-Roi instead. After all, as a second year, and thus Chisa’s senior, Lynae felt herself indebted to the freshman to show her the world and free her from all academic burdens. The sound of the rushing wind was soon joined by horns and honking from all the cars they recklessly passed. But the final sound in the maddening cacophony was one that didn’t belong at all.
Lynae’s eyes flew wide open. Shit, shit, shit, shit. Turns out the sound interrupting and dominating the wonderful opening scene was in fact her alarm. And not just any alarm either; it was the fifth one (she knew, because every single one of her alarms sounded differently), which meant that she had overslept. Again.
Her hand flopped onto her phone, shutting off the blaring alarm. She’d have a headache after this, she knew. As she looked at the time she let out a sigh so deep she was glad neither Rover nor Chisa were present. The first period of her morning lecture was over by now and she still somehow had to find the motivation to crawl out of bed.
For a second it seemed like she was gonna spend the rest of her morning just admiring the roof above her bed. Hard to blame her, considering that the Startorch Dormitory beds were so soft and warm. A hand smacked across Lynae’s face and, to her own surprise, it was her own.
Focus.
Lynae sat up and stretched as the blanket slipped down her still sleepy body. She looked at her phone again and saw seven different texts on WavesLine; two from Rover and five from Chisa. The latter fact made her heart take a little leap in her chest but she dismissed it. Now wasn’t the time. Speaking of Chisa, did Lynae really dream of her again? And called herself her senior even though they sat in the same lectures?
“I’m such a loser…” she muttered to herself and dragged her feet out of her bed, jumping down from the elevated position.
After a not so elegant landing she finally calmed her heart enough to respond to her two friends.
– sryyyyy i slept innn ughhhhhh >_<
– ill skip thoo, dont miss me hahah
She deleted the last part of the second message before sending it to Chisa and then finally got to changing out of her bright pajamas. Before she could properly start her morning she had to put on some music though. She put on her headphones and scrolled, trying to decide whether to be trendy or listen to what she actually liked… She went with trendy once more.
While brushing her teeth, Lynae put two toasts in her toaster and got dressed, following the regulations about as loosely as she could. She spit out the toothpaste and stood in front of the mirror, routinely putting on her make up, the familiar sparkle lighting her face up. She was interrupted by the sound of her finished toasts and ate one of them while putting on her shoes - the second one would be saved for after she hit the road. On her way out she took one last glance at herself in the mirror: her hair was stunning, her makeup gorgeous, her fit immaculate and her smile as charming as ever. The conditions for today’s plan to succeed were looking better and better.
As soon as she left the doors of the Dormitory halls she pulled out her phone and looked for Professor Mornye’s contact. Considering how close Lynae had gotten to her, she was sure that she could help her. And just like any other person in a hurry, she sent Mornye five texts immediately followed by a call. Declined.
Now that was weird, because it should be break time in between lectures and Mornye didn’t even have to hold one after this. She decided to call again. Declined. Another call, maybe she just slipped. Declined.
With a sigh and a half-eaten toast for breakfast Lynae finally gave up and put her phone away. She made her way to the elevator and tapped her foot nervously while riding it down to the lower floor. She didn’t know whether her anxiety came from Mornye not picking up or from the fact that her mind kept wandering to her cute, shy bench neighbor with that pretty black hair and those eyes… The elevator chimed gleefully and pulled Lynae out of her train of thought - which was probably for the better.
She got on her roller-skates and felt the fresh morning breeze gently caressing her face as she made her way to the infirmary. If Mornye didn’t pick up, Lynae just needed to find another way to get her credits back, but for that she needed the day off and for that she needed to get a sick leave.
But alas, Lynae wasn’t greeted by Doctor Herssen’s sly looks. Now that was a problem and it seemed like her day couldn’t get any worse until…
“Good morning Lynae, scans show that you are in excellent health. What could you possibly want from the infirmary during this time?”
N.A.N.A.’s robotic voice rang out from behind Lynae and she almost flinched as she turned around. Those artificial eyes could gaze through every single lie and deception that Lynae tried to pull, she knew from experience.
“Uhhh ahahah… you know… I… I just wanted to … see Doctor Herssen is all~” Lynae hoped against hope that N.A.N.A. couldn’t tell that she was lying, but she knew very well that she was about as nervous as that time that Chisa whispered a question to her during lectures… Focus!
“Is Doctor Herssen calling students to his office outside of work hours again?” asked the cold voice and it made Lynae nearly choke on her own spit. Doctor Herssen did what?!
“W-what…?? No no no no no… you got it all wrong… I just need–”
“A sick leave, I’m aware. Unlike Doctor Herssen I cannot grant you one though, seeing as you’re currently in perfect health. I will not assisst you with skipping your classes, Miss Lynae.” her words were clear and final, as Lynae knew they would be.
With a disappointed sigh and her tail between her legs she made herself on her way back to wherever and tried to focus on what she should do now that all her previous plans had failed. Her headphones were on her head before she even considered going to the faculty office and getting Miss Voss to help her, something that was immediately dismissed, because she was bound to get lectured by her for hours on end so that wasn’t an option.
So what to do? Since Miss Voss wasn’t an option, her only– Oh. The sound that erupted from the depths of her stomach made it clear that her next step would have to be lunch, not worrying about how to get her credits back. Good thing she was already near the kiosks so she rushed over and grabbed herself a sandwich. But which one should she take? Her eyes kept roaming to the salmon one because she had seen Chisa eating that on several occasions.
Charli xcx proved to be quite the distraction from one’s surroundings seeing how Lynae only noticed the other soft hand reaching for the salmon sandwich once it touched hers. Her hand jolted back and her head up just to find a startled Chisa looking at her.
Lynae’s heart sped up to at least twice the rate it usually had and she scrambled to take off her headphones.
“C-chisaaaa~~ Hiiiiii” Lynae caught her wavering, nervous voice surprisingly quickly, pretending like the cutie in front of her didn’t absolutely melt her heart.
“Hi Lynae… I was worrying about you this morning.”
Lynae wished that she could drown in the floor right about now because she knew that Chisa could see the way her cheeks were burning brighter than Lahai-Roi’s artificial sun.
“ahaha you know how I am~” was all she could say in return.
An awkward silence quickly settled between the two, seeing as they still both eyed the salmon sandwich and each other.
“Do you want it?” Chisa asked shyly, trying to break through the wall of ice.
“W-what?”, Lynae had been so lost in being a useless lesbian she didn’t even realize what Chisa was talking about at first, “Ah no, no no you can have it”
Chisa grabbed the last salmon sandwich a little awkwardly and tilted her head slightly. She knew. Lynae was sure that Chisa knew exactly what was going on with her and she fidgeted awkwardly with the Namipon keychain Chisa had gifted her a few days back.
“What are you up to?” Chisa asked, shyly once again because in reality she had no clue why her bestie was acting like this.
“Me? Oh ahaha, I’m just y’know… here and there…” Lynae wished she could let out a groan because this was eating at her nerves.
Chisa grabbed a chicken curry sandwich - Lynae’s favorite - and looked her way, inviting her to follow along.
“You’re in a weird mood, let me… get this for you” Chisa said in such a way that made it clear she had no clue what she was actually trying to do herself.
Lynae followed her as if on autopilot. She stood awkwardly next to Chisa at the checkout and tapped her foot, fidgeting with the keychain once more.
Chisa handed her the sandwich and with a quiet “come with me” beckoned Lynae to follow her to… well to where exactly? Chisa still felt new here since so many things had changed in her long years away so she had no idea where to go for lunch.
“This is gonna sound weird…” she started and turned to Lynae. Somehow this was enough to snap the blonde out of her ordeal and she quickly shook her head.
“Of course, sorry Chisa… come on, let’s go to the library”
Lynae was glad to somewhat be operational again and trotted ahead, leading her crush up the stairs into one of the higher floors of the library where they could sit in silence and eat. Only eat of course. Lynae had no other plans. For sure.
Lynae plopped down on the carpeted floor while Chisa took a seat on the couch. Unsurprisingly the two weren’t entirely alone, considering that Startorch’s resident rock band was practicing again. The few original songs they played were all pretty bland and lacked the emotion compared to when they would cover Camel or Yes, which they were luckily doing while the two sat there. Chisa’s eyes went to Lynae’s tapping foot.
“I didn’t know you liked this kind of music.” Chisa said with a bite of sandwich still in her mouth.
Lynae hadn’t even noticed that she had been tapping her foot, it was just a habit that came with playing an instrument herself.
“I guess I never told you”, she answered, her face lighting up, “I’ve always been into prog, it’s what got me into playing bass in the first place.”
“You play bass?!” both Chisa and the band’s bassist said simultaneously. Lynae knew he had a crush on her, but she had never been interested in him at all. Or any man for that matter.
Lynae’s face looked like she just spilled a big secret, a big bite of her sandwich still in her mouth. She quickly chewed and swallowed, cleaning her mouth with the back of her hand.
“I didn’t tell you?”
Considering that Lynae just plainly ignored him, the bassist went back to tuning his instrument.
“No, I mean…”, Chisa responded, “that’s so cool, why didn’t you say a thing? Can you play for me some time?”
Lynae nearly choked on her sandwich and coughed quite a lot, trying to catch her breath before she responded. Her face was red from the asphyxiation (as if).
“Play for you?”
“Yeah, I’d love to hear you play” Chisa’s eyes were shining so brightly as she said that, how could Lynae possibly say no?
Lynae sighed in resignation because deep down inside she had the biggest soft spot for those warm beautiful eyes and that cute, shy smile. As her mind began wandering to the songs that she could possibly play for her, she was suddenly interrupted.
“So what were you up to this morning?” Chisa asked after finishing her sandwich, wiping her mouth.
Lynae’s eyes went as wide as the ones of prey seeing its natural predator. She was on a quest and she completely forgot all about it because her crush had looked her way. She quickly gulped down the rest of her sandwich and stood up way too quickly, meaning she now had to wait until her vision returned. She was a mess today.
After having caught her breath and regained her senses, she said: “Okay look, here’s the thing: since the entire ordeal with the voidworm and Rover and me getting expelled and re-enrolled I’ve lost all my credit points, meaning I have to start from zero again… the big problem here is that I may or may not have passed some of the exams with great luck, so I really don’t wanna have to take them again and I’m trying to somehow get the faculty to give me back my credits”
Lynae’s uncertain grin gave away all that Chisa had to know, which was that Lynae had no clue how to do that.
“So why don’t you ask Miss Voss?”
“She doesn’t really like me all that much ehehe~” Lynae said awkwardly and scratched the nape of her neck.
“What about I.R.I.S.?” came the voice of the boy, who was crushing on Lynae, again. Her eyes lit up and she grabbed Chisa by the wrist and dragged her along with her to the lower level of the library, ignoring the bassist once more, but he was used to it by now.
As they walked towards the grand open entrance of the library they spotted a bunch of guys standing there, muttering amongst each other while watching their friend walk up to I.R.I.S., who was busy looking as bored as ever. Lynae and Chisa walked closer, Lynae’s hand still holding Chisa’s wrist, and watched one of the strangest scenes to ever occur on academy grounds.
“You do realize I’m an AI, right?”, I.R.I.S.’ voice was even drier as it was when you asked her to pull up an entry, instead of coming to gossip with her, “Like, what would you even have me do?”
The man in front of her had no rebuttal and he looked like someone had just ripped his heart out of his chest, trampled on it, stabbed it, and then given it back to him. He left with his head lowered and the other three immediately grabbed him, trying to cheer him up.
Just as Chisa was starting to get used to having Lynae’s hand holding her wrist, the blonde let go and trotted towards I.R.I.S. with a confused look on her face.
“What the hell was that?!”
“Oh, Lynae… just some guy confessing his ‘love’ to me.” her projected body gave a dismissive wave of its hand.
Lynae snickered a little but quickly schooled her features, putting on quite the sly smirk as she stepped closer and leaned against the counter. Her fingers trotted across the desk, eyes following them as they made their way around.
“Soooooo I.R.I.S. what if I told you…”, her eyes went from her fingers (which had stopped now) to the AI’s projection, “Ancelo from ‘Everything Startorch’ apparently is planning a biiiig romantic gesture to confess his feelings for Silan.”
That sly smirk on Lynae’s face only grew wider as she eagerly awaited the AI’s response, tapping her fingers nervously.
“Ooo good tea…”, I.R.I.S. said with mild excitement before getting a little more serious again, “so what do you need from me this time, Lynae?”
“Ah, caught me~”, Lynae said, lifting her arms in defense, as if it wasn’t obvious that she was just buttering I.R.I.S. up, “you know how I don’t have the credits that I earned over the last two semesters anymore?”
“Nothing I can do about that, Lynae” was the immediate and direct response.
“Not even like…”, Lynae lowered her voice, “hacking into the system an–”
“No.”, snapped I.R.I.S. abruptly, “And I’ll pretend I never heard that.”
Lynae sighed and turned back to Chisa with a shrug, nothing she could do about it. The two left the library and Lynae’s shoulders slumped, she was at her wits’ end. Chisa must have noticed how under the weather she was feeling because she shyly lifted Lynae’s chin and gave her a barely-there smile.
“Wanna… take a ride to clear your head?”
If Lynae wasn’t already head over heels for this wonderfully cute girl, she’d been by now. Her eyes lit up and her heart beat so fast it almost hurt. She wished that she could kiss those soft lips right then and there but that would only scare poor little Chisa, so she banished that thought.
“Those are the best words I heard all day, but…”, Lynae hesitated for a moment, “don’t you have lectures?”
“The same as you do, and since you’re skipping, so can I.” Chisa proudly proclaimed.
The two girls dashed past other students who were just going along with their regular days and rushed up to the top floor of the Freight Zone. Lynae’s bike was up and running before S.I.G.M.A. could even begin pestering her about rules and regulations and how to conduct oneself while driving. Chisa hopped on the back of the bike and wrapped her arms around Lynae’s waist, just like the blonde had dreamt of earlier that day. The two of them left a red-faced S.I.G.M.A. behind as he swung his clipboard around, trying to get them to listen to him, in vain.
The wind thundered in their ears as Lynae kept speeding up, passing car and truck alike, swerving from side to side. The only thing that was different from her dream was the fact that she could understand what Chisa was saying to her.
“Don’t get us killed” Chisa yelped, half out of fear and half jokingly.
Lynae turned her head back a little, wanting to answer, but immediately had to focus on the road again because she did in fact almost get the two of them killed, since she almost swerved into the oncoming traffic. Chisa let out a squeak and held on more tightly to Lynae’s waist. Lynae was glad for the wind, because her fluttering hair hopefully covered the fact that she was red up to her ears.
The two of them sped all the way to Sundermere and through the underwater tunnel before settling on a nice cliff overlooking Startorch Academy from afar. The sun was beginning to set and it seemed that Dhalifa had tinkered with the weather settings again, as there were dozens of shooting stars flying overhead every few seconds.
Lynae leaned back on her hands and took a deep breath, enjoying the fresh air that was so rare to get inside of the Academy. Chisa was just content to sit next to her in comfortable silence. Until it wasn’t anymore. Chisa began fidgeting with the grass next to her, ripping out little blades and ripping them in half so long until she couldn’t anymore and then moving on to the next one. It was driving Lynae crazy.
“What’s up, Chisa?”
Chisa sighed and dropped the blade of grass she had just been dissecting. “I don’t know… I just… I feel like you’ve been weird lately.”
Ouch. That hit Lynae right in the gut. Of course Chisa had noticed that something was different and Lynae hated that, hated making Chisa feel like it was her fault.
“Hey, it’s not your fault, so–”
“Then tell me what’s up so I can help you.”
“This isn’t really something you can help me with.” The words left Lynae’s mouth faster than she wanted to and now there was no going back.
“Are you in love with me?”
Lynae nearly choked on her spit again (that seemed to be a common theme). Her face was so red, Chisa could see it even in the darkening light of dusk. But Chisa’s eyes weren’t judging. She just smiled a little awkwardly and brushed back her lose strands, which were now very interesting all of a sudden.
“I-i…” Lynae stammered and sighed, realizing that it’s too late anyway, “yes… I… I got it bad for you Chisa, I… I can’t go ten minutes without thinking about you and seeing you in every single thing I encounter.”
She buried her face in her hands and let out that groan that she had been holding since lunchtime. She nearly jolted up when she felt soft hands on the back of her head, caressing her tangled strands of blond.
“That’s… that’s quite the confession”, Chisa said, but her tone was light, warm, “but… I really like you too, Lynae”
Lynae’s eyes went wide with incomprehension and surprise. Her crush liked her back?!
“Y-you…” She couldn’t even finish her sentence, her mouth was just gaping.
“Yes, I like you”, Chisa said with an awkward chuckle, “why else would I suddenly get so invested in reading romance manga? Which are by the way the only reason why I even considered that you might be in love with me.”
Upon hearing that last sentence Lynae broke out in laughter and lightly shoved Chisa’s shoulder. “Are you being for real right now?”
“Hey…! Yes, I am” Chisa said, trying to pout but that didn’t work, considering how contagious Lynae’s laughter was.
Soon enough both of them just lay there laughing and looking at the sky up above and before long they had to return back to the Academy.
The sky was dark and Lynae and Chisa were the only ones still up. Or at least they thought they were, because they were both surprised by spotting Rover from afar, who luckily was busy with somebody else, so the two lovebirds could sneak into the library. After dark it was completely empty in the recreational parts of the library and with no one in earshot Lynae was exactly where she wanted to be.
“Chisa…”, she whispered that name like it was a silent prayer to a Sentinel only she knew, “you have no idea how desperate I’ve been these past weeks”
Her hands found Chisa’s and pulled her closer, turned her around and pushed her against the wall, sending a book flying to the ground. Lynae’s breathing was already uneven and ragged as she leaned closer.
“Please…” she asked, not desperately, but out of respect and love for the woman standing between her and the wall.
Chisa nodded shyly, her face now even redder than Lynae’s was earlier. Her eyes flew wide open at first before closing as she melted into the way Lynae’s lips felt against her own. The blonde’s hands wandered from the wall to Chisa’s waist and gently caressed her while her lips pressed closer onto hers. Lynae began pushing herself against Chisa so much, she felt as if the blonde wanted to merge herself into her.
They remained locked like this for no one knows how long, Lynae’s thigh between Chisa’s and their tongues tangled in a sensual dance while each used her hands to explore and figure out the other’s body.
They did however pay the price the next morning, seeing as both of them had the nastiest bags under their eyes and both were pestered by Rover about where they had been all day. But even while Rover was talking to them, their feet were playing with each other under the desk, getting that sweet contact that these fresh lovers were in desperate need of. Lynae’s phone chimed in the middle of the conversation, showing that Professor Mornye had finally decided to actually text her back, but that was a problem for another day. Her credits could wait, her new lover couldn’t.