'Cause love's such an old-fashioned word
Title: Under Pressure
Author: Ayu Ohseki (theeternalmind)
Rating: R
Genre: Drama/Romance (sort of)
Characters/Pairing: Sync/Anise, natch.
Summary/Notes/Warnings/Spoilers: A few days ago, after doing something Sync/Anise-y for the one-sentence porn meme, I said to myself, "Self, I feel like doing some more Sync/Anise porn." So I did. This is the result. The sex is actually pretty vanilla, which is the biggest reason why I rated this R instead of NC-17.
Anise runs into Sync during a night walk, and refuses to let him leave without an explanation. When she manages to trap him, he taunts her--"Go ahead, do your worst, if you've got the guts!" Sync learns very quickly why that's a bad idea. It's set in Sheridan shortly after Luke and Asch clear the miasma from Auldrant. This is pretty late in the game, so there are a pretty large amount of spoilers, most extensively about Sync and his past.
There might be a second chapter to this at some point. I may also change the title at some point. I also realize that this community is pretty much dead; I'm really only posting it here because I wanted to post it somewhere that wasn't my personal journal, and gargantsurprise pointed me over here. Enjoy! If you like smut that gets all psychological, anyway.
And love dares you to care for the people on the edge of the night
And love dares you to change our way of caring about ourselves
===================================
Anise slipped out of her bed, and as Tear and Natalia continued to doze on either side of her, she got dressed and snuck out of the Sheridan inn. She admired her friends for being able to sleep at a time like this, but while she'd been putting on a strong front, recent events were weighing heavily on the former Fon Master Guardian's shoulders. She'd betrayed Ion to save her parents and watched him die, she'd killed Arietta in their duel, she'd watched Dist get blown up in his own fon machine, she'd seen Luke nearly vanish before her very eyes... Sure, he said the doctor had declared him fine when they'd gone to Belkend yesterday, but something was bugging Anise about it. She glumly supposed it was only natural. After seeing so many people she cared about die, she couldn't help but be scared for Luke. The fact that Jade was being so nice to him didn't really help.
The moon was three-quarters full and waning. It cast a cold shadow on the town where Iemon and the others had gotten killed to help them complete the planet core mission, and it forced Anise to think about the past--about the core mission itself and what she'd learned there, and the replicas they'd just seen die for their sakes. They all split apart into clouds of light and vanished, just like Ion... She couldn't blame Tear for trying to run over to Luke--Anise had only barely kept herself from doing the same thing.
The fourteen-year-old (she'd had a birthday ages back, not that anyone had had time to celebrate; even she'd forgotten about it until the end of Shadow Decan) leaned against a stone wall overlooking the sea, next to the five-story tower. The night was warm with a bit of a breeze, but that was it, which was unusual for windy Sheridan. Anise wondered idly if it was somehow because of the double hyperresonance that had cleared the miasma from the atmosphere. Maybe she'd figure it out if she head to the top of that tower. There was a telescope up there, or was it a pair of binoculars? Anise couldn't remember precisely. As she looked out at the sea and remembered, though, she suddenly wondered if she could see from there the place where they'd sunk into the core.
Probably not. It'd taken them five days to sail that far from Sheridan Bay, and by now they were all in the Qliphoth anyway. Still, she couldn't help but wonder. That mission was the first time she'd ever seen Ion cry--when she'd learned that he was a replica, and Sync was too... Anise had never liked the little weasel before that point, but after that, her feelings had been mixed. It had hurt Ion so much, and she honestly couldn't say she could stay completely calm after hearing him talk so bitterly about how he'd been tossed into Mt. Zaleho. Ion had ended up dying there, too...
"Nnngh, stop that, Anise!" she scolded herself, shaking her head vehemently as she stood up straight. "You're not gonna get anywhere, obsessing over that! We've still got a lot to do before everything's settled, so you've got to think about the future! Okay?"
The pink-clad girl smiled. Like she was going to answer herself. Still, she felt a little better. It was true; she couldn't afford to wallow in the past when there was still so much to do. She still had to make up for what she'd done.
Taking a deep breath, Anise turned to head back to the inn. She hesitated mid-step, though, and turned her eyes up towards the top of the wooden tower, then over at the lift. The lift was already up at the very top; maybe whoever had used it last had taken the stairs down. They'd stopped here after Belkend to follow up on some weapon-forging that Luke and Guy were working on, and they'd be leaving again early tomorrow, so she wouldn't have time then to walk around town.
Maybe it'll help me settle down, she thought, and following that logic, slipped inside and started to carefully, quietly climb the stairs.
When she reached the top, Anise found she hadn't been quite right. The last person to use the lift hadn't taken the stairs down; they were still there, staring out at the silver discs shimmering on the sea.
"Sync!" Anise gasped, and he snapped around, arms unfolding.
"Well," the Tempest said, smothering the surprise on his face with a smirk. "Fancy meeting you here, Anise. So how was it, watching ten thousand replicas get murdered in an instant to make your life easier? Bring back any happy memories?"
She flinched back a step as if struck, and Sync laughed cruelly.
"That's what I thought." Sauntering over towards the lift, he continued, "If you'll excuse me, the air up here just suddenly got foul. Don't let me get in the way of your reminiscing."
"W-wait a second!" Anise rushed forward and blocked the Tempest's way, spreading her arms out wide. "What are you doing here, Sync? What're you plotting this time?!"
"That's none of your business," he said, taking a step to the right. Anise shifted to block him, and again when he went for the left, and stood her ground when he tried to sweep her out of the way.
"I'm not going anywhere 'til you spill," she insisted stubbornly. "Try to hit me, and I'll latch onto your arm and scream bloody murder 'til the whole town wakes up and surrounds you!"
"Hmph."
Sync regarded her with narrowed eyes. The moon illuminated half his face and left the rest in darkness. Even with the wrong expressions, Anise was forced to think of the time he'd imitated Ion in Chesedonia. It must have shown on her face, because he suddenly smirked.
"Come to think of it, how's Luke doing? The idiot replica Luke, I mean," he added. "He and Asch managed to use hyperresonance to get rid of the miasma, didn't they? Setting Asch aside, I'm surprised he's not a cloud of fonons by now."
"He's fine," Anise retorted heatedly. "For your information, he just got an examination in Belkend, and the doctor said so!"
"Did he now." Sync arched his eyebrows. "And did the doctor say that to your face?"
Anise hesitated. The God-General smiled.
"I'm not privy to your group's private business, but I'd be willing to stake that that's a big, fat lie," he articulated, and reveled when Anise recoiled. "Maybe, maybe Asch is okay. But Luke's a replica. You should know firsthand how easily they just fall apart. My bet is that, as we speak, he's undergoing fonon separation. Won't that be fun? One moment he'll be walking and talking like he's just fine, and poof--" Sync flicked his fingers in Anise's face-- "he'll break apart and vanish, like he never existed."
"Stop it! Why do you always have to lie like that?!" she cried, slapping his hand away. He pushed her off, and they both retreated a few steps from each other.
"Heh... heheheh. You think I'm lying? I know a lot about fomicry. I should," Sync added self-deprecatingly. "What'd the Necromancer have to say about the good doctor's prognosis? I bet he didn't take it at face value. He wouldn't, because he knows exactly how frail and useless replicas are."
"Stop it!!"
"You're pathetic, Anise. You know I'm right, you just don't want to admit it."
"Stop it, or I'll make you stop!"
"Don't you think I would know, Anise?"
Anise recoiled again as Sync's voice and features melted effortlessly into the Ion she'd watched over for the past two years.
"I'm a replica, too. I know exactly what we are, and what we were made to be." Sync shifted back to his normal, cruel self. "So it's your own fault for getting attached to an idiot replica who doesn't have the decency to get himself killed properly. Hah, are you getting angry?" he added with a taunting smirk when Anise's hands balled into shaking fists. "What are you going to do about it? You're not going to hurt your precious Ion again, are y--"
Though Anise had marched across the gap between them with fist raised, until it actually happened, Sync never really expected that the girl would sock him. He staggered backwards, hand rising to his assaulted chin, and while he was off-balance, Anise shoved him and kept shoving until he wheeled back into the fence. He caught himself on the edge, arms spread along the top of the fence, and that kept him from sinking down further as Anise loomed over him, grabbing the medallions on the chest of his jacket.
"Don't think just 'cause you've got Ion's face that I'll let you get away with bad-talking my friends, you stupid son of a bitch!" she snarled. "Cross me and I'll kick your ass so hard you'll wish you stayed in the damn core!"
She seethed even when Sync gaped up at her almost comically, green eyes wide with utter shock. In measures, shock faded into wonder, which was swiftly replaced by dark, amused cynicism. She tightened her grip, ready to demand answers again, but he laughed faintly and cut her off.
"What makes you think I already don't?"
"...Sync?" Anise didn't remove her hands and she didn't stop being angry, but she did furrow her brows at him.
"Van didn't reassemble my fonons out of the core and put me back in the Qliphoth out of the sheer goodness of his heart. He did it because he said he still had a use for me. Now that everyone knows about replicas, it doesn't matter if I run around unmasked, and I might be a failure, but I still have some of the Fon Master's abilities." He smiled bitterly. "Frankly, I'd have been better off dead. I don't give a damn about Van's inane plan to 'save' this world. But as long as I can destroy what's already here, I'll do what he tells me to." Sync lifted his head and met Anise's widened eyes with a hard glare. "There's nothing in this world worth existing for, so I may as well take it all down with me."
"Sync, that's awful!" she whispered. "Do you really believe that?"
"You think I'd make this up? You already know about Mt. Zaleho, and Van, the man who saved my pathetic life, already ordered me to my death once." Sensing weakness, Sync shoved Anise away with his foot, and when she staggered back, stood up straight. He sneered down at her with narrowed eyes. "But that doesn't matter to me now, and I don't feel like discussing it with you either, so just get out of my way, traitor."
Sync tried to shove her aside again, but Anise grabbed hold of his wrist, and refused to let go even when he tried to jerk it away.
"I don't believe you," she said firmly, glaring back. "If it doesn't matter, what were you doing here? Why were you staring out towards where the Tartarus sank into the core?"
The fifth Ion replica almost didn't flinch. Anise probably wouldn't have noticed if she hadn't been holding onto him. "I'm not doing anything like that, and anyway, I already told you it's none of your business," he snapped. "Let go already!"
"No!"
Sync made a low noise of disgust. "You're really--" And he twisted his wrist around and thrust his hand towards Anise palm-upwards, upsetting her grip, setting her off-balance and making her fall to the floor. "--annoying, you know that?"
He turned on his heel to stalk towards the lift, then staggered as his left arm jerked back. When the replica looked back, he saw that Anise had latched onto the ribbon-ring that hung from his jacket sleeve.
"You don't know the half of it, pal!" she retorted.
"Wh--hey, let go!!" Sync demanded. He stepped back and pulled his arm forward to let it lead in front of his body, but all he succeeded in doing was dragging Anise along after him. He then lashed a boot back to kick at her, but she weathered it with a small shriek.
"You're--not--going--anywhere!!"
"Fine! Then I'll just kill you, and throw your corpse to the fishes!"
Sync dropped to one knee and thrust his right hand down palm-forward. It burned with searing white fonons, and Anise just barely managed to roll out of the way, still hanging on to the orange ribbon. She clutched to it with only one hand, though; the other reached back, grabbed Tokunaga from her hood, and slammed the plush down. Sync tried to knock it away, but it was already too late; the toy was growing to immense sizes, and lumbered back only to loom back over him.
"Get 'im, Tokunaga!" Anise cheered.
"Oh, you've gotta be--" Sync attempted to dodge, but even with his speed, there was no way he could avoid the massive doll curling its arms around him with the former Guardian weighing him down. He snarled a low curse as Tokunaga lifted him up by his armpits, pulling his arms up and behind him and then pinning them there, and Sync snapped another kick at Anise's hand as he tried in vain to extricate himself.
"Oww!" she whined, releasing him. It was too late for Sync, but he felt savage pleasure in it anyway, especially when she stood up and glared at him. "Dammit, stop struggling, you stupid bastard! I want--I want to save you!"
The God-General did as Anise said, if only because he was so astonished he had to stop and stare at her. "Save? Me? What the hell are you talking about?"
She glared at him for a second or two longer, but slowly the anger drained from her brown eyes, leaving behind an emotion Sync could only identify as melancholy. Then she glanced away. "...You are right about one thing, Sync. I'm... I'm the reason Ion's dead."
"So you think you can make up for that to another Ion replica? You're stupider than I--"
"Would you just shut up and let me finish?" Anise snapped, glaring back at him.
He glared back, unamused, but kept his mouth shut. The pigtailed girl dropped her gaze again.
"...I killed Arietta, too. She died not knowing the one she loved was already dead."
"..."
"I helped kill Dist, too, and even if he was a rotten excuse for a human being, he used to be my friend, and he made Tokunaga for me. And Luke's always been my friend, but I couldn't do anything to stop him from almost sacrificing his life." The black-haired girl squared her shoulders and looked Sync in the eye. "And now here you are, talking about how your life doesn't mean anything and you should've stayed dead! I can't just ignore that!"
"You're stupid," Sync said flatly. "I'm your enemy. I tried to kill you, just like Arietta and Dist did, and none of us had any regrets about it. You're just getting sentimental because you feel guilty about Fon Master Ion, so you're trying to make yourself feel better by latching on to another Ion replica. I hope you realize how pathetic that is."
"Why?" Anise demanded, folding her arms. In spite of it, there was a hint of a smile at the edges of her lips. "You're the one who said, 'Fighting me is the same as fighting Ion!' Are you saying you're not the same as Ion after all~?"
Sync didn't respond to Anise's imitation. She smirked, but let it fade as she moved closer to him.
"I just don't want to see you die, too," she said quietly, resting a hand on his captive arm. "Not when you've spent your entire life thinking there's nothing worth living for. You're two or three years old at best. That's... that's just too sad!"
"It's got nothing to do with you."
"It's got everything to do with me! You can't just imitate Ion at me and then expect me to stop caring when you go back to acting all bitter and twisted! It doesn't work that way! I hate how you replicas keep thinking you can just up and die and it doesn't matter because you're a replica! And you--either you're the same as Ion or you aren't! Which is it gonna be!?"
"Shut up!" Sync snarled. "Don't make me sick! You only started on this line of tripe once you had me pinned against your puppet. If this is a nice way of saying you're taking me prisoner, then don't even bother. I'm not an idiot, and you're not going to treat me like one!"
"You're just not going to get it unless I do something drastic, aren't you?" Anise half-asked, half-stated in a low voice. She took a deep breath, then let it out. "Fine."
"You're not--"
The rest of Sync's diatribe was lost when Anise rested her hands on his shoulders, leaned up, and pressed her lips against his. Sync's mind, which included a plan to trick her into miniaturing Tokunaga, throwing it over the cliff, then pinning her, breaking her fingers one by one, and tossing her alive and crying after her stupid doll, went blank. Her lips, he realized dumbly, were softer than he would have imagined.
After a moment, Anise pulled back. She gave him a tiny smile as she leaned on his chest. "I'm not what?"
Sync's jaw worked for several seconds. Eventually, he demanded, "What was that?"
Anise turned pink, but remained calm. "It's called a 'kiss,' Sync."
"I--I know that! What the hell!? You--" He cut himself off as understanding dawned coldly in his green eyes. "...oh. I get it now."
"What?"
"Psychological warfare. You're trying to mess with my head by acting affectionate when I can't push you away."
Anise made a face. She didn't think Sync had any way of knowing that was her first kiss she'd just given him, but his attitude irritated her a little anyway. "Do you have to twist every nice thing someone does for you?"
"You force yourself on me and you think that's nice? What would you call it if I'd pinned you down and kissed you?"
Brown eyes turned away. "...I guess you've got a point... Except--you'd definitely do it to hurt me, and I really don't intend on hurting you." The puppeteer thought for a second, then smiled, lifted a finger and stroked the Tempest's lips. "Did you like it?"
Teeth snapped at that finger; Anise snatched it away just in time. The God-General snorted a brief, cynical laugh.
"You're just going to make excuse after excuse, huh? Well, do your worst, if you've got the guts. I can handle anything you can dish out."
The narrow-eyed smile Anise gave him made Sync suddenly question the wisdom of his challenge. It was wide and toothy and, while not malicious, definitely wicked. "Well, since you say so, Sync~" she said sing-song, pressing her right hand back on his chest and trailing it down. "After all, I wouldn't want to force myself on you~ So as long as I've got your permission~~"
"Wh--wh--wait," Sync protested, then turned red as Anise cupped his crotch. "Wait, wait--this isn't--a-anybody who woke up now could look up and see this!!"
"Oh, do you mean you can't handle it after all?" She smiled sweetly at him, rubbing her palm up and down. When Sync shifted his legs to try in vain to back away, she giggled as wickedly as her smile. "Just let me know when you want me to stop and I will, you know. I wouldn't want to be too much for you~."
"Go to hell!" he snapped, but he stopped wriggling. His breathing had already become a little uneven, and he attempted to master it. "I just--I didn't think you'd really go through with it. Do whatever the hell you want, you pervert!"
"If you don't want anyone to wake up, you should quiet down," Anise chided him, bringing her other hand down to lift up his jacket and undo his belt. "Or else anyone could see this, right~?"
"Pervert," Sync repeated, crimson spreading.
Anise giggled, but if she were honest, she did feel a little like a pervert. Sync definitely thought like an adult, and she was no child herself, but he was still no more than three years old. She was taking advantage of him, and she was doing this more or less in public. They were close to the sea side of the tower, so she didn't think anyone who glanced up casually could see them, but... No, she'd already committed to this, and even if Anise had to admit she was a little nervous (or a lot nervous), she wasn't going to and couldn't back down now. She'd at least got a stride going on, but even if he was masking his own nervousness, Sync had had a point about anyone waking up.
It was past midnight but nowhere near dawn, so she didn't think anyone would if they hadn't after all the yelling they'd done, but... just in case, she tugged on Tokunaga, and the puppet obediently stepped to the side so that its giant body blocked the two of them from view. She smiled brightly as she pulled off her gloves, tossed them aside, and tugged his pants down. He glared back, breathing carefully controlled.
"Feel better now?"
"No."
"You will soon," she teased, and pulled out his responding cock.
Sync grit his teeth and squeezed his eyes shut, breath hitching in his throat. He didn't want to give Anise the satisfaction of seeing him squirm, but that--ggkhgh, that, he'd never been touched like that before, and his goddamn failure body wasn't obeying his will, it kept twitching against his coat as Anise slowly pumped her hand up and down. He couldn't stop his heart from pounding, and though he could just barely keep his breathing even, he thought it might not matter, because Anise was leaning her head on his chest, her other arm slipped around his waist.
"I hate you," he rasped.
The puppeteer responded by leaning her face into his shoulder and flicking her thumb against the head of his cock. Sync gasped as a tiny bolt of lightning shot up his spine, and despised himself for it. As he tried not to writhe, Anise smiled at him. It was a little shy, but the Tempest didn't notice.
"How's it feel...?"
"Your hand's cold," was the only snappy retort Sync could think of.
"Oh, really? Well, that's no good." Anise smirked and leaned up to kiss him again. The fifth responded without thinking about it, then grimaced when she pulled away with a smug look on her face. "My mouth was warm, wasn't it~?"
"S-so? So what?"
She flashed him another wicked grin, and pressed another kiss on his chin. Another one followed it at the base of the collar of his jacket, and another on his chest, and another, and another, and... He understood in a flash what she meant as she sunk to her knees, brushing fingertips lightly down his side.
"St--" he uttered, and bit the word back. Stop. Maybe she'd stop like she said she would, and maybe she wouldn't. Sync desperately wanted her to, to stop humiliating him like this even as his body exulted in the tender attention, but he also couldn't bring himself to swallow his pride and say so. Either way, she'd have him by the balls (so to speak), but it would somehow be infinitely worse to concede defeat to her aloud. After all, he'd boasted he could handle anything she could dish out barely three minutes ago.
"Hmmm?" Anise blinked up at him with wide, guileless eyes.
Sync found himself hating her even more, especially for how the sight of her kneeling with her mouth just inches from his half-hard dick somehow excited him. He glanced quickly out towards the ocean. No ships, he was oddly grateful to see. He swallowed hard and rallied himself. "...stop messing around. You're not getting prizes for dragging this out."
"Geez!" She pouted, a bit playfully. "I thought you might enjoy a little foreplay."
"Well, I don't," he snapped.
"Hmmm~ Sorry if I don't quite believe you." Anise smiled again, then pressed a kiss to the tip of his prick.
Sync grunted, snapping his head back and trying to step back. Tokunaga kept him as pinned as before, though, and the God-General had to bite his cheeks to keep from making a noise as she kissed his tip again, then slowly flicked her tongue against it.
Anise glanced up then. His cheeks were scarlet, his breath had picked up speed, and his body was trembling faintly. She could see the moonlight in the sweat beading on his face, too. It was actually pretty exciting to see him like this, so though she found she didn't care much for the taste, she parted her lips against his cock, took his tip into her mouth, and caressed it with her tongue.
"Ahngh--"
An aborted moan. Anise tingled to hear it above her. Pumping her hand up and down the shaft again, she sucked Sync gently, feeling out how to do this right. He didn't moan again, but she felt the last flaccid bits of his cock stand at sharp attention under her ministrations. She took more of him inside her mouth, picking up speed and confidence, and listened to his breath start to match her pace.
Her free hand wandered. Anise wasn't quite sure what to do with it. At first she held his coat aside as she worked him; then she pressed it against his thigh; then she stroked his hip and slipped it up his side; then she curved it back and cupped his ass; then, finding it firm and full, she squeezed it, which made him buck against her, so she kneaded it for a minute longer. Sync still didn't groan again, but his breathing grew quicker, more ragged and more insistent by the moment.
I want to hear him moan out loud, the teenage girl thought, and it became a goal.
Only the copper tang of blood kept Sync grounded, meanwhile. When he'd almost lost it, he'd chomped on his cheeks until they'd bled. He didn't think it would last him long, in large part because it was getting so ha--so difficult to think at all. His body kept responding, and he felt as weak as when he'd first started training, when his thin form with its meagre amount of potential kept reacting rather than obeying the keen command of his mind. The feeling was different, though. He couldn't quite put words to it--probably couldn't even if his cock weren't enveloped in something warm and soft and insistent--but where in those early days, his young will fossilized into something unyielding, here, his will was getting broken down and eroded.
I want her to stop.
This is horrible.
I don't ever want her to stop.
This is incredible.
He felt his cock twitch a couple times, and thought he felt something dribble from it. Had the replica ever been taught sex ed, he might have realized it was pre-cum. Anise pulled away from him then, and Sync chanced a glance down.
She caught his eyes and smiled. "You're not done yet," she murmured, and leaned her face against the side of his shaft as she cupped his tip in her hand, which was definitely warm by now.
Sync glanced away again quickly. It occurred to him that it felt better when Anise was sucking his cock than when she was licking the--oh god the underside now--he grit his teeth, not quite forcing back a pant.
It encouraged her. Of course it would; hearing it made Anise tingle a little more. The urge was incredibly strong for her to slip her other hand under her skirt, and she obeyed, slipping her hand down from Sync's tip to go back to stroking him slowly, to bring him back from the edge. She pulled the glove off her left hand with her teeth, not noticing Sync glancing down again at that moment, and hitched up her skirt. Her panties were already damp, and even a soft touch on the cotton cloth sent shivers through her body. She panted against Sync's crotch, pumping harder and tighter than she meant to. Anise was rewarded for it with another ragged half-pant, and she squeezed her eyes shut, then pulled her panties aside and slipped her fingers underneath.
"Sync..." she moaned, shivering again against his body.
A shudder coursed like brushfire through the God-General, and he threw his head back. That--that--that, it sent blood roaring in his ears and electricity sparkling on the surface of his skin, running from fon slot to fon slot. His body had betrayed him from the very start, but this went beyond the physical now, and the fifth could no longer deny it. The sound of his name moaned like that--it reeled him in and set his heart ablaze like he never imagined was possible.
It turned him on.
"Nggh..." he grunted. Sync loathed himself for this, but even that once-omnipresent sentiment had gotten overshadowed. Armed with his emotional repulsion, he'd been at war with his physical attraction, and he had just lost. Now he wanted to keep going, if only for the chance to hear his name like that even just once again.
Anise heard his now unmasked panting, and glanced up with a half-smile. It vanished when she noticed a line of what looked like blood dripping from his bottom lip, and sat up straight, letting go of both of them to place her hands on his coat and lean forward.
"Are you okay? You're bleeding!"
He blinked rapidly, and looked down to see a worried Anise starting to stand up. "Wh-what're you stopping for?" he demanded, almost in a panic. "Get back down there!"
"What?"
"I said I can handle anything you can dish out, and I meant it. Don't start if you can't finish!"
Anise gaped at him for a second, then snerked and started to laugh. "If you can talk like that, you must be fine," she said with a wry grin as she settled back on her knees. "Then shall I go ahead and finish this~?"
"Just what I wanted," Sync retorted, and sort of regretted it when Anise looked pleased. He forgot about his regret and most everything else when she cupped his balls in her left hand, his tip in her right, and began to run her tongue down his shaft to the base of his cock and beyond.
Anise felt something wet and sticky leak onto her palm again, heard another series of ragged pants. She swallowed hard, heart pounding, then began to suck on one nut as she rubbed the other. This is actually pretty complicated, she thought distantly as she smeared the pre-cum on Sync's cock over his foreskin and massaged him, flicking her palm to the right as she did.
"Aaaa--aaa--aaaugh..." he groaned unwillingly, twitching his right leg up almost involuntarily. Dammit, he thought hazily, and hooked that leg over her shoulder with inspired deliberateness. While pulling her closer with his calf, he bucked his hips against her.
Anise gasped breathily as he did, squirming her thighs together. Not only had she finally gotten to hear what she'd been aiming for, but Sync had made it excruciatingly clear he really was enjoying this. She wasn't sure what she'd done right, but she was determined to keep doing it, and sucked hard on his nut. Having her mouth full didn't keep her from moaning with gratified pleasure, though.
The vibrations of her throat against his sack was too much for Sync. Struggling against Tokunaga, he bucked again, the building heat in his crotch reaching explosive level. A sensation the likes of which he'd never experienced before razed through his body like a wave of dry heat, and he groaned again, sustaining the note in the back of his throat as he came.
The orgasm passed too soon and not soon enough. Sync sagged, panting slowly and softly. Anise let go of him to wipe off his now mostly limp cock with her hands and smear the cum off on the floor. She licked some of what remained out of curiosity, made a face, and wiped the last off on her tabard. Hopefully white wouldn't show up on white, at least not until she'd had a chance to do laundry. She herself wasn't anywhere near done yet, but--well, she was worried, and pressing a brief kiss to the inside of his thigh, Anise slipped Sync's leg off her and stood up.
His sweat-smeared, sweetly twisted expression was incredibly attractive. Anise squirmed her thighs together again, but still touched Sync's face and hair with gentle concern. His breath hitched for a second, but he went on panting without opening his eyes or saying anything. Anise hesitated, then leaned up to kiss him again--and pressed a hand against Tokunaga, still at his back. With the fonic link triggered, the doll shrank, releasing Sync's arms and falling to the floor. The God-General collapsed against her, and Anise caught and supported him while he found enough feeling in his jellified knees to stagger backwards.
"Bitch," he muttered, and pulled her with him to sag against the moonlit fence.
"Bastard," she teased, legs folded next to him as she slipped her arms around his neck and perched on his lap. It was difficult for Anise to behave herself when she was very ready to continue and had the replica's arms around her waist, but she let Sync catch his breath.
He stopped panting a moment later, then met her eyes. There was still some of that dislike in his eyes from before they started, but the coldness was gone; it had softened and been joined by a more languid interest. Anise swallowed, then braved a smile.
"How was it?"
"I can't believe you have the nerve to ask me that," he said without heat.
"I--guess I shouldn't have bothered." Anise shrugged, to cover up her hesitation, and smirked. "After all, I thought it was pretty clear you liked it~." Her smirk faded, she touched fingertips to his lip again. "...This is blood. Are you sure you're okay?"
"I just bit my cheeks. I'm fine." He met her eyes again for a moment, their faces very close. Anise held her breath-- "But you won't be."
She squeaked as he tightened his left arm around her waist, pinning her against him. Sync smirked, breathing a chuckle as she struggled, and hitched his arm up to her lower back, pressing her chest against his. She had one arm between them, but the other was still around his neck, and he could feel the swell of her breast underneath her uniform... He leaned his face forward as if to kiss her, and instead whispered, "Now I'm gonna make you squirm."
"S-Sync!" she whispered back, brown eyes wide.
Close--but not enough. Not nearly enough. It didn't have the same ring to it. The fifth Ion replica smirked at the former Fon Master Guardian, and bringing his right hand to his mouth, bit the middle finger of his glove. Anise watched for a second, hesitating, as he began to peel his hand back... and then leaned forward and bit the ring finger of his glove. Sync's own eyes widened slightly, but he pulled his hand out, then tossed his black combat glove back towards Tokunaga.
Their eyes met again for a moment, lips very close. Anise shut her eyes, and Sync wondered if she wanted to be kissed back. He smirked and instead grabbed the hem of her dress and pulled. She gasped, pink flushing her face, but instead of protesting, helped him along by spreading one leg on the other side of his lap, straddling him. Her cotton panties were soaked, and he wrenched them down around her leggings.
"You're filthy," he murmured when she made a soft, needy sound.
"And you like it," she shot back.
Sync said nothing, because he didn't want to admit it. He instead slipped his hand up her thigh, which was also slick with liquid, and as she tightened her grip around him, brushed his fingers across her bush and into the lips of her pussy. He took his time in tracing his fingertips up and down, partly to tease her back, partly out of genuine curiosity, and partly to see what affected her most when he touched it. As it turned out, nearly everything; Anise squirmed under and leaned into his touch, and pressed her face onto his chest, her right hand curled next to her mouth.
She was astonishingly attractive like that, huffing breaths against him with red cheeks. Sync watched her face as he felt her out a moment more, and when his fingertips brushed something around the top of her pussy that made her cry out sweetly, he felt his cock twitch up again.
Brushing his tongue over his lips, the green-haired boy hesitated, then slowly slid his index and middle finger up her hole, curved slightly to follow her soft flesh in. Anise whimpered quietly, and Sync felt his mouth go dry. He forced a smirk and a quiet, rough chuckle, and remembering what she'd done to his cock earlier, began thrusting his fingers in and out of her. She cried out again, and he felt a certain vindictive satisfaction.
"How's it feel...?" he murmured, deliberately raising the pitch of his voice to imitate her question from before.
"A-amazing. Don't stop," Anise whispered back.
"--I--" Sync drew a sharp breath in as he felt his dick respond again. He continued roughly, "I don't intend to."
He pulled out, thrust in his middle and ring finger even harder, cupping the rest of her pussy with his index and pinky. Anise gasped and wrapped her other arm around his neck, panting. It felt so weird, having someone else--especially Sync!--inside of her, even if it was just his fingers. But what fingers! Anise was a virgin, but she was hardly so innocent that she'd never masturbated before. Sync's touches were inexperienced, but they were definitely not clumsy, and each stroke made her tingle more. Just what you'd expect from a martial artist--he knows how to use his hands, Anise thought, and it made her grin briefly.
Sync kissed her then, his lips parted like hers were. It was abrupt, but the replica had acted on impulse and sudden inspiration. Anise's eyes widened in surprise; then she recovered and responded eagerly, letting her tongue run over his. Sync thought the sensation odd, but he moved the arm around her waist to the back of her head, and while holding her there, raked teeth over her tongue and sucked on it. Anise dug her nails into his shoulders--Damn, he learns fast!! she mentally gasped--shifted her hips into his fingers, and moaned into his mouth. Then she sucked back gently before pulling her tongue back and raking teeth over Sync's bottom lip.
"A-Anise," he groaned in spite of himself. He bit his lip when he realized--he wanted her to moan his name, dammit--and to cover, hooked his thumb into her cleft, close to that spot that had made her cry out earlier, and pressed inwards along with a thrust.
"Sync!" she all but screamed.
The replica shuddered with pleasure, now holding her across her shoulders. Anise buried her face in his shoulder and bit his jacket. Sync glanced at her, breathing heavily as he tried something a little different and rocked his fingers around inside of her, curved slightly in. She bit harder, making a high, insistent noise, and he nuzzled the side of her head.
Her hair smells like strawberries, he realized. On another impulse, he leaned his teeth towards the ribbon holding her pigtail in place and pulled it loose. Black hair tumbled loose, and Sync smiled. The other ribbon he pulled loose by hand, and he then clutched his fingers in the smooth strands.
"Sync..." she moaned again, voice muffled by his jacket.
Breath came out swift and ragged. The God-General whispered in her ear, roughly, urgently, "Say that again."
Anise looked up at him with hazy eyes, her own breath hot and fast. "Sync?"
"No," he insisted, green eyes burning. "Not like that. Moan it."
She laughed, which irritated the replica for two seconds until she pressed her lips against his ear and groaned, "Sync...!"
He groaned too, tilting his head back as heat ran backwards down his spine into his prick. Anise grinned, flush with sweaty pleasure. So that's what she'd done right before. Thinking back (as far as she could think, on the verge of climax), Sync had gotten more into it right after she'd moaned his name. Who'd have thought something so simple would turn him on so hard?
What went around came back around to her quickly, as Sync slipped a third finger into her cleft and bucked his hand sharply upwards. She cried out wordlessly--and it suddenly built and rose rapidly, the electric feeling all over her body, riding on her cry until it burst out all at once. Sync's hand was drenched, and Anise flopped heavily against him, trembling.
It was difficult for the Tempest to remove himself, if only because he'd gotten to the point where he needed another release too. He bit his lip and slipped his hand away, though, letting it rest on her hip and well away from his cock, which was bumping against her thigh.
After a moment to cool down, Anise smiled up at him. Sync smiled back wryly, and when the puppeteer touched the side of his face and kissed him, he didn't resist.
"You need me to jerk you off again?" she asked, slipping her hands down to his cock.
He turned red. "What?"
"Well, you just seemed like you had so much fun, and this guy's ready to go, at least~"
"...nnh." Sync glanced away. Anise watched him for a few seconds, then ran her fingers up her thigh to get them slick and began to pump him again gently.
He shut his eyes briefly, shifting slightly at the repeated sensations, just as seductive as the last time. His blush faded to faint red on his cheeks, and he settled back, letting his eyes unfocus on the stars above for a moment.
"How's it feel?" she murmured. "Seriously, this time."
Sync tried to gather his thoughts. "...Like my body's smoldering. But in a good way."
"You actually did answer seriously! I half-expected sarcasm."
"Hmph... I guess I'm--in a good mood."
The grin was expected; less so was how she let go of his cock in favor of messing with the latches in his jacket coat. Sync straightened slightly.
"What're you doing?"
"Shh."
A faint frown passed the God-General's face, but he let Anise do as she pleased. He moved appropriately to help pull his jacket off and his coat down, and slipped his hands forward to deprive Anise of her tabard and unzip the back of her dress.
She stopped at that point, though, to give a curious look at the black markings on Sync's chest. She seated herself on one of his legs and traced her fingers over the tattoo, which looked to her like some kind of fonic glyph. Then she met his eyes. "What's this?"
Sync smiled faintly and bitterly. Of course. "It's an arte that Van engraved in me after he picked me out of Mt. Zaleho. It's similar to what Dist used on Mohs to turn him into the Amazing Flying Blob. Since my powers were so weak, Van needed to use this on me to enhance my Seventh Fonons. It's the only reason I can use any Daathic fonic artes at all."
"...so the Colonel made this arte too, huh?" Anise asked, thinking back to what Jade had said after that event.
"No. The Necromancer just made the basis for it, in the same way he created and developed fomicry, but had nothing directly to do with the Ion replicas."
"...oh." There was silence for a moment as the former Guardian traced the contours of the arte with her left hand, and the boy's thin but muscular chest with the other. It was sort of absurd, considering what she'd done with him, but Anise blushed faintly as she explored his body, thumbs brushing over the hard nubs of his nipples. The God-General relaxed and reciprocated, slowly stroking a hand up and down her hip and thigh as he watched her face.
Sync really was handsome... She'd thought Ion had been handsome too, but in a different way--more because of his fragility and gentleness. Sync had been through the wringer, and his rampant personality defects aside, he was tough and strong for it. Anise could feel it beneath her fingertips, and she thought it was sexy in a way that she could never imagine for Ion.
"Ion didn't have something like this on him," she commented, following that train of thought.
Sync made a low tch noise, lip curling up as he dropped his hand to the floor. "He wouldn't," he said flatly. "His abilities actually matched the original Fon Master Ion's, or at least came close. He wouldn't need an arte like this."
"No, I didn't mean like--" Anise started to protest, but Sync cut her off.
"So how did I compare to him, anyway? I'm sure I suffered from a lack of experience, but maybe you liked that; it'd be something new. Almost new, I mean," he corrected himself sardonically, "since it's the same old face. How did Ion's twist when you pawed at him?"
"I wouldn't know," she said quietly. "I never did anything like this with him."
The Tempest hesitated, caught off guard. He recovered quickly. "Heh... Never got the chance to snag the Ion you wanted, so you settled for me, huh?" He pushed her back, and Anise let herself slide off his leg, pushing down her skirt. "Well, you can go back to screwing whoever else you've screwed with. Maybe the Luke replica, I don't know; you sure have a thing for replicas, huh?"
"I can't."
"Why not?" Sync sneered as he pulled his pants up and started to stand. "Because he's going to vanish?"
"Because I've never done this with anyone before," Anise replied, still in that quiet tone. "You're my first."
Astonishment flashed through the fifth's face, searing away the resentment that had poisoned it. Suspicion followed in its wake. "You're lying."
"I'm not lying."
Uncertainty laced suspicion. Sync sat back down, studying Anise's face. "...Then why me? It makes no sense."
"I already said, didn't I?" the puppeteer replied, a little heatedly. "I want to save you."
"That's what makes no sense," he retorted flatly. "I'm your enemy."
"But you don't have to be. At least--I don't want you to be."
"Because I'm an Ion repl--"
"Oh for crying out loud, shut up about that for once!" Anise snapped. "The only one who cares about it here is you!"
Sync stared at her. In the instant that he was left speechless, the former Fon Master Guardian swung her leg over his lap again, pressed her hands on his shoulders, and glared into his eyes. "Yes, I'm doing this because you're a replica. Let me finish! You and Ion and Luke, all in your different ways, talk like it's okay if you die, and it's not. You're a gigantic ass, Sync, and you've never been anything but cruel and mean-spirited to me and my friends. But that's because, your whole life, the Commandant's filled your head with the idea that you're just--just--some kind of tool for him to use!" She threw her hands up in frustration. "He did the same exact thing with Arietta! I don't care if Largo says it was kinder to lie to her! He still used her! He's using all of you because he's got a stupid grudge against the Score, and you all just lap it up! It drives me crazy!! You're not a thing, Sync. You should be able to live your own life!!"
"How? Where? What's the point?" Sync snapped, grabbing Anise's belt. "Where's a replica of Fon Master Ion supposed to live his own life? There's nowhere in the world I could go where someone doesn't recognize my face! What do you think I had to wear a mask all the time for!?"
"You're sexier without it on anyway!"
Sync choked. Anise seized her chance.
"You know what I was thinking when I was touching you?" She quieted, letting her hands slip from his shoulders back to his bare chest. "...I was thinking that you really don't look anything like Ion at all."
"That's--that's a crock," the fifth said, but Anise thought for the first time, he sounded a little unsure.
"No, it's true. I've seen him without his robes on a couple times, during doctor's visits. He..." Anise swallowed and dropped her gaze. "He was thin, but he also looked--soft, I guess. I mean, he didn't exactly exercise, so of course. But your body's really... muscular and tight, like you're a wound-up bowstring. Again, totally expected, but--I never really thought about it until I touched you. I think you're both handsome, but--you're handsome in totally different ways." She slid her eyes back up to meet his without lifting her chin. "...Actually, I kind of think you're better-looking, Sync."
Sync stared at her mutely, color creeping back into his cheeks. He quickly glanced away. After a long silence, he said embarrassedly, "How long are you going to sit on my lap like that?"
"Hmmm... All night~?"
"We can't stay like this all night."
"Why not?" Anise hooked her fingers behind Sync's neck and smiled at him. "Haven't you been enjoying yourself so far?"
"I have things to do and places to be," he replied pointedly.
Her smile faded. "I don't care. Stay with me."
He narrowed his eyes. "Why should I?"
Anise pressed her body against his as she wrapped her arms around his back and head, and breathily moaned into his ear, "Sync~"
The Tempest made a strangled noise.
Giggling wickedly, Anise pulled her right leg over to join her left, ignoring the wet tangle of her panties, and sat across Sync's lap, arms still around him. "Tell me more about yourself?"
Sync's face was still bright red as he glared at the setting moon. "...Like what?"
"Like, um..." The black-haired girl leaned her head on his shoulder and traced the outline of the arte on his chest again. "Who gave you the name 'Sync'? I mean, where'd it come from?"
His expression darkened. "...Van gave it to me, after he found me in Mt. Zaleho."
When Sync didn't expand on that, Anise prompted, "How'd you manage to survive that, anyway? I mean, getting thrown into a volcano... You must've been really tough or really lucky."
"Hah. Lucky. Yeah, right," he replied bitterly. "I survived only to become aware enough of my surroundings to realize just how unlucky I am."
"Sync..."
He fell silent for a moment to brood. "...We were all thrown away at the same time. The first replica had already been disposed of. I was the fifth of seven. Mohs wanted us put in Mt. Zaleho to let the monsters take care of us; one of his assistants got the bright idea to throw us directly into the lava."
"Great to know that Mohs has such awesome people working for him," Anise muttered.
Sync smirked briefly and humorlessly, and bit back a pointed remark. "...They tossed us in one by one, according to our numbers. I didn't realize what was going on at first--not until I saw the fourth get thrown in, saw what happened when he hit the lava. I panicked. When they went to push me in, I managed to jump at the last second, and I grabbed hold of a crag of rock."
He swallowed hard. Anise watched him wordlessly, brows furrowed with concern. "...I managed to claw my way up to the pathway inside. There was a boulder not far from there, and I hid behind it. If someone came after me to try to finish the job right, I didn't want them to find me." He shrugged. "Van found me anyway. He said he was impressed by that jump I made, so he decided to see if I could be salvaged into something worthwhile."
Another bitter smile. "'How regrettable... His synchron levels are too low.'"
The puppeteer blinked. "What's that?"
"It's what Van said about me before he and the others judged me a failure," Sync replied. Anise flinched at the depth of the loathing in his voice. "That's where he got my name from, because when he found me, I repeated that back to him."
"Sync...!"
He laughed at the horrified look on Anise's face. It cut off quickly when he saw what else was there. "Wh--h-hey, what are you crying for!?"
"That's just--" She shook her head, tears running down her face. "That's so awful!! How could anybody do that!?"
Sync glanced away, feeling disconcerted. "...It's not like they could let a bunch of kids identical to Fon Master Ion go running free. Fomicry's forbidden, remember? If we were found out, they'd get thrown in jail, and we'd probably have gotten killed anyway. Replicas don't have rights."
"The Colonel damn well better change that!" Anise snarled. "I hate the Commandant even more now, too! Naming you after something like that--it's like he went out of his way to give you a reminder of why you're a so-called failure and you shouldn't bother to do anything but what he says! When I see his stupid bearded face again, I'm going to rip him a new one!!"
"Don't get so worked up. It doesn't matter." But Sync wrapped an arm around her waist anyway.
"Yes it does matter!" she insisted, beating a fist on his collar. "You matter!!"
"That's so corny. How can you say this stuff with a straight face?" He sounded uncomfortable rather than condescending, though. It intensified when Anise actually look hurt. She was his enemy--hell, he'd done his best to try to make her cry just a short while ago. Why feel weird about something like this? But Sync couldn't quite squash the feeling, and he lifted a hand to wipe her tears away, since she wasn't bothering to do so herself. "...seriously, don't cry. It's weird."
"This isn't what's weird," Anise sniffled. "What's weird is how you can fight for the Commandant when he treats you like crap."
"It's not like I'm his biggest fan either," Sync said dryly. "But he's got the power and the means to follow through with his ideals. They happen to coincide with what I want, so why not help? It doesn't matter who destroys the Score, as long as it gets destroyed. Besides, if I didn't fight for him, I'd have no reason to live."
"Then I'll give you a new one," she declared. "Ditch Van and come stay with me, Sync!"
He burst out laughing. He laughed even harder when Anise yelled hotly, "I'm serious!!"
"I know you are," Sync said when he calmed down. "That's what's so hilarious. You really..." A melancholic shadow crossed his face. "...mean that seriously."
"Sync..." The puppeteer touched his cheek. "...why do you look so sad?"
"I'm not sad."
I'm not crying, Anise thought in reaction, and bit her lip.
The God-General continued, "I'm just amazed you can say something that naïve. Let's assume, just for a minute, that I decided to dump everything I've been fighting for after having a--a--a tryst with one of my enemies. After being forced into a tryst," he added pointedly, and Anise frowned. "I don't like your friends, and they don't like me. If they're smart, they wouldn't trust me, and if they're paranoid, they won't trust you, either. Remember, you're the reason that Ion's dead." He ignored her brief, guilty look. "Assuming they've forgiven you by now, which they must have if they're letting you stay with them, they could easily suspect that I might have manipulated you into asking this of me so I could spy on them."
"You definitely didn't do that," Anise said dryly.
"Well, no," Sync replied, equally dryly. "It'd be too much trouble to make it believable. I'd rather just kill you all. Ow!" He swatted away Anise's hand, which had grabbed his ear and twisted hard. "Cut that the hell out! I still view you people as enemies! Being nice to you is a waste of my time!"
"I already told you, we don't have to be enemies!" she argued. "Why won't you understand!?"
"You're the one who doesn't understand. Sometime before dawn, we're both going to get up, put our clothes back on, go our separate ways, and never speak of this again. That's the way it has to be--the only way it can be," the God-General replied coldly. "Thinking anything else is just a delusion."
"Are you serious? Are you really satisfied with the thought of that, Sync?" she asked, again sounding hurt. "Can you really give up on something you've gained that easily?"
He snorted. "I haven't gained anything except a few awkward new experiences."
Anise curled her fingers on his chest. "So you're saying what we did doesn't mean anything to you?"
"That's right."
"That's a lie! You moaned my name, I heard you!"
He almost didn't flinch. "That was just--I got caught up in the moment."
"Then why'd you talk about your past with me?"
"You already know the basics. It doesn't make any difference if you learn the details too."
"Then why are you still holding me?"
Sync dropped his arm to the floor and said nothing.
Anise watched his face silently for a moment. Then she lowered her eyes and slowly slipped her arms around his rope-cord chest. "...You're the one who doesn't understand," she murmured. "You're still doing it--talking like you don't deserve anything... I can't just forget tonight ever happened, and I refuse to believe you could, either. You talked to me about yourself when I asked, and you believed me when I told you that this is my first time, even if it took you a bit. And you got into what we were doing when I moaned your name, even if it's a rotten one. Aren't you just convincing yourself that nothing matters to you because you think you don't matter to anything else?"
Sync remained silent.
"...You matter to me." Anise pulled back enough to look into his face. "If you didn't, I'd never have done what I did. I wanted to get through to you, no matter what... but you're so bitter and cynical, I thought that if I did nothing but talk to you, it'd never work. I had to show you I was serious--so I..." She swallowed. "I gave you myself. I'll--give you the rest, too, s-since we stopped in the middle... if you just ask. Since this was my first time, I thought that was about the only thing I could give you that might actually mean something to you."
He glanced away, shadows falling over his eyes. "...I didn't ask for you and I didn't want you. You just forced yourself on me."
There was a long silence. Anise tried not to cry again. It was true and she knew it, and with how much Sync kept repeating it... maybe she'd screwed up after all. That thought squeezed her heart like a giant's hand. It was stupid, but she couldn't help it. "...I'm sorry," she whispered.
"Liar. You're not sorry at all."
"But I--"
Anise's protests were cut off when Sync grabbed her shoulders and pressed his lips on hers. Her brown eyes flew wide at first, but she relaxed and let them flutter shut as she leaned back into the kiss. When they broke apart a moment later, she gave him a shy look.
"...Sync?"
He didn't reply at first--just watched her face as he combed his fingers through her hair. She really does look a lot prettier with her hair down, he thought. For the first time, too, he recognized the hesitance in her eyes and her voice for what it was. Sync marveled that she could have had him on the verge of begging for mercy for any amount of time. That, perhaps, was what was so terrifying about her. One of many things, anyway.
Slowly, he tightened the arm around her waist, slipped the hand in her hair around her shoulders, and pulled her to his chest. "I guess you were pretty okay," he murmured into her strawberry-scented hair.
Anise's eyes widened, breath caught in her throat. Then she squeezed them shut as a giggle escaped, and wrapped her arms around his neck again. "Bastard."
He chuckled back. The sound was wry but soft. "Bitch."
They held each other like that for a moment. Eventually, without moving, Anise murmured, "...Will you at least think about it?"
"I'm not making any promises."
She shut her eyes and squeezed a little harder. "Please--just think about it."
Sync felt the press of Anise's breasts under her dress against his bare torso, and held his breath for a second. Then he shut his eyes, too. "...I can think about it, sure."
The former Fon Master Guardian smiled softly. "Thank you."
It didn't change that he'd still need to leave before long. Everything else aside, it'd cause a lot of trouble for both of them if Sync stuck around in Sheridan for too long. But the moon had only just sunk beneath the Meggiora Highlands, leaving them in the privacy of darkness and starlight, and the night was warm, with just a small breeze... As the moments floated along, Sync heard Anise's breathing grow long and even, and he felt his eyelids growing heavy too.
Aw, hell, he thought drowsily. I can afford to doze for twenty minutes or so. Dawn's still hours away, and as long as I'm up and out of here by then, I'll be all right.
And so the young replica shut his eyes. Soon, his breath matched the girl in his arms'.
Author: Ayu Ohseki (theeternalmind)
Rating: R
Genre: Drama/Romance (sort of)
Characters/Pairing: Sync/Anise, natch.
Summary/Notes/Warnings/Spoilers: A few days ago, after doing something Sync/Anise-y for the one-sentence porn meme, I said to myself, "Self, I feel like doing some more Sync/Anise porn." So I did. This is the result. The sex is actually pretty vanilla, which is the biggest reason why I rated this R instead of NC-17.
Anise runs into Sync during a night walk, and refuses to let him leave without an explanation. When she manages to trap him, he taunts her--"Go ahead, do your worst, if you've got the guts!" Sync learns very quickly why that's a bad idea. It's set in Sheridan shortly after Luke and Asch clear the miasma from Auldrant. This is pretty late in the game, so there are a pretty large amount of spoilers, most extensively about Sync and his past.
There might be a second chapter to this at some point. I may also change the title at some point. I also realize that this community is pretty much dead; I'm really only posting it here because I wanted to post it somewhere that wasn't my personal journal, and gargantsurprise pointed me over here. Enjoy! If you like smut that gets all psychological, anyway.
And love dares you to care for the people on the edge of the night
And love dares you to change our way of caring about ourselves
===================================
Anise slipped out of her bed, and as Tear and Natalia continued to doze on either side of her, she got dressed and snuck out of the Sheridan inn. She admired her friends for being able to sleep at a time like this, but while she'd been putting on a strong front, recent events were weighing heavily on the former Fon Master Guardian's shoulders. She'd betrayed Ion to save her parents and watched him die, she'd killed Arietta in their duel, she'd watched Dist get blown up in his own fon machine, she'd seen Luke nearly vanish before her very eyes... Sure, he said the doctor had declared him fine when they'd gone to Belkend yesterday, but something was bugging Anise about it. She glumly supposed it was only natural. After seeing so many people she cared about die, she couldn't help but be scared for Luke. The fact that Jade was being so nice to him didn't really help.
The moon was three-quarters full and waning. It cast a cold shadow on the town where Iemon and the others had gotten killed to help them complete the planet core mission, and it forced Anise to think about the past--about the core mission itself and what she'd learned there, and the replicas they'd just seen die for their sakes. They all split apart into clouds of light and vanished, just like Ion... She couldn't blame Tear for trying to run over to Luke--Anise had only barely kept herself from doing the same thing.
The fourteen-year-old (she'd had a birthday ages back, not that anyone had had time to celebrate; even she'd forgotten about it until the end of Shadow Decan) leaned against a stone wall overlooking the sea, next to the five-story tower. The night was warm with a bit of a breeze, but that was it, which was unusual for windy Sheridan. Anise wondered idly if it was somehow because of the double hyperresonance that had cleared the miasma from the atmosphere. Maybe she'd figure it out if she head to the top of that tower. There was a telescope up there, or was it a pair of binoculars? Anise couldn't remember precisely. As she looked out at the sea and remembered, though, she suddenly wondered if she could see from there the place where they'd sunk into the core.
Probably not. It'd taken them five days to sail that far from Sheridan Bay, and by now they were all in the Qliphoth anyway. Still, she couldn't help but wonder. That mission was the first time she'd ever seen Ion cry--when she'd learned that he was a replica, and Sync was too... Anise had never liked the little weasel before that point, but after that, her feelings had been mixed. It had hurt Ion so much, and she honestly couldn't say she could stay completely calm after hearing him talk so bitterly about how he'd been tossed into Mt. Zaleho. Ion had ended up dying there, too...
"Nnngh, stop that, Anise!" she scolded herself, shaking her head vehemently as she stood up straight. "You're not gonna get anywhere, obsessing over that! We've still got a lot to do before everything's settled, so you've got to think about the future! Okay?"
The pink-clad girl smiled. Like she was going to answer herself. Still, she felt a little better. It was true; she couldn't afford to wallow in the past when there was still so much to do. She still had to make up for what she'd done.
Taking a deep breath, Anise turned to head back to the inn. She hesitated mid-step, though, and turned her eyes up towards the top of the wooden tower, then over at the lift. The lift was already up at the very top; maybe whoever had used it last had taken the stairs down. They'd stopped here after Belkend to follow up on some weapon-forging that Luke and Guy were working on, and they'd be leaving again early tomorrow, so she wouldn't have time then to walk around town.
Maybe it'll help me settle down, she thought, and following that logic, slipped inside and started to carefully, quietly climb the stairs.
When she reached the top, Anise found she hadn't been quite right. The last person to use the lift hadn't taken the stairs down; they were still there, staring out at the silver discs shimmering on the sea.
"Sync!" Anise gasped, and he snapped around, arms unfolding.
"Well," the Tempest said, smothering the surprise on his face with a smirk. "Fancy meeting you here, Anise. So how was it, watching ten thousand replicas get murdered in an instant to make your life easier? Bring back any happy memories?"
She flinched back a step as if struck, and Sync laughed cruelly.
"That's what I thought." Sauntering over towards the lift, he continued, "If you'll excuse me, the air up here just suddenly got foul. Don't let me get in the way of your reminiscing."
"W-wait a second!" Anise rushed forward and blocked the Tempest's way, spreading her arms out wide. "What are you doing here, Sync? What're you plotting this time?!"
"That's none of your business," he said, taking a step to the right. Anise shifted to block him, and again when he went for the left, and stood her ground when he tried to sweep her out of the way.
"I'm not going anywhere 'til you spill," she insisted stubbornly. "Try to hit me, and I'll latch onto your arm and scream bloody murder 'til the whole town wakes up and surrounds you!"
"Hmph."
Sync regarded her with narrowed eyes. The moon illuminated half his face and left the rest in darkness. Even with the wrong expressions, Anise was forced to think of the time he'd imitated Ion in Chesedonia. It must have shown on her face, because he suddenly smirked.
"Come to think of it, how's Luke doing? The idiot replica Luke, I mean," he added. "He and Asch managed to use hyperresonance to get rid of the miasma, didn't they? Setting Asch aside, I'm surprised he's not a cloud of fonons by now."
"He's fine," Anise retorted heatedly. "For your information, he just got an examination in Belkend, and the doctor said so!"
"Did he now." Sync arched his eyebrows. "And did the doctor say that to your face?"
Anise hesitated. The God-General smiled.
"I'm not privy to your group's private business, but I'd be willing to stake that that's a big, fat lie," he articulated, and reveled when Anise recoiled. "Maybe, maybe Asch is okay. But Luke's a replica. You should know firsthand how easily they just fall apart. My bet is that, as we speak, he's undergoing fonon separation. Won't that be fun? One moment he'll be walking and talking like he's just fine, and poof--" Sync flicked his fingers in Anise's face-- "he'll break apart and vanish, like he never existed."
"Stop it! Why do you always have to lie like that?!" she cried, slapping his hand away. He pushed her off, and they both retreated a few steps from each other.
"Heh... heheheh. You think I'm lying? I know a lot about fomicry. I should," Sync added self-deprecatingly. "What'd the Necromancer have to say about the good doctor's prognosis? I bet he didn't take it at face value. He wouldn't, because he knows exactly how frail and useless replicas are."
"Stop it!!"
"You're pathetic, Anise. You know I'm right, you just don't want to admit it."
"Stop it, or I'll make you stop!"
"Don't you think I would know, Anise?"
Anise recoiled again as Sync's voice and features melted effortlessly into the Ion she'd watched over for the past two years.
"I'm a replica, too. I know exactly what we are, and what we were made to be." Sync shifted back to his normal, cruel self. "So it's your own fault for getting attached to an idiot replica who doesn't have the decency to get himself killed properly. Hah, are you getting angry?" he added with a taunting smirk when Anise's hands balled into shaking fists. "What are you going to do about it? You're not going to hurt your precious Ion again, are y--"
Though Anise had marched across the gap between them with fist raised, until it actually happened, Sync never really expected that the girl would sock him. He staggered backwards, hand rising to his assaulted chin, and while he was off-balance, Anise shoved him and kept shoving until he wheeled back into the fence. He caught himself on the edge, arms spread along the top of the fence, and that kept him from sinking down further as Anise loomed over him, grabbing the medallions on the chest of his jacket.
"Don't think just 'cause you've got Ion's face that I'll let you get away with bad-talking my friends, you stupid son of a bitch!" she snarled. "Cross me and I'll kick your ass so hard you'll wish you stayed in the damn core!"
She seethed even when Sync gaped up at her almost comically, green eyes wide with utter shock. In measures, shock faded into wonder, which was swiftly replaced by dark, amused cynicism. She tightened her grip, ready to demand answers again, but he laughed faintly and cut her off.
"What makes you think I already don't?"
"...Sync?" Anise didn't remove her hands and she didn't stop being angry, but she did furrow her brows at him.
"Van didn't reassemble my fonons out of the core and put me back in the Qliphoth out of the sheer goodness of his heart. He did it because he said he still had a use for me. Now that everyone knows about replicas, it doesn't matter if I run around unmasked, and I might be a failure, but I still have some of the Fon Master's abilities." He smiled bitterly. "Frankly, I'd have been better off dead. I don't give a damn about Van's inane plan to 'save' this world. But as long as I can destroy what's already here, I'll do what he tells me to." Sync lifted his head and met Anise's widened eyes with a hard glare. "There's nothing in this world worth existing for, so I may as well take it all down with me."
"Sync, that's awful!" she whispered. "Do you really believe that?"
"You think I'd make this up? You already know about Mt. Zaleho, and Van, the man who saved my pathetic life, already ordered me to my death once." Sensing weakness, Sync shoved Anise away with his foot, and when she staggered back, stood up straight. He sneered down at her with narrowed eyes. "But that doesn't matter to me now, and I don't feel like discussing it with you either, so just get out of my way, traitor."
Sync tried to shove her aside again, but Anise grabbed hold of his wrist, and refused to let go even when he tried to jerk it away.
"I don't believe you," she said firmly, glaring back. "If it doesn't matter, what were you doing here? Why were you staring out towards where the Tartarus sank into the core?"
The fifth Ion replica almost didn't flinch. Anise probably wouldn't have noticed if she hadn't been holding onto him. "I'm not doing anything like that, and anyway, I already told you it's none of your business," he snapped. "Let go already!"
"No!"
Sync made a low noise of disgust. "You're really--" And he twisted his wrist around and thrust his hand towards Anise palm-upwards, upsetting her grip, setting her off-balance and making her fall to the floor. "--annoying, you know that?"
He turned on his heel to stalk towards the lift, then staggered as his left arm jerked back. When the replica looked back, he saw that Anise had latched onto the ribbon-ring that hung from his jacket sleeve.
"You don't know the half of it, pal!" she retorted.
"Wh--hey, let go!!" Sync demanded. He stepped back and pulled his arm forward to let it lead in front of his body, but all he succeeded in doing was dragging Anise along after him. He then lashed a boot back to kick at her, but she weathered it with a small shriek.
"You're--not--going--anywhere!!"
"Fine! Then I'll just kill you, and throw your corpse to the fishes!"
Sync dropped to one knee and thrust his right hand down palm-forward. It burned with searing white fonons, and Anise just barely managed to roll out of the way, still hanging on to the orange ribbon. She clutched to it with only one hand, though; the other reached back, grabbed Tokunaga from her hood, and slammed the plush down. Sync tried to knock it away, but it was already too late; the toy was growing to immense sizes, and lumbered back only to loom back over him.
"Get 'im, Tokunaga!" Anise cheered.
"Oh, you've gotta be--" Sync attempted to dodge, but even with his speed, there was no way he could avoid the massive doll curling its arms around him with the former Guardian weighing him down. He snarled a low curse as Tokunaga lifted him up by his armpits, pulling his arms up and behind him and then pinning them there, and Sync snapped another kick at Anise's hand as he tried in vain to extricate himself.
"Oww!" she whined, releasing him. It was too late for Sync, but he felt savage pleasure in it anyway, especially when she stood up and glared at him. "Dammit, stop struggling, you stupid bastard! I want--I want to save you!"
The God-General did as Anise said, if only because he was so astonished he had to stop and stare at her. "Save? Me? What the hell are you talking about?"
She glared at him for a second or two longer, but slowly the anger drained from her brown eyes, leaving behind an emotion Sync could only identify as melancholy. Then she glanced away. "...You are right about one thing, Sync. I'm... I'm the reason Ion's dead."
"So you think you can make up for that to another Ion replica? You're stupider than I--"
"Would you just shut up and let me finish?" Anise snapped, glaring back at him.
He glared back, unamused, but kept his mouth shut. The pigtailed girl dropped her gaze again.
"...I killed Arietta, too. She died not knowing the one she loved was already dead."
"..."
"I helped kill Dist, too, and even if he was a rotten excuse for a human being, he used to be my friend, and he made Tokunaga for me. And Luke's always been my friend, but I couldn't do anything to stop him from almost sacrificing his life." The black-haired girl squared her shoulders and looked Sync in the eye. "And now here you are, talking about how your life doesn't mean anything and you should've stayed dead! I can't just ignore that!"
"You're stupid," Sync said flatly. "I'm your enemy. I tried to kill you, just like Arietta and Dist did, and none of us had any regrets about it. You're just getting sentimental because you feel guilty about Fon Master Ion, so you're trying to make yourself feel better by latching on to another Ion replica. I hope you realize how pathetic that is."
"Why?" Anise demanded, folding her arms. In spite of it, there was a hint of a smile at the edges of her lips. "You're the one who said, 'Fighting me is the same as fighting Ion!' Are you saying you're not the same as Ion after all~?"
Sync didn't respond to Anise's imitation. She smirked, but let it fade as she moved closer to him.
"I just don't want to see you die, too," she said quietly, resting a hand on his captive arm. "Not when you've spent your entire life thinking there's nothing worth living for. You're two or three years old at best. That's... that's just too sad!"
"It's got nothing to do with you."
"It's got everything to do with me! You can't just imitate Ion at me and then expect me to stop caring when you go back to acting all bitter and twisted! It doesn't work that way! I hate how you replicas keep thinking you can just up and die and it doesn't matter because you're a replica! And you--either you're the same as Ion or you aren't! Which is it gonna be!?"
"Shut up!" Sync snarled. "Don't make me sick! You only started on this line of tripe once you had me pinned against your puppet. If this is a nice way of saying you're taking me prisoner, then don't even bother. I'm not an idiot, and you're not going to treat me like one!"
"You're just not going to get it unless I do something drastic, aren't you?" Anise half-asked, half-stated in a low voice. She took a deep breath, then let it out. "Fine."
"You're not--"
The rest of Sync's diatribe was lost when Anise rested her hands on his shoulders, leaned up, and pressed her lips against his. Sync's mind, which included a plan to trick her into miniaturing Tokunaga, throwing it over the cliff, then pinning her, breaking her fingers one by one, and tossing her alive and crying after her stupid doll, went blank. Her lips, he realized dumbly, were softer than he would have imagined.
After a moment, Anise pulled back. She gave him a tiny smile as she leaned on his chest. "I'm not what?"
Sync's jaw worked for several seconds. Eventually, he demanded, "What was that?"
Anise turned pink, but remained calm. "It's called a 'kiss,' Sync."
"I--I know that! What the hell!? You--" He cut himself off as understanding dawned coldly in his green eyes. "...oh. I get it now."
"What?"
"Psychological warfare. You're trying to mess with my head by acting affectionate when I can't push you away."
Anise made a face. She didn't think Sync had any way of knowing that was her first kiss she'd just given him, but his attitude irritated her a little anyway. "Do you have to twist every nice thing someone does for you?"
"You force yourself on me and you think that's nice? What would you call it if I'd pinned you down and kissed you?"
Brown eyes turned away. "...I guess you've got a point... Except--you'd definitely do it to hurt me, and I really don't intend on hurting you." The puppeteer thought for a second, then smiled, lifted a finger and stroked the Tempest's lips. "Did you like it?"
Teeth snapped at that finger; Anise snatched it away just in time. The God-General snorted a brief, cynical laugh.
"You're just going to make excuse after excuse, huh? Well, do your worst, if you've got the guts. I can handle anything you can dish out."
The narrow-eyed smile Anise gave him made Sync suddenly question the wisdom of his challenge. It was wide and toothy and, while not malicious, definitely wicked. "Well, since you say so, Sync~" she said sing-song, pressing her right hand back on his chest and trailing it down. "After all, I wouldn't want to force myself on you~ So as long as I've got your permission~~"
"Wh--wh--wait," Sync protested, then turned red as Anise cupped his crotch. "Wait, wait--this isn't--a-anybody who woke up now could look up and see this!!"
"Oh, do you mean you can't handle it after all?" She smiled sweetly at him, rubbing her palm up and down. When Sync shifted his legs to try in vain to back away, she giggled as wickedly as her smile. "Just let me know when you want me to stop and I will, you know. I wouldn't want to be too much for you~."
"Go to hell!" he snapped, but he stopped wriggling. His breathing had already become a little uneven, and he attempted to master it. "I just--I didn't think you'd really go through with it. Do whatever the hell you want, you pervert!"
"If you don't want anyone to wake up, you should quiet down," Anise chided him, bringing her other hand down to lift up his jacket and undo his belt. "Or else anyone could see this, right~?"
"Pervert," Sync repeated, crimson spreading.
Anise giggled, but if she were honest, she did feel a little like a pervert. Sync definitely thought like an adult, and she was no child herself, but he was still no more than three years old. She was taking advantage of him, and she was doing this more or less in public. They were close to the sea side of the tower, so she didn't think anyone who glanced up casually could see them, but... No, she'd already committed to this, and even if Anise had to admit she was a little nervous (or a lot nervous), she wasn't going to and couldn't back down now. She'd at least got a stride going on, but even if he was masking his own nervousness, Sync had had a point about anyone waking up.
It was past midnight but nowhere near dawn, so she didn't think anyone would if they hadn't after all the yelling they'd done, but... just in case, she tugged on Tokunaga, and the puppet obediently stepped to the side so that its giant body blocked the two of them from view. She smiled brightly as she pulled off her gloves, tossed them aside, and tugged his pants down. He glared back, breathing carefully controlled.
"Feel better now?"
"No."
"You will soon," she teased, and pulled out his responding cock.
Sync grit his teeth and squeezed his eyes shut, breath hitching in his throat. He didn't want to give Anise the satisfaction of seeing him squirm, but that--ggkhgh, that, he'd never been touched like that before, and his goddamn failure body wasn't obeying his will, it kept twitching against his coat as Anise slowly pumped her hand up and down. He couldn't stop his heart from pounding, and though he could just barely keep his breathing even, he thought it might not matter, because Anise was leaning her head on his chest, her other arm slipped around his waist.
"I hate you," he rasped.
The puppeteer responded by leaning her face into his shoulder and flicking her thumb against the head of his cock. Sync gasped as a tiny bolt of lightning shot up his spine, and despised himself for it. As he tried not to writhe, Anise smiled at him. It was a little shy, but the Tempest didn't notice.
"How's it feel...?"
"Your hand's cold," was the only snappy retort Sync could think of.
"Oh, really? Well, that's no good." Anise smirked and leaned up to kiss him again. The fifth responded without thinking about it, then grimaced when she pulled away with a smug look on her face. "My mouth was warm, wasn't it~?"
"S-so? So what?"
She flashed him another wicked grin, and pressed another kiss on his chin. Another one followed it at the base of the collar of his jacket, and another on his chest, and another, and another, and... He understood in a flash what she meant as she sunk to her knees, brushing fingertips lightly down his side.
"St--" he uttered, and bit the word back. Stop. Maybe she'd stop like she said she would, and maybe she wouldn't. Sync desperately wanted her to, to stop humiliating him like this even as his body exulted in the tender attention, but he also couldn't bring himself to swallow his pride and say so. Either way, she'd have him by the balls (so to speak), but it would somehow be infinitely worse to concede defeat to her aloud. After all, he'd boasted he could handle anything she could dish out barely three minutes ago.
"Hmmm?" Anise blinked up at him with wide, guileless eyes.
Sync found himself hating her even more, especially for how the sight of her kneeling with her mouth just inches from his half-hard dick somehow excited him. He glanced quickly out towards the ocean. No ships, he was oddly grateful to see. He swallowed hard and rallied himself. "...stop messing around. You're not getting prizes for dragging this out."
"Geez!" She pouted, a bit playfully. "I thought you might enjoy a little foreplay."
"Well, I don't," he snapped.
"Hmmm~ Sorry if I don't quite believe you." Anise smiled again, then pressed a kiss to the tip of his prick.
Sync grunted, snapping his head back and trying to step back. Tokunaga kept him as pinned as before, though, and the God-General had to bite his cheeks to keep from making a noise as she kissed his tip again, then slowly flicked her tongue against it.
Anise glanced up then. His cheeks were scarlet, his breath had picked up speed, and his body was trembling faintly. She could see the moonlight in the sweat beading on his face, too. It was actually pretty exciting to see him like this, so though she found she didn't care much for the taste, she parted her lips against his cock, took his tip into her mouth, and caressed it with her tongue.
"Ahngh--"
An aborted moan. Anise tingled to hear it above her. Pumping her hand up and down the shaft again, she sucked Sync gently, feeling out how to do this right. He didn't moan again, but she felt the last flaccid bits of his cock stand at sharp attention under her ministrations. She took more of him inside her mouth, picking up speed and confidence, and listened to his breath start to match her pace.
Her free hand wandered. Anise wasn't quite sure what to do with it. At first she held his coat aside as she worked him; then she pressed it against his thigh; then she stroked his hip and slipped it up his side; then she curved it back and cupped his ass; then, finding it firm and full, she squeezed it, which made him buck against her, so she kneaded it for a minute longer. Sync still didn't groan again, but his breathing grew quicker, more ragged and more insistent by the moment.
I want to hear him moan out loud, the teenage girl thought, and it became a goal.
Only the copper tang of blood kept Sync grounded, meanwhile. When he'd almost lost it, he'd chomped on his cheeks until they'd bled. He didn't think it would last him long, in large part because it was getting so ha--so difficult to think at all. His body kept responding, and he felt as weak as when he'd first started training, when his thin form with its meagre amount of potential kept reacting rather than obeying the keen command of his mind. The feeling was different, though. He couldn't quite put words to it--probably couldn't even if his cock weren't enveloped in something warm and soft and insistent--but where in those early days, his young will fossilized into something unyielding, here, his will was getting broken down and eroded.
I want her to stop.
This is horrible.
I don't ever want her to stop.
This is incredible.
He felt his cock twitch a couple times, and thought he felt something dribble from it. Had the replica ever been taught sex ed, he might have realized it was pre-cum. Anise pulled away from him then, and Sync chanced a glance down.
She caught his eyes and smiled. "You're not done yet," she murmured, and leaned her face against the side of his shaft as she cupped his tip in her hand, which was definitely warm by now.
Sync glanced away again quickly. It occurred to him that it felt better when Anise was sucking his cock than when she was licking the--oh god the underside now--he grit his teeth, not quite forcing back a pant.
It encouraged her. Of course it would; hearing it made Anise tingle a little more. The urge was incredibly strong for her to slip her other hand under her skirt, and she obeyed, slipping her hand down from Sync's tip to go back to stroking him slowly, to bring him back from the edge. She pulled the glove off her left hand with her teeth, not noticing Sync glancing down again at that moment, and hitched up her skirt. Her panties were already damp, and even a soft touch on the cotton cloth sent shivers through her body. She panted against Sync's crotch, pumping harder and tighter than she meant to. Anise was rewarded for it with another ragged half-pant, and she squeezed her eyes shut, then pulled her panties aside and slipped her fingers underneath.
"Sync..." she moaned, shivering again against his body.
A shudder coursed like brushfire through the God-General, and he threw his head back. That--that--that, it sent blood roaring in his ears and electricity sparkling on the surface of his skin, running from fon slot to fon slot. His body had betrayed him from the very start, but this went beyond the physical now, and the fifth could no longer deny it. The sound of his name moaned like that--it reeled him in and set his heart ablaze like he never imagined was possible.
It turned him on.
"Nggh..." he grunted. Sync loathed himself for this, but even that once-omnipresent sentiment had gotten overshadowed. Armed with his emotional repulsion, he'd been at war with his physical attraction, and he had just lost. Now he wanted to keep going, if only for the chance to hear his name like that even just once again.
Anise heard his now unmasked panting, and glanced up with a half-smile. It vanished when she noticed a line of what looked like blood dripping from his bottom lip, and sat up straight, letting go of both of them to place her hands on his coat and lean forward.
"Are you okay? You're bleeding!"
He blinked rapidly, and looked down to see a worried Anise starting to stand up. "Wh-what're you stopping for?" he demanded, almost in a panic. "Get back down there!"
"What?"
"I said I can handle anything you can dish out, and I meant it. Don't start if you can't finish!"
Anise gaped at him for a second, then snerked and started to laugh. "If you can talk like that, you must be fine," she said with a wry grin as she settled back on her knees. "Then shall I go ahead and finish this~?"
"Just what I wanted," Sync retorted, and sort of regretted it when Anise looked pleased. He forgot about his regret and most everything else when she cupped his balls in her left hand, his tip in her right, and began to run her tongue down his shaft to the base of his cock and beyond.
Anise felt something wet and sticky leak onto her palm again, heard another series of ragged pants. She swallowed hard, heart pounding, then began to suck on one nut as she rubbed the other. This is actually pretty complicated, she thought distantly as she smeared the pre-cum on Sync's cock over his foreskin and massaged him, flicking her palm to the right as she did.
"Aaaa--aaa--aaaugh..." he groaned unwillingly, twitching his right leg up almost involuntarily. Dammit, he thought hazily, and hooked that leg over her shoulder with inspired deliberateness. While pulling her closer with his calf, he bucked his hips against her.
Anise gasped breathily as he did, squirming her thighs together. Not only had she finally gotten to hear what she'd been aiming for, but Sync had made it excruciatingly clear he really was enjoying this. She wasn't sure what she'd done right, but she was determined to keep doing it, and sucked hard on his nut. Having her mouth full didn't keep her from moaning with gratified pleasure, though.
The vibrations of her throat against his sack was too much for Sync. Struggling against Tokunaga, he bucked again, the building heat in his crotch reaching explosive level. A sensation the likes of which he'd never experienced before razed through his body like a wave of dry heat, and he groaned again, sustaining the note in the back of his throat as he came.
The orgasm passed too soon and not soon enough. Sync sagged, panting slowly and softly. Anise let go of him to wipe off his now mostly limp cock with her hands and smear the cum off on the floor. She licked some of what remained out of curiosity, made a face, and wiped the last off on her tabard. Hopefully white wouldn't show up on white, at least not until she'd had a chance to do laundry. She herself wasn't anywhere near done yet, but--well, she was worried, and pressing a brief kiss to the inside of his thigh, Anise slipped Sync's leg off her and stood up.
His sweat-smeared, sweetly twisted expression was incredibly attractive. Anise squirmed her thighs together again, but still touched Sync's face and hair with gentle concern. His breath hitched for a second, but he went on panting without opening his eyes or saying anything. Anise hesitated, then leaned up to kiss him again--and pressed a hand against Tokunaga, still at his back. With the fonic link triggered, the doll shrank, releasing Sync's arms and falling to the floor. The God-General collapsed against her, and Anise caught and supported him while he found enough feeling in his jellified knees to stagger backwards.
"Bitch," he muttered, and pulled her with him to sag against the moonlit fence.
"Bastard," she teased, legs folded next to him as she slipped her arms around his neck and perched on his lap. It was difficult for Anise to behave herself when she was very ready to continue and had the replica's arms around her waist, but she let Sync catch his breath.
He stopped panting a moment later, then met her eyes. There was still some of that dislike in his eyes from before they started, but the coldness was gone; it had softened and been joined by a more languid interest. Anise swallowed, then braved a smile.
"How was it?"
"I can't believe you have the nerve to ask me that," he said without heat.
"I--guess I shouldn't have bothered." Anise shrugged, to cover up her hesitation, and smirked. "After all, I thought it was pretty clear you liked it~." Her smirk faded, she touched fingertips to his lip again. "...This is blood. Are you sure you're okay?"
"I just bit my cheeks. I'm fine." He met her eyes again for a moment, their faces very close. Anise held her breath-- "But you won't be."
She squeaked as he tightened his left arm around her waist, pinning her against him. Sync smirked, breathing a chuckle as she struggled, and hitched his arm up to her lower back, pressing her chest against his. She had one arm between them, but the other was still around his neck, and he could feel the swell of her breast underneath her uniform... He leaned his face forward as if to kiss her, and instead whispered, "Now I'm gonna make you squirm."
"S-Sync!" she whispered back, brown eyes wide.
Close--but not enough. Not nearly enough. It didn't have the same ring to it. The fifth Ion replica smirked at the former Fon Master Guardian, and bringing his right hand to his mouth, bit the middle finger of his glove. Anise watched for a second, hesitating, as he began to peel his hand back... and then leaned forward and bit the ring finger of his glove. Sync's own eyes widened slightly, but he pulled his hand out, then tossed his black combat glove back towards Tokunaga.
Their eyes met again for a moment, lips very close. Anise shut her eyes, and Sync wondered if she wanted to be kissed back. He smirked and instead grabbed the hem of her dress and pulled. She gasped, pink flushing her face, but instead of protesting, helped him along by spreading one leg on the other side of his lap, straddling him. Her cotton panties were soaked, and he wrenched them down around her leggings.
"You're filthy," he murmured when she made a soft, needy sound.
"And you like it," she shot back.
Sync said nothing, because he didn't want to admit it. He instead slipped his hand up her thigh, which was also slick with liquid, and as she tightened her grip around him, brushed his fingers across her bush and into the lips of her pussy. He took his time in tracing his fingertips up and down, partly to tease her back, partly out of genuine curiosity, and partly to see what affected her most when he touched it. As it turned out, nearly everything; Anise squirmed under and leaned into his touch, and pressed her face onto his chest, her right hand curled next to her mouth.
She was astonishingly attractive like that, huffing breaths against him with red cheeks. Sync watched her face as he felt her out a moment more, and when his fingertips brushed something around the top of her pussy that made her cry out sweetly, he felt his cock twitch up again.
Brushing his tongue over his lips, the green-haired boy hesitated, then slowly slid his index and middle finger up her hole, curved slightly to follow her soft flesh in. Anise whimpered quietly, and Sync felt his mouth go dry. He forced a smirk and a quiet, rough chuckle, and remembering what she'd done to his cock earlier, began thrusting his fingers in and out of her. She cried out again, and he felt a certain vindictive satisfaction.
"How's it feel...?" he murmured, deliberately raising the pitch of his voice to imitate her question from before.
"A-amazing. Don't stop," Anise whispered back.
"--I--" Sync drew a sharp breath in as he felt his dick respond again. He continued roughly, "I don't intend to."
He pulled out, thrust in his middle and ring finger even harder, cupping the rest of her pussy with his index and pinky. Anise gasped and wrapped her other arm around his neck, panting. It felt so weird, having someone else--especially Sync!--inside of her, even if it was just his fingers. But what fingers! Anise was a virgin, but she was hardly so innocent that she'd never masturbated before. Sync's touches were inexperienced, but they were definitely not clumsy, and each stroke made her tingle more. Just what you'd expect from a martial artist--he knows how to use his hands, Anise thought, and it made her grin briefly.
Sync kissed her then, his lips parted like hers were. It was abrupt, but the replica had acted on impulse and sudden inspiration. Anise's eyes widened in surprise; then she recovered and responded eagerly, letting her tongue run over his. Sync thought the sensation odd, but he moved the arm around her waist to the back of her head, and while holding her there, raked teeth over her tongue and sucked on it. Anise dug her nails into his shoulders--Damn, he learns fast!! she mentally gasped--shifted her hips into his fingers, and moaned into his mouth. Then she sucked back gently before pulling her tongue back and raking teeth over Sync's bottom lip.
"A-Anise," he groaned in spite of himself. He bit his lip when he realized--he wanted her to moan his name, dammit--and to cover, hooked his thumb into her cleft, close to that spot that had made her cry out earlier, and pressed inwards along with a thrust.
"Sync!" she all but screamed.
The replica shuddered with pleasure, now holding her across her shoulders. Anise buried her face in his shoulder and bit his jacket. Sync glanced at her, breathing heavily as he tried something a little different and rocked his fingers around inside of her, curved slightly in. She bit harder, making a high, insistent noise, and he nuzzled the side of her head.
Her hair smells like strawberries, he realized. On another impulse, he leaned his teeth towards the ribbon holding her pigtail in place and pulled it loose. Black hair tumbled loose, and Sync smiled. The other ribbon he pulled loose by hand, and he then clutched his fingers in the smooth strands.
"Sync..." she moaned again, voice muffled by his jacket.
Breath came out swift and ragged. The God-General whispered in her ear, roughly, urgently, "Say that again."
Anise looked up at him with hazy eyes, her own breath hot and fast. "Sync?"
"No," he insisted, green eyes burning. "Not like that. Moan it."
She laughed, which irritated the replica for two seconds until she pressed her lips against his ear and groaned, "Sync...!"
He groaned too, tilting his head back as heat ran backwards down his spine into his prick. Anise grinned, flush with sweaty pleasure. So that's what she'd done right before. Thinking back (as far as she could think, on the verge of climax), Sync had gotten more into it right after she'd moaned his name. Who'd have thought something so simple would turn him on so hard?
What went around came back around to her quickly, as Sync slipped a third finger into her cleft and bucked his hand sharply upwards. She cried out wordlessly--and it suddenly built and rose rapidly, the electric feeling all over her body, riding on her cry until it burst out all at once. Sync's hand was drenched, and Anise flopped heavily against him, trembling.
It was difficult for the Tempest to remove himself, if only because he'd gotten to the point where he needed another release too. He bit his lip and slipped his hand away, though, letting it rest on her hip and well away from his cock, which was bumping against her thigh.
After a moment to cool down, Anise smiled up at him. Sync smiled back wryly, and when the puppeteer touched the side of his face and kissed him, he didn't resist.
"You need me to jerk you off again?" she asked, slipping her hands down to his cock.
He turned red. "What?"
"Well, you just seemed like you had so much fun, and this guy's ready to go, at least~"
"...nnh." Sync glanced away. Anise watched him for a few seconds, then ran her fingers up her thigh to get them slick and began to pump him again gently.
He shut his eyes briefly, shifting slightly at the repeated sensations, just as seductive as the last time. His blush faded to faint red on his cheeks, and he settled back, letting his eyes unfocus on the stars above for a moment.
"How's it feel?" she murmured. "Seriously, this time."
Sync tried to gather his thoughts. "...Like my body's smoldering. But in a good way."
"You actually did answer seriously! I half-expected sarcasm."
"Hmph... I guess I'm--in a good mood."
The grin was expected; less so was how she let go of his cock in favor of messing with the latches in his jacket coat. Sync straightened slightly.
"What're you doing?"
"Shh."
A faint frown passed the God-General's face, but he let Anise do as she pleased. He moved appropriately to help pull his jacket off and his coat down, and slipped his hands forward to deprive Anise of her tabard and unzip the back of her dress.
She stopped at that point, though, to give a curious look at the black markings on Sync's chest. She seated herself on one of his legs and traced her fingers over the tattoo, which looked to her like some kind of fonic glyph. Then she met his eyes. "What's this?"
Sync smiled faintly and bitterly. Of course. "It's an arte that Van engraved in me after he picked me out of Mt. Zaleho. It's similar to what Dist used on Mohs to turn him into the Amazing Flying Blob. Since my powers were so weak, Van needed to use this on me to enhance my Seventh Fonons. It's the only reason I can use any Daathic fonic artes at all."
"...so the Colonel made this arte too, huh?" Anise asked, thinking back to what Jade had said after that event.
"No. The Necromancer just made the basis for it, in the same way he created and developed fomicry, but had nothing directly to do with the Ion replicas."
"...oh." There was silence for a moment as the former Guardian traced the contours of the arte with her left hand, and the boy's thin but muscular chest with the other. It was sort of absurd, considering what she'd done with him, but Anise blushed faintly as she explored his body, thumbs brushing over the hard nubs of his nipples. The God-General relaxed and reciprocated, slowly stroking a hand up and down her hip and thigh as he watched her face.
Sync really was handsome... She'd thought Ion had been handsome too, but in a different way--more because of his fragility and gentleness. Sync had been through the wringer, and his rampant personality defects aside, he was tough and strong for it. Anise could feel it beneath her fingertips, and she thought it was sexy in a way that she could never imagine for Ion.
"Ion didn't have something like this on him," she commented, following that train of thought.
Sync made a low tch noise, lip curling up as he dropped his hand to the floor. "He wouldn't," he said flatly. "His abilities actually matched the original Fon Master Ion's, or at least came close. He wouldn't need an arte like this."
"No, I didn't mean like--" Anise started to protest, but Sync cut her off.
"So how did I compare to him, anyway? I'm sure I suffered from a lack of experience, but maybe you liked that; it'd be something new. Almost new, I mean," he corrected himself sardonically, "since it's the same old face. How did Ion's twist when you pawed at him?"
"I wouldn't know," she said quietly. "I never did anything like this with him."
The Tempest hesitated, caught off guard. He recovered quickly. "Heh... Never got the chance to snag the Ion you wanted, so you settled for me, huh?" He pushed her back, and Anise let herself slide off his leg, pushing down her skirt. "Well, you can go back to screwing whoever else you've screwed with. Maybe the Luke replica, I don't know; you sure have a thing for replicas, huh?"
"I can't."
"Why not?" Sync sneered as he pulled his pants up and started to stand. "Because he's going to vanish?"
"Because I've never done this with anyone before," Anise replied, still in that quiet tone. "You're my first."
Astonishment flashed through the fifth's face, searing away the resentment that had poisoned it. Suspicion followed in its wake. "You're lying."
"I'm not lying."
Uncertainty laced suspicion. Sync sat back down, studying Anise's face. "...Then why me? It makes no sense."
"I already said, didn't I?" the puppeteer replied, a little heatedly. "I want to save you."
"That's what makes no sense," he retorted flatly. "I'm your enemy."
"But you don't have to be. At least--I don't want you to be."
"Because I'm an Ion repl--"
"Oh for crying out loud, shut up about that for once!" Anise snapped. "The only one who cares about it here is you!"
Sync stared at her. In the instant that he was left speechless, the former Fon Master Guardian swung her leg over his lap again, pressed her hands on his shoulders, and glared into his eyes. "Yes, I'm doing this because you're a replica. Let me finish! You and Ion and Luke, all in your different ways, talk like it's okay if you die, and it's not. You're a gigantic ass, Sync, and you've never been anything but cruel and mean-spirited to me and my friends. But that's because, your whole life, the Commandant's filled your head with the idea that you're just--just--some kind of tool for him to use!" She threw her hands up in frustration. "He did the same exact thing with Arietta! I don't care if Largo says it was kinder to lie to her! He still used her! He's using all of you because he's got a stupid grudge against the Score, and you all just lap it up! It drives me crazy!! You're not a thing, Sync. You should be able to live your own life!!"
"How? Where? What's the point?" Sync snapped, grabbing Anise's belt. "Where's a replica of Fon Master Ion supposed to live his own life? There's nowhere in the world I could go where someone doesn't recognize my face! What do you think I had to wear a mask all the time for!?"
"You're sexier without it on anyway!"
Sync choked. Anise seized her chance.
"You know what I was thinking when I was touching you?" She quieted, letting her hands slip from his shoulders back to his bare chest. "...I was thinking that you really don't look anything like Ion at all."
"That's--that's a crock," the fifth said, but Anise thought for the first time, he sounded a little unsure.
"No, it's true. I've seen him without his robes on a couple times, during doctor's visits. He..." Anise swallowed and dropped her gaze. "He was thin, but he also looked--soft, I guess. I mean, he didn't exactly exercise, so of course. But your body's really... muscular and tight, like you're a wound-up bowstring. Again, totally expected, but--I never really thought about it until I touched you. I think you're both handsome, but--you're handsome in totally different ways." She slid her eyes back up to meet his without lifting her chin. "...Actually, I kind of think you're better-looking, Sync."
Sync stared at her mutely, color creeping back into his cheeks. He quickly glanced away. After a long silence, he said embarrassedly, "How long are you going to sit on my lap like that?"
"Hmmm... All night~?"
"We can't stay like this all night."
"Why not?" Anise hooked her fingers behind Sync's neck and smiled at him. "Haven't you been enjoying yourself so far?"
"I have things to do and places to be," he replied pointedly.
Her smile faded. "I don't care. Stay with me."
He narrowed his eyes. "Why should I?"
Anise pressed her body against his as she wrapped her arms around his back and head, and breathily moaned into his ear, "Sync~"
The Tempest made a strangled noise.
Giggling wickedly, Anise pulled her right leg over to join her left, ignoring the wet tangle of her panties, and sat across Sync's lap, arms still around him. "Tell me more about yourself?"
Sync's face was still bright red as he glared at the setting moon. "...Like what?"
"Like, um..." The black-haired girl leaned her head on his shoulder and traced the outline of the arte on his chest again. "Who gave you the name 'Sync'? I mean, where'd it come from?"
His expression darkened. "...Van gave it to me, after he found me in Mt. Zaleho."
When Sync didn't expand on that, Anise prompted, "How'd you manage to survive that, anyway? I mean, getting thrown into a volcano... You must've been really tough or really lucky."
"Hah. Lucky. Yeah, right," he replied bitterly. "I survived only to become aware enough of my surroundings to realize just how unlucky I am."
"Sync..."
He fell silent for a moment to brood. "...We were all thrown away at the same time. The first replica had already been disposed of. I was the fifth of seven. Mohs wanted us put in Mt. Zaleho to let the monsters take care of us; one of his assistants got the bright idea to throw us directly into the lava."
"Great to know that Mohs has such awesome people working for him," Anise muttered.
Sync smirked briefly and humorlessly, and bit back a pointed remark. "...They tossed us in one by one, according to our numbers. I didn't realize what was going on at first--not until I saw the fourth get thrown in, saw what happened when he hit the lava. I panicked. When they went to push me in, I managed to jump at the last second, and I grabbed hold of a crag of rock."
He swallowed hard. Anise watched him wordlessly, brows furrowed with concern. "...I managed to claw my way up to the pathway inside. There was a boulder not far from there, and I hid behind it. If someone came after me to try to finish the job right, I didn't want them to find me." He shrugged. "Van found me anyway. He said he was impressed by that jump I made, so he decided to see if I could be salvaged into something worthwhile."
Another bitter smile. "'How regrettable... His synchron levels are too low.'"
The puppeteer blinked. "What's that?"
"It's what Van said about me before he and the others judged me a failure," Sync replied. Anise flinched at the depth of the loathing in his voice. "That's where he got my name from, because when he found me, I repeated that back to him."
"Sync...!"
He laughed at the horrified look on Anise's face. It cut off quickly when he saw what else was there. "Wh--h-hey, what are you crying for!?"
"That's just--" She shook her head, tears running down her face. "That's so awful!! How could anybody do that!?"
Sync glanced away, feeling disconcerted. "...It's not like they could let a bunch of kids identical to Fon Master Ion go running free. Fomicry's forbidden, remember? If we were found out, they'd get thrown in jail, and we'd probably have gotten killed anyway. Replicas don't have rights."
"The Colonel damn well better change that!" Anise snarled. "I hate the Commandant even more now, too! Naming you after something like that--it's like he went out of his way to give you a reminder of why you're a so-called failure and you shouldn't bother to do anything but what he says! When I see his stupid bearded face again, I'm going to rip him a new one!!"
"Don't get so worked up. It doesn't matter." But Sync wrapped an arm around her waist anyway.
"Yes it does matter!" she insisted, beating a fist on his collar. "You matter!!"
"That's so corny. How can you say this stuff with a straight face?" He sounded uncomfortable rather than condescending, though. It intensified when Anise actually look hurt. She was his enemy--hell, he'd done his best to try to make her cry just a short while ago. Why feel weird about something like this? But Sync couldn't quite squash the feeling, and he lifted a hand to wipe her tears away, since she wasn't bothering to do so herself. "...seriously, don't cry. It's weird."
"This isn't what's weird," Anise sniffled. "What's weird is how you can fight for the Commandant when he treats you like crap."
"It's not like I'm his biggest fan either," Sync said dryly. "But he's got the power and the means to follow through with his ideals. They happen to coincide with what I want, so why not help? It doesn't matter who destroys the Score, as long as it gets destroyed. Besides, if I didn't fight for him, I'd have no reason to live."
"Then I'll give you a new one," she declared. "Ditch Van and come stay with me, Sync!"
He burst out laughing. He laughed even harder when Anise yelled hotly, "I'm serious!!"
"I know you are," Sync said when he calmed down. "That's what's so hilarious. You really..." A melancholic shadow crossed his face. "...mean that seriously."
"Sync..." The puppeteer touched his cheek. "...why do you look so sad?"
"I'm not sad."
I'm not crying, Anise thought in reaction, and bit her lip.
The God-General continued, "I'm just amazed you can say something that naïve. Let's assume, just for a minute, that I decided to dump everything I've been fighting for after having a--a--a tryst with one of my enemies. After being forced into a tryst," he added pointedly, and Anise frowned. "I don't like your friends, and they don't like me. If they're smart, they wouldn't trust me, and if they're paranoid, they won't trust you, either. Remember, you're the reason that Ion's dead." He ignored her brief, guilty look. "Assuming they've forgiven you by now, which they must have if they're letting you stay with them, they could easily suspect that I might have manipulated you into asking this of me so I could spy on them."
"You definitely didn't do that," Anise said dryly.
"Well, no," Sync replied, equally dryly. "It'd be too much trouble to make it believable. I'd rather just kill you all. Ow!" He swatted away Anise's hand, which had grabbed his ear and twisted hard. "Cut that the hell out! I still view you people as enemies! Being nice to you is a waste of my time!"
"I already told you, we don't have to be enemies!" she argued. "Why won't you understand!?"
"You're the one who doesn't understand. Sometime before dawn, we're both going to get up, put our clothes back on, go our separate ways, and never speak of this again. That's the way it has to be--the only way it can be," the God-General replied coldly. "Thinking anything else is just a delusion."
"Are you serious? Are you really satisfied with the thought of that, Sync?" she asked, again sounding hurt. "Can you really give up on something you've gained that easily?"
He snorted. "I haven't gained anything except a few awkward new experiences."
Anise curled her fingers on his chest. "So you're saying what we did doesn't mean anything to you?"
"That's right."
"That's a lie! You moaned my name, I heard you!"
He almost didn't flinch. "That was just--I got caught up in the moment."
"Then why'd you talk about your past with me?"
"You already know the basics. It doesn't make any difference if you learn the details too."
"Then why are you still holding me?"
Sync dropped his arm to the floor and said nothing.
Anise watched his face silently for a moment. Then she lowered her eyes and slowly slipped her arms around his rope-cord chest. "...You're the one who doesn't understand," she murmured. "You're still doing it--talking like you don't deserve anything... I can't just forget tonight ever happened, and I refuse to believe you could, either. You talked to me about yourself when I asked, and you believed me when I told you that this is my first time, even if it took you a bit. And you got into what we were doing when I moaned your name, even if it's a rotten one. Aren't you just convincing yourself that nothing matters to you because you think you don't matter to anything else?"
Sync remained silent.
"...You matter to me." Anise pulled back enough to look into his face. "If you didn't, I'd never have done what I did. I wanted to get through to you, no matter what... but you're so bitter and cynical, I thought that if I did nothing but talk to you, it'd never work. I had to show you I was serious--so I..." She swallowed. "I gave you myself. I'll--give you the rest, too, s-since we stopped in the middle... if you just ask. Since this was my first time, I thought that was about the only thing I could give you that might actually mean something to you."
He glanced away, shadows falling over his eyes. "...I didn't ask for you and I didn't want you. You just forced yourself on me."
There was a long silence. Anise tried not to cry again. It was true and she knew it, and with how much Sync kept repeating it... maybe she'd screwed up after all. That thought squeezed her heart like a giant's hand. It was stupid, but she couldn't help it. "...I'm sorry," she whispered.
"Liar. You're not sorry at all."
"But I--"
Anise's protests were cut off when Sync grabbed her shoulders and pressed his lips on hers. Her brown eyes flew wide at first, but she relaxed and let them flutter shut as she leaned back into the kiss. When they broke apart a moment later, she gave him a shy look.
"...Sync?"
He didn't reply at first--just watched her face as he combed his fingers through her hair. She really does look a lot prettier with her hair down, he thought. For the first time, too, he recognized the hesitance in her eyes and her voice for what it was. Sync marveled that she could have had him on the verge of begging for mercy for any amount of time. That, perhaps, was what was so terrifying about her. One of many things, anyway.
Slowly, he tightened the arm around her waist, slipped the hand in her hair around her shoulders, and pulled her to his chest. "I guess you were pretty okay," he murmured into her strawberry-scented hair.
Anise's eyes widened, breath caught in her throat. Then she squeezed them shut as a giggle escaped, and wrapped her arms around his neck again. "Bastard."
He chuckled back. The sound was wry but soft. "Bitch."
They held each other like that for a moment. Eventually, without moving, Anise murmured, "...Will you at least think about it?"
"I'm not making any promises."
She shut her eyes and squeezed a little harder. "Please--just think about it."
Sync felt the press of Anise's breasts under her dress against his bare torso, and held his breath for a second. Then he shut his eyes, too. "...I can think about it, sure."
The former Fon Master Guardian smiled softly. "Thank you."
It didn't change that he'd still need to leave before long. Everything else aside, it'd cause a lot of trouble for both of them if Sync stuck around in Sheridan for too long. But the moon had only just sunk beneath the Meggiora Highlands, leaving them in the privacy of darkness and starlight, and the night was warm, with just a small breeze... As the moments floated along, Sync heard Anise's breathing grow long and even, and he felt his eyelids growing heavy too.
Aw, hell, he thought drowsily. I can afford to doze for twenty minutes or so. Dawn's still hours away, and as long as I'm up and out of here by then, I'll be all right.
And so the young replica shut his eyes. Soon, his breath matched the girl in his arms'.