Adult-FanFiction.org : Final Fantasy

Drifting	By : NiaraAfforegate Category: Final Fantasy Games > Final Fantasy XIII-2 Views: 1980 -:- Recommendations : 0 -:- Currently Reading : 0
Disclaimer: I have neither ownership, rights or permissions relating to Final Fantasy, its associated characters, or any related media. I make no profit from this work.

Chapter List
- 1-Drifting
- 2-Pt. 2
- 3-Pt. 3
- 4-Pt. 4
- 5-Pt. 5
- 6-Pt. 6
- 7-Pt. 7
- 1
- 2
- 3
====
So Serah had found herself in the strange position of introducing Noel to Hope, while still trying to deal with the difference herself. It really was the strangest part of time-travel that she'd encountered yet; seeing the bright and fervent boy she knew growing into a calm, confident and brilliant young man, several years her senior, from one day to the next. Snow had told her a lot about what they'd all been through while she was crystal, and she'd heard what Hope himself had been like, before the l'Cie brand, and everything they'd had to do because of it, had reforged him. It really made the young man that he'd grown into all that much more admirable.
They'd learned about the paradox affecting the Massif, and then, with Hope's guidance, followed the gates in an effort to resolve it, but... things had gotten complicated and confusing very quickly. Amidst the eternally unchanging crystal sands of Oerba, just when it felt like they were making progress, the man, Caius had come upon them, blaming them as the cause of more and more paradoxical effects, just for existing. What worried her most was that in away, it seemed like he was right. They had changed the course of history by interfering, in a way; without their input, some paradoxes might never have been resolved, and so, by untangling those ones, were they not simply creating more? There was more to it than that, as well, something more deeply personal surrounding Caius, Yuel, and Noel, something that was upsetting him more deeply than she'd ever seen... but she could tell it was too difficult for him to explain to her. That was why she'd taken the initiative instead, and called a time out by the ruins near the gate. She wanted to wait and think for a bit, too, and maybe it would give Noel the time he needed.
This Oracle drive had still shown things the way she remembered, or at least, some of it. That much alone was enough to restore her hope of finding her sister again, but even so... the worry that they might unravel every paradox they found, and end up with history so altered that her memories became false, and stayed that way; that worry gnawed at her.
She was still fretting back and forth when Noel dropped down beside her. It seemed incidental, but she was suddenly aware of his closeness; sitting beside her near enough that they were touching. She had the urge to rest her head on his shoulder, but didn't.
“Still thinking?” Noel himself sounded better now, calmer again as he looked out over the ruins.
“I guess. That man, Caius... You know him?” His nearness let her feel him flinch and tense.
“I thought so... but...” Serah waited out the silence. “He knows me... He said 'things have changed' and 'I'm not the man you once knew'. He sounded the same, that way he pronounces everything he says like it's some ultimate truth.” For a moment, Noel actually smirked, but it was only a flash, and gone again beneath the concerned, pensive expression. “But... No, he was different. Yeul was too. She looked the same, sounded the same, but she didn't know me at all. I don't know what to think.”
When he drifted to silence again, Serah realised that she had, in fact, leaned her head down to rest on his shoulder now, comforting. If she was honest, it was a source of comfort for her as well. They had said things to one another, there in the garden. Something about Yeul watching them, and what that meant. Noel had understood exactly what it meant, and she could see that it was something important, and something painful, but knowing that, she didn't want to ask any further, not now. Noel seemed to be in pain enough, and she found that, more pressing than any of her other worries right at that moment, she didn't want to see him sad.
“Well, we can't fix anything or save anyone waiting here, right? I bet that Hope's Oracle Drive will be fixed now.” She stood quickly, eager to shake off the sombre thoughts, and pulled Noel up by the hand as well. She didn't try to let go as they walked the rest of the way to the gate, but she hadn't expected to feel so glad when he didn't either.
They spoke about other things as they drifted through the Historia Crux. Regardless of anything else, seeing the ruins of Oerba had been something special for Noel. It was a small part of an old legend for him; a story that Serah recognised as the deeds of Fang and Vanille, passed down and elevated through the long generations. Oerba itself, though, didn't exist any more in his time. Even its timelessness had been overcome by then, so, seeing it made real, and in person was something to appreciate. It was something she'd noticed more and more about Noel, that... No matter how bleak something was, or how troubling the time, he was never far from finding the brightest points. He never tried to deny the problems or pretend the bad wasn't there, like Snow would, but he always searched for, and found, the good parts in everything, and appreciated them for what they were. It made sense, she supposed, given the life he had lived, but even so. It was a trait that more people ought to share. She would try to do the same from now on, wherever she could.
For now, she appreciated the warmth of his hand as they drifted, weightless. Fickle as the flows of time were, what they might have expected to be a short hop was taking a long time indeed, but it didn't really matter. By silent agreement, their conversation stayed with more mundane things, rather than fret and mull over their problems. She managed to get a laugh out of him when she brought up picking names for all her new summon creatures, and found herself giggling in turn as she drew him on his tastes in music and singing. He claimed to have a frightful voice at first, but it really was very clear and handsome, when she finally coaxed him into singing a piece for her.
Eventually they both grew tired, and Sera smothered a yawn with her other hand. Without really thinking about it, she rolled over in the air, arching her back a little before curling up. The natural result, holding onto Noel's hand as she was, pulled them closer together with his arm under and around her, until she was holding on to his hand over her shoulder, with her face close to his chest. The boy's breath caught and she felt him waver for a moment, as though he might pull back. He didn't, and she sighed, letting her eyes close.
It was strange when she thought about it. Admittedly, her thoughts were drifting further and further apart as she dozed off, but even so. Normally, she was very conscious about close contact, with anyone. It had been a long three years, but in all that time the only person she'd even so much as hugged with any sort of intimacy was Labreau, and that didn't really count in the same way this did. The question of why she was finding herself so comfortable with Noel was lost under the warm, contented sensation of appreciating what she'd been silently missing for so long.
Her train of thought spaced into the broken fragments and snatches that eventually fled altogether as she rested, not quite completely asleep, but very, very far from awake. Noel's breathing had deepened and slowed as well; she could feel the gradual rise and fall of his chest with her cheek nestled against him. At one point she noticed a warm, comforting pressure resting gently on her hip, holding her close and her body shifted to snuggle closer.
Amidst the mostly formless dreams, her sensations took on a warmer, heavier feel and she arched her hips a little to give it space, one leg creeping up just a little to hook over and curl around the leg beside it. A small sigh found voice on her breath as she settled again. The slow, deep breathing made her chest rub against his, helped along by the same motions on his side, and she rubbed her cheek against him, tilting her face up lip softly at where his jaw ought to be. She was still mostly asleep, her thoughts moving slowly and often not at all, but one thing Serah was aware of was a growing heat in a place that wanted for attention.
Her leg lifted and curled a little further, pulling her hips closer in. the action made them spin slowly in the weightless space, and Noel stirred. As he shifted, the leg she was coiling slowly pressed up, making her dress ride higher until it pushed his thigh against her groin. Her other leg had slipped down a little, opening more of a gap for the action. He sighed a long breath, still mostly asleep, but it was overborne by Serah's own low moan, even muffled as it was against his chest.
Her free hand slid free from the press of their bodies and worked around to hold his back instead, hugging the boy tighter to her as they drifted, even as the rhythm of her breathing began to spread to a moving rhythm lower down. Another light moan escaped, then another as her mouth opened, each breath rising enough to give quiet voice to what she was feeling. The slow rock and press of her hips made the sensation grow, and her breaths gradually grew quicker as her skin flushed. Beside her... above? Beneath? It didn't matter as the small motions made their bodies twist this way and that. Noel's body responded to her, pushing back against her presses, every bit as unconscious as her own actions, and she could feel a hard shape pressing on her thigh that hadn't been there before.
Her eyes fluttered and her thoughts drew together a little more as the sensation grew stronger and more urgent. There was a small moment of shock, but not nearly enough to put her off by now. She couldn't bear the thought of stopping at this point, the rubbing of her groin against him sure and rhythmic enough to unmistakable for anything else now. The small gasps and moans continued with each breath, and she closed her eyes again, giving in to it. Noel was still asleep anyway, even if he was holding her tight and thrusting his own hips back in turn. The boy's motions hitched a moment later, and he stirred again. Not enough to deprive her of sensation, and the rhythm only faltered for a second, but then she heard a faint mumble.
“Mmnn... Serah...?” Without thinking she released the hand at her shoulder and turned her wrist to put two fingers against his lips.
“Hahh... Shhhh.... Ah!” Her breath caught as she approached her limit, moaning into his chest again. He continued to hold tight to her even as her eyes went from delicately closed to squeezed tight and the rest of her body grew tense. She drowned another cry against him as the climax flooded her, curling her toes and making her limbs tremble.
By the time it subsided, they were both very much awake. There was some embarrassment, but not nearly as much as she thought she should be feeling. A part of her mind was panicking badly about what she'd just done, but the rest of her was strangely calm, if uncertain. What did it mean, really? It had just been in her sleep, at first... but she hadn't stopped either. Noel had moved too, and he was still holding her now, warm and tight and close. He hadn't said anything more, yet... just held her close as she panted and caught her breath. What must he be thinking? That hardness against her thigh was still there, very present and Serah bit her lip, feeling a pang of guilt. Surely he was going to want her to even things up now... would that be going too far? Hadn't she already gone way too far?
“Serah... Are you alright now?” She felt him lean back slightly, though he didn't take his arms from around her, just enough to meet her eyes as she looked up at his face. His cheeks were pink. Very pink. But his voice was calm and caring, more than anything else. She swallowed and nodded, looking down again to hide her confused feelings. Truthfully, this whole situation reminded her far more of snuggling up with Lightning, rather than anything she'd ever done with Snow, but that was a whole other barrel of confusion that she had no idea at all how to broach just yet. The only certain thing in her mind was that this was a level of intimacy she had missed keenly over the past three years, but a taste of it now was only making her realise just how badly.
The return to the Yaschas Massif had brought a much welcomed distraction from the awkward and uncertain moment for both of them. Serah had kept a hold of Noel's hand, even when they were out of the gate, but he had sensed her need to think and let them walk in silence. Sharing their reunion with hope all over again had been strange, but it had covered for the trailing hints of awkwardness that lingered. It was also then that another shock threw what she had just done into a much starker light.
It had happened by accident almost, but the words had just slipped out as they were chatting, the same way she'd asked him a dozen times before in the three years since they'd gone their separate ways. Any time Hope visited New Bodhum, or if she ever had cause to be at the Academy, she'd ask.
“So, Hope, have you heard anything from Snow?” She only realised she'd asked after it was said, and immediately wanted the words back. The young boy turned young man had only hesitated a moment, a faint smile for the nostalgic question, before his features dropped at having to give the same nostalgic answer.
“Nothing, I'm sorry to say. Not a single word. Not since he left on his mission.” It was the same answer he'd given often before, but this time the words seemed to hit her like bricks. Hope had been living and working for ten years now. Ten years, and nothing. Noel mirrored the thoughts in her head while Serah found herself unable to speak.
“No sign of him, for ten whole years?” He sounded concerned and incredulous at once, but the rest of the conversation just washed over Serah and she didn't really hear it. The three years she'd waited, pining for Snow and missing Lightning, had felt like an age of solitude, even surrounded by all her friends... And here, now, he'd left her for ten without so much as a word. Yes, he'd left to look for Lightning for her; he knew how much her sister meant, even if he, like everyone else, had only the memory of her disappearance. But... Ten years. Ten.
She had stumbled through the rest of the conversation while Hope and Noel did most of the talking. Ten years? She felt dazed. Eventually Noel noticed, and his concern was clear when he checked on her, but she did her best to shake it off and pick up the conversation again. Not even a message, or a letter?
Eventually she managed to pull herself together and they began heading back towards the gate. Noel was talking back over everything they'd discussed; protecting the crystal pillar, stopping the destruction that its fall caused, and hopefully avert the destroyed, dead world that Noel came from. He spoke as though he was setting it straight in his own mind, and she just happened to be there, but Serah knew he was doing it for her sake. He and hope were right though; when it came down to it, saving the whole future was the more important goal. Maybe that was why Snow hadn't tried to contact anyone?
She'd started out simply looking for Lightning, and trying to find the answers, and it felt like another painful tear to set that aside, in the name of saving the future, but she felt sure that if they did, then she'd be able to find lightning again as well, and bring her home. She wouldn't even have to fight to explain Noel to her sister either, like she had with Snow, if Lightning had been the one to send Noel to her in the first place. The thing that made her blush slightly was not the strangeness of the thought itself, but rather that it didn't feel like a strange thing to be thinking, in the slightest.
====
- 1
- 2
- 3
You need to be logged in to leave a review for this story.You need to be logged in to leave a review for this story.
Report Story

Drifting